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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness	By : Danyealle Category: Harry Potter > Slash - Male/Male > Harry/Voldemort Views: 297907 -:- Recommendations : 58 -:- Currently Reading : 185
Disclaimer: I am not J. K. Rowling. I do not own Harry Potter. This is a work of fanfiction and no profit is being made. It is a for-fun endeavor and no infringement is intended.

Chapter List
- 18
- 19
- 20
This chapter is written by: Aya Macchiato

Beta done by tannne and Danyealle-sama

Again, I remind everyone that the amazing Aya Macchiato has given me permission to continue this story for her. This is another of the chapters that she already had done. All I've done with this one is some basic beta work, nothing more, it's as she wrote it!

Link to the first story...

http://hp.adult-fanfiction.org/story.php?no=600095391

-Danyealle

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Chapter 18

By September 18th, Hermione had gotten the two pieces of parchment back from her parents. It turned out that her mother was a squib while her father was just a muggle. Hermione had been incredibly excited to have this tangible evidence that she truly did descend from a magical lineage and that she hadn't just popped into existence as some sort of freakish anomaly.

Harry and Hermione already had all of the supplies for the second potion ready. There were only two ingredients differences between the maternal and fraternal versions of the tapestry potions. Now that they knew it was the maternal version they needed, they were all set to start brewing on the autumnal equinox on the 22nd of September.

That afternoon they had Defense class again and Harry knew this was the day that Thor was going to officially announce the start of the Defense clubs. He had waited this long so that he could complete some additional observations of his own of the students but also to give the student body as a whole some time to adjust being back in school. He'd put up a sheet that people who were interested in the club could sign. Most of them were going to end up in the 'Intermediate club'. All of the Slytherins had signed up, mostly because their parents had told them to, and the rest had been quietly nudged by their housemates. Most of them were headed for the 'Advanced club'.

Harry had stayed after Defense class on Monday to share some of his opinions and observations with Thor on the students who had signed up. He'd actually been a bit surprised by some of the names that had appeared on the sign-up sheet. The most surprising of them all was Neville Longbottom. Harry had to admit that even after sharing a dorm room with the quiet boy for more than four years, he barely knew him. Hardly anyone did, really. Neville was just the quiet, shy boy who messed up in Potions, was terrified of Snape, spent a lot of his free time in the greenhouses and talking with Professor Sprout.

Out of all of the classes that Neville wasn't very good at, his two worst were Potions and Defense. Harry didn't see Neville has actually having a strong interest in Defense as a subject but he imagined that he probably signed up for the club because he felt he needed the extra tutoring in the subject.

Hermione had signed up for the club too, of course, and Harry knew she was eagerly expecting acceptance into the Advanced group. Harry had tried to remind her that, while she had always been good at answering questions and completing her essays with good marks, her practical performance of the material had always been a little iffy in their DADA classes. Defense had never been one of her top subjects, and was the only class that Harry had been able to get better results in, even before his magical reserves were released after he stopped suppressing Tom's soul the previous fall.

She had gotten a bit disgruntled with his suggestion that she might not be good enough for the advanced group but Harry had tried to placate her by pointing out he just didn't want her to get disappointed if things didn't go as she expected. She'd looked at him oddly for a moment but, before she could question him further, Professor Rowle had entered the classroom and called the class to order.

"Today I wanted to officially announce the start of the Defense clubs," Professor Rowle started as the students settled into their desks and quieted down.

"Quite a few of you signed up to participate and I'm very happy with all the interest I've gotten for this. Those who were selected for the Advanced group will be notified individually with specific instructions for the time and place of the meeting. Unless you receive one of these notices, simply come to the Intermediate group meeting that will be held Saturday afternoon from two o'clock until four. The club will be held in one of the larger, unused classrooms. It's on the third floor, right-hand side. Four doors down after exiting the grand staircase, just before the turn-off into the Serpentine Corridor. Does anyone not know what room I'm talking about?" He paused and looked around, but no one spoke up so he nodded and continued."Alright then. Now that that's out of the way, let's continue with the class then, shall we?"

With that, Professor Rowle slipped back into the class work they'd begun discussing on Monday and there was no further discussion on the club.

Hermione anxiously kept a lookout for her notice for the Advanced club for the rest of Thursday and all of Friday. When Saturday morning rolled around, she was clearly disgruntled at not having gotten it and grudgingly followed Harry out of the Common Room then down to the third-floor classroom that the club meeting was being held in.

Of course, during all of these days, Harry had been doing his alternating between the manor and Hogwarts, so it had been six days, instead of three for him. After all this time, he'd slipped into a fairly comfortable routine and was even growing accustomed to how odd it was to be living twice as many days as everyone around him.

