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Harry Potter and the Paradigm Shift
Chapter 6
By Kinsfire
He walked home from the Apparation point feeling a bit more tired than he’d felt in a long time. Between his early morning classes and the setup work for the mage business he was planning to start, it was taking a lot out of him. He waved at the people he passed, Carly Thomas still trying to get him to give her more than a passing glance. Today’s outfit was just barely covering all her salient points, and he reacted the way he always did — "Afternoon, Carly," and walk on by as if nothing was unusual or daring in her outfits. She’s not going to speak to me for about a week now, I think. It’s been four years — I didn’t react to her at Norton, why would I notice her now as more than someone who wants into my trousers?
Mrs. Noriega was shaking her head. "Girl never learns, does she?" she asked Harry in her gentle accent. "Chasing you since you moved here, and still hasn’t learned."
"I could say that about a lot of people, Mrs. Noriega," he chuckled. "At least one of my old classmates back in England was that way. Never learned that it was a bad thing to get me annoyed. I had ‘issues’, you see." The chuckle became a full laugh, which she joined.
Changing the subject, she said, "You need to get more sleep, Dan. You’re running yourself ragged, and it’s not doing you any good."
"Should just be a couple more weeks, ma’am," he said. "I’m just about ready to start the business. Since it will be manufacturing in the beginning, that will leave me a couple weeks to do nothing but sleep."
"You’ve never run a business before, have you?" she laughed.
"Well, I won’t have the storefront problem — it’s mail order. Specialized PDAs for specific applications. There are a lot of businesses that need special things, and I’ll be dealing with that need. Not enough call for the average person to want them, so storefront was never a consideration."
She nodded. "Well, I won’t keep you anymore — you go home and get some sleep, Mister Radcliffe," she admonished him sternly, but the twinkle in her eyes took the sting from it.
"Ah, Mrs. Noriega, if only you weren’t married …" he laughed.
"I still wouldn’t stand a chance against that girl you left behind. Now go!" She laughed as she made a shooing motion with her hands. He held up his own hands in acquiescence and continued down the street, finally making it to the door of his renovated Victorian after stopping to talk to some of his other neighbours.
Opening the door, he saw a note on the table and chuckled. Of course you're out until later! he laughed to himself as he read it. Well, looks like I need to get my hands on something to nosh and something to drink — it's been a long day.
He smiled to himself as he sat down with a sandwich and a Dr Pepper. I wonder if they're still looking for me in New York City? Of course, I'd imagine that looking for Harry Potter is getting them a whole lot of nothing. Daniel Radcliffe would get them somewhere, but why look for him?
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It was nearly six when he heard the knock at the door, and realized that it had awakened him in his chair. Well, I guess Mrs. Noriega was right. I did need some sleep. He walked to the foyer and looked carefully out the windows along the side of the door, and felt his jaw drop. His wand slid into his hand before he opened the door.
He was mildly amused to see that the oldest of the group was staring at him in shock, and some barely disguised lust. She was in her base form and was still as beautiful as the last day he'd seen her, four years ago. At the moment, her hair was black as sin, straight, and hanging down to just above what he remembered as a particularly curvaceous arse.
Behind her stood three others, all of whom surprised him. Ron Weasley was easily six-foot-four, with the build of a marathon runner. He'd let his own hair grow long, and he'd grown into that nose of his. Beside him stood his sister, who hadn't grown into the D-cup that Tonks had suspected, but had grown into a woman who was as astonishingly beautiful as he thought Tonks's base form was. Her hair was also long, although not as long as Tonks's. Last was Hermione, who was still as remarkably attractive as Harry remembered. Her hair, while still bushy, now appeared to be under her control.
"Won't you come in, please?" he asked of the group, who stepped gingerly inside the door. "So what makes you risk Dumbledore finding me?"
Before they could answer, Harry heard noises coming from down the hall, and knew what was coming. He was looking forward to this "Dan? We got visitors?" From down the hall a tall man appeared — long black hair and a prominent nose. "Hey, Tonks! Good to see you!"
"Sirius?" was all Tonks managed to gasp before the blood rushed away from her brain and she fell in a faint.
