Harry Potter and The Sword Of The Phoenix

Title: Harry Potter and the Sword of the Phoenix
Chapter Title: NEWTS and Friends
Author: Ash Knight
Pairings: Harry/Draco
Warnings: Lemon Spoilers from book 5, and Sap . . .
Disclaimer: I don’t own Harry Potter and I do not make any money from these stories.



Time passed quickly as it usually does. At least when you have a lot to keep busy with anyway. Harry spent his early mornings jogging around the lake like Kingsley told him. In the beginning it was nearly impossible. Then ever so slowly his muscles began to feel less sore, but it still wasn’t easy. The only thing that made it bearable was that every now and then Draco would join him for the early morning jog, but afterwards they would dive into the lake, sometimes naked, and swim for a few minutes and have a quick snog. They would then quickly gather their things and go back to their room to get ready for the day.

The classes grew more and more intense and it seemed that everyone was fighting the strain. But the classes did provided a distraction from Ron. Ron still hadn’t apologized and Harry was still angry with him to say the least. Ron had all his teeth re-
grown and was only seen during their animagus training. As for his training it was going well. Dumbledore could no longer break into his mind, and Harry had broken into his twice during one of their lessons. Legilimency was something he seemed to be a natural at, and Dumbledore was very impressed with his fast progress.

Kingsley repeated the sentiment as Harry seemed to be catching on to everything faster then he anticipated. With the martial arts lessons, and s pla play, Kingsley decided to add magical dueling to the class agenda. Harry kept pushing himself harder and harder with each lesson, and it was definitely starting to show. His spell work was getting more powerful and his other skills were growing razor sharp. As for his animagus training, McGonagall was by far the most impressed. Harry could now transform into his form at will. The only thing he had to master now was transforming back to his human form. His body would get stuck half way leaving him in a strange demi form. His arms and legs would be that of a bird with a tail coming out of his backside, and the rest of his body would be normal.

The only one close to making his progress was Ron amazingly enough, closely followed by Hermione and Draco. After all his classes he spent the rest of his time in the secret library. Many of things inside it were amazing, while others were just disturbing. He studied them, going from books to book, only leaving when Dumbledore told him to. Every now and then Harry would argue with Albus about staying in the library longer but usually he was too tired to argue. And so that was how time passed, and soon Harry found himself outside the great hall, waiting to begin his NEWTS.

Since Draco and Hermione had different schedules and classes, Draco was going to start his NEWTS the day after tomorrow along with Hermione. The first test was the written Care of Magical Creatures, transfiguration, and potions exams. Then in the afternoon it was the practical part of the NEWTS. The door suddenly opened and Harry saw a single chair waiting for him in front of a larger desk with a large hourglass on it.

“It’s good to see you again Mr. Potter” Professor Tofty greeted.

“Likewise” Harry replied as he shook his rough veined hands.

“Now, for the first hour you will be taking your Care of Magical Creatures exam. Then we shall have a half hour break and you ar com come back here for your Transfiguration, and so on. After all these written exams you will have an hour for lunch and then we will conduct the practical exams.”

Harry nodded his understanding of this and sat down at the desk. Tofty flipped the hourglass which signaled to Harry to begin. The pages of the test went flying as Harry ripped through each question. His hands were beginning to cramp up with the huge amount he was writing for each question, but he kept pushing on, giving as much detail as he could remember, which was actually quite a lot. This continued until he finished the test, with five minutes to spare.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go over anything? You still have five minutes to go” Tofty declared.

“No that’s alright, I’m sure I did alright” Harry answered.

Tofty took the test and told Harry he could take his break early. Harry quickly wentthe the library and went over all his notes for his Transfiguration exam, wanting to make sure he hadn’t forgotten anything. So he found himself running threw the corridors to get back to the great hall. He was so engrossed in his notes he had almost lost track of time. Out of breath he reached the great hall in time. Tofty laughed as Harry inside and practically fell off his desk, trying to sit down too quickly. With a beat red face Harry dove into his next exam.

