HP 6 - A different Half-Blood...

Avada Kedavra

The sun was setting, but there was still light enough to see. However, still nothing appeared. Hagrid was bewildered and flung his arm up again. He checked the time and tried for a third time to flag down the magical bus. Some of the other students were trying as well. Harry, however, was preparing himself for the worst. Something was out there, he thought.

Harry pulled out his wand and threw a glance at Ron and Hermione, who pulled out their wands, too. Harry looked apprehensively at the woods outside of the gates, and felt something was in there. Other students were starting to moan and panic. They did not want to stay in Romania any longer.

That however, was the least of Harry's worries, because he figured that the Knight Bus's lack of appearance was no accident. It seemed his intuition was proved correct when a loud crack appeared in front of the group, but it was no Death Eater. It was Dumbledore.

He did not say hello, but immediately said, in a slightly worried voice, "Please return to the building."

The students, though initially surprised by Dumbledore's sudden appearance, hurried into the dragon control center without protest. Everyone was now strangely quiet, as they finally realized what was happening. Harry hesitantly backed toward the building, staring into the nearby woods. He was sure that there was something out there, but Dumbledore was here. If the Death Eaters were afraid of their own master, they certainly would not stand up to Dumbledore. Harry then looked at Dumbledore's ancient face, and knew it was safe to go into the building. He turned and went inside, followed by Ron and Hermione.

When they all were safely in the building, Dumbledore turned and gave one last look to the woods before following them in. However, as soon as the door closed, pandemonium broke out. The panic had struck fear into the hearts of all the students.

"Are they out there!?!"

"Is You-Know-Who coming to get us!?!"

"Are we going to stay here!?!"

"Are the dragons attacking!?!"

"ENOUGH!!!"

The chaos was subdued immediately. It was not Dumbledore who silenced them, but Hagrid, who was just as worried as the rest of the class. He glanced nervously at the door and then walked over to Dumbledore, who whispered something to him.

"Everyone, please stay calm," Dumbledore said, grimly. "The Knight Bus has had an accident, but I assure you, you are all safe."

Dumbledore's announcement did curb some of their fears, but many still had many questions hovering through their heads. Charlie and Master Romurck walked over to Dumbledore and quietly asked a few questions, but Dumbledore shook his head.

"We are going to take a Portkey back," Dumbledore announced, pulling out his wand and pointing it at a table that was against the wall. The students who were close to it backed away.

"Portus," he said softly and the table glowed and returned to its original color.

"Everyone touch the table and do not let go until you are back at Hogwarts. Does everybody understand?" he said confidently, without any anxiety in his voice.

When nobody raised an objection, he motioned to the table. They pulled it out from the wall and everyone including Hagrid stood around it. Dumbledore made sure they were ready and then he sent them back to Hogwarts.

Harry felt the familiar jerk around his naval and they sped miles in seconds. It was the longest time he had taken a Portkey, as minutes passed. He felt nauseous. He managed to look up at the rest of the class, who were not faring much better. Finally, his feet hit the soft, damp ground in front of the dark gates of Hogwarts and the Portkey spilt half the class to the ground.

"Everyone please go in for dinner," Dumbledore said quietly, directing them inside the building.

Everyone went quietly through the gates, and let out a breath of relief and immediately began to start theorizing on what happened to the Knight Bus. They were almost to the front doors, when Dumbledore whispered in Harry's ear, "Harry, would you follow me please."

Harry motioned Ron and Hermione to go on without him and followed Dumbledore up to the third floor and up into his office.

"I take it that you understand that the Death Eaters were out there tonight," Dumbledore said calmly, as he sat down and looked at Harry through his half-moon glasses. Harry said nothing, but nodded in agreement.

"A few hours ago, the Order found out that a Death Eater had comprised the Knight Bus. The driver, Ernie Prang, was murdered earlier this morning, and his replacement driver was suspected of associating with Death Eaters. We informed the Ministry that a Death Eater might have infiltrated the Knight Bus, but before the Knight Bus could be taken, somebody tipped off Voldemort.

"By the time the Aurors reached the Knight Bus, it was almost completely destroyed. The driver was gone and everyone on the bus was killed. I believe that the original plan was to ambush the class as the bus arrived. The attack would have thrown the wizarding community into chaos, if they had succeeded. Many, if not all of you might have been killed," Dumbledore finished slightly distressed. He looked very grave. There was nothing more important to him than his students.

"What's going to happen now?" Harry asked, grimacing at the news.

"The Ministry is only going to release that the bus was attacked, not their plan, but I felt you needed to know the truth," he said, looking at him pensively, but Harry was thinking about something else.

"Sir, how did they know we'd be taking the Knight Bus? Hagrid only told us a week before about the trip," he said uneasily, and Dumbledore crack a small smile.

