Chapter 20-Extracurricular Activites

Chapter 20: Extracurricular Activities

As it turned out, the invisibility cloak was to be useful for more than wandering around the castle aimlessly.

Now, in Harry's opinion, wandering around the castle aimlessly was plenty productive – after all, there was so much to explore – but Tom insisted on highlighting its more practical benefits. For example, it allowed Harry to easily access Tom's Christmas gift. That's right, Tom gave him a Christmas gift. It was called the Room of Requirement.

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Harry had been awed by the sight of it; it was vast, enormous, and filled with clutter.

The room itself was the size of one of those old, ornate cathedrals he'd never been into, and it stretched out before him like a miniature city, built from hundreds of years worth of abandoned trinkets and treasures. Narrow paths wove between treacherously stacked piles of old furniture and massive piles of books, some stretching on and on, meandering through the labyrinth of hidden things, and others coming up short before a wall of wood, stone, parchment, and dust. Hidden in cracks and crevices were chipped bottles of treacherous-looking substances, funny old hats, dulled jewels, dusty cloaks, cracked shells, and other random items he didn't expect to find. He also found dangerous objects like rusting swords, daggers, and shields, and even more foreboding items like a thick, heavy, blood-stained axe. And then there were things that were just plain odd, like the enormous stuffed troll he found cowering in a rickety old wardrobe, and something in a cage that had long-since died, its skeleton having not two, not four, but five legs. He thought he would have rather liked to have met whatever had died in that cage, as it would probably be very educational to ask it how exactly it managed to walk with 5 legs.

Harry was convinced that was he so inclined, he could have spent years in there without getting bored; there were thousands of books to read, cupboards to search, and trinkets to fix. It was a truly fantastic place. Imagine Harry's shock when, after wandering around in there for a few hours, he was informed by Tom of the true nature of the room he was in. It was a room with endless possibilities; the Room of Requirement could be whatever he wanted it to be - all he had to do was pace in front of a wall in the seventh floor corridor, thinking about what he wanted.

A warm fire and hot chocolate

A warm fire and hot chocolate

A warm fire and hot chocolate

Sure enough, he was able to summon a plush, cozy couch in front of a fireplace, complete with a table holding the biggest mug of hot chocolate he'd ever seen...except there'd been no hot chocolate in it. Apparently, the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room, could do just about anything except create food. It made sense, of course, but Harry had to give it a try, much to Tom's annoyance.

However, just about anything else was fair game – so far, he'd summoned an exact replica of his dorm room, a copy of the Slytherin Common Room, a gigantic heated swimming pool, several libraries, and a small forest. To be honest, Harry thought that the Room of Requirement was undoubtedly the most spectacular feat of magic he had yet witnessed - truly, he hadn't even considered that such a thing could be possible; even knowing how incredible magic could be, he would not have guessed that something like the Room of Requirement existed. He was filled with wonderment every time his mind wandered to the Come and Go Room, and he was entranced by its boundless potential and the fact that he had no idea how it worked.

Tom didn't know either. He just said it was a gift from Hogwarts.

And what a gift it was. Now Harry had a place to go when he needed to be on his own, or wanted to practice spells that were...best kept private. It was the perfect gift, and he couldn't thank Tom enough.

However, exploring the Room of the Requirement wasn't the only thing that had occupied his attention of late. Aside from giving him ready access to his Christmas present, the cloak had also allowed Tom and him to further their goal of solving the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone. Or, more specifically, it played a key role in assisting their eliminating of the conundrum that was discerning Professor Quirrell's loyalties.

Tom said there was something called a 'warding spell' that he could perform on the room where Fluffy was chained up. Simply put, the spell would alert him if Professor Quirrell in particular entered the room and opened the trap door. It was not a simple spell, and Tom was quite insistent that he needed to perform it with his own wand. Even then, it would take a couple of hours to properly cast, and would drain Tom of so much energy it would take months for him to recover – indeed, while the ward remained undisturbed, he would need to be constantly feeding it his own magic, because apparently Harry's wasn't quite up to the task.

"Your magic is just about as subtle as a tidal wave. Wards are intricate magical structures, and unfortunately, everything your magic touches tends toward entropy."

