Harry was awoken by someone nervously prodding him. “Harry, please wake up...” said Hermione in his ear. “We’ve got transfiguration in a few minuets.” Harry rolled over and groaned. The happiness from last night seemed to role off with the start of classes. He had no will to get out of bed. Hermione, however, was impatient and started tugging at his arm.
"Come on!" she moaned. "Look, here's your schedule." Hermione pulled out a folded piece of paper and waved it in front of Harry's face.
“Hermione,” Harry groaned, “Go pull Ron out of bed.” He motioned his hand over towards Ron’s bed.
“Ron,” Hermione started yanking again on his arm, “Doesn’t have transfiguration with us.”
Harry sat up. “He doesn’t? What does he have with us?” he asked
“We all have double Defense Against the Dark Arts together, and Ron and I have care of magical creatures.” she moaned, “Will you get up now?”
Harry nodded. Hermione left the dormitory. Harry got dressed and went over to wake Ron up. “What class do you have first?” he asked shaking him. He was much too impatient to simply prod him like Hermione and hope he feels it.
“Charms,” he moaned throwing an extra pillow at him. Harry sighed and came down into the common room. He and Hermione went down towards the transfiguration classroom.
“Aren’t we going to eat?” Harry asked as they turned a corner. Hermione shook her head.
“You slept threw breakfast.” Hermione groaned looking very annoyed.
The transfiguration classroom looked the same as ever; desks facing strait towards the front and McGonagall’s desk with papers scattered ever where. Harry and Hermione took their place in the middle of the room. Behind them were Dean and Lavender. The rest of the class was filled with people Harry had only seen but never knew. McGonagall entered the room.
“Morning class.” she said walking over towards her desk.
“G’ Morning,” most of the class mattered back.
“Well you all are a lively lot.” McGonagall said sarcastically. “Today, we will be studying Animagi, or as most of you know them by, Animagus. We will not be attempting it until at least your seventh year.” she lectured
Harry’s heart sunk. The last thing he wanted to study was Animagi. An image of a large black dog drifted into his mind.
It was all too odd. Harry had never heard the unforgivable curse being said. All he knew was that something about that tattered old veil that made no since. Surly falling behind such a thing would not kill someone. But what else would it do? Dumbledore himself said that Sirius was dead. But Dumbledore has a tendency to not tell everything he knows. Harry thought angrily, but another voice in the back of his head told him otherwise. Maybe so, but Dumbledore has never lied to you. His thoughts were interrupted by McGonagall’s voice.
“Now we did study Animagi in your third year, but just briefly. The process of becoming an Animagus is very complex. You can attempt it for years trying to transform perhaps into the wrong animal. This is why I have given each of you a small quiz to go with the table. You are to fill out the quiz and look then at the table. There it will tell you what your Animagi is most likely to be. The tests are not always accurate, but they do work best if you fill them out honestly. You may begin.”
Harry picked up the quiz. “How would you most describe your self? A. Brave B. loyal C. noble D. All of the above.” Harry looked at the answers, and feeling quite immodest, circled D. Harry looked over at Hermione’s paper. She was thinking hard between Noble and Loyal. Finally she chose Noble. Harry looked back over to his paper.
“What is your best subject? A. Arithmancy B. Potions C. Defense Against the Dark Arts D. All off the above.” Harry easily chose Defense Against the Dark Arts. Hermione had chosen all of the above.
“I just couldn’t decide!” she hissed defensively.
The test continued to contained questions about your personality. When Harry was done, he looked over at the table to see what he was. He thumbed through the pages of animals. Then he found one that matched his test perfectly. “Puma?” he said out loud.
Hermione heard him, “It’s a different name for a mountain lion.” she explained. Harry was slightly disappointed. He had hoped he would be a stag like his father. But he had to admit; a mountain lion was pretty impressive. Hermione gasped.
“I’m a kneazle, like Crookshanks!” she said excitedly.
“A kneazle, what's a-?” Harry asked.
“It’s an extremely intelligent breed of cat.” she interrupted, glowing.
“And Crookshanks is a kneazle?’ Harry asked.
“Well, half kneazle.” Hermione admitted, “But they’re really hard to come by. They have a sort of knack for catching suspicious people. That’s how Crookshanks knew Sirius was innocent...” she trailed off and looked away. “Anyway, there... there really smart.” she finished softly.
