I don't own anything in the Potterverse.
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Percy was taken immediately to a “secure” area of the Hospital Wing, where he spent the rest of the night, before being moved to a room in the Astronomy Tower. With the exception of Harry, Ginny, Ron and Hermione, no student knew that Percy was in Hogwarts. The Weasley family was told, of course, but was not allowed to see Percy. This was not McGonagall’s choice, but Percy’s. He staunchly refused to see anyone except Harry. His meals were delivered by a house-elf, and it was left to Harry to decide when the time was right to visit.
Harry had every intention of doing so, but nearly a week went by and he still had not gone to visit his onetime Prefect and Head Boy of Hogwarts. So Percy simply stayed in his room. Harry couldn’t decide if it was for Percy’s protection or for his own, but he chose instead to focus his attention on more pressing matters. He had training and studies to worry about. Percy would have to wait.
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Harry and Ginny walked casually, hand in hand, down the seventh floor corridor, towards the Room of Requirement for a training session. Harry enjoyed fighting with Ginny as his partner; although he still tended to lose focus, watching out for her, he was getting better at letting her take care of herself”which was something she always seemed to do particularly well.
They approached the door to the room and walked in. Harry was surprised to see that the room did not have the same look it normally had for training sessions. It was much larger, closer to the size of a Quidditch pitch. Set randomly throughout the field were ditches that seemed to be cut about a metre into the ground and tall columns about two metres in diameter. The room was dimly lit by torches on the still visible walls surrounding the immense field.
Stunned by this new arrangement of the Room of Requirement, Harry didn’t notice the four figures moving up behind him. “Harry,” whispered the nearest figure. Harry whirled around, wand out, pointing directly at Ron’s chest.
“Oy, mate, settle down!” Ron yelped, backing away.
“What’s going on?” Ginny asked, stepping beside Harry, who was still feeling uneasy about this whole affair. Hermione, Luna and Neville were standing behind Ron. “What are all you doing here? I thought tonight was my night to train with Harry.”
“It was,” growled Moody, from closer to the centre of the room. “But, since you lot feel the need to go traipsing all over the place without backup, we decided it was time to make sure you were ready.” The group of teens shifted nervously, feeling somewhat guilty for having to keep information from the rest of the Order.
“There are at least as many members of the Order in here tonight as there are of you. Standard training rules apply. The team with any members left standing in the end wins. If Harry is knocked out, the match is over. If I get knocked out, since I represent Voldemort, the match continues as long as the rest want. We start in a minute, so I suggest you get ready.” Moody turned and disappeared into the darkness on the opposite end of the room.
“Well this sounds like fun,” Ron stated excitedly. “All right, let’s spread out.”
“Right, Ron, you and Hermione take the middle; Neville, you and Luna take the left; and Ginny and I’ll take the right side. We can’t let them encircle us,” Harry admonished.
“What about our transformations?” Neville questioned.
“Yeah, we could take them by surprise,” Ginny agreed. Even in the dim light, it was obvious that the blush in her face was growing with adrenaline.
“What if we sent Ginny and Luna to try and get in behind them?” Hermione interjected.
“That could be a good plan. They are the most agile of the group, but, let’s not do it unless we have to. I don’t want it known yet that you lot are Animagi,” Harry responded. He was still wondering if there was possibly a spy in the Order, as Percy had said there may be, in his first letter.
“Expelliarmus!” was shouted from somewhere and the spell sizzled over the heads of the six teens.
“Move!” Harry yelled as he and Ginny ran towards the left side of the room.
The spellwork came fast and furious for the next thirty-five minutes, as each side attempted to find a weakness and take advantage. Twice Ron Stunned a cloaked figure who approached from the centre of the room, and twice the figure was quickly revived and able to rejoin the battle.
On one occasion, Harry attempted to make a run along the wall, trying to sneak past the group and get in behind their attackers. He was greeted with a nasty Bludgeoning Hex that nearly knocked the wind out of him. Ginny retaliated with a Banishing Charm that sent his attacker flying into a ditch.
“Thanks, Ginny,” Harry panted as he crawled back into position behind his barrier. Harry, from his vantage point, could not see how Neville and Luna were doing. Through his mental link with them he could tell they were getting frustrated, but had yet to be hit with anything incapacitating.
“This is a standoff,” Harry shouted at Ginny. “We need to do something that will change the field.”