~*~

A final sentence and Harry was finished with his written exams. He gave his exam to Professor Tofty and left the great hall so that it would be reset to its original state. But, when he went outside the hall he found a big surprise.

“Can we talk?” Ron asked as he walked up to Harry.

Harry nodded and crossed his arms, deciding to just let Ron talk.

“I wish I could take back what I said, but I can’t. The reason I said it is because no matter what I do, there’s nothing about me that . . . there’s nothing special about me. No matter what I do I will always be undy bry brothers shadows. And now with everything that’s happening, I feel like I’m useless. You and Draco are a couple and are fighting You-Know-Who, and Hermione . . . well Hermione’s Hermione. She’s super intelligent and all of you guys are going to do all these amazing things, while I get left behind” Ron stuttered and a tear escaped his left eye. “I’m not trying to excuse what I said, but I want you to know, I would take it back if I could.”

Just as Ron was about to turn away, Harry grabbed his arm, spun him around, and embraced him in a tight hug.

“Ron, you are a huge part of me. You are noble and self sacrificing, you always do what’s right in the end, even when it means putting yourself on the line. Like back in first year when you sacrificed yourself when we were trying to stop Voldemort from getting the sorcerers stone. If it wasn’t for you, Voldemort would have gotten the stone,” Ron flinched at his name. “You’re the heart of us Ron. Hermione’s the mind, Draco’s theningning, and you’re the heart! We need you, and everything that you, I and Hermione did right up to our fifth year had nothing to do with any of your brothers. It was us who stopped Voldemort from getting the stone; it was us that found the chamber of secrets, it was us that found Sirius was innocent, and it was you and Hermione that helped me during the tournament. I can’t do this wiut yut you, and when the school year starts I’m going to need your help most of all.”

Harry and Ron were suddenly caught off guard as someone grabbed both of them in another hug.

“Oh you guys” Hermione said.

Harry just laughed and saw Draco come out of the shadows, were he and Hermione were apparently watching the whole thing.

“We’ll forgive you this time Ron, but if you ever hurt Harry again, I’ll send you back to the hospital wing” Draco declared with a huge smile.

They all talked and laughed together as they aunchunch, and Harry was glad things were back to normal, or as normal as things got in his life. He looked at each of them and saw how important and special they all were in their own ways. Lunch ended all too son, and Hermione and Draco went back to the library to study, only this time Ron joined them, leaving Harry alone to finish his NEWTS.

As he walked into the great hall he saw Tofty trying to restrain a thestral into a paddock, but she was not complying. She ripped the reins right out of Tofty’s hands throwing him to the floor. Harry ran to help and quickly pulled the old wizard to his feet.

“Stand back!” Harry shouted as he tried to get close to thestral.

Harry approached her slowly as she backed away from him. When he finally got close enough he began to message circles in the space between its eyes with his right hand, and talked to it in a soothing voice. As he walked it over to the paddock he saw why she was so upset.

“She’s about to give birth!” Harry declared.

“What!?!” Tofty responded.

Harry quickly looked her over and put together all her behavior. Her deep breathing, her sweat drenched and over heated body.

“We have to help her!” Harry said and conjured a bucket of water and thick clothes.

He began to coat her over with the cold water in the bucket, which seemed to help her breathing. Tofty watched over everything closely, with a huge grin. Suddenly the thestral opened her wings and went into a kind of bow, leaving her backside in the air while the rest of her was kneeling down on the floor.

“She’s ready” Harry declared as he messaged here head again and wrapped his arms around her neck in a strange looking hammer lock.

For a moment nothing happened and the air in the hall seemed to grow thinner with anticipation. Then without warning, she began to thrash her head in every direction. If Harry wasn’t holding her, she would have broken her own neck. Harry held on with all his might, just barely able to hold her. The calf was pushed out, landing with a thud on the floor. Harry quickly let go and moved to the side as the thestral stood back up and turned around to face its new born child. She began to lick it clean as it neighed and looked around.

“Congradulations Mr. Potter, you just received an O” Tofty said and laughed at Harry shocked face.