Harry'd been nigh heartbroken to hear this, because he really, really wanted to learn this warding thing.

"B-but...no...that can't be - I...I don't know how to deal with this, Tom!"

It had taken several rather pathetic attempts to console him before Tom finally convinced him that a few years of practicing magic with a wand would force his magic to confine itself more readily, allowing him to perform more delicate spells like warding. Suffice it to say, Harry was very relieved, because he didn't know if he could handle hitting a wall so early on in his magical education.

Soon after they'd managed to ward Fluffy's room, students began returning from their holidays, the castle filling itself to the brim once again. Harry was a bit put off by the return of what he could not help but absently think of as 'human clutter' (somewhat less interesting than the clutter in the Room of Requirement), but he was looking forward to seeing his new friends once again.

Naturally, when Hermione and Theo returned, he was eager to show off his new presents. He wasn't quite sure what the protocol for showing off presents was; indeed, he didn't want to seem too smug, or, Merlin forbid, rude. He'd agonized over the matter for about a night before Tom told him to stop sulking and just show them his presents. Apparently, it wasn't a big deal. Harry reluctantly agreed.

To that end, he'd left them both a note separately - Theo's on his pillow and Hermione's in her notebook - telling them to meet him in the seventh floor corridor at 8 pm on Thursday night. He'd told them separately, of course, because he feared that one of them might not come if they knew the other was also coming.

When they arrived, he was hiding under his cloak, standing in the corner.

Hermione scowled upon seeing Theo. "You!"

He scowled right back at her. "Me."

Hermione pointed at him accusingly. "This was a trick, wasn't it! You sent the note! Wait -"

"Actually, that was me," he spoke from his place in the corner, and relished in their surprise when he unveiled himself.

"Harry!" Hermione shouted, "Where on earth did you come from?"

Harry grinned gleefully, holding up the cloak and flourishing it dramatically with a spin.

Meanwhile, Theo's eyes had gone wide. "Is that...an invisibility cloak?"

"An invisibility cloak? What's an invisibility cloak?" Hermione exclaimed, of course not tolerating being out of the loop.

Theo completely ignored her, as usual, so Harry answered for him. "It's a cloak that makes you invisible!"

Hermione scowled at him, apparently completely dissatisfied with the answer.

Meanwhile, Theo was examining the cloak with a deeply fascinated look on his face. "It's very high quality. Where did you get it?"

Harry's grin faltered a bit. "Headmaster Dumbledore gave it to me."

Both of his friends' eyes went wide.

"Dumbledore?" Theo exclaimed. "Why would he give you a Christmas gift, let alone one so expensive?"

Harry shrugged. "Apparently it belonged to my dad. He was just giving it back."

Theo quirked an eyebrow.

Now it was Hermione who was running her hands all over the cloak, exploring the texture. "How does it work?"

"I don't know. Do you know, Theo?"

He made a face that clearly said, "do I look like I know?". Instead of answering, he asked, "Why did you make me come all the way up here to show me? You could have just shown me in our room."

Hermione scowled, realizing she was being ignored once more.

Harry's lips quirked upward again. "Because, I have something else to show you."

And with that, he marched up to the wall in front of them, and began pacing.

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

Show me the place where everything's hidden

"Harry, what are you -?"

Hermione's question was silenced when she saw an enormous doorway slowly morph into existence on the wall Harry had been pacing in front of, rising out of the stone like it was being carved out right in front of their eyes.

Harry looked over his shoulder with an impish grin. "Follow me."

With a flourish he led them into the enormous room, relishing in the awe on their faces.

Hermione looked like she was going to faint. "What is this place?"

"It's called the Room of Requirement, or the Come and Go Room. All you have to do is pace in front of that wall three times thinking about what you want, and the room will give it to you."

Hermione gasped. "But that's not possible!"

Harry smiled at her. "It's magic, Hermione, everything's possible."

She was about to argue when Theo spoke up. "Wait, so, you could have summoned anything, and your brain came up with this?" he asked incredulously. "A room full of junk?"

Harry shook his head. "This is the room that's summoned when you want to hide something. This is hundreds of years worth of objects hidden away by Hogwarts students who never thought to come back for them."