He was actually in an exceedingly good mood that morning because the previous night he and Tom had spent the night in their new bedroom in the Abbey for the first time. While they had been visiting the Abbey and working on preparing it for weeks, this was the first night they had actually slept there.

It still wasn't ready for the rest of the Death Eaters but they were slowly making the transition themselves and Harry was gradually becoming just as comfortable in the new castle as he had always felt in the manor. They had begun to move all of Tom's magically transfigured exercise equipment to a large parlour at the castle that they had expanded and transformed to suit the new purpose they needed. The lab was almost done, the dungeon cells were coming along nicely, and all of the portraits had now been relocated to the West Wing then put into rooms there where they couldn't be accessed by any Death Eaters. The elves had successfully repaired and cleaned up all of the castle interior now, as well as resealing the windows and fixing any water damage from leakage. The elves were now focusing most of their efforts on the extensive gardens, even though Tom thought it was a bit unnecessary.

When they weren't fixing up the castle or back at the manor holding a few Death Eater meetings, they were practicing the parselmagic phase spell. Harry was finding it to be an exceedingly difficult spell to get a handle on so far. It took a tremendous amount of his focus and he wondered how he could make it useable in any practical situation. Tom insisted that with practice it would become more natural and easier to perform. Harry only hoped he was right.

Harry's mind was so distracted by his thoughts and plans for the castle, the parsel spell as well as his continued pondering on the revelations of his ancestor Jheames' portrait from the start of that week that he bumped into Hermione's back as they came up to the group standing and waiting outside the closed classroom door.

Harry blinked, bringing his mind back to the present and letting his eyes roam over the large crowd.

He knew that Thor would be finishing the activation of the room's wards. Eight ward stones were placed in each of the corners of the room to create a temporary protective field from the school's Dark magic detection wards. Normally, lesser Dark spells performed within the school's wards would get logged but usually no alarms were sounded. However, any higher-level Dark magic performed within the castle's walls would alert the Headmaster immediately. The ward stones were designed to prevent that. Of course, no high level Dark magic would be performed in the Intermediate group but Harry knew that Thor wanted to get into the practice of having them set up for every 'club' meeting.

The ward stones would hold a charge long enough to prevent the castle wards from logging anything for a solid four hours. After that, they had to go through a simple recharging process to be used again. Recharging didn't take long but they had to be deactivated while charging. Tom had developed the ward system and the stones, of course. It had been either that or hold the club meetings in the Room of Requirement, which Harry and Tom had decided was simply not an option. They didn't want the whole of the student body to be aware of that particular treasured secret. So, ward stones it was.

The gathered group of students was quite large and Harry wondered for a moment if the room would even be large enough to handle them all. It was probably the largest classroom in the school, which was why it was never used anymore since there were rarely classes large enough to warrant it, and yet, Harry wasn't sure if they'd have enough room inside to move freely with such a big group.

But he expected some of those who had shown up today would probably give up on the idea after they saw how grueling the 'club' would be and not return again. Thor had no intention of having this experience be 'easy' or 'fun' for anyone. They wanted to weed out the weak, quickly.

Looking over the group, Harry saw that his expectations for who would be in attendance were mostly correct. The group was comprised of more Ravenclaws than anything else although there was quite a fair number of Gryffindors. Ravenclaws had come for the opportunity for further academic expansion while the Gryffindors were there because they wanted to learn to duel. Chances were high that once the Gryffindors realized how much work was going to be involved, many of them would lose interest.

The low turnout of Slytherin students, Harry knew, was really because most of them had been put straight into the 'Advanced' group where they would skip any silly pretense about defensive magic and go straight into Dark Arts instruction.

Suddenly, the door to the classroom opened up and Professor Rowle stood there for a moment before standing to the side, gesturing the large group to come inside. As soon as everyone was in the large open room, he closed the doors and walked through the group to the head of the room.

There were no desks in the room, and the floor had been transfigured so that it was squishy, as if it were made of tumbling mats. Some of the students were bouncing slightly on the balls of their feet as they experimented with the floor, giggling and joking to each other playfully.

After waiting a minute for everyone to settle down Rowle cleared his throat. "Welcome to the new Hogwarts Dueling and Defense Association. As I explained in my Defense classes, the purpose of this club is to try and make up for the pitiful defensive magic education you have all had access to up until this point. In class, I will do my best to make sure you all know the minimum necessary to fully succeed in your proficiency exams. In this club, I will make sure you actually know how to fight and defend yourselves, magically, have hands on experience doing so as well as be prepared for any real-world situations that could arise that would demand the knowledge and ability to fight.