Harry's Seeker reflexes were still there. Despite not being the closest one to her, he still managed to swoop in and catch the woman on her way to the floor, and swooped her completely into his arms. He walked into the living room, where he gently placed her on the couch. She began to regain her consciousness as he was letting her go.
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She looked up into the sad eyes of her once-hopeful lover, and was certain that she knew the reasons for the pain and loss deep within them. Without even realizing she had started it, she answered his worries the only way she could — she threw her arms around him and kissed him hard. After a moment's shock, he began to return the kiss, but after a moment, she was surprised to feel him shuddering against her.
She released the kiss and looked at him, and was surprised to see tears in his eyes. "Harry? What's wrong?"
"I thought I lost you four for good, and now here you are." He hugged her.
"We thought you were gone, but … damn, I must really have wanted to see you bad. I’d swear that I saw … but why would I see him when I wanted to see you?"
"Who?" Sirius Black asked with a grin. "Could it be that my beautiful cousin, once removed, was overcome at the sight of my incredible handsomeness, and has decided to throw over her stylishly scarred boyfriend for a close relative? Who, I might add, is rakishly handsome."
"Zounds, you forgot modest!" Harry laughed in what he called his ‘radio announcer voice’.
"You’re dead," she said breathlessly. "Harry saw you fall through that veil. Dumbledore told us you were dead — that no one had ever returned from the other side of that veil."
"And we all know how trustworthy the old fuck is," Harry grumbled. The four visitors blinked at the use of the strong profanity. "Sorry. I’ve never forgiven him for intentionally deciding to destroy the relationship that Tonks and I were building. Did he ever do anything with the rape information I gave him?"
Hermione went white. "Oh my … Morgana’s blood — please tell me that it wasn’t true. Please tell me that I don’t have to go back to England and feed Dudley Dursley through a sausage grinder."
It was Harry’s turn to blink. Trying to make a joke out of it, he said, "Well, as long as you’re feeding all of him through. His own sausage isn’t big enough to make the effort worthwhile."
Ginny and Hermione both looked about to faint. "Sorry. Was it something I said?"
Sirius was looking at him. "Is there some reason, Dan — sorry, in this group, Harry — is there some reason you’d know the size of that whale’s … ahem … sausage?"
"Dudley had these urges, you see," Harry said simply. "Unfortunately, I’d imagine that there are some girls out there who also suffered at the hands and … other things of Dudley and his gang."
Sirius was speaking quietly, something that Harry had learned was a danger sign. "Do you mean to sit there holding my cousin’s hand and tell me that Dudley fucking Dursley raped you? Repeatedly?" He ended the question shouting, in a towering fury.
Tonks gaped in response. "That’s why he left England! That and the old fart trying to break us up. Don’t tell me he didn’t tell you?"
"And you didn’t tell us!" Hermione was outraged. "We could have done something about it!"
"It wasn’t for me to tell!" retorted Tonks.
Harry’s answer to the increasing cacophony in his living room was to whistle. In response came a quiet pop, and both Hedwig and Fawkes appeared on the coffee table. Hedwig hooted and flew happily around the room, landing momentarily on everyone’s shoulders to accept her due — their pleased cries of appreciation and a quick stroke of her soft feathers. Fawkes, on the other hand, flew over onto Sirius’s shoulder and began to trill. The song calmed everyone in the room. "Damn you, Fawkes," Sirius finally said, gently patting the phoenix’s head. "I had a perfectly good mad going there." Fawkes chirped happily and nipped at his ear.
"There’s a time and a place for it. Right now, all it would do is give all of us ulcers. When we’re in a position to do something about it, we will. Right now, though, running back to England would ruin one of our secrets."
"Speaking of secrets," Tonks said to him, "I’d like to know how my dead cousin, whom I happen to love dearly, but not in that manner," she added, laughing at Sirius’s obvious fake lecherous grin, "happens to be standing in San Francisco with the temerity to not be dead!"
