The rest of February and March passed quickly for Harry, as his schedule was filled to bursting with classes, homework, Quidditch, Occlumency lessons, Apparition lessons, practicing wandless dueling with Ginny (and sometimes with Ron and Hermione), and corresponding with Tyler. Somehow, he and Ginny managed to continue making time for each other outside of class as well. Despite his busy schedule, however, Harry was relatively happy. After all, he had great friends and a wonderful girlfriend, plus Gryffindor had completely destroyed Hufflepuff in Quidditch, and Potions class had become bearable once again after Snape had realized that he needed to back off a bit if he didn’t want the Headmaster to intervene.
Of course, life still wasn’t perfect. Although Snape had become more or less manageable once again, he was still incredibly rude and sometimes downright nasty to both Harry and Ginny in class. The difference was that he had gone back to using strictly verbal assaults, rather than outright attacking them with magic. Harry assumed that Snape’s cutting remarks were protected by the same laws and traditions that gave Malfoy the “right” to slander anyone he wanted, but he figured he could handle it as long as it was all talk. Malfoy was another matter. He had been relatively quiet about Harry and Ginny ever since he had spent a day trying to win Millicent Bulstrode’s affections. This led Harry to believe two things: first, that Malfoy knew who had slipped him the Love Potion, even if he couldn’t prove it; and second, that he was lying low while he plotted his revenge.
The most troublesome thing to happen as the school year progressed, however, was that Harry’s scar started burning more frequently. It still didn’t happen all that often - only about once a week - but every time it did, it was followed by a report of a Death Eater attack. Harry was just grateful that Voldemort wasn’t personally present at the attacks since he was still doing his best to prevent his return from becoming widely-accepted by the Wizarding world. If Voldemort had been out torturing and murdering, Harry was sure that he would have seen it happening at least once, and he didn’t think that was something he could stomach. It was bad enough when Voldemort was torturing his Death Eaters; he didn’t want to know how he would feel if he were forced to watch him torture and kill innocent people.
The morning of the first Saturday in April was one of those rare occasions when Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny were all free to practice dueling at the same time. Accordingly, as soon as they finished breakfast, they walked together to the Room of Requirement.
“What are we doing today?” Hermione asked as soon as the door clicked shut behind them. The room was as large as it had been for the D.A. meetings in their fifth year, but it was completely bare except for the fact that the floor was rather soft.
“Three against one,” Ron answered immediately. “None of us stands a chance against Harry in a fair fight anymore.”
“It’s true,” Ginny agreed when Harry tried to protest. “The only way to even the odds is for all three of us to gang up on you. Even then, you’ll still probably beat us.”
“Fine,” Harry sighed, “but try not to gloat when you win.”
Ron snorted a laugh, and he, Hermione, and Ginny took up positions around the large room while Harry stood alone in the center.
“Everyone ready?” Hermione called out.
Harry nodded while Ron and Ginny both said, “Yeah.”
“Here goes, then,” Harry muttered. “Stupefy!” Ron dodged his Stunner easily, and Harry had to dive to his left to avoid being hit by a Body-Bind Curse from Hermione and a Tickling Charm from Ginny.
Protego! he cried out in his mind as he rolled back to his feet. There was no way he would be able to win this battle if he kept saying his spells out loud. Hermione shot a Stunner at him, but instead of dodging he trusted his Shield Charm to absorb her attack and responded with a volley of his own, firing Stunners back at her at an alarming rate. In less than three seconds, Hermione was down.
“Going after the girls first, Harry?” Ron taunted. When Harry opened his mouth to respond, Ron flicked his wand and said, “Locomotor Mortis.” Harry bit back his retort and sidestepped Ron’s Leg-Locker Curse. He stepped right into the path of Ginny’s silent binding spell, which would have effectively disabled him if he hadn’t been using his left hand to maintain a constant shield around himself.
Rictusempra, Rictusempra, Rictusempra, Rictusempra, Rictusempra! Harry mentally shouted while aiming his right hand at Ron and his left at Ginny as they attempted to block or dodge his sudden and unrelenting stream of Tickling Charms. After a long moment, Ron doubled over laughing, and Harry quickly bound him with a silent Incarcerous before turning his full attention to Ginny.