The bell rang softly in the distance, and Hermione pulled out both of their schedules. "Alright, now we have..." she scanned down the pages, "Potions."
"You mean you have Potions." Harry corrected.
"No, look." Hermione pointed to Harry's schedule. Indeed, he had Potions.
"But I made an E on the O.W.L.s. Why-"
"I got an E too Harry. I think the requirement level was lowered. Perhaps they're weren't enough O's to make a class." Hermione stated. "Common." she added as they turned into the dungeons.
Potions was no different than he expected. Snape was trying his best to find any fault in Harry’s potion while Harry had tried his best to make sure there was no fault to find. He looked at his potion and then to Hermione’s. His was a dark shade of purple while hers was a bubbly red. Snape’s lower lip curled.
“How many grams of dragon hide did the instructions ask for Potter?” Harry looked at his instructions and sighed.
“Seven sir.” he grumbled.
“And how many did you put? He asked.
“Seventeen,” Harry gritted through his teeth. Harry watched him write on his clipboard what looked like a zero.
Next he, Ron, and Hermione had double Defense Against the Dark Arts class together. It was the best class yet. Mostly it had members of D.A. It was in three adjoined classrooms, though they only used one. Lupin was pretty much the anti-Umbridge. As soon as he entered the room he ordered everyone to put their books away. Everyone sat curiously at their desks staring at the front of the room.
Lupin cleared his throat “Today I thought we would start on dueling. I don’t know how much Professor Umbridge taught you...” He was cut off by the angry class outburst. All at once everyone told Lupin they had learned nothing. Lupin held up his hand to silence them. “Obviously you didn’t learn much, but that’s not the point.” The class fell silent. “Anyway,” Lupin continued, “Since you all have double Defense Against the Dark Arts, we can split the lesson in half; in the first half, we can recap what you have learned about in duels. In the second half we’ll practice dueling. Now if you’ll just pair up into groups of three.” he said. Lavender raised her hand.
“What’s the third person for?” she asked curiously.
Lupin smiled politely. “Well each of you will rotate. The middle person tells the duelers when to start. They also decide who won each duel. Mainly they are spotters. If someone is stunned or put into a body bind, the middle person rushes over and makes sure they don’t land on their face.” he said promptly. Lavender nodded and moved to a group with Parvati and Hannah. Harry, Ron, and Hermione were in a group. Neville seemed to have paired up with Dean and Seamus.
“Right,” Lupin said clapping his hands together. “Now unlike a real duel, you will not do anything that could send someone to the hospital. You can stun, body bind, disarm, and such, but no hexing. I’m going to give you about 20 minuets to practice on your own. That way I can see what you need to learn. Some of you might want to go into the other rooms to avoid hitting one another.” he said pointing to the two adjoining rooms. Harry, Ron, and Hermione’s group stayed where they were, along with Neville, Dean, and Seamus’s.
Harry and Ron face each other. Hermione stood to the side, and began to count. “One, two, three!” she hissed.
“Stupefy!” Ron almost shouted. A jet of red light came hurling at Harry.
“Protego!” Harry said pointing his wand strait towards the red light, which changed directions and headed towards Ron. He jumped out of the way and the spell hit a near by wall. Both stared at each other for a moment, and then started flinging every spell that came to mind at each other. Neither of them chose to disarm the other, for it was so easy for the spell to be rebounded, leaving one of them without a wand.
Ron had finally managed to hit Harry with a Tarantallerga spell, which caused Harry’s feet to fly in every direction. He landed on the ground with a thud. Ron gave a small “Yes!” and ran over to cast one last spell. “Stupefy!” He said aiming at Harry. Harry might have not been able to control his legs, but his wand was still clutched in his hand.
“Finite!” he hissed and his legs stopped moving. He managed to role over just as the stunning spell hit the ground. Ron had not expected this, and stood dumbfounded with his wand pointing to the floor. Harry took advantage of this. Still sitting on the ground he shouted, “Petrificus Totalus!” and Ron started to fall forward. Hermione, who was spotting, ran forward and grabbed a handful of his robes.
Lupin, who had been watching from the back of the room, came forward. “That was astonishing. Ten points to--” There was a loud crash in one of the other rooms. Lupin frowned and ran in one of the other rooms.