"This is not a club for fun," Rowle paused and looked out over the silent gathering of students with a piercing gaze. "You are not here to hang out with your friends. You are not here so that you have a free pass to start throwing stunners around. You will not be allowed to stay or be welcome to return if you don't take this class seriously. Participating in the DDA will require a lot of hard work, dedication to the work, and personal commitment. I expect everyone who comes to this class to give it their all or leave. This is not a part of the Hogwarts curriculum and no one is required to be here. I'm not even being compensated for this, I'm doing it on my own time. I don't owe you anything. I'm already doing you a favor just by providing you with the opportunity to be here. If you don't take it seriously or I don't feel that you are up to the task, you will leave. Am I understood?"

Quiet murmurs of 'Yes, sir,' could be heard throughout the large room.

"Good. Now, because this is a much larger group that I usually have to deal with in a class, I have arranged for a student-teacher to help me out. If you have questions, you can ask him and he will probably have an answer for you. If he tells you to do something, you will listen to him. If you are misbehaving, he can take points and I will back them up. Mr. Potter? Will you come to the front?"

Hermione blinked and her head whipped to the side as she gaped at Harry in surprise. He just smirked a bit and shrugged with an unapologetic grin as he quickly left her side and made his way to the front of the class.

"I'm sure everyone in here is at least passing familiar with Mr. Potter," Rowle said as Harry came to a stop, standing directly beside him. "Mr. Potter will be assisting me in running this club. I chose him because he proved to me that he possessed the knowledge, practical experience, and leadership skills necessary to do the job. That means he has my complete faith and you should show him proper respect. Even those of you who are older than he is," Rowle said, pausing for a moment to give a pointed look at a group of seventh years that looked decidedly unhappy with the professor's last few statements.

"Now, as I'm sure you've all noticed, there are no desks in this room. There will be no essays due for this group and no written assignments. I will, occasionally, ask that you read up on some subjects in your own free time but I'm not going to quiz or test you on it. It will be obvious to me whether or not you did the proper work by your performance. Mostly, this group will focus on learning specific spells then practicing them in groups. In the beginning, we'll be working in pairs. But, by the end of the year, I intend to set you into large groups to simulate larger battle situations. Real life encounters with magical enemies will rarely be under so-called 'fair' circumstances. Being able to defend yourself and escape from danger when outnumbered is a vital skill and I intend to impart it on all of you.”

"Now, before we really get started, I'm going to give you all a demonstration of the sort of duel I expect you all to be capable of fighting by the end of the year, if you're able to survive this group's grueling pace until the end."

With that he paused and turned to Harry who flicked his wrist and instantly had his holly wand in his hand. Rowle's wand was in his hand an instant later. The two took a few steps back from each other and bowed.

What followed was a relatively tame duel by all reasonable accounts. They only used spells that were going to be covered over the course of the DDA's lessons as well as the basic defense spells covered up until 5th year. Or at least, the basic defense spells that would be covered up until 5th year if a consistent instruction was given.

While the duel was 'tame' they both used several mild Dark spells. Spells that weren't obviously Dark but looked fairly impressive, all things considered. Harry noticed, as he sent a seemingly powerful purple jet of jagged light at Thor that the man only barely managed to dodge, that several of the students looked on with apparent awe.

Harry and Thor ended the duel on a draw, neither actually disarming the other but simply calling a truce. They then turned to the group of students and asked if there were any questions. Several of the seventh years eagerly asked about specific spells used that they had never seen or heard of before to which Thor and Harry both answered with honest answers as to the names of each specified spell. A short time later, the room was split into two groups by skill. Thor took the seventh years and a couple sixth years to one side of the room,while Harry took the rest to the other. Each demonstrated a specific spell and its counter to their group then set them to pairs to practice.

Harry walked around the group correcting form, pronunciation and wand movement while everyone attempted to either hex their partner or block and counter the hex being aimed at them.

Hermione had ended up partnering with Neville since Harry wasn't available as a partner and Ginny was paired up with Luna. Ron hadn't come because he wanted to get in some extra practice on the Quidditch pitch in preparation for the tryouts the following day. Harry could tell that Hermione was getting extraordinarily frustrated with Neville's inability to perform the spell but was trying to be patient and not openly show her irritation.

Harry paused, cocked his head slightly to the side and observed Neville as he struggled with his magic. Harry could see and feel the magic around Neville as he attempted to cast the spell but it almost seemed as if it were ramming into some sort of blockage. Neville clearly had quite a bit of magical power inside him, Harry could sense it, but the boy didn't seem able to focus and control it at all. Harry's attention focused in on Neville's wand and his eyes narrowed.

"Hey Neville?" Harry asked, coming up to him. Neville looked utterly dejected and when Harry came over to him, he looked as if he were about to cry.