"Brilliant," Hermione breathed.

Harry's grin widened. "I know! See, it might be a room full of junk, but I think it's really fantastic junk."

Theo rolled his eyes."How did you even find this place?"

Harry's grin turned mischievous in an attempt to hide the apprehensiveness he felt at the question. "That would be telling."

His friends glared at him.

"Anyway, I figured we could use this as our own secret room."

Hermione tilted her head to the side. "What do you mean?"

"Well, for example, I could pace outside the room and ask it for a 'secret library that only Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Theodore Nott can find'."

Hermione's eyes lit up. "Oh, that would be spectacular!" she exclaimed, the excitement on her face unmistakable.

Harry turned to Theo. "We could also use this room to practice spells that we...don't want to use in public."

Theo smirked darkly at the implication, and Hermione looked concerned.

"Also," Harry said, looking at Hermione again, "We can use this as a place to study occlumency!"

Hermione could not contain a giddy grin, at that, and Theo looked at Harry, curious. "You're learning occlumency?"

Harry shook his head. "I already know how to do it, but I'm going to teach Hermione. You can come too, if you want."

Theo nodded his head slowly. "I think I might take you up on that."

Harry smiled. "Now we can have our own secret study club! We can learn occlumency, do our homework, create our own potions, read all sorts of amazing things, practice our dueling, learn some dark arts -"

Hermione looked at him, alarmed. "Dark arts?"

Theo shook his head. "Honesty, Harry, not one of your better traits."

Harry smiled sheepishly. "I meant really nice, happy, light magic?"

Hermione scowled. "You can't fool me, Harry Potter, you mean to learn the dark arts!"

"Yeah," Theo piped up, "She may be a muggleborn but she's not stupid."

Harry was relieved when her glare turned on Theo.

"Listen," he began, unsure of himself. "I just want to learn magic." Which was true.

"Dark magic!"

"It's still magic!" Harry exclaimed. "I want to learn everything I can – I need to learn everything I can."

"Everything? You want to learn about magic that hurts people – even though it's against the rules!?"

"Of course he does, he's an obsessive bookworm, aren't you, Harry?"

"I like to read just as much as Harry, and I've never gone looking for books on dark magic!"

"Because you're a goody-two-shoes teacher's pet!"

"I am not!"

"You are too!"

This was...quickly getting out of hand. What could he say that would satisfy them both? He couldn't just pass this off as curiosity – Hermione wouldn't allow that. She was far too inquisitive and clever to let that slide. So what could he say? Well...the truth. Or at least, part of it. They were friends with him - as long as he was in danger, they would be too. Perhaps it was time they understood. "Lord Voldemort isn't dead."

His scar started to burn.

Meanwhile, the bickering ceased and the glare evaporating from Hermione's face, while Theo's smirk disappeared, replaced by a look of unmistakable horror.

"What are you talking about...?" Theo whispered.

"He never died," Harry said, "He's probably waiting out there somewhere, until he's powerful enough again..."

They both looked very alarmed.

"And then he'll come back to finish what he couldn't do ten years ago."

Both of his friends looked very pale at that.

"Harry," Hermione began shakily, "How could you possibly know that?"

Yes Harry, how could you possibly know that? You stupid, reckless little boy. Maybe you did belong in Gryffindor.

"Because," Harry began tentatively, "My scar hurts. It burns, sometimes, like fire in my head. I've been doing some reading, and...it's a curse scar, you see...it's got dark magic in it, and it still hurts me. That means the dark magic in it is still active, and that means -"

"That the one who cast it is still alive," Theo finished for him.

Take that, Tom. He had a perfectly reasonable explanation.

Harry nodded. "I don't know how much time I have. So I need to learn, Hermione, everything I can. Light, dark, it doesn't matter. What matters is how you use it. And I just want to protect myself."

Hermione shook her head. "But Harry, what about the teachers? What about Professor Dumbledore? Surely they'll protect you!"

Harry scowled reflexively, at that.

"What's that look for!?"

"They never helped before. I don't trust them," he blurted out.

Theo frowned. "What do you mean, they never helped before?"

Yet another hole for you to dig yourself out of.

"I - nothing. Just...adults miss things. They think they always know what's best, but they don't. And I might be safe here at Hogwarts, but when I leave, I'm on my own."

