Dementor
Hari and Neville quickly adapted to their summer schedule. Once a week, Hari would go to Sirius home for an overnight visit. The rest of the week she stayed at home with the Longbottoms. Hari and Neville were still keeping up with their mundane studies and would often meet with one or more members of the study group. The exception was Luna, who had gone away with her father to hunt for strange creatures.
“Honestly, I don’t know why she wastes her time looking for made up creatures,” groused Hermione, during one of her visits to Longbottom Manor.
“How do you know they aren’t real?” asked Hari. “After all, before you knew you were a Witch, you didn’t know that Unicorns, dragons and goblins were real.”
“Perhaps they just haven’t been properly documented,” offered Colin.
“Besides, even if they are not, she probably likes spending time with her father,” added Neville.
In had been a fairly sedate summer before the news broke: Peter Petigrew had escaped from Azkaban!
After that, Hari and Neville were not allowed to leave the Manor and their friends had to visit them. Still, it was thought to be safe to do their school shopping as long as the whole family went. Hari was, by now wearing a fully female wardrobe and needed new robes and dresses to go under them. She and Neville also needed a new year’s books and potion supplies. She saw Professor Snape just stepping out of the apothecary when a hooded figure accosted him. Professor Snape had become a lot more friendly over the past year as he became accustomed to her new appearance. Hari had seen in his mind that it was because her red hair made her look more like her mother, Lilly. Hari’s hair wasn’t the exact same shade of red, but it still didn’t look like James Potter’s. On seeing the man, Snape drew his wand, and the hooded man did the same. Hari reached out, telekinetically and pulled all the wands away from the hooded man. There had been two, the one in his hand and the one in his pocket. She grabbed the one from his pocket as it flew towards her and let the other one fall to the ground behind her. As soon as the wand hit her hand she could feel a feeling of exultation from the wand that seemed happy to be in her hand.
Suddenly, Harry felt a chill sweep over her.
“Would you know my thoughts?” Growled the Vorlon ambassador, both vocally and telepathically. “WOULD YOU!”
Hari felt cold hands on her face as another cloaked figure turned her head up to kiss her. At the same time she was being overwhelmed by all her worse memories. . .
Suddenly there was a burst of light as a doe made of pure light forced the cloaked figure away from her. She thought she saw other animals of light before she slipped into unconsciousness. . . .
Hari awoke at home in her bed with her foster mother leaning over her.
“How do you feel?” Asked Alice Longbottom.
“Terrible! What happened?” asked Hari.
“We ran into Petigrew,” explained Alice. “You managed to get his wands away from him. That one was identified by Mister Olivander as being the former wand of You-know-who. He says that since you won it in combat, it’s your’s now. A dementor came after Petigrew and almost kissed you instead. Petigrew escaped in the confusion. But don’t worry about that now. Here, eat this chocolate. I’ll go tell Neville you’re awake.”
As Hari nibbled on her her chocolate, she felt the warmth returning to her. When Neville came into the room he looked and telepathically felt hungover.
“Hi Hari!” Greeted Neville, as he entered the room with his own chocolate bar in hand. “Mister Olivander says that we now have brother wands from the same phoenix!”
“Did you see what happened to me?” Asked Hari.
“I sure did!” Exclaimed Neville. “You took the wands from Petigrew, then a Dementor showed up and tried kiss you, so Dad and Snape cast Protroni to drive it away. Snape’s got to you first and butted the dementor off of you!”
“Patronus charm . . . ,” mused Hari. “Sounds like it would be something useful to learn . . .”
Several days later Sirius came to visit with another man who was shabbily dressed in threadbare robes.
“Hari, Neville, this is Remus Lupin. He will be your Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher next year,” explained Sirius. “But since you want to learn the Patronus Charm, I thought we could give you two an early start on that.”
“Pleased to meet you, professor,” said Neville, before Hari could do the same.
“So how is this charm performed?” Asked Hari as she began scanning Lupin’s mind to better understand what he was trying to teach.
“Well, there’s not much to the wand movement, just forcefully point,” began Lupin. “And the words are ‘Expectro Patronum’. But the secret to a successful Patronus Charm is to think of a happy memory, like this: EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
After he jabbed his wand and shouted the words, a wolf made of silvery light burst from the tip of his wand and paced the room.
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Shouted Neville as he jabbed his wand. But nothing more than a slight glow appeared from his wand.
“That was very good for a first try,” praised Lupin. “But you need to try a happier memory, like this: EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
Again the silvery wolf of light appeared.