"Yeah, Harry?" Neville asked timidly.

"Is that your wand?" Harry asked.

Neville looked confused and nodded his head slowly. "Er... yeah. It's the same wand I've always had."

"Well, yeah, what I mean is did it choose you or is it a hand-me-down?"

"Oh," Neville replied with a dawning understanding in his eyes. "Well, it was my dad's wand, actually."

"You couldn't afford a new wand?" Harry asked, with mild incredulity.

"Er, not really, that wasn't the problem. My Gran said it was an honor for me to use my dad's wand so..."

Harry scoffed. "Family honor is no excuse for stunting your magic. You need a different wand, Nev. That thing doesn't work with you at all."

Neville's eyes went wide and he looked a bit horrified by the suggestion. "But I couldn't! Gran would never let me get another wand. Besides, how would I? I can't exactly leave school to go visit Diagon Alley, can I? And there aren't any stores that sell wands in Hogsmeade..."

Harry twisted up his mouth and looked thoughtful for a moment before it twisted into a smile. "I know just what to do. Hang around after the class is over and I'll take you somewhere. Okay?"

Neville looked unsure, but finally agreed. Hermione was giving Harry a questioning look, but didn't actually ask him while Neville was still there. Harry stepped away and resumed his observations of the rest of his group, occasionally going to groups that had managed to get a hang on the first spell and demonstrating a second one for them to practice.

This continued for another hour before the first meeting of the DDA was drawn to a close and everyone was dismissed. Neville lingered behind, fidgeting nervously as he stood by the door, waiting as Harry finished talking with Professor Rowle about some things. Hermione stuck around too and walked over to Neville, trying to give him some advice to try reassuring him after his rather pathetic performance during the club meeting.

Finally, Harry walked over to Neville and Hermione, giving Neville a reassuring smile. "So, Nev, you ever been to Hogwarts' Lost and Found room?" Harry asked.

Neville blinked. "Lost and found room?" he echoed in confusion.

"I'll take that as a no." Harry said, chuckling. Even Hermione looked confused so Harry quickly went on to explain. "A friend who graduated from Hogwarts a while ago actually told me about it, so I'll admit that even I barely even realized it existed. I was really only aware of it because it's on this er... map of the school that I've got." Harry paused and gave Hermione a significant glance and she quickly realized what he was talking about. "Anyway, I knew it existed before but I'd never bothered going there, you know? So anyway, this friend of mine told me about it over the summer. The Lost and Found room is where the house elves sort and store all objects that are found left behind at the end of each school year. If an object has been in the Lost and Found room for more than seven years, it's free to anyone who wants it because it's assumed that whoever lost it has probably graduated and has missed out on the chance to claim their stuff. So," Harry paused, letting his words sink in, "my intention is to go there now, look through the boxes of wands and see if any of them chose you. Are you game?"

"Boxes of wands?" Hermione exclaimed. "Are you saying that there are wands there?"

"Yup," Harry said with absolute certainty. "You've got to realize, Hermione. This room has the lost and found objects from literally hundreds of years of students. Do you really think that no one has ever lost a wand here?"

Hermione looked thoughtful for a moment. "I suppose it would eventually happen."

"It probably happens more than you realize. Anyway, let's go, shall we?"

Neville still looked rather unsure, but he followed Harry anyway. The three of them made their way down the corridor, up through the grand staircase, and down another corridor until Harry led them through a door that neither Hermione nor Neville, had ever really paid attention to before.

Harry pulled it open and stepped through. Hermione and Neville stepped inside and both gaped in shock at the massive room they found before them. Rows upon rows of shelves were in lines behind a small desk with a house elf sitting at it. It looked up, squeaked in excitement and quickly scurried around the desk to stand before Harry.

"Young Masters!" it gasped in excitement. "How can Minnie be helpings yous? Yous be losing something, yes?"

"Actually," Harry said, smiling down at the little creature, "we haven't specifically lost anything but I was wondering if my friend could go through the boxes of lost wands. His wand broke and he can't go out to buy a new one until the holidays. I suggested he check here to see if any of the abandoned wands would chose him or be a close enough match for him to use it."

"Oh! Oh, of course! But yous know that you can't be taking any wandies that are being here less than seven years?"

"I know. So can we see them?"

The little creature bobbed her head excitedly before snapping her fingers. A moment later a large box dislodged itself from far back in one of the rows of shelving and flew through the air to come rest upon the elf's desk.

Harry walked over and shuffled his hand around inside it for a moment before looking back over his shoulder at Neville.

"Coming, Nev?" Harry asked with a smirk. Neville started out of his stunned stupor and hurried over to Harry's side.