Even as he kept her occupied blocking his Tickling Charms, he couldn’t help admiring the grace with which she moved. He might have been concentrating a little too much on his opponent and not enough on the duel, however, because he was caught completely by surprise when she suddenly dove to her right, rolling once before springing to her feet and pinning him down with her own constant stream of powerful hexes.
“Ginny!” Harry shouted, trying to get her to slow her attack so he would have a chance to fight back rather than just focusing on maintaining his Shield Charm. “That isn’t very nice, trying to get me with a Bat-Bogey Hex. What did I do to you?” Ginny didn’t rise to the bait, and he realized that he would have to try something else soon.
While keeping both hands extended in front of him to support the powerful shield that was necessary to deflect Ginny’s attack, Harry subtly kicked his right foot in her direction while silently casting a Disarming Charm. Her eyes widened in surprise when her wand suddenly flew out of her grasp.
“Did I win?” Harry asked innocently as he began slowly walking toward her.
“No,” Ginny insisted, shaking her head defiantly. “I haven’t been eliminated, and I definitely haven’t yielded.”
“I see,” Harry replied. “And what would I have to do to get you to yield?” Ginny shrugged, and then lunged to her right, sprinting toward her fallen wand.
“Accio,” Harry called after her, and she was jerked away from her wand and into his waiting arms. “So, do you yield?” he whispered before giving her a playful peck on the lips.
“No,” Ginny laughed. “But you did win the duel. Congratulations.” She leaned up to give him a much longer congratulatory kiss.
“Oy!” yelled Ron. “Can somebody please untie me so I can at least look the other way when you do that?”
“Sorry,” Harry chuckled. “Finite.” The magical ropes that had bound Ron dissolved and he pulled himself to his feet. Harry quickly revived Hermione, and Ron gave her a hand up.
“Who won?” Hermione asked as soon as she was standing.
“Who do you think?” Ron answered. “I’ll give you a hint: it wasn’t me or Ginny.”
“Oh, congratulations, Harry,” Hermione gushed. “You’re getting really wonderful at this.”
“Thanks,” Harry muttered, feeling slightly embarrassed by her praise.
“Can I ask you a favor for any future duels we’re in though, mate?” Ron asked. Harry shrugged. “Please don’t tie me up when I’m under a Tickling Charm. It’s torture!” Harry’s slight embarrassment vanished as he laughed with his friends.
“Harry, did you realize that that duel lasted for less than five minutes?” Ginny asked after the laughter died down.
“Seriously?” Harry asked, genuinely surprised. “It felt a lot longer.”
“I’m sure of it,” she insisted. “You really have gotten good at fighting without a wand. I was surprised by that bit at the end, though.”
“What did he do at the end?” Hermione asked.
“Ginny had me pinned down with a constant stream of Bat-Bogey Hexes - which I still think was a dirty trick, by the way,” Harry answered, shooting his girlfriend a playful glare. “The only way of escaping that I could think of was to attack with one of my feet while I used my hands to maintain my shield.”
“You can do spells with your feet?” Hermione asked in amazement.
“Yeah,” Harry answered. “I haven’t done it in a while because there was no reason to, but I used to practice doing spells with both hands and both feet when I was at St. Brutus’s. I’d pretty much forgotten about it until I needed to do it just now.”
“Could you do a spell without pointing a hand or foot?” she asked excitedly.
“Dunno,” Harry shrugged. “I’d never really thought about it.”
“Well, try it out,” Ron suggested. “That’d be seriously cool if you could do magic just by looking at stuff.”
“All right,” Harry grinned. “Maybe I should start by trying to Levitate a feather.” As soon as the words escaped his lips, a fluffy white feather appeared on the floor in front of him. Harry shoved his hands into his pockets and stared at the feather.
“Wingardium Leviosa,” he commanded. Nothing happened. He tried again, this time moving his eyeballs to approximate the swish-and-flick wand motion used for the spell.
“Wingardium Leviosa!” Again, nothing happened.
“Well, it was a good idea,” he sighed. “I guess you have to have something to swish and flick, though, like a wand or a hand.”
“Why don’t you try a spell that doesn’t need you to move your wand?” Ginny suggested. “Like a Summoning Charm, maybe?”