"But what about your family?" cried Hermione.

Harry laughed a bit, at that. "I'm pretty sure they'd hand me over to Lord Voldemort themselves."

Hermione looked extremely alarmed at that. "Harry -"

"I'm just kidding, it's ok. They just don't like me much."

Hermione looked a bit unsure. "If you say so..."

"Anyway," he said, ignoring Theo's calculating stare, "I want to be able to protect myself, and Lord Voldemort won't try to kill me with a tickling charm. At least, I don't think so. That would actually be pretty cruel, now that I think of it...death by self-imposed suffocation, I guess it would be?"

"Harry! Don't joke like that."

He frowned. "I'm not joking. I'm completely serious."

Both of his friends grimaced at that.

"But what I mean to say is...I just want to stay alive. So...don't think poorly of me, because of it. Please."

Hermione shook her head. "I don't think poorly of you, Harry. But I'm worried about you, and I can't let you practice the dark arts! You could hurt yourself, or someone else. It's wrong, and it's not safe."

"Hermione..."

"And if I catch you doing it, I'll have to tell a teacher."

A very sad look came over Harry's face, but beside him, Theo bristled.

"No you won't, you filthy little mu-!"

Harry's hand shot over to squeeze Theo's arm in warning, silencing the other boy.

"Alright, Hermione, I understand. Either way, we should head back now, it's getting late," he said, eager to escape that particular conversation.

Eager to avoid detention, Hermione had, thankfully, agreed.

Once Harry and Theo had parted ways with her, Theo spoke up.

"They're muggles, aren't they? The family you live with, that you never want to talk about."

Harry nodded slowly, risking a glance at his friend..

A troubled look came over Theo's face. "My dad used to tell me about the terrible things muggles do to witches and wizards. He told me about how cruelly magical children are treated in muggle orphanages. He never did tell me how he knew all that, so I figured he was just trying to scare me."

Harry looked away.

"But he wasn't, was he? These muggles of yours, they don't treat you well, do they?"

"They hate me," replied Harry simply.

Theo scowled. "You shouldn't have to live with people who hate you."

Harry shrugged. "It's better than an orphanage, I think. I have my own bedroom, and a bed."

Theo sent him a withering stare. "That's not saying much, Harry."

"It's really not so bad. I usually get to eat three meals, and if I'm tired or want to be alone, I can just do something that will get me locked away, because being locked away means I don't have to do any chores. "

"You get locked away?"

Harry didn't know why Theo sounded so surprised. Tom got locked away too, when he was young, so Harry knew it wasn't all that unusual. What did people call it - a time-out? Though...the Notts were purebloods, and he'd gathered that pureblood children tended to have more in common with Dudley than with him. Now that he thought of it, Theo was probably one of those kids never got hit by their parents, and got to eat whenever he wanted without doing chores first. Yes, Theo probably would not understand at all.

"I really don't mind it...I used to be scared of them, but now...they're scared of me. And if I really need something, they'll do what I want them to."

"Then why don't you make them give you more food!"

Harry flinched a bit. He wasn't that thin."I can't ask for too much, or they'll send me to an orphanage. It's simple strategic thinking, really. After all, you can only use a threat so many times before it become idle," he added on, quoting Tom.

Theo shook his head. "That's messed up."

Harry scowled at him. Honestly, kids can be so naive. "That's life."

The two boys fell silent for a few minutes.

"Say," Theo said. "You mentioned threats. You said they're scared of you, but you used to be scared of them. What changed? How'd you manage it?"

Theo looked almost hopeful at the prospect, and though he didn't understand why his friend seemed so excited at the idea, he was pleased to be an encouragement, and a small smile crept onto his face.

"Well, magic."

"Magic?"

"When I was eight, I started learning to do things, you know? Like making things blow up, or disappear, or catch on fire."

Theo's eyes were wide.

"Didn't you do stuff like that?"

"Not on purpose, Harry."

"...oh. Well, anyway, I learnt all sorts of things, and then showed them, the muggles, and then they became scared of me."

Theo looked rather baffled, at this point. "You mean you can do magic without a wand?"

Harry nodded.