"There are many people who could have informed Voldemort's supporters, but we may never know for sure. It could be a student or someone who works in Romania. They are being questioned, of course, but Hagrid did keep the trip quiet, up to the last minute. He only booked the bus early this morning, which is why there were other passengers on the bus when you made the trip. We might never know for sure who passed the information, but I want you to be cautious, it is far more likely that the spy is here," he said.

"Malfoy... Nott..." Harry started.

"Yes, that is possible, but you shouldn't just look at the obvious, Harry. We only know a few Death Eaters' names and Voldemort recruits more supporters every day. Nott and Malfoy are being watched, as are all the owls and fires at Hogwarts. If anyone here did inform Voldemort, they did not do it the normal way. These times are very dangerous, because we can no longer tell friend from foe. You must be very careful," he said.

"I will," Harry said.

"Good, now go down, get some dinner, and prepare for your final match," Dumbledore said, softly.

Harry bid him farewell and slid into the Great Hall as quietly as he could and found his seat next to Ginny, Ron and Hermione. He quietly told them what Dumbledore had said and they all were very upset.

"We were almost killed! What if Dumbledore hadn't showed up?" Ron said, horrified.

"Keep your voice down, Ron! But Ernie and Stan died? That's terrible!" Hermione said, disgusted.

"Do you think we should tell mum?" Ginny asked Ron, uncertainly.

"You're kidding? She'd probably come up here and pull us out of school!" Ron said.

"I'm sure Dumbledore is going to tell the Order, anyway," Hermione said, shaking her head.

"Yeah, but he'll be the one to tell her," Ron grumbled, and they continued discussing the Knight Bus quietly.

However, the rest of the school repeated everything they said the next day when the newspaper announced slaughter. Fortunately, there were not a lot of rumors about the connection between Hagrid's trip and the Knight Bus massacre. After a few days had passed, passionate talks about the Quidditch final replaced the rumors and talk of disaster.

Both teams were training venomously and attacks were as relentless as ever. The Slytherin team was constantly trying to steal the Quidditch pitch, but Ron decided two could play that game. He switched their training schedule so much, that the Slytherin team could not keep track of them all the time.

Their teachers had almost given up on teaching any of their classes, but determinately tried to drive them through the material anyway. Snape had almost finished with using Animomency and was threatening even harder spells to work out. McGonagall had started Apparation, which looked even harder than Harry originally thought, but he could not try it until he turned seventeen, anyway.

Ron amazingly held it together rather well and when he was too stressed, Hermione would try to calm him down. Harry thought Ron somewhat resembled Oliver Wood when he would extensively go over Quidditch plays before, during and after all of their classes, but Harry and the rest of the team put up with him as best they could. His strategies were impressive and the team was as better as ever. When they actually got the pitch, Ron worked them hard, and they never felt more ready for the match that was only two weeks away. The Slytherin team tried to butt into their practices, but Ron just held impromptu practices in between classes.

Unfortunately, one practice they were not paying attention to the time and realized they only had five minutes to get to their next class. They raced down to Defense Against the Dark Arts as fast as they could and sat down right as Snape dramatically burst through the door.

"Quiet down!" he half-shouted even through the class was completely quiet. He was sweating and severely disgruntled.

"Alright, as all of you hopefully know, we have managed to get through Animomency as appallingly as possible. Now, we will work on the most powerful and, for a lack of better word, deadly form of magic. The Killing Curse. Now, most of you sadly think that Avada Kedavra is the only spell that kills. However, there are other ways. The reason why Avada Kedavra is so dangerous is because it is unblockable and irreversible," Snape paused and glanced at Harry before continuing.

"Other spells can be blocked and do not necessarily result in death. The person can be restored back to health, but in most cases, the person will die, then or soon after," Snape was almost whispering, but they heard every chilling word.

When class ended, everyone left quietly toward the door. Snape had been ignoring Harry since their stare down before the break, but when Harry moved to the door, he glanced over at Snape and they made eye contact.

When Snape did not say anything, Harry turned slowly and followed Ron and Hermione out the door. His Occulmency training was telling him that Snape wanted to say something to him, and as he went down to the Great Hall, he thought about going back, but decided against it. Snape might have been ignoring him lately, but Harry was not about to walk right up to him and ask him something.

Ron, of course, was upset about learning Avada Kedavra, and Hermione tried to reason with him. However, Ron pushed just it all out of his mind when they started training, again. They were not there a half-an-hour into practice before the Slytherin team came strutting out to the pitch. Pucey was leading their very heavyweight team, and Malfoy, severely disheveled and apathetic as he was nowadays, was lagging behind. Ron landed at the entrance to the pitch, and was joined by the rest of the Gryffindor team and Hermione, who had been watching them practice from the stands.