“Do you want to try it Hari?” Asked Lupin.
She’d seen him do it twice so far, and had been telepathically scanning his mind both times to better understand what he was doing. His happy memory had been the day his friends (including her father) had revealed that they knew he was a werewolf and accepted him anyway. She tried duplicating it with her own happy memory: the first time she stepped out of the shower after her transition back to female and saw her self in the mirror.
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Shouted Hari, as a cloud of light came out of her wand.
“Very good!” Praised Lupin. “That is amazing for a first try!”
“You know, since this is mostly projected emotion, I think it would be pretty easy to do wandlessly,” theorised Hari.
Putting away her wand, she she concentrated on projecting happiness and didn’t even shout the words. A blinding light appeared, so bright that it took a second to see that it was in the form of a winged man that appeared as the original Kosh had appeared to her outside his encounter suit.
The lessons on the patronus continued until Neville could produce his own bear patronus and Hari could produce her own with or without her wand consistently.
In later lessons, Lupin taught them how to use their patroni send messages.
The Summer was also a time for Hari to get used to her new wand. She’d been doing everything wandlessly while waving a dowel in the proper motions. Now that she had a real wand she found everything easier, especially transfiguration. But Sirus and Lupin both agreed that her ability to do things wandlessly to too useful a skill to give up. So she continued to practice both with and without her wand everything she could do wandlessly.
Eventually, the summer came to an end and it was time to take the train to Hogwarts. Lupin would be riding with them and after they found a carriage, he quickly fell asleep. There was enough room for Hermione, Justin and Luna to join them. But their other friends stopped by before settling into the next compartment. The train ride was pretty uneventful. Hermione and Justin told them of their family vacations in the South of France.
“It was all very nice,” said Hermione. “Though I didn’t expect to run into Justin’s family there.”
“And I was surprised that you were sunbathing topless on that beach,” added Justin.
“So were you,” countered Hermione as she began to blush.
“So you got to see her . . . her . . . “ stammered Neville as he wave vaguely towards Hermione’s chest.
“Boobies?” Offered Luna, trying to help Neville say it. “It’s not a big deal. You can see mine if you want.”
“Thank you Luna, but I don’t think that’s necessary,” replied Hari. “Although . . . that might be a good inducement for the boys to practice Legimancy with and for Justin to practice Occultumancy with. They can try to find the memory of when Justin saw Hermione and Justin can try to stop them from seeing it.”
“Don’t you dare!” Growled Hermione.
“Oh yes, you have quite nice boobies,” said Luna, as she looked Justin in the eye.
“No! Don”t! Stop!” Protested Justin as he turned his head away and closed his eyes.
“Well if you’re going to play that way, what’s to stop me from looking for a memory of when each of you saw yourselves naked,” countered Hermione.
“Only our mental shields,” replied Hari. “Tell you what, I’m not very body shy and don’t mind if my friends see me. When we’re practicing this year I’ll let my shields down enough that if you can learn to telepathically scan me well enough, you can see me looking at my self in the mirror after I’ve just stepped out of the shower.”
“I can’t see anything but gray,” said Luna.
“That’s because I haven’t let you in yet,” replied Hari, as she lowered her shields. “Now try.”
“Oh yes! I see now,” exclaimed Luna. “Your body is very nice looking too.”
“Thank you Luna,” replied Hari. “It won’t be as easy for the rest of you. Your minds are not constantly scanning like hers is. Luna’s problem is not scanning, she has trouble not seeing into everyone’s mind at once. I can keep her out. But the rest of you will need to work on that, as well as learning to scan each other.”
“We’re still working on preparing for out A-Levels aren’t we?” Asked Hermione.
The rest of the trip was uneventful until halfway though when the train suddenly stopped in the middle of no where. Then the windows started frosting over as it suddenly got colder. But when a dementor opened the door, Lupin was suddenly awake and standing on his feet.
“Mama! Nooo!” Screamed Luna before fainting.
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Yelled Lupin as a wolf patronis appeared.
There hadn’t been time to go for her wand. Hari just wandlessly and silently cast the Patronis Charm and a being of Light appeared before her. The Wolf and Vorlon patroni chased the dementor away while Neville was still fumbling for his wand.
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!” Yelled Neville, as his bear patronis appeared and ran after the other patroni, which were already gone.
“Was that an angel?” Asked Justin.