#####
Harry stepped through the doors of the Joshua Norton Technical Institute with a little worry, and not a little sadness. I’d hoped to spend my last two years with Ron and Hermione. Another thing to lay at that bastard’s feet. My life is so important to protect that my mental well-being is meaningless. Keep me from my friends all summer for some reason that you refuse to tell me. Give me Occlumency lessons with a man who hates me, while Tonks, who I wouldn’t mind seeing my thoughts, teaches me in a week or so. But what hurts most is leaving my friends behind.
You owe me, Dumbledore. Big time. He’d looked at the map and started to head toward the main office. It was a bit convoluted. He’d headed down three separate hallways before reaching a confusing intersection. He shrugged and chose the direction he thought he needed to go. He’d only gone down the hallway a short distance before being stopped by three males his own age, by appearances. "Look, it’s a newbie!" The speaker may have been a scruffy brunette, but his attitude was unmistakably Malfoy.
"Shall we teach him what we do to newbies around here?" a blond said. This one looked to be the Aryan ideal, except for the lack of intelligence in the eyes. Harry moved his eyes to the third in the set, a dirty-blonde slack-jawed individual.
"Not going to add anything to the conversation?" Harry asked calmly of the third, a slight smile on his face.
"Gonna wipe that smirk off, newbie," said the first speaker. He and his goons moved in an orchestrated manner, obviously with the intent of grabbing Harry’s arms while the first one began pummelling. That may have been their intention, but Harry had been training with an Auror. He dropped and swept his feet in a beautifully executed gymnastic manoeuvre, dropping first the Aryan and then the brunette. He flipped back to his feet in time to catch the fist that the slack-jawed one threw upon seeing him stand. He used the puncher’s momentum to spin him and throw him into the first two, who were trying to stand.
It was as Harry dropped into a fighting stance that someone rounded the corner. "Mister Davis!" said the first speaker. "We were trying to bring this new student to the offices, and he decided to fight us!"
"Thank you, William. I’ll take it from here." He looked to Harry with distaste. "What’s your name?"
"Ha … Daniel Radcliffe." Harry said, remembering at the last second that he had a new identity.
"Wonderful. New students so stupid they have trouble remembering their own names. What we teachers must teach," Harry heard him mutter. Louder, the man said, "I am Mister Davis, Mister Radcliffe. I fear that I am likely to be one of your teachers these years at the Institute. You have started your career here in a rather inauspicious manner, I fear, beginning a fight unprovoked. I’m surprised that you didn’t simply hex them unconscious."
"Underage Magic Use laws, sir. I rather like my wand in one piece," Harry replied impudently.
The teacher leading him to the office stopped in the hall. "Might I ask how you managed to secure an admission to this Institute with such intense idiocy running rampant through your skull?"
With a cold voice, he responded, "Probably the same way you got your teaching job, sir. Intelligence obviously wasn’t a criterion for it."
"How dare you?" Davis bellowed. "I am far more qualified for my position as Defence teacher than you will ever begin to understand!" He grabbed Harry’s arm and began to drag him down the hall.
Harry dug in his heels, causing the man to spin. Harry used this chance to bring his hand up into the teacher’s nose, which he felt break under the impact. The man flew backward, blood flying. "Defence is more than waving your wand around, jerk. I’ve dealt with enough teachers like you — I’ve had enough of it."
Davis was on his feet surprisingly quickly, a Coagulation Charm having obviously been cast. He was raising his wand toward Harry, and Harry decided that he’d had enough. He leapt into the air, spinning as he rose. One foot caught the arm that was rising with the wand in hand, while the other snap kicked into the man’s face. He’d never managed that high a kick before, and it showed in his landing — he landed hard on his side. He rolled quickly to his feet, wincing in pain from what was at minimum a hard bruise to his rib area.
Teachers came boiling up the hall at this point. Great, he thought. Couldn’t be here earlier when this thing started?
"What happened here?" seemed to be the overpowering question from the teachers.
"I’ve gotten myself expelled before I started classes," Harry said. He gave his address to one of the teachers and said, "I’m living there, with the Watson family, at least for the time being. I’ll wait patiently for the police there." He turned and left the hallway, retracing his steps back to the front.