“Let Luna and I go and try to get in behind them,” Ginny urged him. Harry was reluctant. “We can surprise them and split their focus.”
“Let me try and get word to Luna,” Harry replied, finally deciding it was the only way. He focused his mind on Luna. He could tell she was in the same place she had been when they had started. She seemed tired, but more focused than normal. Try to get to the back, he thought. He instantly felt her attention shift, recognizing the voice in her head. We’ll cause a distraction. Let Neville know.
Harry sent a mental message to Ron and Hermione, telling them to help cause a distraction to allow Ginny and Luna to get in behind the opposing force. Harry was surprised to hear both Hermione and Ron’s voices in his head, agreeing with the plan.
“Okay, we’re all set. Ginny, be careful,” Harry said. She kissed him quickly on the cheek and then transformed into a cat.
“Now!” Harry shouted and began firing spells as quickly as he could. Some he spoke audibly, some he simply thought. To his left he could see the brilliant light of Ron, Hermione and Neville’s spells and figured that their distraction was working.
After several minutes, Harry decided it was time to once again go on the offensive. Jumping from one bit of cover to the next, he found that now he was able to start making some progress forward. He dove into a ditch, finding the Stunned form of Tonks lying in the bottom. He had taken her out several minutes ago, so her teammates must not be able to revive their comrades any longer. Harry imagined that Ginny and Luna were causing some trouble for the opposing force. He could feel, rather than see, Ron and Hermione making progress in the middle, although Neville was still pinned down on his side of the room.
He noticed in the far back of the room the flashes of spells being cast, and thought that Ginny and Luna must be making good progress. He started to move again, taking out another enemy figure before he leapt behind a column. He was just past the centre of the room. He felt Neville’s mind go blank and knew instantly that he had been Stunned. They got Neville, be careful on your left, Harry thought to Ron and Hermione.
He was still making progress, working slowly towards the end of the room. He stumbled past Charlie Weasley, black bonds wrapped tightly around his arms and legs. Harry smirked and then moved on to the next piece of cover he could get to.
Feeling his way with his mind, he could tell that he was coming up on Luna’s position. Hermione and Ron were stuck in the centre of the room and being attacked on two sides, but he could not help them”Harry needed to move on. He was hopeful that if he could take out Moody, the rest would quit.
Bodies littered the floor of the room. Harry counted at least seven along with the couple he had already come across. He knew they were not badly hurt, but the sight was still unnerving. He jumped behind a barrier just as a beam of white light shot past him.
There was a flash of red in front of him and he felt Luna go down to a Stunning Spell. He fired at a figure moving towards the centre of the room; the figure went down in a heap.
Harry felt he must be getting close. He was almost at the end of the room. He knew Ginny must be in this area, but for some reason he could no longer pinpoint her position. He felt she was just out of his reach mentally, and that started to bother him. He didn’t want to make the mistake of trying to protect her, but he was beginning to get worried.
Ron and Hermione came running up on his left and dove into a ditch a few feet away from Harry. Just as they began to gather themselves for another push, all the spells in the room stopped. Harry stuck his head up, just enough to see Ginny walking slowly towards him. Moody was nowhere to be seen.
Jumping from behind his barrier, Harry started moving towards Ginny. Ron shouted for him to stop. “We don’t know where Moody is!”
Ginny had a large smile on her face, but Harry could tell something wasn’t quite right. He still couldn’t connect with her mind. Every time he focused on her, he felt a sort of floating sensation. “Ginny, what are you doing? Get down!” Harry shouted.
She continued to walk towards him. Ron and Hermione both got up from the ditch they had dove into. They cautiously moved behind Harry.
“It’s okay, I got him,” Ginny announced. She had her wand gripped in her hand and a smile on her face, but the way she moved made Harry sense there was something seriously wrong.
“Ginny, stop. What’s going on?” Harry shouted, his wand raised a fraction of an inch.
She stopped and seemed puzzled for an instant, then the smile returned and she started to walk again. “Harry, everything’s fine. I got Moody, we won.”
Harry’s mind was racing. He could tell that she was not all right, but he couldn’t think of what was wrong with her. Would Moody have used the Imperius Curse on her? How would he know?
“Ginny, I said stop right there.” His wand came up, this time leveled at his girlfriend. She stopped again and her face twisted as if she were trying to think of something that her mind refused to focus on.
