Harry potter : Forgotten Lord

Pushing her long blonde hair behind her ears once again, she considered for moment tying it up in a ponytail, but dismissed it as she turned to question her friend. "What do you mean, Padma?" Daphne asked, wondering where her Indian friend's statement was going. Of course, like any good Slytherin she wasn't going to admit that she considered Padma a friend, preferring to act like she was only a passing ally at best.

"Well, every group has a symbol or a unique colour scheme of some type; all the common rooms around Hogwarts have their own special theme and design, so why shouldn't we have our own?" Padma pressed, showing her growing self-confidence as the small group examined the old, long unused quarters.

"Padma," Harry replied calmly, causing everyone to shift their attention to him as he said his piece. "We're not a formal group or assembly, or some type of diabolical secret organisation bent on world conquest," several smiles broke out amongst the group. "We're just four respectable first year students that enjoy each other's company and want to work in peace and quiet, without being disturbed by our more childish peers," the four of them grinned in agreement.

Daphne nodded her head in agreement as her childhood friend, Tracy, mimicked the gesture, openly supporting Harry's statement which caused Padma to give a childish pout. Deciding to win some favour from the Ravenclaw twin, she stroked her chin thoughtfully, "Padma is right about one thing, we need to redecorate this place," Daphne said whilst gesturing round the disused room with a sweeping motion of her hand.

"It's horribly outdated and needs to be made respectable. We can always decide on a symbol or name for whatever this little group is later, since we still have another six years here to plot world domination," the grins turned into chuckles and giggles at this bit of silliness, Padma's pout quickly disappearing.

"So what colours are you suggesting then Daphne?" Harry enquired, giving her a curious look, with a slight grin on his lips. "Surely you have some ideas already, otherwise you wouldn't have spoken up?" Harry had obviously picked up on her subtle hint, whilst laying down his own challenge.

Smiling back at her Ravenclaw ally, she accepted the hidden challenge. "Well, I was thinking of a two colour based theme, much like the rest of Hogwarts' houses are based on, but something darker in our case, something far more elegant and refined. Something that helps to convey our position as being the school's top first years," she explained to the group, whilst quickly thinking of some points to support her proposal if it became necessary. She turned to face Harry again.

He smiled back at her, "Getting a bit ahead of ourselves there Daphne, aren't you?" He offered back with a confident smile. "We may be the top students in our classes; but we have yet to take the official top places in the end of year rankings.

I'd rather not mess with fate by being overconfident; history has shown time and time again that overconfidence, more often than not, leads to defeat and failure." Harry lectured to them as a whole, but did not actually deny the idea of using a two colour design theme. "We should not lessen our revision efforts just because we feel confident right now."

"Yes Professor Potter," Tracy voiced sweetly before erupting into giggles, along with Padma, as she gave her own grin.

"Good Miss Davis, I expect you to put your best effort into your examinations," Harry countered with a rather accurate impression of Professor McGonagall, before his own broad smile appeared.

"So what are you thinking Daphne? You wouldn't mention dark colours unless you had a good reason," Tracy asked, picking up where Harry had left off.

Daphne made a mental note to be more subtle next time, since everyone seemed to see through her ploy at getting the colour scheme that she desired most. "I only want this place to look presentable, since it will say a lot about us as a group if we ever invite others to join us. The dark rich colours will bring out the light from the windows more," she defended, whilst trying to make it sound like it was in the group's collective interest to see her way.

"You have yet to answer the question Daphne, so stop trying to avoid it and just tell us what colour scheme you are already thinking of," Harry expressed, obviously not in the mood today for playing her word games like he normally was.

"A black and gold trim theme; it would be both elegant and simple," she offered evenly.

She had been a fan of darker colours for a long time, not that that indicated she was a dark witch or anything.

It was just because it was simple and elegant, and had the side-benefit of enhancing her own looks, whilst gold itself just screamed wealth and position. When combined together tactfully, such simple things like colour choice could achieve such wonderful psychological results. Another factor was that most of them were from wealthy families, who had influence within the Ministry of Magic due to their family names.