It was as he reached the front steps that he decided that he’d had enough. Not in an angry fashion, but in the sense of being totally overwhelmed. "Why?" he said to the sky as he sat down hard on the cement steps. "Where did I sign up for all this, hmm? I obviously signed some damnable contract somewhere, so all I ask is to see it." He stood again and began to walk around in an agitated fashion.
How did this come to pass? I hate this. I can’t even make it into this Institute without screwing things up. I have no friends, no family, and the woman I … ah, who the fuck do you think you’re kidding? You’re in sex with her. You just miss the chance you had to spread her legs. Stupid fool.
Well, at least you’re an emancipated minor, given that you certainly can’t go to this school anymore. He shook his head. Need to get moving before they call the police to get rid of me for trespassing. He started to walk down the steps when he heard a voice, somewhat out of breath, shout, "Stop, please!"
He turned around to find a young woman whose demeanour screamed ‘school administrator’ coming down the stairs toward him. "I’m sorry, ma’am. I was just leaving. I figured it would be much simpler this way, rather than having gone through all the paperwork to have enrolled me, just to have to expel me now. This way you have no extra paperwork."
She stared at him for a long moment — long enough, apparently, for an ambulance to come to the school. "If I could find a way to do it legally, I’d kill Davis," he heard her mutter. "Mister Radcliffe, I want you to know that expulsion is the last thing we’re contemplating."
"True. I’m not a student. Can’t expel someone who never actually was in a position to be expelled." He frowned at her. "Just let me head back to where I’m staying and I’ll be out of your hair." He turned to leave again.
"What did they do to you at your previous school that made you so sure that we’d expel you automatically?" she asked, horror changing the timbre of her voice.
"Got a month for me to start? My old school has its own Davis — his name is Severus Snape. If you’re a Gryffindor, such as myself, you automatically start your school career at a minus. He has a particular hard-on for certain students …" he said, and then realized what he had just said and blushed furiously. "I am terribly sorry, ma’am. That was inexcusable, as was my attack on Mister Davis. I should have been able to prevent his attempt to drag me to the office without breaking his nose, which led to his rightfully pulling his wand to defend himself from an unknown quantity such as myself."
"Bullshit," she said bluntly. "If you’re willing to press charges on him and your first attackers, then we can finally get him out of this school." An automobile pulled up in front of the school, light flashing. A very familiar redheaded man climbed from the auto. Behind them came an ambulance.
"Dan! What happened? Are you a witness to the attack?"
"You could say that, sir. I’m the attacker."
His eyebrows rose. "Okay, who did what to you?"
The administrator’s eyebrows rose. "How do you automatically know he’s innocent?"
"Got a room we can ward the hell out of?" Charlie asked.
She led them inside, and down to the main office. Once inside her personal office, she cast a handful of spells. "There. Not even the standard Department Question Mark spells will get through these wards." She turned. "So you’re Harry Potter. Impressive."
He was suddenly standing, his wand in his hand, covering her. Charlie laughed. "God, I love your reflexes, Harry … sorry, we need to remember that your name now is Dan Radcliffe, until you feel confident admitting that you’re here."
"This school was chosen because Lissa here is … well, it’s complicated. Let’s just say that she’s a go between for the school and Department Question Mark. She knows your story, and she’s the only one in this school who knows, unless you go telling everyone. So, tell us what happened."
He repeated the story, from the moment he entered the building to the moment that Charlie had pulled up outside. Charlie chuckled. "I don’t think Davis is going to like what happens when We come down on his head. I trust you on this, and we can even mention the hints of abuse, which led to your defence of yourself in such a manner."
"So I’m not expelled?" He practically sagged in relief. "One thing I don’t understand, though … Mr. Davis called me an idiot for not hexing the three who attacked me. What about the Underage Magic Laws?"
"Underage … ah, I understand," said Lissa. "Davis probably assumed you had been here for a while, instead of being a new transfer, and didn’t take the time to find out. I’ve got good news, Harry. We don’t have those laws here. They just won’t work for us. We rely on training for control from an early age rather than imposing control from outside through fear. ‘With great power comes great responsibility, yadda yadda …’ We’ve even gotten it into the Muggle culture. At least some of them seem to understand it."
"Those three in the hall didn’t."
