Time seemed to fly after that. In between classes and extra training, the days seemed to flow one into the next for Harry, although he made sure that he and his girlfriend took out time for snog breaks. Professor O'Brian was checking everyone for cheating at the beginning of every Potions class. She only caught Malfoy trying it one more time, but knew that he'd try again given the chance. Harry and Hermione kept at the top of their classes, earning many points from their teachers, especially Sirius Black.

The class after Hermione's birthday, Sirius chose an interesting topic to discuss. "Can anybody in class tell me why certain curses are called unforgivable?" Hermione's hand was up immediately. "Yes, Miss Granger."

"Because they are unforgivable. The use of any one of them will earn you a life sentence in Azkaban."

"That is correct. Five points to Gryffindor. Can anybody in the class name one?" Harry, along with a handful of others, raised his hand. Sirius grinned. "Mr. Potter?"

He took a deep breath. "The Avada Kadavra curse."

"Correct. Five points. The killing curse. There is no shield that can block it. The only known way to survive is to make sure it doesn't hit you. Although Mr. Potter here is the exception. He's the only person known to have survived it, and no one really knows how. Mind you, there are lots of theories about it, but none that I want to test. Does anybody else know a curse." He looked at the hands that had been raised. "Malfoy?"

He sneered. "The Imperius Curse, sir," he said proudly yet coldly.

"Yes. That's a curse that controls you. A strong enough mind can learn to fight it off, but it's difficult. Many witches and wizards, including Lucius Malfoy, claimed to do Voldemort's..." Most of the class shuddered at the name. "...bidding under its influence. Of course we now know he was lying. One point to Slytherin for providing such a fine example of a fake Imperius Curse. I wonder who else was lying about it back then," he said as he shot a quick glare at both Crabbe and Goyle, who gulped. "Anyone else know a curse?" He looked around and his smile faded. "Mr. Longbottom," he said kindly.

Neville was trembling, but forcing himself to speak. "The C-cruciatus curse."

"That's correct, Neville. Five points to Gryffindor. The torture curse." He took a deep breath. "This is the most painful curse in existence. Believe me, you don't want to be hit with this curse." He glanced in Neville's direction for a moment, which caused him to pale. "Anyone brave enough to stand up to this evil curse long enough risks loosing their sanity. It takes a truly sick individual to do that to someone." He then looked around the room. "What is it about these three curses that makes them so bad that you automatically get life in prison for performing them? There are other ways to kill and hurt people. Other curses to use. Why are these special?"

Harry thought back to what he'd read in the textbook and raised his hand along with a few others, including Hermione.

"Yes, Harry?"

"Because these curses require a very strong hatred to work properly. You have to really want to torture, kill, or control a person to use them. The ministry feels that if you are capable of using those particular curses, there is probably no hope of rehabilitation for you. Most curses only require the proper wand movement and incantation, and no emotion. But trying those curses without pure hatred inside you will result in the spell not working properly."

"Correct. Twenty points to Gryffindor."

He went on with the lesson, and about fifteen minutes before class was over, he assigned an essay and then said, "Starting the first week of October, every Wednesday after dinner I'll be hosting a dueling club." This got the class' attention. After he gave them the details, including the fact that Harry would be assisting him, he dismissed the class.

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Five minutes after they'd been dismissed, Harry and Hermione were headed toward the Great Hall for dinner when they heard Draco's voice behind them scream, "Densaugeo!"

Harry instinctively turned and ducked, pulling his wand out as Hermione, a moment slower than Harry, did the same. Unfortunately, she had been hit by the jet of light as she turned, and she was clutching her mouth with her left hand, a panicked expression in her eyes as she pointed her wand, held tightly in her right hand, at Malfoy. Harry noticed Crabbe and Goyle were pointing their wands at him, too, but wasn't that worried about them.

Harry saw the look of fear in Hermione's eyes and lost his temper. He'd been holding back some of his power in class when performing spells, so that he wouldn't show the results of his Magic Potential training (which was nearly finished). Now he wasn't holding back as he shot Malfoy with a silent 'Furnunculus!' It was a simple spell to cause a few boils, but amplified by Harry's magic, it sent Malfoy into the wall as his whole body broke out in painful boils. He turned his attention to Draco's bodyguards in time to see them both fall petrified to the ground.