"Shove off, Pucey. You can't have the pitch all the time!" Ron spat.

"According to Snape we can. Now, you blood-traitors and mudbloods can get off the field," he said, coldly.

Ron, Harry and the rest of the team cracked their knuckles, as the Slytherins lined up on either side of Pucey as a sort of honor guard.

"Say that again and you'll regret it Pucey!" Ron snarled.

"Really? What are you and your puny team going to do about?" Warrington spat at them, staring intently at Ginny and Williams.

Harry could see his point. Ron was the only member of the team who was as tall as the Slytherins, but he was still not nearly as built.

"Maybe you'd like to find out how puny we are!" Ginny said, with her wand out and her ears turning the vintage Weasley red.

Everyone pulled out their wands, and they were going to have a showdown between the two teams right then and there. Harry searched the Slytherin team and found his target. Malfoy. As soon as he made eye contact with him, Malfoy pulled out his wand, too.

"WHAT IS GOING ON OUT HERE!!!" yelled Professor McGonagall, hurrying out to them.

Most of them stashed their wands out of sight, but it was pointless. Anyone could have guessed what they were about to do.

"Weasley! Pucey! What do you think you are doing?" McGonagall shouted, stopping when she was between them.

"Professor Snape said we could use the pitch today and Weasley wouldn't let us have it!" Pucey innocently said, handing her Snape's letter.

Ron just glared, but McGonagall quickly snatched and read Snape's letter. Her mouth formed the thinnest of lines as she finished.

"Now listen here! If you two captains cannot reasonably agree on who uses the pitch, then neither team can use it! Is that clear?" McGonagall said, exasperatedly.

Ron and Pucey stared each other down, but did not say anything. Both of them could not afford to lose their practice time. Ron nodded and led his team off the pitch.

Harry followed reluctantly and with one last look at Malfoy's enraged face, he swept off after Ginny, who had her head high in the air. He heard McGonagall telling off Pucey, but could not make out what she said. Whatever she wanted to say to them was short, because she hurried after them and by the time they reached the castle doors, she caught up to them.

"Potter! I want a word," she said, and Hermione, Ron, and Ginny went on ahead of him, after hearing her tone of voice. Harry was wondering why she was going to yell at him, because everyone was just as guilty.

"Professor, I'm sorry about..." he started.

"I didn't call you over here to talk about that," she hesitated, but continued. "I take it you know that the Knight Bus was a very close call....We have heard from a reliable source that you... may be attacked and soon...."

"Professor, Voldemort has been trying to kill me since..." he stopped, suddenly realizing he almost said before he was born.

"Yes, well... there might be an actual plan to attack you... here. We almost did not find out about the Knight Bus in time. Potter, you need to be more careful. I will not stop you, but... I strongly advise you do not go to Hogsmeade this weekend and do not wander off alone or even with your friends. Even with Professor Dumbledore's new security measures, it is possible that someone can get in. Just be cautious," she paused and with one last concerned look at him, she swept off down the hall.

The next day, they were half-way through Defense Against the Dark Arts when Harry remembered that McGonagall had said the information came from a "reliable source". Could it be Snape?

When Harry had told Ron, Hermione and Ginny what McGonagall had said, they did not talk about how the Order could have gotten the information. During the last lesson, Harry could have sworn Snape wanted to tell him something. However, while Harry was in the middle of his thoughts, Snape came over to him and finally broke their undeclared peace.

"Potter! Why don't you explain to the class what I just said, or perhaps you'd like to daydream through the entire class!" he spat and Harry did not say anything, because he had not heard a word that Snape had said.

Snape, of course, knew that, and his lip was curling as though he smelled fresh meat before the kill. Not even Occulmency could hide Harry's lapse in attention.

"No answer? Perhaps if I take ten points from Gryffindor it will help you pay attention more closely! Now, as I was saying, we will not be practicing these spells, but merely defending against them as best as you can," he sneered, continuing on with the lesson.

They spent the rest of the class going over the curses Snape had mentioned. There was an assortment of various medical ailments and painful injuries that can be inflicted against your enemy.

Harry noticed the spell that Dolohov had used on Hermione at the Department of Mysteries was on Snape's list. It was a tricky wand movement and an incantation that would kill your opponent by causing the heart to stop. There were also spells that could cause the victim's blood to boil and ones that cause the organs to shut down one by one.

By the end of class, Harry felt that even though those other spells were painful and very messy, Avada Kedavra was so shift and sudden. Harry remembered the rush of air and blinding green light that went through your soul more than just your body. The weekend could not have come sooner. They followed Professor McGonagall's suggestion and did not go to Hogsmeade. Instead, Ron decided to throw in an extra Quidditch practice.