"They’re probably not very bright," said Charlie Watson. "I mean, who picks a fight with someone when you have no idea what their capabilities are?"
"Aloysius Davis," said Lissa, promptly.
Harry grinned. "I think I’m going to like this country."
#####
"This is interesting," Tonks said, "but what does it have to do with getting Sirius back?"
"I’m getting there, Nymph. You needed some background on a couple of the teachers. Unfortunately, unions can be very strong over here, and his lawyer was good enough to get most of what they wanted to use barred, since it would require breaking my identity. So Davis stayed at the school as one of my torturers. At least Lissa Raines was someone I could deal with."
"So, do I have competition?" Tonks asked in a sprightly manner, but her eyes showed some worry. "This Lissa Raines sounds like it. Young and pretty and available." Her grin didn’t completely make it into her eyes.
"I think her husband and daughter might consider the term ‘available’ to be a bit of a misnomer. Besides, Tonks, the only girls I’ve ever known who could hold a candle to you are in this room." He met eyes with Hermione and Ginny, both of whom blushed.
"So Davis plays into this again?"
"For two fucking years," Harry grumbled. "It didn’t help that I continually humiliated the man in his class."
"Why, Harry?" Hermione asked. "You had to know that would just make it worse for you."
"He did it to himself, Hermione. I coasted through his two years of teaching. You learned more from me during the illegal D.A. meetings than you would have during two years of learning under this prick. He kept trying to humiliate me in class with the spells he knew, and I kept countering them." He chuckled. "The D.A. rose again, you could say. I started inviting students over for small classes to teach them what Davis couldn’t. Fortunately I had Charlie and Lissa to teach me some real Defense and keep me sharp. And Sirius later, of course, which brings me back to how we got this randy old man back …"
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Divination was a much different class than he was used to at Hogwarts, so much so that he searched out the teacher after his first class and apologized for his thoughts about the class.
"Thinking does no harm, Mr. Radcliffe," Miss Cybelle answered him with a smile.
"Thinking can lead to action, and prejudging you was wrong."
She laughed. "I've seen your transcripts, Daniel," she said. "I know who taught you. Does Sybill still predict the death of at least one student every year?"
"Especially once Harry Potter started going there. Woman seemed to take an unholy glee in predicting his death, and always seemed to get depressed when it didn't happen." He laughed. "I take it she's famous for just how unlike her ancestor she is?"
"Unfortunately for her, yes." She looked at him for a moment. "Have you ever had any sort of prophetic dreams, Harry?" She shook her head. "Sorry, the talk of Harry Potter kept the name on the tip of my tongue. Have you, Dan?"
"No, Miss Cybelle." he answered. How do I tell her that I have, but that they were in regards to my being Harry Potter? Some secrecy if I go blurting it out to everyone.
She looked at him long and hard, and then closed her eyes. Her eyes seemed to flit about under her eyelids, and then she opened them again. "Well, that was interesting. I apologize for … given Trelawney, I can already see the rolling eyes from you … I talked to some of the departed. Your secret is safe with me."
He raised an eyebrow in disbelieving curiosity. "James and Lily say they love you. Does that mean anything to you? She was a stunning redhead with your eyes, and he was as handsome as you, with the same unruly hair." He sat heavily in a chair.
"You really … you really saw them?" he asked, tears coming unbidden to his eyes.
"Yes, and they're proud of you, and what you're going to do with your life. And you have something happening this Halloween that should make up for some of the things you've experienced in previous ones."
"You mean, things like losing them?"
"Yes," she said. She paused. "Lily says that the Halloween two years prior was an excellent one. She's blushing, too."
He thought for a moment and then burst out laughing. "I imagine it was fun, even if it led to me."
His teacher winced. "Oh, she didn't like that. I'm not going to repeat everything she's saying — no, I won't Lily, unless you figure out how to possess me — but suffice it to say that she's just a tad peeved at your comment, and wants me to inform you that you had nothing to do with their deaths — it was the Dark Lord." She cocked her head. "Interesting. She keeps stressing the term Dark Lord. I think she's forbidden to tell you an important piece of information. Oh my, yes! She's nodding furiously."
