02. Encounter at Hogwarts - Part A

Disclaimer: The characters don’t belong to me, but to mighty JK Rowling (Yama bows deeply). I’m not making any money of this story, so please don’t lock me up in Azkaban. Yama doesn’t get along with Dementors. Also, none of the Book/Movie/TV show quotes Fred and George use are mine. They all belong to their respective authors. The opening song for episodes 1-13 is Sonnet No 92 by William Shakespeare and the ending song for episodes 1-11 is Iron Fist by Motörhead

Author's Notes: The second episode will focus a little more on the trio and tell us a few things about the life they’re leading now in New Hogwarts. Also, we get a first glance at some of the big mysteries of the story as well as at upcoming romances concerning our three heroes. Don’t forget to watch out for red herrings, though. AD’s just full of those. Like G’kar once said to Catherine Sakai: “Nobody on this station is exactly what they appear to be.” Same goes for this fic *g*

Cookies and chocolate beans to all the readers and reviewers of AD, and of course to my wonderful beta ladies Notsosaintly, Ellie and Arsinyk, who weed out all my dumb grammar and punctuation mistakes.

"During our last episode, brave Sir Harry and his merry men...."

"And women..."

"Well, Loretta, we could always state that you have the right to have babies, even if you can't get any. So anyway, they had to rescue innocent children from the Evil Blood Legion and...."

"No, I'll let Lee have the babies, as soon as I can find a fanfic author crazy enough to write us a nice preg fic. And shut up about the Blood Legion. Our audience doesn't know that they're called the Blood Legion yet. They only know about the Ghost Riders."

"OK, here we go again. During our last episode, brave Sir Harry and his merry men and women had to rescue innocent children from ... from weird guys in weird red robes. The Dark Lord *Presses a button and furiously keeps punching till a loud 'boo' is set off.* had sent his Ghost Riders to kidnap all Muggle-born children with magical abilities in order to keep them under control."

"Apart from that, some evil chic with some nice crystal ball has warned him to beware of He Who Must Not Be Named. However, Him ... uh ... He Who Must Not Be Named has found a nice little hideout in a magical room just below the Hogwarts Lake. From down there, he and his friends start their brave rescue missions to free innocent damsels in distress from He Who Was Formerly Known As He Who Must Not Be Named."

"And that's about it for Episode One. Wait, no; ugly Marcus Flint got himself a girlfriend."

"He did? Wicked!"

*

But do thy worst to steal thyself away,

For term of life thou art assured mine;

And life no longer than thy love will stay,

For it depends upon that love of thine.

Then need I not to fear the worst of wrongs,

When in the least of them my life hath end.

I see a better state to me belongs

Than that which on thy humour doth depend:

Thou canst not vex me with inconstant mind,

Since that my life on thy revolt doth lie.

O what a happy title do I find,

Happy to have thy love, happy to die!

But what's so blessed-fair that fears no blot?

Thou mayst be false, and yet I know it not

*

*

Amicus Draconis

*

First Cycle: Cycle of the Badger

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Episode 2: Encounter at Hogwarts - Part A

Hogwarts 9/9/1998

Dear Mother,

The sweets you sent last week are all finished. Could you please send new sweets? The food is terrible as always. Gabrielle says that in Beauxbatons, the students can choose between twenty different dishes for each meal. Why didn't you let me go to Beauxbatons? We can afford the fee, can't we? And Gabrielle says that my French is trés bon.

I do all my assignments and get good marks, and my teachers say I'll do just fine in the exams. I'm also the best flyer in my year, and I wish it wasn't so hard for girls to get onto the Quidditch Team. If I were a boy, I'd most certainly be on it.

Can I have a new broom for my good marks? I don't like the colour of my old one anymore. Nosia Babble says it clashes horribly with my complexion. And besides, this broom makes my legs look fat when I sit on it, or so Nosia Babble says.

I absolutely hate our new uniforms. They're even uglier than the old ones. Everybody says the snakes on our crests look more like slugs.

I'm looking forward to the Yule Ball. I can actually go because some fourth year invited me. The guy's a real moron, and he's real ugly, too, but I said yes because I wouldn't be able to go otherwise. I'm the only second year who got invited anyway and Nosia Babble's sooo jealous. She wanted to not be my friend anymore, but I hexed her with an acne hex, and I flushed her toad down the toilet. She's very sorry now and apologized to me. But I think I'll wait a couple of days before accepting it.