Therefore Gold was a suitable colour choice since it represented wealth and position and exclusivity. Tracy herself was from a moderately wealthy family, but they had suffered a significant decline in their considerable status since her father had died. Despite this, the colour gold suited them.

The group spent several minutes weighing up her proposed suggestion, obviously trying to imagine what the room would look like with a gold and black colour theme, before Padma spoke up. "While I like the idea, isn't black kind of a depressing colour, and gives the impression, however unfairly, that we're dark?" she asked unsurely.

"No," both she and Harry said at the same time, before turning to look at each other with a small smile growing on their faces whilst trying to work out which one should speak first, much to the amusement of Padma and Tracy.

Harry took the offered opening, "Black itself is not dark by default. If it was then why would our school robes be mostly black? Are we all dark witches and wizards in training simply because of the colour of our clothes?" he asked Padma. "Black is just another colour, we decide what the colour actually means, just as much as the magical decides what the effects of a spell are."

Seeing an opening in the discussion, she spoke up to defend her suggestion, rather than just relying on Harry to do so for her.

"Black is simple and elegant, and Harry's right about spells. Sure there are some darker areas of magic, but most magic is simply grey or neutral. The Ministry's idea of dark arts is flawed and incomplete. In fact most so-called 'dark arts' spells are just dangerous combat spells that were designed for times of war. Most of those spells were made when the world was a far more violent place.

The truth is that most spells and magics that are classified as dark today by the Ministry are because they were too dangerous or too powerful for the average witch or wizard to even perform successfully.

In times past they weren't dark or illegal to perform at all. The simple fact is that people like Ron Weasley are the reason that they are banned today. Someone like him saw just what the spell was meant to do, what it was capable of, and decided that it was too dangerous and powerful.

Incidentally, it was a person just like him who found that they were incapable of casting that spell themselves, thus it was banned, to prevent everyone else from learning magics that they themselves could not control or do, lest it be used against them," she lectured to the group, recalling everything her father had said on the subject, when she had asked about what the dark arts were.

A polite cough was then heard causing everyone to look towards Harry, "I believe we are getting off point here, we can debate the reason why the dark arts are banned and everything else another time.

I think the point that Daphne is trying to make is that black is not dark or evil by default. Since it is obvious we are not going to reach an agreement right now, how about we leave the issue of a colour scheme for another time."

She watched with mixed emotions as the rest of the small group nodded their agreement to Harry's suggestion.

"Good." Harry purred before walking around the room, running his middle finger along the surface of an old piece of furniture, picking up a trail of dust and grime.

"How about we make this place suitable for the living once again and get on with our revising. However, I do have some quick points I would like to make first," he said, before waiting to see if he had their full attention before continuing.

"First, since this is our private place and we've agreed to keep it secret, I think we all should agree with each other before we reveal this place to another person," this quickly received another round of nods from everyone. "Second, I want to talk to you about an obscure branch of magic that is commonly called the 'mind arts.'"

As she expected, this question caused Tracy and Padma to give Harry confused looks, whilst the former showed a hint of curiosity as well. It also confirmed her earlier hunch that Harry was indeed studying the supremely difficult skill and was the reason for the book at Christmas, to help pave the way for learning it, without otherwise revealing it.

"Padma, Tracy, the mind arts are a branch of magic that can allow someone to see another person's thoughts. On the flip side, it also allows you to defend your own mind from other wizards and witches trained in that skill.

But it has many side benefits as well, such as making your memory better, making it easier to recall information, to better control your emotions, to numb pain, to resist the magical allures used by creatures such as vampires or veela, and to fight against compulsion charms," Harry explained to the listening pair.

"With enough practice and proficiency, it also will keep Professor Snape from nosing around in your minds with impunity," this information caused several shocked expressions.

"It's true," she seconded.

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