"This may be the oddest conversation I've ever had," he said, "and I've had some really strange ones in my short life. So my folks have been watching me? All the time?"
"Yes," she replied. "Lily's blushing as she says that your hair isn't the only thing you inherited from James. Do you have any idea what she's talking about? Ah, that blush tells me that you do. They also say that you need to go to Gringott's to see what became yours on your birthday. More precisely, Prongs does. He says you'll understand that."
He shot to his feet and hugged the surprised teacher. "Thank you, ma'am!" He had tears in his eyes. "I've never known them, you see, and … well, you gave me the closest that I'll get until I'm with them and Sirius again."
She cocked her head. "They're laughing. Sirius isn't with them, and they're laughing about it. 'Padfoot never could stand to be bored'? I assume that means something to you?"
He laughed. "That sounds like Sirius. I don't know why they're laughing, though. He's dead."
"All they're telling me is that you should wait until October thirty-first. You'll get it then." With that, she finally sagged slightly. "Sorry, Harry," she whispered. "Takes a bit out of me, but it was important. And by the way, when we're not in class, I give you permission to call me Moira."
"Thank you … Moira. This seer thing is something we're going to work on, isn't it?" She nodded tiredly. "I'll pay more attention in class."
"I appreciate that." She looked at him for a moment. "It's funny, Harry. I'd love to meet the girl that you're pining for. Your parents kept chuckling, and … well, not to sound arrogant, but I know how I affect male students, and you don't react, but neither do you react to the boys. Therefore, you've already given your heart to someone about as completely as you can."
"Yeah, and then abandoned her." He sat up straighter for a moment, and rubbed the back of his head. "Why do I have this feeling that Mum just slapped me in the back of the head?"
"Because she probably did. Listen, I know how fast you were enrolled here. It doesn’t take a genius to realize that you’re on the run from a very bad situation, and the fact that I’m now only the second person in school to know your real name tells me something else. Yes, we know your name over here, Dan. For you to have enrolled as fast as you did, with some help from somewhere else, means that you had to move fast. That’s not abandoning her — that’s quite probably protecting her."
"Doesn’t mean I have to like it — I miss her, Moira. I miss her so much it hurts. Really. It’s a physical pain, right here in my chest. I’m not whole without her or any of my friends." He shook his head. "I suppose it’ll stop hurting someday. I know I can make new friends, but they’ll never be the first friends I ever had my age."
Moira looked sadly at him. "Someday I hope you can trust me enough to tell me the whole story. I’m not asking for it now."
#####
"Let me guess — Moira’s important to the story," Tonks said impatiently.
"Well, I could just stop telling you, grab you, snog you senseless, and repeat the performance with the other two."
"Hmm, I like the sound of that. Problem is, you’d not be telling us how the dead man got back," she said dangerously. "If you don’t start filling in the details soon, I may contemplate sending him back there the quick way." Her eyes flashed dangerously.
Harry’s went cold for just a second, and then he winced and brought his hands to his face, covering it for a long moment. "I’m sorry, Tonks," he said sadly. "Being here has been just as bad for me, I think, as being there in Europe would have been. I just … I’m sorry. Let me get back to the story." Before she could say anything, he was back telling his tale.
#####
They sat around a round table, and Harry/Dan tried hard not to scoff in his mind. He saw Moira look his way, and when he looked back, she winked at him. He rolled his eyes theatrically, and felt the girl next to him grab his hand. "Dan, this is so exciting! Do you think we’ll actually contact anyone?"
Harry looked over at Carly Thomas. She’d immediately latched onto him when she’d noticed him, and had decided that he was hers. He’d also discovered from the other girls that he apparently had no choice in the matter. Being Halloween, the students were all dressed in various costumes, and hers was a French maid’s outfit. To his chagrin, she hadn’t yet noticed that he simply didn’t care about what she was wearing; that he simply wasn’t interested in her.
He carefully disengaged his hand from hers and said, "Honestly, I know the dead hang around. My old school had quite a few ghosts walking its hallways. Our House ghost was Sir Nichloas de Mimsey-Porpington. A botched execution led to his getting the nickname as a ghost of Nearly Headless Nick. I was at his five-hundredth Death Day party four years ago today."