The fifth years can't really look forward to the ball; they've got to study for their OWLs. They just got a bunch of Muggles to practise their curses on them. The Muggles are kept on the third floor, but they already make the whole school stink. It's so disgusting!

Oh, I almost forgot, I need a new owl right away. My old one had a ... well, a sort of accident.

I really didn't want it to happen, and I'm real sorry about it, but I was so angry when Nosia Babble said all the mean things about my legs.

Can I please get an eagle owl now? Pretty, pretty please?

Love,

Lucilla

P.S. Please don't send the sweets with the stupid school owls, they're real slow.

* * *

In the so-called Peach Blossom Room, Hermione Granger sat, or rather knelt on one of the sitting cushions, frowning at her owl-shaped watch. For the second time already, the tiny bird had hooted to remind her that it was time for the weekly meeting of the Elders' Council. However, ten long minutes had passed now and still no one had bothered to show up yet. Except for her.

The Elders' Council was the not entirely serious term for all those witches and wizards who had reached the age of maturity. Most of them were in Hermione's year, but some of the former sixth years had turned seventeen as well. Harry Potter and those of his classmates whose birthdays fell in the first half of the year had already turned eighteen.

After five more minutes, at a quarter past four, the paper door slid open just far enough for Seamus Finnigan to stick his head into the room. "Nobody here yet?"

"See anyone?" Hermione's voice sounded slightly cynical. "It seems that our dear classmates don't give much thought to our current problems."

"Problems?" A grin started to spread over Seamus' face. "What problems? We don't have any problems, do we? Except for Voldemort wanting to kill us all, but that's his problem, not ours."

"Very funny," Hermione snapped back. She was definitely in a bad mood now. "We've got all sorts of problems. For example, how are we going to design lessons for so many children of different age groups? And we don't have nearly enough books, wands or brooms for everybody! And how are we going to plan our next rescue mission? Will we take the younger teenagers along, like two certain overly zealous individuals called the Creevey Brothers obviously want?"

"Well, couldn't we at least take sixteen and seventeen year olds?" Seamus suggested, desperately trying to prove that he had given the matter some thought. "I mean, it's dangerous for all of us anyway, no matter how old we are."

Hermione started to argue back; she already had a long explanation planned about why it would be much more dangerous for anyone younger than herself, but before she even opened her mouth, the paper of the sliding door was torn apart with a loud bang. Startled, Seamus jumped into the room, knocking over one of the small delicate tables on the floor between the tatami mats. Wood splintered; the table lost one of its legs.

"Oops!" With a guilty expression, Neville Longbottom looked from the broken door to the broken table and finally to Seamus lying on the floor. "I'm really not good with these Chinese doors...."

Hermione sighed and decided not to bother explaining, for the umpteenth time, that the design of their houses was Japanese and not Chinese. Those boys wouldn't be able to remember it anyway.

"Rumour has it, it's possible to open a sliding door by hand, Neville," Seamus moaned, clutching his aching shin.

With a flick of her wand, Hermione repaired the ripped apart door as well as the splintered table. Seamus grinned, pointing hopefully to his leg, but all he got was an angry scowl.

She took a couple of deep breaths as if she was trying to meditate, and when she faced her fellow rebels again, her voice had calmed down. "Would you please sit down now, so that we can commence the meeting?"

"Well, if that's what you call sitting." Dean Thomas, who was following Neville into the room, gave the sitting cushions an apprehensive glance. "I'd prefer a nice chair anytime."

"Me, too." Seamus agreed. "I'm kinda fed up with our Asia Weeks."

"Guys just don't understand about true beauty." Smiling blissfully, Lavender Brown glanced about the room, taking in its exotic atmosphere. "This is so very romantic!"

Dean, Seamus and Neville grinned at each other, rolling their eyes.

Behind the Gryffindors, Hannah Abbot, Ernie Macmillan and the other Hufflepuffs entered the room. The Ravenclaws still were nowhere to be seen.

"Oh, Parvati and Padma would like to be excused," Lavender said. "They're pretty busy right now. The children we rescued two weeks ago had their first flying lesson today, and some got thrown off their brooms - nothing major though...."

"I know." Hermione sighed. "We checked on them earlier. Getting used to our kind of life is not easy for those poor youngsters."

