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Author: Gridley Story: Harry Potter and the Grand Alliance Rating: Young Teens Setting: Pre-HBP Status: Completed Reviews: 3 Words: 33,314
October, 1996 Every few days, the Daily Prophet's front page would show another Dark Mark, or report the actions of Aurors chasing down suspected Death Eaters. Sometimes there were confused reports of incidents that reminded Harry of the one in Diagon Alley. Harry and Hermione recognized Muggle elements in these incidents, or thought they did. Wizards often didn't report what they had seen clearly. Harry found himself thinking that just as Muggles were confused by magic, wizards seemed confused by Muggle technology. Most worrying of all, no one had any clue who was behind these incidents, though they almost invariably caused heavy losses to Death Eaters or other Dark creatures. Sometimes, Aurors or apparent innocents were stunned or wounded as well. Harry tried to keep track of the Order, but it wasn't easy. With Sirius gone, there was no one he felt really comfortable writing to. The routine of the school also denied him things that seemed worth writing about. Who would want to read about Quidditch practice when they were fighting dark wizards? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Professor Dorfomt's lessons kept them on their toes. They never knew if they were going to be practicing hexes and counter curses, discussing tactics, doing physical exercises, or debating the ethics of self-protection and the protection of others. Despite the confusion, most students agreed the classes were good. Dorfomt might not be as popular as Lupin had been, but he still clearly knew what he was talking about. Harry, thinking back on what he had learned from the battles that he had been in, was happy with the work. That didn't mean it was always fun. Harry, chest heaving, crouched next to a wall in the maze Dorfomt had erected in the classroom. He could hear Neville panting softly behind him. Double Advanced DADA with the Ravenclaws had sounded good to Harry. At least it wasn't another period with the Slytherins. The exercise had sounded fun, too. "The only spell you may cast directly on one of your opponents is a Stunner, otherwise, use whatever spells you wish. Once someone has been stunned, I will remove them from the maze. As the Gryffindor team has a one-person disadvantage, they will enter the maze first. The last team with anyone left un-stunned wins twenty House Points," Professor Dorfomt explained. The Gryffindors had set up a solid defense. They'd been confident; after all, they had Hermione, the most powerful witch in their year, and Harry, The Boy Who Lived. That was before two of the Ravenclaws had climbed up on top of the maze-walls, snuck into the area the Gryffindors were guarding, and stunned Hermione and Ron before anyone knew they were there. The Gryffindors had turned to meet the new threat, only to be surprised again as the rest of the Ravenclaw team rushed in. Taking advantage of the confusion, the Ravenclaws stunned Dean and Lavender, losing only two of their own in exchange. Outnumbered two to one, the surviving Gryffindors had scattered, with Harry and Neville running down one passage and Seamus fleeing down another. A few minutes later, Harry had heard several shouted spells followed by a burst of cheering, presumably indicating Seamus was out of the fight. A year ago, Harry would have been near despair, with only Neville to back him up against six other students. The past year, however, had changed his opinion. Neville might still aim poorly, but his confidence was much higher, and he could sometimes produce a surprising amount of power. He also had a new wand now (Phoenix feather and Oak, eleven inches, slightly flexible), not a hand-me-down. Currently, he was holding a Shield Charm over both Harry and himself, leaving Harry free to attack with impunity as long as he stayed close to Neville, and there weren't too many Stunners coming at them. Harry gestured to Neville, and they began to move again, slipping along the wall towards an intersection. Two Ravenclaws came around the corner in front of Harry, their wands leveled in front of them. Harry took aim, but the first one beat him by a heartbeat. "Stupefy!" The first Ravenclaw hurled his spell at Harry, but Neville's shield blocked it. "Stupefy!" Before the spell even reached him, Harry threw his own Stunner at his attacker, knocking him down. "Stupefy!" The other Ravenclaw fired off his spell half a second after Harry, aiming at Neville, whose shield absorbed it as well. "Stupefy!" Harry had a moment to enjoy the shock on the face of the second Ravenclaw before throwing a second stunner to knock him down. Harry and Neville exchanged grins, then began to creep along the wall again. Apparently the other team didn't know Neville was capable of shielding two people at once. The odds were getting better. A few minutes later they heard voices. "That just leaves Potter and Longbottom." The voice came from the other side of the wall. From the sound of it, the speaker wasn't more than a few feet ahead. A different voice, this one rather upset, spoke up. "Trane and Michael should have gotten back by now!" Harry was almost level with the conversation now. "Well, there are still four of us and only two