Draco was soon on the floor crying and scratching his boils that were everywhere. He'd dropped his wand because it hurt too much to hold it. Harry turned to Hermione, who had her hand over her mouth, but he could see what had to be her teeth sticking out under her hand and growing.

"What happened?" said Sirius, who just approached the scene, obviously on the way to dinner himself.

"Draco and his goons attacked us from behind. He got Hermione with something, and I'm gonna walk her to the hospital wing. Don't ask me to help with those clowns."

"Go on, Harry. I'll levitate them upside down behind you in a few minutes."

Harry put his hand around his girlfriend's shoulder. "You don't really need to cover your mouth, Love. It's not helping."

"Ivvv Trvvin..." she said, her speech impaired by her huge teeth that now reached her knees.

"Don't bother trying to talk, Hermione. We'll hurry up to see Madam Pomfrey and she'll sort this out. I'm sorry he..."

"Vazzen vvvur vvvault!" she tried to say as they hurried down the hall. She could barely hold her head up with how much her teeth weighed.

Harry saw a small group pointing at her, giggling. He glared at them and aimed his wand until she grabbed his arm to stop him, slowly shaking her head.

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The teeth were almost to the floor when they reached their destination, and Pomfrey easily cancelled the curse and started shrinking Hermione's teeth. Harry kept quiet while his girlfriend had her teeth shrunk smaller than before. When the process was over, he had to admit, "Your smile is even more beautiful than ever," causing her to blush.

At that moment, a clearly terrified Draco floated into the room, held upside down with Sirius behind him pointing his wand and smiling. Draco appeared to be attempting to scream, but had obviously been silenced. The normally perfect hair was a complete mess, hanging toward the ground, and he was still covered in boils. Sirius said, "It was easy to revive the other two, but I don't know what to do about him."

"What happened to him?" asked Pomfrey as she put him in a bed.

"I told you he attacked Hermione," said Harry with a grin.

"Yes, yes. I know. Retaliation for the purpose of making my life more difficult. I meant what spell did you perform."

"Furnunculus!"

She stared at Harry. "How many times?"

"Just once," he said, giving her a strange look.

"Are you sure?"

At this point, Sirius stunned Draco and performed a privacy charm on the room. "Don't tell anyone this, but Harry has been working on increasing his magical potential. I think that when he saw his girlfriend hit with a spell, he got angry and released more power that he intended." He turned to Harry. "Am I right?"

Harry grinned. "Yeah, but I'm not gonna apologize. The bloody coward attacked us from behind"

"Of course not," said Sirius, "Malfoy's the one in trouble. I took one hundred points and gave him two weeks of detention with Filch. I'm also going to inform the Headmaster and recommend expulsion."

"I doubt Dumbledore would do it. It's more likely he'll make him a prefect next year. Snape pretty much killed my parents, so Dumbledore hired him. Draco will probably be given his 'second chance' for the hundredth time!"

"Probably, but I won't let him or his stooges in my dueling club."

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Word about the 'duel' soon spread around the school, mainly because it took two days before Draco was released from the hospital wing, and another five before the boils were all gone. Harry's prediction was right. Draco received no further punishment, unless you count enduring a heartfelt speech from Albus about the difference between right and wrong as punishment.

The dueling club started, and Sirius and Harry demonstrated dueling techniques, as well as a few spells, and let the students, which turned out to be almost two-thirds of the school, practice. They used the Great Hall for the meetings. The first lesson was on the disarming spell and dodging. They split everyone up into groups of two where one would cast the spell while the other dodged. Those that had been practicing with Harry and Hermione did well. The others had varied results that Professor Black and his assistant busily helped correct. Sirius also suggested that everybody start exercising daily, which produced a lot of groans. They were happy that he said, "That's up to you. It's not a requirement of the club."