"No one can get used to people as weird as us. It defies nature!" Ron Weasley, slightly breathless from running, slid the door aside. "Ravenclaws are coming - oh, there they are."

It seemed the meeting could finally begin, even if it was half an hour later than originally planned.

"We were talking about the Shape just now," Dean explained to the newcomers. "Personally I'd like to change it. Hallowe'en's coming up in less than two months - what do you people think of a Haunted Castle?"

"Are you out of your mind?" shouted Lavender, completely taken aback. "Don't you think of the poor children at all? Didn't they get scared enough already?"

"Some of them do want something more exciting as well," Dean remarked. "And besides, you're only using them as pretence to keep this Chinese stuff. So don't pretend it's them you're worried about!"

"Did anyone ever tell you how rude you are?" Lavender snarled at him, and a moment later, a heated discussion had broken out. Parvati might not have been there to agree with her best friend, but some of the Ravenclaw girls definitely shared their opinions, while the Gryffindor boys complained loudly about kitschy feminine ideas and offered to dye the girls' hair pink. The Hufflepuffs tried to soothe the argument by suggesting odd compromises, such as: "How about a Chinese haunted castle?"

Right in the middle of the debate, Ron suddenly wanted to know. "Where's Harry? Why isn't he here?"

Hermione jumped up, startled. Harry! How on earth could she have forgotten about him? She, who never ever forgot things! The poor fellow must have been waiting in the entrance for half an hour now; he had asked her to let him in shortly before the meeting. 'Go on like that, and you'll be needing Neville's Remembrall soon,' she told herself angrily.

"I'll go look for him," Ron offered. "Maybe he's brooding over new plans and forgot all about the meeting."

"Don't worry, Ron, I'll take care of it. Ernie and Hannah, will you please take over the meeting?" Hermione didn't want the others to know that Harry had left the hideout. It would raise too many questions and might make the others jealous. After all, they hated being locked up, and everybody longed to get out on the surface.

However, trips to the surface endangered the safety of their hiding place, so they never left the lake, unless they really had to. Flying rescue missions and collecting new Gillyweed were some of the few reasons to go up.

Without doubt, Harry, too, had his reasons for being on the surface....

Hermione had just left the room when Dean nudged Seamus with his elbow. "Know what I think? Harry and Hermione just want some time on their own."

"Right you are!" Grinning, Seamus took a quick glance at Ron's blushing face. "Our two turtledoves! Don't you think it's 'so very romantic', Lavender?"

"Oh, shut up!" Ron snarled, clenching his fists. He turned away from the others, trying not to show his embarrassment. However, they noticed anyway...

"Chill out, mate." Dean gave him a roguish smile, trying to ease the tension. "Just fooling around. We know Harry needs Hermione to get back in. We're not supposed to figure out he's been visiting Hagrid again."

"There's really no need for all this secrecy," complained Hannah. "It's not like we have a problem with him visiting Hagrid's. I mean, that's where he gets all the information from, isn't it?"

* * *

"Did something come up?" Harry wanted to know as Hermione retrieved her golden key from the cloud in the artificial sky, sliding it back into her pocket. "Or did you just forget about me?" he asked teasingly.

He had been able to pass the entrance door at the bottom of the lake, but had been cast out again; you needed two people to open the hideout. This was an extra safety measure to protect them from the dangers outside. Only the two seventh year Prefects of each house were able to open the entrance; Harry and Hermione for Gryffindor, Ernie and Hannah for Hufflepuff, and Terry and Lisa for Ravenclaw. There were only three golden keys and it was the girls' duty to keep them.

So, of course, they would never leave the lake with all six Prefects at the same time. If something happened to them, the others would not be able to leave the hideout, not unless the one who had created it returned to them. And that was very unlikely given the circumstances.

"Well, I almost did. I'm sorry." Slightly embarrassed, she averted her eyes. "Please don't be angry with me, there's just a lot going on right now. And it's difficult to keep up."

"You're taking too much responsibility. You work yourself too hard." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder as they flew back down to the ground. "Why don't you let the others do some of the work once in a while?"

"You're right," she agreed. "It's just so difficult. You see, I'm getting the feeling that if I don't do it myself, it's not going to get done at all. The others are never serious about things. I mean, everything's falling apart and they just keep making their dumb jokes!" Her voice broke, but she swallowed the tears. Now was not the time to cry. She just couldn't afford to let herself go.