Harry caught the first brush of connection with her mind and latched on to it. Ginny, fight this. Whatever it is, fight it. He moved towards her. She raised her wand and pointed it at Harry.
The standoff did not last long. Harry could feel the connection he had with her wavering. Suddenly, he heard two shouts of “Stupefy!” from behind him and knew that Ron and Hermione were Stunned.
Ginny!? he thought and then fell unconscious as red light erupted from the end of her wand.
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Harry awoke with Remus Lupin kneeling beside him. He sat up and looked around. He saw Hermione being helped up by one of the twins while Ron was being revived by Bill Weasley. Fleur was standing beside them looking grim. Luna was standing beside Tonks, and Neville was tiredly leaning against a wall, by Abe Dumbledore. A small sob sounded from the wall on the other side of the room and Harry turned to see Ginny, tears streaming down her face, clutching her arms around her knees, rocking back and forth.
“You all right there, Harry?” Remus questioned.
It all came back to Harry. “Where’s Moody?” Harry hissed. He jumped to his feet, ignoring the pain in his head.
Moody stepped directly in front of Harry, glaring with his one good eye, his blue magical eye focused on Harry’s right hand. Harry’s wand was out and his hand twitched.
“What the bloody hell is going on, Moody?” Harry exploded. “You used the Imperius Curse on Ginny!”
If Harry thought that the former Auror would be intimidated, he was dreadfully mistaken. “Training you, Potter!” he barked back. “Do you think that a Death Eater or Voldemort would hesitate to use one of your friends against you like this?”
“YOU HAVE NO RIGHT”” Harry bellowed.
“I HAVE EVERY RIGHT, POTTER,” Moody cut in. “That bastard has to be stopped and if you’re the one to do it, then you have to be ready. You lost tonight, Potter, because you let your feelings get in the way of what you have to do.”
Harry was shaking with fury. He stood there, staring into the scarred face of the man in front of him. It didn’t seem like anyone was willing to breath. A snarl developed on Harry’s lips and he was just about to tell Moody which particular lake he could go jump in, when he felt a soft hand on his shoulder.
Ginny had moved and now stood between Moody and Harry. He noticed that she still had unshed tears in her eyes, but when she spoke, her voice was determined. “He’s right, Harry.” Harry opened his mouth to protest but she quickly placed her fingers over his lips. “They won tonight because we weren’t strong enough. We have to get stronger, and if that means Mad-Eye using the Imperius Curse on us so we can learn to throw it off, then that’s what we deal with.”
Mad-Eye smiled a small smile, as he patted Ginny on the back. “Keep this one, Potter, she’s got a good head on her shoulders.”
Harry just gazed at Ginny, astonished by her strength. He leaned down to kiss her but she pulled away.
“I’m sorry,” Ginny whispered, looking into his eyes.
Harry smiled warmly down at her. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. We just got caught off guard, so next time we’ll be prepared.”
Ginny wrapped her arms around Harry in a fierce hug and let out a long breath. They just stood there holding each other for a moment letting some of the emotions of the past several minutes recede.
The rest of the group seemed to move away from this private moment Harry and Ginny were sharing. After a couple of minutes, however, Moody coughed, and the moment was broken. “Starting next week, throwing off the Imperius will be part of your training, all of you.”
The teens all nodded, then silently made their way out of the Room of Requirement. It was a tense walk back to Gryffindor Tower for the six young people. No one spoke, as they all thought about the damage that could come about if one of them did fall prey to the Imperius Curse.
As they walked, Luna finally broke the silence. “Harry, tomorrow then, about half past nine?”
Harry was confused by the question for a second, but quickly remembered that he was going to enter the Ravenclaw common room the next day, in order to examine the portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw for clues as to what the final Horcrux may be. Earlier in the week he had gone to the Headmistress’s office to see if either Gryffindor’s sword or the Sorting Hat was a Horcrux. Both had been completely devoid of Dark Magic, much as Harry had suspected. “Sure, Luna, I’ll meet you at the entrance.”
Luna turned left and started for her tower. The rest of the group made it to the portrait hole and entered the common room. The room was filled with all the Gryffindors and Harry immediately felt claustrophobic. Ever since Colin Creevey had returned to Hogwarts, the Gryffindors held a Friday evening party. The first several were an attempt by his fellow sixth-year boys to cheer him up, and were fairly subdued. Before long, however, they had been transformed into very loud celebrations of the end of a long week. This particular one seemed to be in full swing.
