Midnight Protector | Harry Potter FanFiction

SEVEN

September faded into October as plans to search for the remaining Horcruxes became more solid. Schoolwork for the seventh years was becoming more and more strenuous, especially since research and strategy were taking the majority of Harry's free time. It was amazing how quickly the head-start given during the summer could vanish. Every single teacher was assigning essay after essay that was targeted to include all previous years of knowledge in addition to the new material they were learning. Non-verbal spells were 'strongly encouraged' leaving many in a panic since they had yet to master the craft.

The seventh years weren't the only ones feeling the pressure of schoolwork. With the lack of distraction that Quidditch and Hogsmeade visits would provide, schoolwork was all the students had to consume their time. Teachers quickly noticed this and began to increase the difficulty of their assignments just to keep everyone busy. Study groups had become extremely popular, especially those that included members of the still functional D.A. 'Harry Potter's Defense Group' was still the most popular 'study group' and the most difficult to join even though Harry Potter was no longer leading the group. People still flocked to anything associated with Harry's name, much to Harry's annoyance.

Head boy duties certainly added to Harry's stress. He was expected to patrol the halls every night (with Tonks following him for his safety) and had to settle and confrontations that broke out amongst the students which were at an all time high. It was only a month into the term and everyone was starting to feel claustrophobic and stir-crazy. If something wasn't done soon, it was going to be an extremely long and injury-filled school year.

Defense Against the Dark Arts had quickly become the most talked about class at Hogwarts. All students were being taught some sort of defense. First through third year were taught the basics while the remaining years were expected to defend themselves every class period. Sirius and Remus were occasionally recruited to help supervise the duels and help those who were struggling. Sirius, Remus and Professor Shacklebolt each had a completely different style of teaching and dueling. Sirius was fast and harsh, Remus was calm and calculating and Professor Shacklebolt seemed to be a mixture of the two. Students were already asking about a possible 'demonstration' duel between the three of them.

It was a weekly debate whether to allow it or not. A duel between the three most experienced Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers Hogwarts had seen in the past decade would be a significant learning experience for what could be achieved. The problem was that the younger years wouldn't be patient enough to wait for the years of learning before attempting anything that they saw.

The 'werewolf issue' had slowly faded into the background at Hogwarts even though it was still a much debated topic in the 'Daily Prophet'. Remus was still receiving owls from publications pleading for an interview, just not as many as before. Regardless of Remus' refusals, the wizarding world still believed that Remus Lupin held all the answers concerning werewolves.

The possible locations of the remaining Horcruxes had been narrowed down significantly over the past weeks. The list of possible Death Eaters with a Horcrux in their possession had also narrowed down. There had been few Death Eaters before Voldemort's fall in 1981 that had been as well connected or as financially secure as Lucius Malfoy. The Lestranges were too mentally unstable to trust something as important as a Horcrux with and the majority of the remaining Death Eaters were mostly muscle rather than brains. The only remaining possibility was a new recruit who had no idea what they had gotten themselves into, like Regulus Black.

With the number of possible locations already low, the first place they would be searching was the place that Sirius had already searched last year: Stockwell Orphanage, the orphanage Voldemort grew up in. According to Sirius, the building was now abandoned because of funding problems and had been abandoned for over twenty years. Sirius assured everyone that he had searched every room and had found nothing but he didn't know what he knew now...