"Hermione, can't you see why they're doing it? They're trying to keep their joy in life. It's hard enough with their families gone, but if they worried and worried all the time, they'd go crazy. And make all the others crazy as well. We need to keep our heads clear."

He jumped off his broom; they had reached the ground. "And we also have the responsibility for the younger students. We should at least try to make some kind of a normal life possible for them."

"I know we're doing our best!" She clenched her fists and her broom fell to the floor. "But to me it always feels like it's not enough! It's simply not enough!"

"Same here." He picked up her broom and gave it back to her. "But we need to do, and we will do, everything that's within our power. I'm not kidding myself. I know, right now, we and our rescue missions are nothing more than an annoying fly buzzing around Voldemort's ugly nose, but we won't give up. We will never give up."

"OK." She took a deep breath. "So how's Hagrid?" she asked, trying to change the subject. "And do you at least have some good news for us?"

She looked at him, new hope dawning on her face, but as their eyes met, it was destroyed instantly.

"Hagrid's good." He sighed. "Unfortunately, the news I've got isn't."

* * *

"Those bloody bastards!" Dean had leapt to his feet. "We're not going to let that happen!"

"Harry, you don't know by any chance, who these people are?" Susan Bones wanted to know. "I mean could someone we know be among them?"

"I'm sorry, all I know is what I already told you. The Muggles were kidnapped and they're now being held at Hogwarts for the students to practise curses on them. I don't think they were chosen especially for this; they probably just took the first couple of people they could get their hands on."

"Curses? I thought only the members of the Dark Council were allowed to use the Curses." Ernie sounded confused. "Didn't Harry mention something like that not too long ago?"

"Not those curses," Harry corrected him. "I'm pretty sure they wouldn't teach the Unforgivables at Hogwarts. Nevertheless, there are enough other curses that can prove very dangerous to people."

"Hmm...." Hannah's face became very thoughtful. "It'll be difficult to break into Hogwarts. The castle is probably one of the safest places in the entire Magical World."

"It used to be, with Dumbledore around," Mandy Brocklehurst corrected her. "But everything's changed now. I wonder who they've chosen as new headmaster..."

"Snape," Harry answered without hesitation and his eyes narrowed with hatred. It took him a moment to realize that he was getting bewildered stares. "How come you know that?" Seamus asked, confused.

"Well ... uhm ... 'know' would be exaggerating ... I simply assumed it's him," Harry stammered. Ron noticed Hermione giving Harry a warning glance and shaking her head ever so slightly. "Maybe ... maybe Hagrid mentioned something about it."

The others didn't pursue the matter; they were too busy making and dropping new plans. "So we all want to save those Muggles?" Seamus asked. "I don't think we need a vote on that, but if anybody's against it, he should speak up now. No? Good, didn't expect it anyway...."

Ron gave Harry a soft nudge. Since the others were here, he didn't dare to talk openly about the Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map, but he was sure Harry understood what he was aiming at. They had used the Cloak the first time they had rescued children, but hadn't told the others about it. The Map had not been useful so far, since it only showed the Hogwarts grounds. And they had never entered the school again after their escape that night....

"There's no reason to keep it a secret any longer," Harry began. "I've got a map of Hogwarts, which also shows the secret entrances and passageways. With that map, it should be possible to sneak into the castle without getting noticed, and it would probably cause a lot less racket than flying over the walls with our broomsticks."

"It was only a suggestion," Justin Finch-Fletchley grumbled defensively. "And besides, we could still do it to draw their attention. One group sneaks in, and the other group makes a lot of noise for distraction."

"Why would we want to draw their attention in the first place?" Terry Boot wanted to know. "If we keep a low-pro they won't even notice we're there. After all, they don't expect someone to come and get the Muggles, do they?"

Again, Ron noticed Hermione scowling at Harry, but she didn't say anything and he didn't want to ask about it in front of the others. So he decided to direct his attention back to the plan instead.

"Only a few of us should go into the castle," he suggested. "With a small number of people, we're less likely to attract any attention. We'll take the Muggles out one by one through one of the secret passages. All the others wait at the exit. We'll fly the Muggles off on our brooms right into the next Muggle settlement. They'll find their way home from there, I guess."

