Harry Potter and the Eyes of the Dragon

Chapter VIII: May Came Early

The Room of Requirement was a lot more full that in fifth year, since the DA wasn’t a secret organization anymore and it was a fact to be proved that the final fight between the light and the dark would be that year, and yet it seemed even larger than back then (probably because it was, useful thing that room was). Almost every single Gryffindor was there, looking at Harry expectantly, along with the Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs, who formed another big crowd.

‘Hermione, help me out’, Harry pleaded in a whisper. If there was anything he couldn’t handle was situations like this, when he was the one who had to say the first words. She nodded in understanding.

‘Hello, everyone!’, she started loudly to get the room’s attention. ‘Thank you all for coming to the first DA meeting year 1997. As most of you must already know, two years ago we organized this same meetings due to the lack of Defence taught by Professor Dolores Umbridge. For those who weren’t at Hogwarts back then, let me explain the situation we were in. First of all, repression: she didn’t let us speak our thoughts and/or form any sort of club, society or association without her permission.’

She stopped talking to let the younger students whisper and the older ones, remember and comment irritated. She took a breath and went on.

‘And second, fear: not only to Umbridge but also to You-Know-Who, who had just returned to his human form and was gaining power every day. That was why we decided to start this meetings, which were secret for those reasons. This year it’s a lot more liberal since Umbridge’s out of the picture, but it would be great if what happened here, stayed here.’ Hermione stopped talking and asked, ‘Is there any question?’

Murmurs filled one of the corners of the room and a shy girly hand rose.

‘Yes?’, Harry asked.

‘I just wanted to know… is it true what they say that you know… the killing curse?’, she asked.

The murmurs became louder.

‘Yes, it’s true’, Harry answered. ‘But I’m not going to teach you that, of course. What I am going to teach you is how to defend yourselves from it.’

‘What?’, both Hermione and Ron asked.

‘I thought there was no counter curse for the Unforgivable Curses’, Hermione said.

‘There isn’t’, Harry grinned. ‘Let me give you a little demonstration.’

Everyone unconsciously took a step backwards.

‘Not on you!’, he chuckled and took a brick from a shelf, which was conveniently there already when they went in. ‘This’, he said as he lifted the brick over his head for everyone to see, ‘is the most useful thing you’ll ever learn.’ He put the brick over a table and pointed at it with his wand. He thought about Voldemort, Warmtail and the other Death Eaters, and his mind filled with hate. ‘Avada Kedabra!’

A flash of green light emerged from the tip of his wand and, as soon as it touched the brick, it exploded. There was a general breathtaking sound.

‘Harry, what exactly are you doing?’, Hermione asked.

‘Let me explain and then you’ll see’, he whispered. ‘Stone and metal objects have that same reaction to this curse. How do I know? Because that’s what has been keeping me alive this last few years. Take the graveyard, for example: in fourth year I was attacked by Vol… You-Know-Who and his Death Eaters and I escaped thanks to the stone graves that stood between the curses and me. Now you see why this is so important, even if you’re not good with your wand or if you’re scared, hiding it’s one of the best things you can do sometimes.’

After that, he gave them all a bag with rocks to throw and block their partner’s spell. Of course, there were a few magical and not so magical injuries when the one throwing the rock wasn’t very accurate, but the lesson itself was a success. Then he taught the simple defensive spells he had in mind and, by the end of the two hour meeting, he taught the Huracano spell.

‘That was an amazing first class, Professor Potter’, Ron said patting him on the back.

‘Thank you, Mr. Weasley’, he laughed. ‘Oh, and by the way, thank goodness you play Keeper and not Chaser!’

***

It had been a long time since Harry had felt so pleased with himself. In fact, he only remembered feeling like this during 5th year, also thanks to the Dumbledore’s Army. Lately, he was going to Moody’s office a lot more often because his students learned extremely fast and he was constantly running out of spells to teach. There had only been six meetings, yet it seemed like they had been learning defence for months, now.

‘Well done, Neville!’, Harry heard Ginny’s voice say.

Neville. He was Harry’s best accomplishment. Right now, they were practicing a new charm, and he got it right from the first attempt. Who would’ve said he only needed some confidence to turn into a great wizard, and Harry loved thinking he had had something to do with it. Only two weeks before, he and Harry had had a talk about Neville’s growing frustration.

‘Why are you doing this, Nev?’, he had asked.

‘Because I want to’, he had answered. But there was something in his voice that made Harry doubt if he really meant it. ‘And because I feel like I have to. My gran, though she loves me, I know deep down, she’s ashamed of who I am, what I’m like.’

‘I don’t really think she’s ashamed of you. How could she? I mean, this last few years you’ve shown how great you can be, how hard you try to do your best in everything…’, Harry had told him sincerely. ‘But the efforts that matter are the ones that you make for yourself. If you want to learn defence… really learn, do it for you. Not for your grandmother nor your friends. Do it because you want to be better, not because other people want you to.’