“Ennervate!” Hermione hissed. Ron sat up and looked around. Harry helped him to his feet.
“I almost had you.” he moaned. Harry shook his head.
“Just don’t let your guard down next time.” he said. Ron nodded.
“You and Hermione have a go. I’ll watch.” Harry said stepping back.
Ron and Hermione were equally matched. It seemed to take ages before one spell actually hit one of them. Hermione flew backwards into the door. Ron knew better than to let down his guard. He stepped forward and yelled “Stupefy!” and waited for Hermione to block it. Hermione didn’t block it however. She had dropped her wand as she flew into the door. Harry ran over to catch Hermione before she dropped to the ground. Lupin’s amplified voice rang through the three rooms.
“It’s been 20 minuets, so if everyone would just come back into the middle room.” he said. Everyone started to pack back into the middle room. “Alright then. Now you seem to be fairly good at a proper duel, but that’s not usually how one ends up dueling. Most of the time, you don’t count to three, bow your heads, and walk back ten paces, which is why we are going to be using all three of these adjoining rooms. We are going to have a sort of tournament. The two duelers will stand in opposite rooms. Each room, if you’ll notice, has a candle in it. When the candle in your room blows out, you run into the middle room and start dueling. One candle might blow out before the other, giving one person the advantage. It maybe unfair, but it does prepare you for the dark arts, which is what you’re here for. As for the tournament, we just see who can win the most duels. When you loose a match, you’re out. Last person standing wins. Any questions? Right then, Parvati, Lavender, your up.”
Pavarti and Lavender went into separate rooms, while the rest of the class backed into the wall to avoid getting hit. Lupin had his own two candles, both which were lit. No sooner had he put them out had Parvati and Lavender burst from each room and started dueling. Lavender had successfully disarmed Parvati leaving her without a wand.
“Lavender and Hannah, you’re up.” Lupin said. Hannah got up and walked to the adjoining room, along with Lavender. Lupin blew out the left candle first. Hannah burst into the room. When the second candle blew out, Lavender joined her. Hannah, who had been waiting for her, stunned her the moment she entered.
Many other members of D.A. had been well prepared and easily fought the few who weren’t members.
“Seamus, up.” Lupin shouted over the cheers. Seamus and Hannah entered the room at the same time. Seamus had successfully had Hannah in a body bind.
Seamus eventually stunned Dean, who had gone next, but it took about 10 minuets.
He and Neville dueled. Lupin gave Neville the head start. Seamus had been so sure he could win, that he shot a body bind at him and lowered his wand. To every body’s surprise, Neville managed to backfire it, leaving Seamus in a full body bind.
“Well done. Harry, Forward,” Lupin said. Once again Neville got a head start. Harry’s candle finally blew out. He grabbed the doorknob and quickly opened it.
“Expelliarm-!” Neville yelped, but Harry was to fast.
“Protego!” Harry yelled, as Neville’s wand came hurling at him.
He continued to fight and win the people he dueled.
The class cheered madly.
“Ron your up!” came Lupin voice. Harry went back into the adjoining room and waited for the candle to flicker out. He and Ron came bursting into the room at the same time. Ron knew not to try to disarm him, for if it backfired, he would have been defeated.
“Stupefy!” he shouted. Harry deflected it. For at least 15 minuets they dueled, shouting any spell that came to mind. Harry finally won with a stunning spell. The class filled with cheers.
“Hermione, your last.” Lupin shouted. Hermione had been given a head start. A stunning spell was already coming towards him when he entered the room. He managed to dodge it though. Eventually Harry managed to disarm Hermione. Everyone cheered. Lupin dismissed the loud class.
Lupin stopped Harry just before he went out the door. “Harry, a word please.” he said. Harry came forward. “I just wanted to talk to you about Occlumency.” Harry’s heart sank. He had forgotten all about Occlumency. He really hated it, even if it wasn’t taught by Snape. The idea of someone looking into his thoughts really didn’t appeal to him.
“I know you don’t like it, but it’s an accentual skill. I will be teaching this year until we get a replacement teacher. When do you have Quidditch practice?” he asked
“Err... Mondays and Fridays I think.” Harry replied. Harry began to wonder how much Legilimancy Lupin knew.
“Good. We can start tonight then. Er, come around my office at 8:00.”
Harry nodded and turned around to leave. “Oh and Harry,” Harry turned around. “You did really well in D.A. They seem to know there stuff.” Harry grinned and left the class room.