"For one thing, we don't know how heavily the Muggles are guarded, and second, I just can't see them mounting a broom voluntarily. Sounds like a plan where too many things can go wrong to me."

"Point one, I don't think they're heavily guarded; they're not important prisoners after all," Ron rushed to answer Terry's comment. "Okay, point two's a difficult catch, I agree with you. However, you forgot all about point three, Terry. We can't take the Muggles into our hideout with us. We have to take them someplace - Muggle - and we have to use a Memory Charm to make them forget all about the last few days."

"I think it'll work!"

Heads turned towards Hermione. The old fire had returned to her eyes; they were planning now; they were doing something useful, something she was good at. "Harry and Ron could be the ones to sneak in - maybe there's a passage that leads them directly to the third floor. Two people won't be detected easily, and one can always check on the map while the other keeps an eye on the Muggle in case he or she panics.

"The rest of us will wait at the entrance with our brooms, and we'll use another two people to fly every Muggle off: one to keep on eye on the Muggle and one to keep an eye on the surroundings. Doing a Memory Charm on all the Muggles shouldn't be a problem either."

"Not if it's a basic Memory Charm," Lavender added, "but if we just wipe out, let's say, the last three days of their memory without replacing them somehow, they'll know that those days are missing. They'll know something has happened to them."

"We can't help that," Hermione sighed. "Specific Memory Charms are too difficult for us; we could end up damaging somebody's mind. They'll wonder about those missing days, but they won't be able to guess the truth."

"I don't think I can do a Memory Charm at all." Embarrassed, Neville averted his eyes. "And I don't want to risk anything."

"You don't have to; you'll take the lookout part of your group. We'll have to be extremely careful."

"We always have to be careful, don't we?" Seamus smiled sadly. "Anyway, your plan's pretty brilliant, Hermione. I think it's going to work out."

"My plan?" Utterly bewildered, Hermione looked at him. "It was Ron's idea, remember? I simply fine-tuned it, that's all."

* * *

It was two o'clock in the morning when the tiny owl on Hermione's watch hooted for her to get up. Still sleepy, she crawled out of bed, digging for her school uniform. She was just getting dressed when someone on the outside rattled the sliding door.

"Just a moment," she called. Her fingers were still busy with the buttons of her shirt when the door slid open and Ron came rushing into the room. Lavender, who was trying to shake Parvati awake, gave a shocked squeal and jumped back into her bed, hiding under the covers.

"Get out, Ron," Hermione shouted, pointing towards the door. "Can't you see we're not dressed?"

"Hermione, I need to talk to you!" He sounded angry as well. "What was that supposed to be this afternoon? I want to know!"

"Not when I'm not dressed," she snapped back, throwing a slipper in his direction. "Get out, and wait outside till I'm done!"

"Hurry up, then!" Grinding his teeth, he turned around and left.

"What's that guy's problem?" Lavender rolled her eyes and Parvati agreed with her. "He can be a real prat sometimes."

"Sometimes? What do you mean 'sometimes'?" Shaking her head, Hermione finished buttoning up her shirt.

* * *

"So, what's with all the fuss?"

Ron and Hermione stood on one of the wooden platforms leading out to the middle of the pond. They could see the others gathering at the shore, right in front of the wooden houses.

"Why did you tell them it was my plan, even though everyone knew it was yours?" Ron wanted to know. "Do you think I need your support because I'm too stupid to make plans on my own? Thank you very much, Miss Know-it-all. Thanks to your most charitable help, everyone else will now consider me a prat, too."

"And so you come storming into our bedroom at two in the morning? Cut the rubbish, Ron. Of course it was your plan. I was only working out the details." Hermione was struggling with her rising temper; she couldn't stand being called a know-it-all, and least of all by Ron. Did he expect her to pretend she was stupid just to please him? "And since when did you get so defensive about everything?" she continued. "No one thinks you're a prat, unless you act like one. And for storming into our bedroom like that, I expect an apology!"

"I apologize," Ron muttered. "So, which one of us is acting defensive now?"

"That's an entirely different matter."

"And why do you want me to go into the castle with Harry?" He grabbed a rock, throwing it out into the lake. "After all, it's you and him playing inseparable all the time."

"Now what's that supposed to mean?" Fuming, she spun on her heel, her long hair flying around her face and shoulders. "Just in case, you hadn't noticed, Harry told the others about the Map, but not about the Cloak. So that leaves how many people to go into the castle with him? I trust you know the basic rules of arithmetic."