"Then what happened with Malfoy...that wasn't an accident?"

"Well, that was. But I can do other things just fine."

Theo's eyes glinted, and he was smiling now. "Wicked! What else can you do?"

"Well, I can make it windy sometimes, and I can make cups explode...anything glass, really. I can light candles, and unlock doors, make it so people don't notice me, and..."

"And?" Theo said eagerly.

"Sometimes, I can make muggles do what I want. Like...once, I thought really hard about it, and I made my cousin stare at the wall for 10 minutes, and then walk in a circle three times."

"That's brilliant, Harry!"

"I know, right? My Aunt and Uncle thought he'd lost his marbles...but then they figured out it was me, and I got locked in my room for a week."

"...well, that's not brilliant, but the rest is."

"It is?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.

"Of course! Though, I wouldn't advertise that last one."

Harry tilted his head to the side. "Why's that?"

"Well, it sounds kind of...dark, you know."

Harry nodded slowly, recalling how concerned he was the first time Tom coaxed him into doing it. "I suppose that makes sense."

"Anyway," Theo said, "You must really be a genius. I've never heard of anyone doing that sort of thing. You must be really powerful!"

Harry smiled bashfully. "You think so?"

"Oh, for sure."

"Thanks!" Harry chirped, soaking up the compliments, "But...don't tell anyone, ok?"

"What? Why?"

"Well, too much attention isn't always a good thing, right?"

Theo grinned at him. "It will be our little secret, then."

Harry gave him a half smile. "Ok."

"Expelliarmus!"

"Reducto!"

"Protego!"

"Bombarda!"

"Reducto!"

"Protego!"

Harry's reductor curse was so strong that it threw Theo backwards, allowing Harry to finish the duel with "Expelliarmus!"

He grinned as Theo groaned. "You lasted more than three minutes this time!"

Theo scowled at him. "Yay me."

It was May, and Harry and Theo had been dueling each other twice a week for the last four months. It was less fun now, because Theo had figured out that he was going easy on him, and had insisted he didn't; so what were once 10 minute duels full of flashing lights, running, dodging, sneaking around, and hiding, were now condensed to under 5 minutes, much to Harry's disappointment. He still dodged a bit more than he had to, but he wasn't about to tell Theo that.

Harry found that he enjoyed dueling more than perhaps anything else he'd ever done in his life. It was the perfect balance between school and Quidditch – it was both intellectually and physically stimulating. Theo quite enjoyed it as well, and Harry thought their frequent dueling sessions had allowed them to bond a great deal and strengthen their friendship; Harry had never experienced anything quite like collapsing on the floor with Theo after a long series of duels, laughing at each other as they tried to catch their breath.

Hermione had joined them a few times, but she wasn't quite as keen on getting herself "blown up", as she put it. It was true; Harry and Theo spent most of their time hurling blasting hexes and reductor curses at each other (because, to be honest, they hadn't really mastered anything that didn't involve blowing things up...Tom said that it said a lot about their personalities), much to Hermione's undisguised annoyance.

After Hermione had let them teach her a couple of curses, Theo had warmed up to her a little more, and had even started addressing her directly by her surname, and more than that, rather amiably. Harry was pretty sure that it was because the other boy was amused by the fact that they were technically teaching Hermione the dark arts without her realizing it. She took to it quickly and easily, though, and Harry thought it was a shame that she was so against learning dark magic, because she seemed to have a talent for it. The fact that she could keep up at all with Harry (who literally had the Dark Lord in his head) and Theo (who came from a family of dark magic practitioners) said a lot.

Harry felt a bit bad about not making it clear that the spells she was learning from them were technically dark magic, but he didn't want to scare her off. The fact was that most useful offensive magic was technically dark arts, and Harry wanted Hermione to be able to protect herself. It was likely that being friends with him would expose her to a lot of wizards and witches who disliked muggleborns, and who might even want to hurt her...and the best way to protect her was to teach her how to protect herself. He was sure she'd understand one day, she just needed time, and if lying to her a bit would help keep her safe, he'd do so gladly.