‘Your right. Pleasing other people is too much pressure. I’ll keep that in mind.’

From that day on, he had progressed so much. Harry couldn’t believe what an effect his words had caused on Neville.

‘Did you see that, Harry?’, Neville asked. ‘I got it right!’

‘Oh, I saw it, Nev. Great job!’

The door to the Room of Requirement opened widely, and to Harry’s surprise, the one who walked in was Draco Malfoy. He crossed the room with determined steps among the yelling crowd. He didn’t seem to notice he had just broke the most-wands-pointed-at record.

‘Potter!’, he called out. ‘I need to have a word with you, now!’

‘What do you think you’re doing here, Malfoy?’, Harry asked.

‘Committing suicide’, he said to himself. ‘Could you ask your soldiers to back the hell off?’, Draco asked Harry a bit too aggressively.

‘Meeting’s over!’, he announced without taking his angry eyes off of Malfoy’s.

Whispers filled the room, but no one moved.

‘Are you sure, Harry?’, Ron asked.

‘Yes. Lead them all outside, would you?’

‘OK’, he mouthed, and did as Harry had told him to.

Tension still hang in the air between the two of them when they heard the door close. Then, Draco’s expression changed immediately, confusing Harry.

‘What was that all about?’, he asked.

‘Well, I couldn’t just come in here peacefully and not look suspicious’, he answered. ‘Nice place
you’ve got here.’

Harry opened his mouth in shock. ‘How… did you…?’

‘Find you? Easy’, he said taking a seat on one of the cushions on the floor, that were very useful
when a spell went wrong. ‘The news about your secret society’s comeback spread like butter and I figured you hadn’t made the effort to look for a different place to hold it, so I walked outside thinking ‘I need to find Potter’ and here I am.’

‘Now, what brings you here, anyways?’, Harry said, imitating the blonde and sitting on the cushion near his.

‘Would you like to guess? You have only one shot’, he said distractedly, playing with a rock he had found on the floor.

‘You know something about Voldemort?’, he asked, snatching the rock from his hands.

‘Hey!’, he protested.

‘So?’

‘I’m not telling you a thing until you give me that back’, he said stubbornly. Harry gave it back. ‘Thank you’, he smirked and dropped it on the floor.

‘Are you done?’, Harry asked impatiently.

‘OK, you need to learn something first. I have important information, you don’t. You treat me nicely and I’ll tell you. I don’t get anything from helping you, so I could just walk out and let you keep on

playing with your little… whatever this is.’

‘Alright’, Harry said calmly. ‘I’m all ears.’

‘I talked to my father earlier…’, he drawled. ‘He told me the Dark Lord and the Death Eaters are
coming.’

‘What? When?’, Harry asked desperately.

‘Somewhere along this week’, he said, picking up the rock again.

‘THIS WEEK?’, Harry cried. ‘Tell me you’re not playing with me.’

‘Come on, Potter! There are certain thing you just don’t joke about.’

‘Then how the fuck can you be so calm! I mean… STOP PLAYING WITH THAT BLOODY ROCK!’, he yelled. ‘Aren’t you worried?’

‘Why would I? It’s not me the one He wants dead.’

‘Malfoy, this isn’t funny!’, Harry yelled leaning towards him.

‘You’re right. It’s hilarious’, Draco laughed and pushed Harry away, ‘and please, stop invading my personal space.’

‘Gosh! You are impossible!’, he blushed and got on his feet again.

‘Thank you’, he grinned.

‘Why are you even telling me this?’

‘Because, Potter…’, he stood up too only an inch away from Harry and barely whispered, ‘my life
would be quite boring if you actually died.’

Malfoy left the room, leaving a very confused, angry and nervous Harry Potter alone.

***

After Harry told Ron and Hermione what Malfoy had told him, even though they didn’t want to believe it, especially since it came from the Slytherin’s mouth, they were obviously nervous all the time. What Ron had said was something like ‘May came too early, mate’, and Hermione got angry at him because he wouldn’t explain what that meant… she really hated being left out. They had to make up a lie to tell everyone about what had happened after Malfoy’s intrusion two days before, and before they knew it, Parvati and Lavender had posted it word by word on their Gossip Gazette. In fact, they had dedicated a whole page to his version of the story and a bunch of speculations that had gone around.

We’ve had an exclusive interview with Harry James Potter, who has told us exactly what happened (or exactly what he wants us to believe). ‘Malfoy came in and asked rudely to have a word with me because he had just found out I had hexed his cloak to try and strangle him whenever he tried to put it on. It’s a shame we weren’t there to see it at the time. I bet it would’ve been hilarious’ – he said. Then, your lovely reporter Parvati Patil asked him what had happened after they were left alone, and this was his response: ‘He started yelling at me, he tried to verbally humiliate me as usual, and then, when he realized it wasn’t working, he threw a curse at me, so I used a shielding spell. Anyways, he slapped my and left just as pissed as he had arrived.’