"Stop going off topic!" Ron clenched his fists.

"Well, of course, I could go in with him as well. I just didn't want him to go alone, because it's too dangerous. There could be problems with the Muggles, or something else could happen, which they didn't expect ... there could be all sorts of trouble. And if you don't have a problem with your memory, you'll remember that no more than three people can fit under the cloak. So we can't all go." She was shouting now. "It doesn't matter in the least, who's going to accompany Harry! I just don't understand why you have to make such a fuss about it!"

"You don't understand anything, Hermione. That's exactly the problem!"

He stormed back to the shore, his steps thundering loud and hollow on the wooden floor as he jumped from square to square. She followed him with her eyes, not sure she was feeling angry or disappointed, probably both at the same time. Why did Ron have to make everything so difficult?

"He is a prat after all," she whispered softly to herself. "He's such a stupid, stubborn prat."

* * *

"So you think it's safe to take this passageway?" In the soft light of their wands, Ron pointed to the Marauder's Map. "Doesn't Filch know about that one?"

'But Filch isn't caretaker of Hogwarts anymore,' Harry was careful not to speak that thought aloud; his little slip with Snape this afternoon had been bad enough. Instead he rather pointed out to Ron that all of the other passageways either didn't end on the third floor or started out at a place that were too dangerous. They didn't dare to sneak through half of Hogsmeade or take the Muggles through the Forbidden Forest. Nor was it a good idea to try the patience of the Whomping Willow, and underwater travel would prove a little stressful for a Muggle.

So that left the one passageway they were in, and it suited their needs perfectly. The exit was behind a waterfall, which broke from below the stone fundament of Hogwarts, falling down into the lake. The sound of the water drowned out most of the noise, and if they kept their brooms close to the surface of the lake when they flew away, they wouldn't be spotted from the castle. Soon the mountains would hide them from view completely.

Now all they needed to hope for was that the ending of the passageway was safely hidden as well. But even if it wasn't, they had the Invisibility Cloak to hide them.

With extreme caution, they advanced through the stone corridor. The ground and walls were moist and extremely slippery; the water was pretty close after all. Also, the corridor was steep, rising sharply into the castle. So it was a good thing their trainers' soles weren't smooth.

They hadn't talked much, directing their attention to their surroundings instead. By now they had figured out that the sound of the waterfall had its downside as well. In here, the water thundered incredibly loud in their ears, echoing from the walls around. They wouldn't even be able to hear Hagrid stomping before them, and this would make them easy prey for anyone else walking this way. That thought made Harry a little twitchy, and he wouldn't have been surprised if Ron felt the same way.

The passageway ended in small room with a trapdoor in the ceiling above them. It was too high up to be reached by hand, but they didn't dare use a spell - what if it was detected? A levitation spell on a human being was quite powerful, and the security around here was probably very tight now.

They couldn't even say if it would have worked anyway. They already knew that you could not use Levitation Spells to get over the castle walls from the outside.

"Let me stand on your shoulders," Harry suggested to Ron. "I should be able to reach it then."

"No problem," Ron assured him, but he did sway a little under Harry's weight. He grabbed his friend's ankles to give him a little more support, and Harry was struck by the thought that they probably looked like two clowns in a circus, trying to perform ridiculous acrobatics. Not that they should worry about something like that....

The trapdoor was locked, of course; he should have thought of that. Could he risk a simple Alohomora? As he worried and reached for his wand at the same time, bending his body in odd gymnastics, while desperately trying to keep his balance, his robes swished over Ron's face and neck, tickling him. The other boy squirmed, letting go of Harry's ankles.

Thud!

"Oops!"

"Ouch!"

"Looks like we're not as young and flexible as we used to be!" Moaning and grumbling, Ron tried to disentangle all the arms and legs that were his from the ones that were not. "Our old bones are no longer in a condition for gymnastics."

"We really need to play Quidditch to stay in shape." Harry gave a sigh, his voice getting dreamy. "Imagine, half a year ago, I was still thinking of going pro...."

"Oh, stop it!" Ron interrupted him. "Let's not think about stuff like that right now, okay? It's no good."

"No, it's not. However, we will play Quidditch again, even if it must be down in the lake!" Harry's face was screwed up in determination.