Harry, Theo, and Hermione also met once a week to practice occlumency. This is where Hermione's skills really showed, because she took to the mind arts very quickly – she mastered meditation within a month (it had taken Harry almost half a year to learn to meditate, so he was very impressed with Hermione's progress), and she was exceptional at organizing her thoughts. Even Tom was impressed with her (not that he said so or anything, but Harry could tell). And that was really saying something.

Thus far, Tom was very pleased with the arrangements Harry had made to supplement his education at Hogwarts, and had been very eager to have Harry learn legillimency. Tom believed legillimency to be the "highest form of torture", an evaluation which made Harry feel very uncomfortable, but he couldn't deny the usefulness of the subject. He'd started practicing on Hermione and Theo in April – he was rather shocked that they let him, to be honest. Apparently they both had a lot of faith in his benevolent nature, which made him really happy...but at the same time somewhat worried about their sanity. Sure, Harry was a very nice person, but nice people do terrible things all the time - like Tom.

All he really did was scan their surface thoughts – legilimency was really hard, so he wasn't able to do much else, and they knew that. Still, he didn't want them to only have his word to go on, so he took a proactive role in putting precautions in place to preserve his friends' privacy. In other words, he'd mentally agonized over it for weeks. Tom said he was being an idiot, but he couldn't bring himself to invade the privacy of his friends...apparently they trusted him more than he trusted himself.

In the end, Tom had mentioned in passing that he could swear a mild blood oath; intrigued by the concept, Harry had looked up a book in the restricted section on the complex subject of magical oaths. After a week of research he swore a blood oath to Hermione and Theo that he wouldn't go seeking out any of their memories. The deal was, should he break his oath, he'd be subjected to pain a little milder than the cruciatus curse while in the process of breaking their agreement. What they didn't know, of course, was that over the past three years, he'd built up quite the pain tolerance, and Tom seemed very certain that he'd hold up better under the curse than most.

Hermione had been very uncomfortable with the whole oath thing - it was pretty dark magic, after all - but Harry had promised her that it wasn't anything unusual (a lie), that many more commonly used oaths had more serious permanent consequences (the truth), and that it wasn't really that dark at all (a lie).

Theo hadn't argued at all. He was very adamant that he didn't want Harry looking at his memories, and Harry completely empathized with him on that point.

Suffice it to say, Tom was not pleased with him. The Dark Lord had insisted on reading over the chapter he got his oath from about 10 times, memorizing each clause and loophole. Harry would later come to understand why Tom was concerned, and why it was, in fact, very foolish to take such an oath without fully understanding the magic behind it.

Anyway, after finding the magical oaths book, Harry had started looking more into the concept of a magical promises and contracts. It wasn't that he didn't trust Hermione and Theo, but the more he thought about it, the more he understood Tom's concerns about their little study club. It really would be for the best if he could find a way to make sure they wouldn't go talking to the wrong people about the wrong things. Tom claimed that the magical basis for his Dark Mark had the potential to do something similar to what Harry was looking for, but Harry wasn't about to start insisting that his friends get skulls tattooed on their arms. Indeed, Harry thought it was rather demeaning to brand people as proof of their loyalty...but knowing Tom, that was his intention when he created the Morsmordre spell.

Besides that, Harry found the concept of magical oaths incredibly fascinating, and was eager to learn as much as he could on the subject. Every question he had about intention and meaning in magic was answered by that obscure branch of spell crafting - because that's exactly what swearing an oath was. It was the art of following a template to craft a unique spell that would tie the magic of the secret-sharer and the secret-keeper together. It was an extraordinarily rich subject, and Harry was surprised at how broad it really was. He'd begun spending every free moment he had researching the topic. He might have been a touch obsessed. Just a bit. Not much. Just a bit.

Other than Harry, Theo, and Hermione's thus far unnamed study club and Harry's own research, the term had passed quickly and easily and without event. Thankfully, he hadn't gotten nearly killed in any Quidditch games following the one in November, much to his and Tom's relief. He figured that now that the other professors were aware that someone was trying to hurt him, Quirrell would find it too risky to try anything else. Professor Snape had even insisted on refereeing the Quidditch game following his near-death experience, which Harry found incredibly touching. He'd thanked Professor Snape for his concern, after the game, but the potions professor had just glared at him and swept away briskly, black robes billowing behind him.