"Come on, Dan, do you really expect us to believe that?" asked Rick Stone, his rival for Carly’s affections. Personally, if he wants ‘em, Rick can have ‘em, he thought.
"Actually, yes. The Bloody Baron was the Slytherin ghost, the Grey Lady was Ravenclaw’s ghost, and the Fat Friar was Hufflepuff’s. There were loads of others running around the place, and we had Peeves as well."
Rick scoffed. "You tell a good story, but why should we believe you? This school has been around for almost a hundred years, and we’ve got no ghosts haunting the corridors."
‘Dan’ rolled his eyes. "Hogwarts is more than ten times that age, Rick. How could they not develop ghosts around the place?"
"When they don’t exist? Easy. You went to school in a big thousand year old castle, that just looked as if it had to be haunted, so everyone sees things and hears things that aren’t really there."
"This, of course, coming from a guy who waves a stick around and turns porcupines into pincushions. You are aware, of course, that doing that is impossible. Magic doesn’t exist."
"What are you trying to say, Danny?" Rick said darkly.
"Simply that it’s a little ridiculous that you believe in the ability to wave around a stick and lift things in the air and turn a cow into a couch, but you refuse to believe that the soul might live on after death. We had a student being chased by a dark wizard who survived his own death. How can you … never mind. Your mind is made up, I won’t confuse you with the facts."
"What facts? All I have from you is assertions from you that you’ve seen and spoken to ghosts. What possible reason would I have to believe you?"
"Especially since the girl you want is chasing me, whether or not I’m interested in her." There were gasps around the room, and he heard one girl say quietly, "Well, he’s just made two enemies."
Harry shrugged at the girl. "Not the first time and it won’t be the last. I’m used to people not seeing something with their own eyes and calling me a liar to my face." He met eyes with Moira, who nodded sadly and stood.
"This conversation is so far out of order that I’m not even going to begin to explain why, but I am going to insist that it stop now, even if Mr. Stone is bent on displaying his ignorance for the world to see." She looked seriously at him. "I’ve seen them myself, Mr. Stone, and had conversations with the dead. I’ve invoked them before a crowd of adults. And maybe you’ll see some tonight."
She clapped her hands together, once to get everyone’s attention, and then again to begin her invocation. She murmured words of Latin below everyone’s range of hearing, and Harry chuckled as he realized that there was also a modified Confundus Charm running during the invocation. The wards appeared blue for a moment and then faded away, and she clapped once again. "Good. The room is now warded to prevent entry or exit of anyone unauthorized. The Veil is thinnest at this time of year, for reasons we’ve never been able to fathom." Harry blinked back some tears as the image of his godfather falling backwards through that Veil in the Department of Mysteries leapt into his head unbidden. "I will be lighting an incense which has already been spelled to help weaken the Veil even more, while preventing passage across. Watch the smoke for the faces of those who have passed on, and perhaps one of them will come close enough to talk to."
She lit the incense, and Harry felt Carly lean into him. He sighed in resignation. I’ll put up with her here, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to let her pull off the girlfriend thing she’s been aiming at. Why in hell did she choose me, anyway? ‘Cause I’m the exotic foreign student? He pushed her from his mind and attempted to disengage from her grip. Damn! She’s got a death grip on my arm!
He gave up and cleared his mind as Tonks had taught him to do when she taught him Occlumency. His mind went once again to Sirius, and found himself hoping that he might make a brief appearance tonight. If only I could see him and apologize to him … even if Tonks worked so hard at convincing me otherwise, I still feel responsible for him dying.
The smoke from the incense wafted its way around the room, calming everyone, and Harry finally disengaged from Carly when she released her grip. It drifted through the air before coming mostly to the centre of the room, where faces began to play through the mist formed there. As thoughts of seeing Sirius just once tonight came to him again, Harry and the rest of the students were shocked as the smoke suddenly snapped into a very distinct form. "Sirius?" Harry gasped.
"Harry? Is that you?" the form said.
"Yes. Sirius, I’m so sorry that I …"
"Screw that, Harry … get me out of here!"