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A week later, Neville and Ginny were walking hand-in-hand to Gryffindor tower after a meeting, when Ginny stopped. "I just remembered, I need to go to the library to work on an essay."

"Do you want me to..."

"No, I'll be fine, Neville. Thanks." She quickly kissed him and took off in the direction of the school's vast library. Unbeknownst to them, Ginny was being watched.

She hurried down the hall and took a secret passage through a deserted corridor when it happened. Draco Malfoy, with Crabbe and Goyle on either side of him, walked up to her from around a corner. He was looking her up and down like a piece of meat.

"Well, hello Weaslette. I must say that you have been growing up nicely, despite your family. It must be the fact of your pure blood asserting itself."

"Sounds like your stupidity is still asserting itself!" she said with a scowl on her face as she reached for her wand.

With an arrogant sneer, Malfoy said, "I could make things a lot better for you. Even for your pathetic family." He continued looking her up and down as he walked closer, making Ginny want to puke.

"Last I heard, you were betrothed to Pansy Parkinson. I doubt she'd appreciate you making offers like that."

Draco's ears turned pink, but he showed no other reaction. "I didn't say I would marry you. Your family doesn't have the right status for that. You could be a...distraction though. I could definitely make it worth your while."

Ginny's face turned red with fury as she raised her wand. "YOU..."

Before she could hex Draco, Crabbe (who'd pulled out his wand during the conversation) had sent a weak, badly aimed spell at her. She went into full dueling mode, dodging that spell and sending bat-bogey-hexes at Crabbe and Goyle before Draco could even pull out his wand.

His bodyguards gone, he nervously pointed his wand at her. Pretending he wasn't nervous, he said, "You do have spirit, red. But I..." At that moment he attempted to surprise her with a hex. She dodged that and sent a disarming spell at him, which he was too slow to dodge.

Draco was on the floor when Ginny caught his wand. Then using the wand she'd just caught, she sent a bat-bogey hex at Malfoy. She laughed as he ran off, swatting madly at his disgusting attackers. She went to the nearest girls' bathroom and left Draco's wand on the floor next to a toilet, making it appear that the last person to use it had simply forgotten their wand. She knew that every wand was registered with the ministry, so he wouldn't be able to deny that it was his. She giggled as she imagined Draco trying to explain how his wand had gotten there. She knew he wouldn't dare tell the truth of what happened.

A few days later, she found out Professor McGonagall had assigned him a week-long detention with Filch for reasons he wouldn't tell anybody.

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During the week of Halloween, Harry, Ginny, and Hermione finished their apparition lessons and the magical potential book (although they'd keep doing the magical potential exercises). In their animagus training, Harry could now make two claws; Hermione could make her face look like a big cat; Ginny could form red feathers on her left arm. Harry was told by Dumbledore that he was now a master Occlumens, and that Hermione and Ginny would also be within a few weeks. Harry suggested they study Legilimency to replace one of the topics they'd mastered, and Hermione suggested studying magical and muggle survival under any conditions. The goal was that if they were dropped off anywhere in the world (or captured and escaped) with or without a wand, they'd be able to survive. They ordered the appropriate books, deciding to start with muggle survival techniques.

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It was now the day before Halloween, and the representatives of the competing schools had arrived. Harry and Hermione had been amused by Ron's reaction to Viktor Krum's presence. Harry suggested that he join the fan girls in line to get his autograph.

"That's a great idea," said Hermione, "I'll even loan you my lipstick."

"Not funny," said a disgruntled Ron.

"Yes it was," argued Ginny.

"I'd have to agree with my girlfriend on that point," said Neville, who was sitting next to her. "It was quite humorous."

At that point, the meal began. Both Ron and Neville (much to Ginny's annoyance) were affected by the French girl who asked for one of their French dishes. "She's part-Veela!" they both declared at the same time.

Throughout the meal, Harry noticed the headmaster of Durmstrang glaring at him every few minutes. Whenever Harry would look in his direction, however, he'd turn his head.

Finally, Dumbledore unveiled the Goblet of Fire. "As of this moment, the Triwizard Tournament has begun."