The next few classes seemed to go really slowly. He was really happy when dinner came. Hermione, however, looked tired. “Er, Hermione,” Ron asked “Why are you eating so fast?” he asked watching chug down a glass of pumpkin juice.
“I’ve got Arithmancy and charms next.” she replied taking a bite of chicken.
“After dinner?” Harry and Ron said together. Hermione nodded and continued eating. It was like their third year. Hermione was taking an enormous amount of classes, and Harry was taking private lessons from Lupin once a week.
Harry headed down to Lupin’s office after spending some time in the common room. He knocked on the door. “Err... Hello?” he said looking around for Lupin.
“Ah, Harry, come in.” Harry closed the door behind him. Lupin’s office looked the same as in his third year. Lupin went immediately into the lesson.
“Since you already seem to know how to do Occlumency, you just need to put it to practice. Now there are two types of Occlumency. Unfortunately, the kind you did with Professor Snape was the advance one...”
“He just wanted me to do badly! That’s why he was using the advance one! It wasn’t my fault I was no good at it.” Harry blurted out in fury.
Lupin held up his hand. “Neither was it his. It would have been impossible to start on the easier stage with Professor Snape. You were consecrating on your anger at Snape, not the Occlumency, Which is why it will be easier tonight. There are many reasons why you will be able to do it better now. The biggest one only works if you figure it out on you own. Actually, it should work best for you of all people. So shall we get started?”
Harry nodded. He stood the middle of the room incase he fell over. “Now remember; try to use your mind not your wand. For now though, you can use it. “Ready? One, two, three, Leglilmens!”
Harry was blowing up his aunt Marge…. running away form the Basilisk… catching the snitch for the first time… watching his parents come out of Voldemort’s wand as he returned… Hermione screamed and pointed at the full moon and then to Lupin.
“No,” Harry thought desperately to himself. “Not that one.” He knew Lupin would hate to see Harry running away from him; Sirius transforming into a dog and viciously trying to keep Lupin away. Harry could not feel the wand in his hand. He tried as hard as he could to keep Lupin out of his mind. The image of Lupin’s transformation was becoming foggy. It tuned in and out like a radio. Finally Harry became slightly aware of his wand in his right hand.
He didn’t know what spell he had cast, but when he got up, Lupin was getting up from the opposite side of the room rubbing his head. “A little bit longer and you wouldn’t have needed to use your wand. But that was fairly good. Lets try one more time.” Harry nodded. He now understood why it was easier to do Occlumency with Lupin than with Snape. He didn’t want Lupin to feel bad, and he didn’t care how Snape felt. “One, two, three!”
He was running through the Department of Mysteries… He flung himself onto Quirrell’s arm to avoid getting killed…. Dumbledore was showing him Trelawney making the prophecy.
No, Harry snarled in his thoughts, hoping Lupin would here. Get OUT! Harry tried to push him out of his mind. He couldn’t do it. It seemed almost as if Lupin was trying as hard as he was to stay in his mind.
“BORN TO THOUGHS WHO HAVE TRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES... AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS AN EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE THE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT... EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER, FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES...”
Harry cleared his mind best he could, but he knew it was no good. Lupin already knew all the prophecy he needed to know to figure it out. Once again it tuned in and out like a radio.
“THE ONE... POWER...VANQUISH... LORD WILL BE BORN... MONTH DIES…”
He finally blocked him out of his mind. He stood in the middle of the room. Lupin was looking at him as though he was the most unfortunate person he had ever met. He gave a heavy sigh and sat down in his chair. He seemed to have forgotten about Occlumency. Harry felt anger rising within him.
“Why did you have to keep going?” he yelled furiously. Lupin merely shook his head.
“I know it was wrong, but... that’s not something you should keep to yourself.” he staggered.
“Dumbledore did!” Harry shouted. Lupin continued to shake his head.
“Only because it wasn’t Dumbledore’s business. Only you have the right to tell anyone about that.” Harry shook with fury. But at Lupin’s ashamed look on his face, he calmed down
“I think we’ve had enough for today.” Lupin said at last. Harry nodded and threw his bag over his shoulder.
** Yet another disclaimer: I do not own the whole prophecy thing. JKR does. It can be found on page 841 American vision of OotP.