Figures.

After that, he'd been left to win Quidditch games in peace. And win he did. Indeed, Harry was now quite well liked in his house. Between the his skill at catching the snitch and the points he won in class, he had become a great asset to Slytherin House, as far as winning points went. People would actually go out of their way to greet him now, and before games everyone he crossed paths with wished him luck.

It so turned out that when all was said and done, Harry's rather agreeable nature had a way of making people forget that he was, in fact, the Boy Who Lived, and that he actually had, beneath his politeness and friendliness, a violent temper.

It was on account of this violent temper that the only person who hadn't warmed up to him at all was Draco Malfoy.

On the bright side, Malfoy wasn't trying to hex him anymore. On the not so bright side, Malfoy had gone from being insulted by him, to being terrified by him, to being angry and resentful toward him, and finally to completely and utterly ignoring him, over the course of the short time they'd known each other. By the time May rolled around, the blonde boy refused to look at him, let alone speak to him.

Harry managed to catch his eye in late April, but that was it.

Other than that special event, nothing had really happened at all until Hermione and Ron pulled him aside on one fine May afternoon.

"A vampire?" Harry asked incredulously.

Hermione nodded rapidly. "We saw it, in the Forbidden Forest - "

"Wait, why were you in the Forbidden Forest?"

"Detention -"

"Wait, you were in detention?" Harry asked, utter disbelief making itself known in his voice. "How did that happen?"

Hermione scowled.

"Hagrid had a baby dragon we needed to smuggle out of the castle," Ron replied happily.

Harry nodded slowly. "Ok, yes, that makes perfect sense. Why didn't I think of that? Please go on."

Hermione huffed. "Well it was all cloaked in black so we couldn't see much - but it was feeding on blood!"

Harry grew alarmed at that. "Whose blood?"

"It was a unicorn!"

Harry frowned. "A...unicorn...?"

Hermione's eyes were wide as she nodded. "I had been under the impression that vampires only feed off of humans, but Ron said that they can feed off animals too! Can you believe it? The one killing Hagrid's unicorns is a vampire!"

Suffice it to say, Harry had been left very puzzled.

Luckily, Tom was able to shed some light on the whole thing later on.

"Unicorn blood is a unique elixir that can bring one back from the brink of death."

"That's handy. What's the catch?"

Tom chuckled. "It is said that those who drink the blood of a unicorn are cursed to live a half-life."

Harry frowned. "Like a particle's half life?"

"No."

"Then, what is it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, it sounds bad."

"It does. The wraith your friends caught sight of in the Forbidden Forest must have been very desperate."

"Do you think that maybe it was...Voldemort 1.0?"

Tom quirked an eyebrow. "I suppose it sounds like something I would do. I've had a history of ignoring warning labels, so to speak. In retrospect, that probably wasn't wise."

Harry refrained from commenting.

"I wouldn't have thought that my master soul would be so close to the castle, though. It is...concerning."

"Do you think Professor Quirrell will make his move soon?"

"That is likely."

"What do we do in the meantime?"

"What we have been doing – waiting for him to make his move."

"And then we make ours."

"Exactly."

June brought with it exams. As it turned out, Hermione loved exams, but he and Theo didn't at all share her enthusiasm.

The main issue for Harry was the studying. He didn't really see the point in reviewing the material he had already learned, and would much rather focus on getting ahead in his studies. Nevertheless, Hermione insisted that he study with her, as did Theo, in fact. The were both rather worried in the weeks leading up to their exams.

Despite Hermione's constant fretting and ranting, he'd managed to stay fairly relaxed through it all. He knew he passed all his exams – in fact, he'd probably gotten top marks; he imagined that if he didn't, Tom would make his opinion about the matter known. But again, he was so used to the pain Tom frequently unleashed on him that he wasn't particularly upset at the prospect of a few hours of headaches. Tom tended to get bored quickly, after all.

It was the night after their last exam that Harry woke in the middle of the night, feeling a strange pulling sensation in his chest.

He immediately sat up in his bed, very confused. It wasn't a painful sensation, but it was unpleasant, and very annoying.

The wards...

Harry snapped to attention. This was it. It was time.

Finally, off to make yet another new friend.