of them," a girl's voice replied calmly. Harry turned as Neville tapped him on the shoulder. Neville motioned to the wall and mouthed, "Reductor" to Harry. Harry considered for a moment. They were still outnumbered, but he thought the surprise effect should even the odds. He nodded, holding up three fingers with his off hand while aiming his wand at the wall. Neville nodded, dropped his shield, and leveled his own wand. Harry pulled down a finger, another, then the third. "Reductor!" The two spells struck the wall within a split-second of one another, blasting it to pieces. The four students on the other side instinctively turned away from the blast of noise and splinters. Harry and Neville hastily fired off Stunners, Harry hitting three targets with three spells, while Neville caught the fourth on his second shot. Only Harry's third target got off a spell, a Stunner that flashed past Harry with almost a foot to spare. "Exercise concluded," Dorfomt's voice echoed through the classroom. The maze walls folded themselves and began to slide towards one wall of the classroom. Dorfomt revived the last casualties then directed the students to sit in a ring of chairs that slid out from another wall. "Victory to Gryffindor." Dorfomt waved his wand in a complex pattern, and a net of glowing lines sprang up in the center of the circle, forming themselves into the pattern of the maze. Seven red and eight blue dots appeared for the students. The dots moved along the map as the students had done, with Dorfomt commenting, "The Ravenclaw team got off to a good start, with excellent initiative shown by Mr. Kline and Miss Osgood in thinking beyond the two-dimensional limitations of the maze. The coordinated attack gave the Ravenclaw team a heavy advantage, which they exploited by chasing down Mr. Finnigan." Six blue dots surrounded a single red one, which winked out. Seamus winced, and Dorfomt continued, "However, Mr. Potter and Mr. Longbottom demonstrated superior cooperation and mutual support with Mr. Longbottom's dual Shield Spell, which allowed them to shorten the odds." The two red dots representing Harry and Neville blocked the sparks of stunners, and Harry's dot shot sparks back, removing the two blue dots facing them. "They again demonstrated cooperation and also the use of surprise to engage a superior group – a tactical risk, but, as it turned out, a successful action, which resulted in victory for their team." A gap appeared in one of the wall-lines as sparks from the last two red dots struck it, then the four blue dots on the other side rapidly winked out. Dorfomt swept his wand in an arc, and the lines and dots faded out, leaving a bare floor. "All in all, a most revealing exercise. Please bring two feet of parchment to our next class discussing the benefits and risks of verbal communication in a tactical environment. Class dismissed." The students began to file out. "I wonder what he meant by ‘a most revealing exercise,'" Hermione wondered. "Revealing what?" Ron was rubbing his arm where he'd fallen on it after being stunned. "He's always saying stuff like that. You did really well, Neville." Neville grinned weakly, and hastily replied, "Oh, it was really Harry. He stunned five of them, you know." "Yeah, but you were the one who thought to blow the wall in," Harry put in quickly. Neville deserved his share of the credit. "Yeah, well done, mate," Dean put in, slapping Neville's shoulder. "Let's go down to dinner. I'm starved." Neville hurried ahead, embarrassed but happy with his classmates' approval. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harry wondered, for perhaps the hundredth time this year, what he had been thinking when he had signed up for Advanced Potions. The dungeon classroom hadn't changed. Several other things had, and not for the better. Out of all the sixth-year Gryffindors, only he and Hermione had both the O.W.L. score and, in Harry's opinion, the stupidity to sign up for Advanced Potions. Six Slytherins, including Draco, had made it into the class, however, leaving the Gryffindors badly outnumbered. The absence of Crabbe and Goyle might be a small silver lining, but with Malfoy still there, it was a rather large cloud. Compared to Professor Snape, Malfoy was a ray of sunshine. "I do not pretend to understand how you could achieve even so much as a passing O.W.L. in Potions, Mr. Potter, when you are incapable of properly dicing Arrod root. Or, for that matter, when you apparently believe that diced Arrod root is even an ingredient in a Skin-Growth Potion.," Snape sneered. Harry clamped his teeth firmly together. Snape had managed to take almost twenty points off Gryffindor in their first class, and seemed to be trying to top that in each class since. He'd already put Hermione permanently on the other side of the classroom, right next to Draco. Even from where he sat, Harry could hear Draco's steady patter of insults. Snape, as always, didn't seem to notice. "If you will consult the directions which I went to some effort to make available to you, Mr. Potter, can you tell me what form the Arrod root is supposed to take?" "Grated, sir," Harry bit out. Snape had already taken points for ‘disrespect' when Hermione or Harry had failed to end their comments with ‘sir' or ‘Professor'. He hadn't bothered to tell them what the acceptable forms of address might be, leaving them to figure it out on their own. He hadn't taken any points from the Slytherins, no matter what they said. "Congratulations, Mr. Potter, you are now merely three-quarters of a period behind your classmates. I trust you will attempt to at least partially close the gap before the end of class." Snape swept away, undoubtedly to attempt to find something wrong with Hermione's potion. Harry managed a grin. There wasn't much chance of that, at least. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transfiguration came as a great relief after Potions. No Snape, no Slytherins, no Snape, eight Gryffindors, and no Snape were among the beneficial changes. Of course, that didn't mean it was easy. Their first task of the day had been to temporarily enlarge the classroom, which had been accomplished quickly enough, thanks to Hermione's Expansion Charm. Their second task had been more difficult. "Mastering the charm is only the beginning. You must maintain your focus throughout the transformation, or you will be left with features of the original, as Mr. Weasley and Mr. Longbottom have demonstrated," McGonagall reminded them patiently. They were supposed to be transforming their desks into horses. Hermione had succeeded almost immediately, and was eyeing her palomino mare with some suspicion, which the horse returned in kind. Neville's desk had developed four excellent hooves and legs, but remained a desk otherwise and had galloped into a wall. Ron had almost managed it, but his horse seemed distressed that it had hinges along its back. Harry had managed something that was almost right. It was very horse-like, without a hint of desk about it. The creature seemed rather puzzled at all the other strange horses around, but was mostly content to munch the hay that Professor McGonagall had provided. Harry reached down and patted it. Reached down. That was the problem. Somehow Harry had managed to produce a small pony. To make matters worse, it looked as if it had been born just days ago. Its head barely came up to Harry's shoulder. "Oh, Harry, it's so cute," giggled Lavender. "Thank you, Lavender. I heard you the first three times." Harry sighed. He was ready to hex her… "Isn't it the cutest little horsey ever?" …And Parvati. Lavender let out a squeal, and Harry looked over towards her desk. For a moment he was impressed by the charcoal-gray mare. Then the horse's face took on a look of confusion, and it fell to the floor. Harry noticed that its legs hadn't been transformed. There was a chorus of surprised shouts, and Harry turned his attention back to the rest of the room to see Neville staring in shock at a perfect chestnut stallion that was sniffing at him with interest. "Well done, Mr. Longbottom. A very handsome beast," Professor McGonagall smiled at the horse. The horse whinnied, then began to munch on a pile of hay. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harry wished he could just bury his face in a pile of hay. For a moment, he considered burying it in the mashed potatoes on his plate, but rejected the idea. The Great Hall might seem lonely now, but he didn't want attention that badly. Across from him, Ron and Hermione were arguing about Hermione's insistence that Ron practice horse transfiguration. To his right, Dean and Neville were looking over Seamus's shoulders at his notes for Advanced History of Magic ("It's better than Potions, mate!"). They were trying to figure out if the Treaty of Thuringia had been signed in 1631 or 1632. To Harry's left, Lavender and Parvati were giggling over an article in Charmed Life. Harry was trapped, with no one to talk to. "All right, Harry?" Harry was startled by the voice behind him. He turned and found Roger behind him. "Oh. Hello, Roger. Enjoying your classes?" "You bet! Well, I'm not really enjoying Potions, or History of Magic, but everything else is awesome. I'm getting really good at flying, too," Roger finished with pride. Harry thought back to his own flying lessons – they were pleasant memories. "Will you try out for the Quidditch team next year?" "I want to. Our team could be a lot better. Someone said we haven't won the Quidditch Cup in over twenty years." "Oh, so you think you can beat Gryffindor, do you?" Harry grinned. "Well, I bet we could beat Slytherin by enough as long as we didn't loose too badly to you. Everyone says all they know are dirty tricks." "I won't argue with you there." Harry's eyes went to the Slytherin table. "We'll beat them, Harry, just you watch." Roger assured him. Author's Note: In case you're wondering, I'm fully aware that there are at least eight Gryffindors in Harry's year. Remember that not everyone takes the Advanced classes, even in the core subjects; Snape implies this strongly in OotP. Oh, and there's an easy Eric Flint reference in this chapter. Anyone? Thanks are due to Delylah for betaing, and to aggiebell, Ali Kat, Arnel, bart, bogusbabe, Dave The Inverted (who got the R.A.H. reference from Chapter 3), Delylah, EdinaBrya, Jaquelyne, Jelsemium, jner, KobeG, kokopelli, LaceyRice56, Melindaleo2000, Molly Morrison, peas and carrots, tags, Tari, rjk2005, Guest_kneh13, Crookshanks_Prime, and 'Guest' for reviewing. Thank you! Your reviews are a large part of what motivates me to write.
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