The elf hovered for a moment, asking if there was anything else she could help them with. Harry told her no, for now, and thanked her for her help. Harry began guiding Neville through the process of testing the wands and Hermione took the opportunity to speak with the elf, 'Minnie', and ask her questions about elf history. The little elf got rather timid and reluctant but answered some Hermione's questions anyway.

Neville went through each wand, one at a time, giving each a hesitant swish or flick with the continued prodding by Harry. About twenty minutes passed with no results and Neville was becoming increasingly disheartened. Harry tried to cheer him up by telling him just how long it took for him to find his wand at Ollivander's but that didn't seem to really cheer Neville up much.

Another fifteen minutes passed, filled with rejected wands. The box of abandoned wand was still very full but Harry suspected it was a magically expanded space inside. There were a lot of wands that had been lost over the last thousand years. Neville put his hand in to grab another wand and gasped suddenly.

Harry's head jerked up and he looked at Neville. "Find something?"

Neville swallowed thickly. "I thought I felt something but I dropped the wand."

Harry chuckled and looked into the box. "Try to find it again."

Neville brushed his fingertips over all of the wands directly below his hand until he apparently found the wand he had just dropped. Hesitantly, he raised his hand, holding the wand in a loose grip and looking at it with wide, stunned eyes.

"What do you feel?" Harry asked in a hushed voice.

"It's..." Neville began to say but his voice seemed to die in his throat.

"Totally different than holding your dad's wand, isn't it?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"It is," Neville whispered.

"Try casting a spell." Harry suggested, eagerly. Hermione's attention was back on the boys now and she looked equally anxious.

Neville held the wand tighter and looked at it. "What spell?" he asked, unsure.

Harry dug into his book bag and pulled out his potions textbook and set it down on one of the tables along the wall by the door. "Summon this book. You know the Accio charm, right?"

Neville paled considerably and shook his head. "I er... I know it. But it's never worked for me. I could never get anything to come to me. At most, they'd twitch a little."

"Well, then that's a perfect test. Summon the book." Harry encouraged.

Neville swallowed thickly again and nodded his head with a weak air of determination. He pointed the new wand at the book and said "Accio book!"

The book instantly flew up and across the small space. Neville yelped in surprise and ducked just in time for the book to go soaring over his head.

Harry laughed and pulled out his own wand to summon the book back from where ever it went flying. He caught it easily and stuck it back into his bag just as Neville was standing back up, looking back down at the wand in his hand with awe and shock.

"Great job, Nev!" Harry exclaimed with a grin.

"I can't believe I did it!" Neville gasped.

"That was fantastic, Neville!" Hermione exclaimed, beaming at him.

"See how big a difference it makes to have a wand your magic can actually connect with?" Harry asked, rhetorically. "I bet this will make a huge difference in classes."

Neville nodded his head slowly, still looking down at his new wand with disbelief.

"Can I see it, Nev?" Harry asked, pointing at the wand.

Neville blinked up at Harry for a moment before handing it over. "Oh, sure."

Harry waved his own wand over it, silently incanting the same spell that Tom had used all those months ago to determine what his cypress wand's properties were. Harry could see a magically generated display of information glow over the wand that no one but he could see. His brows rose slightly in surprise at what he saw.

"What is it?" Neville asked, sounding worried.

"It's yew and hair from an urisk's tail, twelve inches long. Obviously not an Ollivander wand since he doesn't use urisk hair," Harry answered.

"How can you tell what it is?" Hermione asked with interest.

"Simple detection spell. I'll teach it to you if you want." Harry said with a shrug and Hermione responded with an eager nod.

"Yew and urisk hair..." Neville echoed with a bit of wonder in his voice as Harry handed the wand back.

Harry turned to the elf, Minnie, and thanked her for her help. She snapped her fingers and all of the wands flew back into the box before she sent it flying back down the row of shelves where it came from.

The three left the Lost and Found room with Neville thanking Harry for all his help and Harry brushing it off. He cast a tempus and saw that it was nearing time for dinner. He would need to keep his meal short since he had to go help Thor set up for the Dark Arts club at 6:30. The 'club' would be meeting from seven until nine o'clock that evening, and Harry needed to be ready before anyone else showed up.

During dinner, Harry just barely managed to dodge Hermione's questions about him being the assistant in the defense club, by insisting that they would discuss it later. He ate a quick meal before hurrying off to meet Thor for the Dark Arts club.

Thor was waiting for Harry in the room with the eight ward stones, newly recharged and ready for the class. Harry helped him place them in each corner of the large rectangular room and attach them before activating them all in proper sequence. While Harry was finishing up that, Thor brought out the secrecy contract and set it on a table in the front center of the room with a blood quill beside it.