He leapt to his feet and this time stuck his wand between his teeth before climbing onto his friend's shoulders again. An Alohomora was enough to open the door's lock. Harry listened for a moment, before pulling himself up with his arms and pushing the door open with his head. Then he heaved himself into the room above.

"Harry!" Ron whispered from below. "What's going on? Where are you?"

He had to be inside a huge hallway; it was too gloomy around him to make out the walls. All he could see were a couple of dusty pillars fading into the darkness and the twisted, cobweb-covered stone figures decorating them looked horribly familiar. Hastily, he pulled the Map from his pocket, and it confirmed his uneasy feeling. This was the forbidden third floor corridor, the one they had fled through seven years ago, while trying to escape Filch. The room where they had met Fluffy had to be right behind him.

Right behind him there was something else as well. A tiny dot on the map, racing towards him with incredible speed.

"Wheeee!" squealed Peeves, zooming through the wall right into the hallway.

* * *

Amicus Draconis - 1st Cycle: Cycle of the Badger - Part 2: Encounter at Hogwarts

“I wonder, I wonder, do you know what I wonder?”

“No idea.”

“If I can get the new slim fast broom, because it doesn’t make my legs look fat!”

“I want a new wand to match my complexion!”

“I want sweets that make you lose weight!”

“I want Muggles, which I can flush down the toilet!”

“I want lots of Bludgers I can hit at Nosia Babble when she doesn’t do as I say!”

“And an owl to match my eye colour would be nice as well!”

“Cause I’m a Malfoy girl, in a Malfoy Wo-hur-hur-ld.”

“I’m made of plastic, it’s so fantastic!”

“I’m a spoiled blonde brat; I’ll run to Mum and Dad.”

“Do what I wa-hant, or I’ll throw tantrums!”

“Hey, Fred, you dumb prat!”

“What do you want, annoying know-it-all! Stop hurting my feelings!”

“No, you stop hurting my feelings, you insensitive klutz!”

“So, if you wanted to go to the Christmas ball, which you can’t, of course, who’d you rather take? The blonde brat, or Moaning Myrtle?”

“Can’t I just take the Whomping Willow? Pretty, pretty please?”

“No, I was gonna take the Whomping Willow. You get the giant squid!”

“Gee, thanks a lot, bro!”

Amicus Draconis - 1. Zyklus: Zyklus des Dachses - Teil 2: Begegnung in Hogwarts

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Author Notes: Ever read a Harry Potter Anime?

Let me pay a little compliment to all of you writers out there. When I started reading English-language HP fanfiction a short while ago, I found hundreds and hundreds of amazing stories, and I still discover new ones every day. Coming to the International HP fandom was like entering a whole new world of magic, taking me to places I’ve never even dreamt about. And I’m really, really glad to be here to enjoy all of this.

HP Fanfiction, and fanfiction in general, sure is a lot older in the English speaking fandoms. On different message boards I’ve read many interesting things about it. Fanfiction started out and also boomed with American TV shows and movies like Star Trek, X-Files and Star Wars. In Germany there are a few writers who started out with these fandoms as well, but the big boom came in the late 90s and the new millennium with Japanese animation series like Sailormoon, Pokémon, Digimon and Shin Seiki Evangelion. From what I heard, these fandoms are also pretty popular in English-language fanfiction, but they don’t represent its beginning; they could rather be called … hm … ‘The Next Generation?’ *ggg*

This means, of course, that German fanfiction in general has been highly influenced by Anime and Manga. People will talk about ‘Yaoi’ and ‘Shounen Ai’ rather than ‘Slash’, even when it’s Frodo and Sam, they’re pairing up. Also, people will often structure longer fics with story arcs like a TV show, rather than a novel.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m only talking about general tendencies. There’s lots of Germans, who write LotR and BtVS and are not interested in Anime/Manga at all (In my opinion, BtVS was heavily influenced by Sailormoon as well, but that’s an entirely different story. If you’re interested, just ask me about it.)

Anyway, a huge number of German HP writers come from Anime/Manga fandoms. www.Animexx.de the biggest German Anime and Manga community also hosts one of the biggest HP FF archives. That’s were I come from, and that’s were Amicus Draconis started out in 2001 – a Harry Potter fanfiction with Anime elements.

I’ll get back to you and tell you more :-)