“I don’t want to stay here right now. How long before curfew?” Harry shouted at Ginny. The noise in the room was overwhelming. Someone had enchanted a wireless to play music five times the normal maximum volume.
“It’s only seven, we still have some time,” Ginny nearly screamed back.
Ron grabbed Harry by the arm. “You two want to go?” Ron bellowed right into Harry’s face. He nodded. “Good, let’s go get our swimming things.” This last statement didn’t make much sense to Harry, but he was quickly dragged up the stairs and into the relative quiet of their dorm room. Ron picked up a pair of swimming trunks from inside his trunk. Harry didn’t have any, so he simply took a pair of shorts from his trunk. They each grabbed a towel and headed for the door.
“So, where are we going?” Harry questioned.
“Prefects’ bathroom. Hermione found out that she could allow the leader of a club or official school group access to the bathroom. Sort of like when you were Quidditch Captain and you could use it. Since you’re the leader of the DA, you get to have access. She checked it with McGonagall yesterday.”
Harry smiled and was greatly appreciative of his friend’s efforts.
They met Ginny and Hermione at the base of the steps and exited the common room. Harry thought it very odd that once the portrait swung closed there was silence in the hall. “Must have used a Silencing Spell.”
They entered the Prefects’ bathroom and moved to separate changing rooms. The bath was just as Harry remembered it”huge, more like a swimming pool with loads of taps on the far end.
When he stepped out into the main section of the bathroom, he was greeted with the sight of Ginny delicately stepping into the water. His mouth dropped open, this being the first time he had ever seen her in a bathing suit.
Ginny wore a blue one-piece suit that was modest and yet accentuated every curve. Harry simply stared as she lazily backstroked in the pool.
Thwack! He was smacked in the back of the head.
“That’s my sister you’re ogling there, Harry!” Ron stated with a mock look of anger. Harry started to reply but noticed Ron’s mouth open as his stare moved from Harry’s face towards the pool. He followed Ron’s eyes and noticed that Hermione had just exited her changing room. She had on a tasteful red two-piece”Harry later heard her refer to it as a tankini; she said that it was very popular in the Muggle world.
Harry noticed that Ron seemed to have stopped breathing, so he, not too gently, sent a backhand into his stomach.
“Ouff!” Ron gasped, finally tearing his eyes off Hermione. “What was that for?”
“Just trying to help you to breathe there, mate.”
Ron and Harry both started to laugh as they moved towards the pool. They dropped their dressing gowns and were greeted with wolf whistles from both their respective girlfriends. Ron turned red from head to foot and Harry backed away slightly and made to cover himself again. Both quickly realized how foolish their response must be, and jumped into the pool, sending a cascade of water down on the heads of Ginny and Hermione.
They splashed and played for several minutes, starting to relax from a very tense evening. After about twenty minutes, all four swam to the shallow end and sat down.
“So what happened to Neville? He was gone as soon as we got into the common room,” Harry asked no one in particular. He had his arm around Ginny’s shoulders and was playing with her wet and now tangled hair.
“He and Parvati met up and left before we even went upstairs. I think they had a date,” Hermione responded. “I hope they get back before curfew.” The others laughed, but they also knew that Hermione was serious.
They fell silent again, each enjoying the sensation of the water on their tense muscles. Harry was thinking back to the events of training. Ginny was lounging in Harry’s arms. “Ginny,” Harry shifted slightly.
“Hmm,” she had her eyes closed and looked to be almost asleep.
“When you were under the Imperius, I thought I felt you make contact with me. Did you feel anything?”
Ginny seemed reluctant to talk about this, but eventually began to speak. “I don’t really know. I felt this overwhelming sense of calm and peace, like everything was as good as it would ever be. Then I heard a voice in my head telling me to Stun you. It seemed like the perfectly right thing to do at the time, so I started to walk over to you. A couple of times I sort of argued with the voice, but in the end I just couldn’t help myself.” Her shoulders sagged and Harry could see how disappointed she was with her perceived failure.
Hermione perked up as Ginny was speaking. “Harry, do you think that our connection may help us throw off the curse? I mean, you did it in fourth year, but none of the rest of us managed well.”