In addition to the ward stones, the pair cast several layers of secrecy and privacy ward. They had just finished casting all of the needed security precautions when it reached seven o'clock. Harry headed to the far end of the room, stood in a corner, cast a disillusionment spell over himself and pulled his invisibility cloak over his head.

Once Thor was sure that Harry was sufficiently concealed, he went over to the door and opened it up. A fair-sized group of students had already gathered there and they quickly made their way inside once Thor had stood aside.

The space filled up and at 7:05, Thor closed then sealed the door.

"Welcome to all of you," Thor started as he walked over and stood beside the table with the contract. "I know that a great deal of you already have your suspicions as to the nature of this group. Quite a few of you are here solely because your parents instructed you to attend. I know they have likely alluded to some things and you've made your own assumptions from that. But before I can actually tell you the specifics of what we will be doing in this group, I must insist that everyone who is serious about participating must, first and foremost, be willing to sign this magical confidentiality contract."

He paused then looked out over the group as they murmured to each other, and several had very cautious or concerned expressions on their faces. Most of them were from old wizarding families and were very much aware of how dangerous a magical contract could be depending on the severity of the consequences for breaking it.

"This contract is for my protection as well as yours. It is a secrecy contract. Nothing that occurs in this room during these lessons can be discussed or written about outside of these gatherings. No one who signs this contract will be able to relay anything about anyone else here to anyone outside this group. The magic of this contract is monumentally powerful. It will not only prevent anyone from willfully revealing anyone else's actions or secrets but it will stop anyone who might try to force the information from you. No one will be able to steal the knowledge through means of Legilimency, or even through the use of veritaserum. It is that powerful.”

"With these measures in place, you will not feel the pressure to hold back or restrain yourself from fully taking advantage of this learning opportunity. This is going to be a place where you can learn and I want everyone to feel free to able to perform to their full potential without fear of being tattled on. Obviously, I also want these security measures in place for my own protection since I will be putting my own career and freedom on the line in order to teach you things that are not necessary approved by some people in power." He paused again, allowing it all to sink in. "Now, everyone here must sign this contract. If you do not feel comfortable doing that, then you should leave now." Thor motioned to the contract on the table and stood to the side.

The group muttered quietly for a moment, most of them eyeing the contract with slight hesitation. Draco Malfoy was the first to move. He strode forward with his usual, confident swagger and picked up the blood quill with a flourish then signed his name. He turned around to face the group with his chin up and a smirk on his lips before walking back out into the crowd. The other fifth year Slytherins immediately followed his example as each one walked up and signed their names to the contract. A line formed behind them and, after about ten minutes had passed, everyone in the room had signed the contract.

Once it appeared that everyone was done, Thor walked over to the contract and tapped his wand on it while silently sending it the proper command. Two faint glows appeared in the room. One out in the midst of the crowd, and one in the corner where Harry was concealed. The group of students looked around in mild confusion. They parted and the one person in the crowd who was glowing was revealed.

"Mr. Simmons. It would appear you haven't signed the contract. Are you seriously interested in staying or will you be leaving?" Thor asked in clipped tones as numerous people shot the Ravenclaw 6th year suspicious glares.

Simmons swallowed thickly before walking forward to the table, picking up the quill and pausing with it over the parchment as he took a moment to read over the text written at the top. Finally, he signed it, set the quill down and walked back to the crowd with his head stubbornly raised in the air.

"What was the other glow? Over there, in the corner?" one of the students called out as Thor came back over to stand beside the table again.

"That was the individual who will be my assistant for this class. We decided to wait to reveal his identity to you all until you had all signed the contract and to wait for him to sign it until you could all witness it, to help assuage the concerns that I'm sure many of you will have." Thor turned towards the corner that Harry had been standing in. "Mr. Potter? Care to grace us all with your presence?"

A couple gasps escaped the mouths of a few students as Harry pulled off his cloak and canceled his disillusionment spell.

"What is he doing here?" someone yelled in angry voice, while several other loud and angry mutterings filled the room.

Harry walked forward confidently despite the outcries of anger and shock then signed his name on the contract. He turned around the faced the group with sharp eyes, not saying a word yet managing to quiet the group of them anyway. "The Dark Lord has returned," Harry said suddenly in a loud, authoritative voice, bringing few gasps and then absolute silence, instantly to the room. "And I stand with him." Harry continued and watched with mild amusement as several expressions of disbelief and incredulity graced the gathered student's faces.

Thor came up to Harry's side, pulled up his left sleeve and deactivated the glamour that kept his Dark Mark hidden. He held his arm into the air, displaying his mark for the room to see.