“No, that was the Patronis Charm,” replied Lupin, as he reached into his bag and pulled out some chocolate bars. “It’s the counter to Dementors. I’ve been teaching it to Hari and Neville over the summer. Here. This will help with the exposure to dementors.”
Lupin broke off a bit and gave each of them some chocolate before announcing: “I had better go see that that the dementors have gotten completely off the train. Give her some when she awakes.”
Hermione shook Luna awake and stuck the chocolate in her mouth before she could say a word.
(It’s all right Luna,) telepathically sent Hari. (You’re safe now)
After this, the train ride was pretty uneventful. At the opening feast Dumbledore warned them about the dementors.
In their first Defense Against the Dark Arts class Professor Lupin had them face a boggart, a creature that took the form of your greatest fear, which they were supposed to turn silly. Hari expected hers to be a Shadow in its spidery encounter suit. Instead, it was the second Kosh, the one that was sometimes called Ulkesh. He was in his newer encounter suit the one that looked more menacing than than the first Kosh’s.
“Redikulus!” Said Hari as she waved her wand and the second Kosh’s encounter suit opened. But what came out was not a Vorlon as humans see them. Instead, it was what the Pakmara see when they look on the face of a Vorlon. Hari giggled and let the next person take a turn.
Their study club resumed with Hari, Neville, Justin Finch-Fletchley, Dean Thomas, Sally Anne Perks, Luna Lovegood and Colin Creavy. This year they gained some new members: Hannah Abbot and Susan Bones. They had both been childhood friends of Hari and Neville before Hogwarts and they now joined the group to help study their schoolwork. Neither of them had any interest in mundane subjects and they so after they had finished their school homework they would leave and let the rest of them prepare for A-Levels without them. If there was any time left after their magical and mundane studies, Hari would help them practice their telepathy. As it turned out, he idea of using a chance to see and be seen by each other naked was a good inducement for them to learn Legimancy (telepathic scanning) and Ocultomancy (Telepathic shields). And they all applied themselves to both because they all wanted to see their friends naked and none of them wanted to be seen that way. Interestingly, when Hari tried testing their shields she found that all of them had recently posed in front of a mirror so that the nude versions of themselves that would be seen was a recent one. The exception was Luna, whose mind was like a swirling hurricane that blocked attempts to telepathically scan her.
Now that she had a functioning wand, Hari was finding her wand classes much easier. Transfiguration was the class where the difference was most apparent because with other classes, she would try to do things wandlessly, if possible. But she was now giving Hermione competition for top student in the wanded classes.
Since they were in third year, it was now possible for them to visit Hogsmede once a month. And for the first visit, Neville asked Hari to go with him. Hari was quite surprised at this. But considered him to be her best friend, so she agreed to go on a date with him. All through the day as they wandered through the village, Neville kept thinking erotic things about things he wanted to do with her. Telepathically seeing these thoughts made her have similar thoughts. So she opened her mind an let him see what she was thinking. When he saw, they both turned without even telepathically speaking and strolled hand in hand toward the Shrieking Shack. The stopped outside and Neville grabbed her face to pull her into a kiss. . . .
. . . the instant their lips touched it was like a bucket of cold water had been dumped on them! All sexy thoughts had vanished from her mind and she could see the same thing had happened to him! But he was her best friend! She wanted this relationship to work. So she put her arms around his neck, lifted one foot and probed his mouth with her tongue. It didn’t help . . . His hands slid down to her chest before he pushed her away!
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I can’t do this!” Protested Neville. “It feels like I’m kissing my sister. I WAS kissing my sister!”
“It’s all right,” replied Hari, as she crossed her arms over her chest. “I wanted it because you’re such a good friend. But it felt like kissing my brother too. I guess we spent too much time together when we were young . . .”
“Let’s not tell Mum and Dad about this,” asked Neville.
“Agreed!” Replied Hari.
The next Hogsmede weekend was a platonic outing with their friends.
On October 31, there was a big Halloween Feast planned after the quiditch match. But it was not to be. It was Giffindor versus Hufflepuff and was a close game until hundreds of dementors swarmed onto the field and moved towards the spectators.
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
“EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
Neville, Hari, Dumbledore and several of the professors cast the patronus charm to help drive away the dementors. It was a hard fought battle with Hari and Dumbledore’s patroni doing most of the heavy lifting.
When the dementors were gone, the professors surveyed the damage. Several students, including Luna, had fainted. More were trampled by their fellow students attempting to flee. But one student was beyond Madame Pomfrey’s aid.
Draco Malfoy had been kissed.