Now, even though it sounded like a very convincing story, we approached Draco Lucius Malfoy, a.k.a. Slytherin’s Silver Boy. We kindly asked him the same questions we had asked Gryffindor’s Golden Boy, he took a Galleon out of his pocket and gave it to us saying ‘Do me a favour, get a life.’

We were highly disappointed by our achievements, and yet we didn’t stop our investigation. Colin Creevey, who said he was simply walking by the place where the meetings take place, told us he spotted Mr. Malfoy walking out, and he looked anything but angry. ‘I think they’re hiding something from us. It’s clear they’re having an affair!’ – Colin Creevey assumed, and we just laughed in his face to such an incoherence. Even we know the difference between lies and fantasies, Colin.

To give a closure to this article, we – Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown – have our own opinion to give about this: I think our “great” defence teacher has been beaten by Draco Malfoy, so he lied to us about what had really happened when they were alone and also explains why his rival left looking ‘anything but angry’.

If you have any other speculation about this matter, or any good review, it will be gladly accepted by us, your dearest writers.

The rumours stopped when they got tired of guessing what could’ve have happened between Harry and Draco, and where replaced by a much more interesting subject: Hanna Abbott being found locked in a room with Ernie Macmillan.

During lunchtime that day, the regular happy, worries-free talking was interrupted by the double doors being opened widely. Some people didn’t really get what was going on until the screaming begun. The final attack was taking place and they were all inconveniently on the way.

***

Ron and Hermione, as well as every other Hogwarts’ student, had never in their lives felt so unprotected. Ron played the events again in his head, whilst he held his crying Hermione in his arms. Right after the Death Eaters and Voldemort had entered the Great Hall, it only took an instant for curses and hexes to start flying around. The staff table was the first one to respond to the attack, of course, and only a few Gryffindors.

He had never seen anything like that; so terrifying. Flitwick was sent flying to the other end of the room by Bellatrix Lestrange, Lucius Malfoy had petrified Hagrid, two Death Eaters that looked a lot like Crabbe and Golye had transformed McGonagall into a grey toad and laughed at her as though they had always wanted to do that. What was strange was that neither Dumbledore nor Voldemort had done anything until the Headmaster walked towards him yelling ‘Get out of my school!’

No one moved. Everyone was looking at Voldemort, and what they saw was something that contradicted the idea of him fearing Dumbledore. A wicked smile grew in his face and said ‘You can’t kill me, and you know it. Avada Kedabra!’

Dumbledore opened his eyes widely and fell dead on the floor. Voldemort laughed the most insane laugh ever heard that could only matched the one on Harry’s nightmares.

‘You bastard!’, Harry had yelled over the silence of the crowd. Only then, Ron had realized he wasn’t by his side anymore, but practically running with his wand pointing at the monster who had just killed one of the finest wizards he had ever met.

‘What’s wrong, Potter? Did that know-it-all mean anything to you?’, the Dark Lord asked laughing. ‘You can’t kill me either, Potter! You don’t have the balls to do it.’

A tear slid down Harry’s cheek. What if he can’t do it?, Ron asked to himself.

Lucius, who was not particularly the centre of attention at the moment, grabbed Harry by the arms and said, ‘Do it now, Master. He’s all yours.’

Harry struggled and hit him hard on the stomach. Malfoy was on his knees behind him, and before he could get up again, he grabbed him and used him as a shield.

‘Do you really think that’s going to stop me from killing you, Potter? I’m not you.’

Then, he walked around without taking his snaky eyes off Harry, and grabbed Draco from the crowd. Harry felt like someone had hit him on the stomach.

‘Now we’re even’, he smiled evilly, and Harry felt that same fear he felt in the morning, when he thought his greatest enemy might know things even he wasn’t sure about, since he never remember what he dreamt about and Voldemort had probably found a way to get into his head by now.

They were still pointing their wands at each other, but neither of them seemed willing to be the first one to attack. Draco was trembling in Voldemort’s grip.

‘This is just between you and me, Potter. If you don’t want your friends to get involved, come with me and let’s get this over with.’

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione, who were silently begging for him to stay, but he looked away and nodded.

‘Only if your Death Eaters leave the castle’, Harry proposed. Voldemort nodded and instructed them to leave.

The Death Eaters left immediately, and through the open doors, they saw them run toward the Whomping Willow. Harry followed Voldemort upstairs, both still gripping a Malfoy, and after they were all gone, every door powerfully locked itself.

The Great Hall was completely silent. The only sound in the room was the sobbing that had overcome all of them and the rain drops on the enchanted ceiling. They had tried to get the doors open, but couldn’t do it. Now, all they could do was wait.