"I vouch for Potter." Thor spoke in his booming voice. "Despite what you all may have heard or read in the Prophet, he did not spend his summer with some mysterious friend. He spent his summer living in the Dark Lord's headquarters, learning Dark magic, attending Death Eater meetings and training sessions. Mr. Potter was personally trained by the Dark Lord, and is now willing to relay much of what he has learned to you... if you are willing to listen."

"Potter? With the Dark Lord?" someone exclaimed in obvious disbelief.

"But he's the Boy-Who-Lived!"

"He's Dumbledore's puppet!"

"It's a trick!"

"He's a spy!"

"It's true! I saw him there." Draco drawled in a loud yet calm voice and all those around him quieted to look at him with wide, stunned eyes.

"What do you mean, you saw him there?" a seventh year Slytherin asked.

Draco smirked. "When my father took me to see the Dark Lord this summer, I spoke with Potter. He was living there. I attended a meeting with the Dark Lord and Potter was there."

Harry could tell that Draco had probably been dying to brag about having been to see the Dark Lord and, now that he was under the protection of the secrecy contract, he was finally free to do just that.

"You were taken to the Dark Lord?" A disbelieving voice called out.

"Is the Dark Lord truly back?"

"But he's dead! How could he be back?"

"Not even the Dark Lord could come back from the dead!"

"You dare to doubt the Dark Lord?"

"He was never truly defeated! Only a fool would believe that the most powerful Dark Lord could..."

"Why would he allow you to attend a meeting with him? Let alone bloody Potter?" One of the older students snarled to Draco.

"My father is one of his most trusted and loyal followers!" Draco spat back. "He wanted to speak with me because he has plans for Hogwarts and He realized that I would be able to help him!"

"You're only a fifth year! You're not even qualified! Why would the Dark Lord trust a bloody fifth year with anything as important as..."

More angry voices rang throughout the hall as the arguing began anew, rising to a mind-numbing cacophony. Harry raised his wand hand into the air, shooting a powerful burst of Dark angry red light surrounded by a black swirl of ooze-like mist that hit the ceiling, exploded in a powerful web-like shockwave that spread across the stone before fading away. The surge of magic shook the group so powerfully that several of those gathered fell to their knees, and the rest were stunned into silence.

The spell was Dark. Powerfully Dark and no one there with a Dark affinity could deny it or its power. The angry calls had silenced instantly, and those gathered were now looking on with a mixture of shock and disbelief at the one who had cast it.

"Next to none of you actually know me," Harry began to speak, breaking the heavy silence. "The real me. Of course, everyone thinks they know me but let me be the first to tell you that whatever you think you know about me? Forget it. I'll tell you who I am. I am a Dark wizard. I have killed. I have tortured. I stand by the Dark Lord and I will remain by his side through the coming war. I am a snake in the lion's den. I have the trust and the confidence of the leader of the Light so am in a position to spy on the Dark Lord's enemies without being subjected to their suspicion. They, like many of you, truly believe that I am on the Light's side, but I. Am. Not.”

"This class will teach the Dark Arts. It is being taught by two wizards who have both sworn their absolute loyalty to the Dark Lord and his cause. This does not mean that you, by participating in this class, are required to join him after graduation. However, the fact remains that many of you have family members who have already taken the Dark Lord's mark. Upon graduation, quite a few of you are likely to follow in their footsteps. The Dark Lord has lent his personal assistance in this endeavor because he knows this. He would prefer that his future followers come to him already at least partially trained and prepared to take their place in the coming war.”

"The contract that you all just signed, and that I just signed, was created by the Dark Lord himself. The ward stones that are currently placed in this room, preventing the Headmaster's wards from logging our spells and reporting on our activities, were created as well as prepared by the Dark Lord. If anyone here is under the delusion that they could find some sort of loophole to get around the contract should the need arise, know this! Any willful attempts to circumvent the spells placed upon the contract to protect us and to protect you, willful attempts to squeal to the Headmaster or the other Professors, or the Ministry, these attempts will get you killed! The consequences of breaking this contract are severe! The Dark Lord does not wish for his return to become public knowledge yet. He's preparing his followers in secret but he is also trying to subtly infiltrate the Ministry so that his takeover will go through with as little resistance as possible. As such, he is not willing to risk all of that just because you wanted to brag to your friends or because you got the idea in your head to try and blackmail someone, or because you thought you could boast and earn yourself some rep or respect."

Harry stopped and looked out over the room. The room was filled with stunned silence and many sets of large, startled eyes were focused right on him. "If anyone here doesn't think they can handle the pressure, you should leave. Leave and don't come back. If you don't think you can handle the workload, you should leave. We will be expecting you to perform beyond your best. You will give your all to this class or you won't attend. This is a serious subject that we are teaching here. This is the Dark Arts. We will be learning powerful and dangerous spells here. This is going to be serious business and there will be no tolerance for anyone fooling around. If you are going to stick around and continue to attend our meetings then you will have to accept my leadership and my authority. If you can handle the pressure, responsibility, and accept learning from me, then stay.”