“Yeah, that might work,” Ron agreed. “Go on, Harry.”
Harry sighed, but turned his attention back to the feather. “Accio!” The feather rocketed toward his face and plastered itself up against his glasses.
“Amazing,” Hermione whispered.
“Wicked!” Ron exclaimed with a broad grin. “Next time Snape gets up in your face, just look him straight in the eye and Banish him to the other side of his dungeon!”
“Ron!” Hermione scolded. “You don’t need to go giving him ideas!”
“It’s all right, Hermione,” Harry chuckled. “I thought of that one myself a long time ago, and it would be just as easy to do with a subtle hand motion. I think I prefer to just let Snape seethe, though, as long as he doesn’t try to attack us again.”
“Well, I’m glad one of you has a little bit of sense,” she huffed.
“It was just a joke,” Ron grumbled.
“Anybody up for a little flying?” Ginny asked suddenly in an attempt to change the subject.
“I’m in,” Harry said quickly.
“Yeah, all right,” Ron agreed. “Coming, Hermione?”
“I don’t know,” she hedged. “I mean, I’ve got so much studying to do, and N.E.W.T.s are just around the corner.”
“Come on,” Ron wheedled. “It’s a nice day out. Tell you what; if you’ll come flying with us now, I’ll study with you all afternoon.”
“Promise?” Hermione asked shrewdly. “We’ll actually be studying for our exams?”
Ron nodded.
“You won’t try to drag me off to ‘patrol the corridors’ every five minutes?”
Harry and Ginny snickered as Ron promised not to distract her all afternoon and they headed outside.
That afternoon, while Ron and Hermione were hunched over their books, Harry and Ginny went to the Great Hall for an Apparition lesson. By this time, nearly all of the sixth-years were able to Apparate around the Great Hall with varying degrees of effort. Much to Harry’s relief and satisfaction, he now found Apparition not only comfortable, but positively easy. Ginny’s feelings on the matter were similar, although she still needed a bit more experience before the discomfort would completely disappear.
The evening was spent writing essays and discussing Harry’s Apparition test, which he would be taking at the end of the month along with the other sixth-years who had already turned seventeen. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable day, and Harry fell into bed with a feeling of peaceful satisfaction. After forcing himself to sink into his flagstone memory just as he did every night, he slipped into an easy slumber.
Harry was staring at a blank flagstone in an empty corridor somewhere in Hogwarts Castle. It was a very relaxing pastime, as it required neither effort nor thought, so he stared contentedly at his flagstone, glad of the rest it provided.
Quite suddenly, the flagstone began to shimmer and ripple, as though it had been turned to liquid. Then a glowing red spot became visible in its depths. Harry scooted closer to get a better look, and saw another glowing red spot near the first one. Soon, the glowing spots began to rise, and the dim silhouette of a human head formed around them. Harry shot to his feet in surprise as the face of Lord Voldemort floated up into view.
On the verge of panic, Harry looked up to decide upon the best route of escape. What he saw surprised him even further; he was no longer at Hogwarts. Finally remembering to draw his wand, he turned his eyes back to the liquefied flagstone that held Voldemort’s face, but all he found were blank stones. He spun around, barely managing to suppress his fear as he searched in the dim light for his enemy, but all he could see was an empty corridor that definitely was not at Hogwarts.
Slowly, cautiously, he walked forward, his path lit by dim and infrequent torches anchored to the walls. As he crept toward the end of the corridor, the faint outline of a door became visible straight ahead. Reaching it, he put out his hand to tentatively touch it when he noticed a very dark shadow to his left. He spun quickly to face it, but saw nothing other than more blackness. The only sounds to reach his straining ears were his own heartbeat and ragged breathing.
“Lumos,” he whispered. Light shot from the tip of his wand, illuminating a staircase leading down to another corridor. With a jolt of surprise, Harry turned back to the corridor from which he had come. In the bright wand light, he could see the faint glint of metal doors at the far end, confirming his suspicion. He now knew where he was, and it most certainly was not Hogwarts. He was inside the Ministry of Magic, standing at the entrance to the Department of Mysteries.
Harry sat bolt upright in bed, his hand slapped over his throbbing scar and sweat pouring down his face.