“I hope so. We can start testing it Monday when we train again.” They fell silent again. Harry squeezed Ginny closer to himself, attempting to comfort her. After a couple of hours, they quietly made their way back to their common room.
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The next morning, at a quarter past nine, Harry crept along the corridor towards the Ravenclaw common room, the Invisibility Cloak hiding his movement, and the Marauder’s Map clutched in his left hand. He could tell that everyone but Luna was out of Ravenclaw Tower and that his path was clear.
He approached the portrait of an intelligent-looking wizard holding a very large book. The wizard appeared to reading and not paying any attention to the hallway. Harry stood in front of the portrait and waited. He did not have to wait long as the portrait swung open and Luna was standing in the dark hall.
“Harry?” she whispered.
“Right here,” Harry responded, moving towards the portrait hole. Luna moved backwards and allowed Harry to enter the common room. He removed the Invisibility Cloak and looked around. The room was very similar to his own common room, although the colours were bronze and black instead of red and gold. He noticed the same style of armchairs, looking just as old, and the couches looked just as frayed. There were large bookshelves in this room, however, which were not in the Gryffindor room. The fireplace crackled and the room was nicely warm. Above the fireplace was a very large portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw.
“So that’s her?” Harry questioned.
Luna nodded. “A bit overblown, if you ask me, but that’s her.”
Harry studied the portrait carefully. The founder of Ravenclaw was a beautiful witch with long jet-black hair. Harry wondered if perhaps Sirius was related to her, since they had many of the same facial features. On her head sat a delicate looking tiara of silver. In her right arm she held a book, although Harry couldn’t read the title. It was in an ancient runic language he did not recognize. He jotted down the runes, hoping Hermione would be able to translate it. She wore a flowing blue dress with black sequins along the top. In her left hand she held her wand, pointing straight down.
Harry stared at the painting for several minutes. He tried to imprint every detail on his mind but he didn’t see anything that was particularly interesting or that stood out. The tiara looked sort of familiar, but he couldn’t place it in his memory.
He was broken from his thoughts by Luna’s dreamy voice coming from behind him. “Harry, I think there is a bug on your parchment.”
Harry shook his head, confused by her statement. He looked down and noticed that the dots indicating all the people on the Hogwarts grounds were moving, “Oh, that’s my map; see, it shows where everyone at the school is located.” Luna didn’t look terribly impressed as she watched the dots move around.
“So these are all the students, then.”
“Yeah, they’re all moving out of the Quidditch pitch and coming into the school.” The realization that the match was over, and the students were coming back to the castle, hit Harry just as the words left his mouth. He quickly ran to the entrance and out of the portrait hole opening. He didn’t think anyone had seen him as he exited the Ravenclaw common room.
He slowly walked down to the Great Hall to meet up with Ginny, Ron and Hermione. As he reached the ground floor, he noticed the Slytherins were celebrating as they walked towards their common room entrance down in the dungeons.
Ron was the first to see Harry. He did not look happy. “Slytherin destroyed ‘em. 210 to 40 and it wasn’t even that close.”
Hermione and Ginny approached. “So, you find anything?” Hermione asked, taking Ron’s hand in her own.
“Not really, there was a tiara, her wand and a book that I couldn’t tell what the title was,” Harry responded a bit dejectedly. “I thought the tiara looked a little familiar, but I don’t know. I copied the name of the book, Hermione, so that you could see if you can translate it.” He handed her a small piece of parchment.
She looked at it for a couple of seconds, then shook her head. “I’ll have to work on it, but I don’t think it will help much.”
They moved into the Great Hall and sat down for lunch. “Well, it was a long shot anyway,” Harry stated, taking a helping of potatoes and putting them on his plate. But even as he ate, he had a nagging thought in the back of his mind. Where have I seen that tiara before?
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A/N: Well I hope you liked this one. I must admit this chapter fought me a bit but I think it turned out pretty well. Let me know what you think, and I will let you know what I think about what you think, and so on and so forth.
Thanks as always to my pre betas Cableguysmom and Kerrbear. Huge happy thankyous to my betas Ginny Guerra and JenC. Both of whom are doing a wonderful job turning my forth grade grammar skills into sophisticated fanfiction art.
Up next, A little Quidditch and Krum steps duck footed and awkwardly onto the scene.