"Attending this class is an opportunity that you would be a fool to pass up. Not only the opportunity to learn the Dark Arts while in school, but the opportunity to learn from Professor Rowle, the opportunity to learn from me."

Thor took the lead again and began to explain the plan for the class, what would be covered and how often they would meet. They would have holding 'class' twice a week in the evenings for two hours.

Thor did a quick survey of how much actual exposure and practice in the Dark Arts the gathered students had. Some had been taught by their parents or by privately hired tutors during the summer but others only had a very fleeting familiarity with actually performing Dark spells. The group was split into two; the experienced students and the inexperienced ones. Thor took the inexperienced group to get them started since it was the first introduction of Dark magic that could be the most overwhelming and required the most guidance.

Harry took the others and demonstrated a couple spells of varying degrees of difficulty. The gathered students seemed less than eager to follow him, and there were a few, mostly seventh-years, who were giving him a hard time.

One boy with an especially sharp tongue found himself on the other end of Harry's wand, and then quickly on the floor screaming as Harry threw a Crucio at him for about ten seconds.

The group stared in utter shock but quite a few looked rather impressed.

"You should consider yourself lucky. I've held Death Eaters under that curse for minutes for less than what you just said." Harry spat at the shaking boy as he tried to pick himself up off the floor.

Harry sneered at him in mild disgust. "That your first time under the Cruciatus?" he asked in an airy voice. The boy looked up at Harry with an expression that seemed uncertain whether to be angry or to be terrified.

"What's your name?" Harry asked when he didn't get an answer to his last question.

"Nero Crockett," the boy said, finally getting to his feet and raising his head proudly into the air.

"Crockett? You related to Lennox Crockett?"

Crockett's eye twitched slightly. "He's my father."

"You're father's a fairly powerful wizard, Crockett. He's in the Dark Lord's Advanced group, did you know that? I've seen him duel. I've also seen him scream and writhe on the floor under the Dark Lord's Cruciatus when he repeatedly screwed up a spell and finally got on the Dark Lord's nerves. I can guarantee that His Cruciatus would hurt a hell of a lot more and last a hell of a lot longer than what I just did to you."

Crockett paled and his eyes widened as he swallowed a lump in his throat.

"Do you intend to follow in your father's footsteps, Crockett? Will you be taking the Dark Mark? Will you fight for the Dark and help to restore our world to its proper glory?" Harry asked imperiously.

Crockett's chest puffed out slightly and he rose his head even more proudly into the air than before. "I will," he said with a determined air.

"Then you need to learn to show proper respect for your betters. The Dark Lord would never stand for such cheek in his presence." Harry hissed menacingly.

Crockett's face flushed with anger, but his eyes were filled with fear and he gave Harry a curt nod.

Harry turned his gaze on the gathered students who were all watching the scene unfold with shock and awe.

"Back to work!" Harry bellowed sharply and everyone quickly returned to their dueling partners and practicing their spells.

That night Harry had gone back to the manor as usual, used the time-turner to go back 24-hours and met up with Tom. They had quickly Apparated to the Abbey and spent the night there as had become their new routine. With morning, the pair went through their morning workout, shower and breakfast before returning to the manor to deal with a couple Death Eater meetings.

For a couple weeks now, Harry had dedicated at least one hour each day he spent with Tom at the manor, to practicing the stealth parsel-phase spell that he had gotten from the book that Tom had him collect from the Chamber. After a few weeks of practice, he was now successfully able to phase every time he tried it. The trick was holding it for any prolonged period of time. He wasn't yet good enough to do it without significant concentration and, the moment anything distracted him, he would unphase then become visible and solid again. Tom was learning it with him, which was a new experience for Harry since it always seemed as if the elder wizard already knew everything.

It was interesting phasing at the same time that Tom did since they phased into the same plane of alternate space. They could see and even touch each other while phased but no one else could see them as long as they properly held their focus, and they could even pass through most solid objects.

Harry compared it to being like a ghost but Tom insisted it was nothing like being a spirit at all. This comment had instantly set a pit into Harry's stomach, suddenly realizing how insensitive his comment had been considering the fact that Tom had been forced to exist as little more than a spirit for more than a decade. He meekly apologized but Tom brushed it off, telling him he was being stupid and to stop it immediately which brought a weak grin across Harry's lips.

At the end of the day, Harry portkeyed back to Hogwarts to spend his Saturday night in Gryffindor tower.
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Harry Potter and the Breeding Darkness