The battle over pitch was far from over. Open hostility had decreased somewhat, at least when they were on the pitch. The Slytherin team instead resumed their back-up strategy of coming to every practice. They watched every new play Ron came up with and loudly discussed how to counter each move, while insulting every member of the Gryffindor team. Although their rants did give Ron some insight into his strategies, it also let the Slytherin team develop an effective defensive plan. However, since it was the last Saturday before the match, Ron made an announcement as the Slytherin team laughed them off the pitch.

"Alright, tomorrow we are going to get up really early. The Slytherin team cannot watch us practice if they are all sleeping in their beds, and we need to develop some plays that the Slytherin team won't anticipate before our match. We'll get in two or three hours before they can butt in on our training," he said, grinding his teeth and looking back angrily at the Slytherin team that had started to practice already.

The rest of the team nodded in agreement, though they were not very happy about getting up at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning.

"That was good thinking Ron. You need to keep the Slytherin on edge," Hermione said as they walked up to Gryffindor tower.

"Yeah, it's a good plan, we can go over some of the plays tonight and just practice them tomorrow," said Harry.

"Sounds good. We can work on them in the common room," Ron said.

They had to wait for the rest of the team to come upstairs, because they decided to grab some food, but managed to go over all of Ron's new strategies. It was almost midnight and Ron finally said they had to go to bed. Ron's decision brought no objections, because they knew they would be getting up very early.

Ron, whose nerves were being stretched to their limits, collapsed immediately onto his bed and fell asleep. Harry, who was feeling tired, lay down on his bed and suddenly felt impatient and malicious. He sat straight up. Voldemort. He had not been using Occulmency as careful as he had been. But why was Voldemort anxious? Harry tried to dig deeper into what Voldemort was feeling, but he felt a sudden resistance, as though Voldemort knew Harry had felt him.

What could he be planning? Harry did not want to know, because whatever it was, he was not going to like it. It took a while to fell asleep with his troubled thoughts.

Ron shook him awake the next morning and hissed, "Come on, get up!"

Harry groggily sat up and saw Seamus roll right out of bed and on to the floor. He mumbled and got up slowly. They moved as quickly as their groggy bodies could and pulled on their Quidditch robes, and then they went down to the common room. Jack Sloper was sleeping in one of the chairs and was clutching his broom like it would fly off by itself and Williams was dozing in the chair next to him. Ron woke them up and Ginny, Katie and Hermione came down looking slightly more awake than Sloper and Williams were.

"Hermione, you didn't have to come, too!" Ron said, although he seemed grateful that she came.

"It's alright, let's go down. It's after six so we can leave the common room," she said, more lively than any of them were.

They nodded in agreement and went down slowly to the pitch. Harry and Ginny lagged behind them.

"I felt Voldemort last night," he said quietly enough so the others could not hear.

"Oh..." she started nervously. " What happened?"

"He was... anxious... as though he was planning something..." he said, gulping slightly at the thought.

"Do you know what it was?" Ginny asked, trying not to sound anxious.

"No... but McGonagall had said that he was planning to attack me..." he said.

"Here? But Dumbledore set up those perimeter defenses, and you can't Apparate inside the grounds..." Ginny said.

"I know, but I can't shake this feeling that something might happen. Even Sirius got in here, and it doesn't mean that there aren't other ways... and now we are out in the open..." Harry said, gazing out over the grounds as they followed the rest of the team out the main doors.

"Harry, don't forgot nobody knows when we'll be practicing, so don't worry so much," Ginny said, confidently.

"Yeah... I guess," Harry surrendered, and they did not say anything else until they got to the pitch, which was ironically almost pitch-black.

The sun was starting to rise and it was just bright enough to play, but finding the Snitch would be difficult for a while. Ron gave a few prep instructions and they set off.

The Chaser line was Ron's main objective, and by the time the sun had properly risen, Ginny, Alicia and Seamus had worked out their reverse passing plays and the Hawkshed Attack formation, a professional offensive Chaser strategy. Harry caught the Snitch about ten times and then let Sloper and Williams use him as target practice. Unfortunately, they managed to actually hit him a few times and he already felt the bruises forming.

When Ron noticed that a few people were walking out of the building, he decided to end their practice. Ron wanted to end it before anyone could see anything, so he waved them down and Hermione came down from the stands to meet them.

They started toward the school and then something very strange happened. All of their brooms vibrated and started to pull away from them. They tried to keep their brooms from flying right out if their hands, and Sloper even put his full body weight on it, but to no effect. Everyone of their brooms flew from their outstretched hands and into a high arch toward figures at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. There stood seven masked Death Eaters.