Harry Potter And The Breeding Darkness

Chapter 20

It was now the morning of the second Friday in October, October the 12th. There was a Defense and Dueling Association meeting that evening after dinner and Harry was mildly looking forward to it. Harry had History that morning, then Potions, and then Transfiguration after lunch. After that, he had a free period that he would actually be spending with Thor, assisting in one of his Defense classes. It was something he had started a few weeks earlier since he had a free block that none of his friends had.

Harry had no class at the end of Friday, but Hermione had Arithmancy, and Ron had Divination. Ginny and Luna both had classes as well. So, Harry visited Thor and sat in on his fourth year Defense class. It was a mix of Slytherins and Ravenclaws, and it was actually a fun class to observe and help with. Thor had already taken to covering a few mild Dark spells with the group. They were all defensive spells, rather than offensive spells, but they were still Dark and most definitely not in the textbook. Thor had supplied them all with supplemental reading packets he had prepared himself, and had the ward stones in place, in the defense classroom as an extra precaution.

It was obvious to Harry and Thor that some of the students realized exactly what sort of spells they were practicing, but the ones who noticedwere also the ones who appreciated it the most and weren't about to go telling anyone. The rest of the students were blissfully ignorant of the Darker nature of the spells they had practiced, as none of them seemed any more violent or dangerous than any of the other classes they practiced in any of their classes.

–

The plan for that evening's Dueling and Defense Association meeting involved Thor introducing the first truly Dark, offensive spell for the group to practice. It was going to be a delicate experiment. First and foremost, to see if anyone would call them on the affinity of the spell, but also to see who in the class was actually able to cast it.

Harry's mind was so focused on what was going to be happening at the end of the day, that he was, admittedly, a bit distracted as he entered the Great Hall for breakfast that morning. He sat down at the Gryffindor table beside Hermione and across from Ron and began to pile food onto his plate with a sleepy, unfocused expression on his face. He was brought out of his morning haze by the sound of Hermione gasping beside him.

Harry turned his head and blinked owlishly at the girl who had her face utterly buried in the Daily Prophet.

"What's up?" Harry asked.

"Harry! Look at this!" Hermione exclaimed as she moved a few dishes out of the way and smoothed the paper out between them. It was open to page two and a large headline at the top center read 'New Study Proposes Radical ideas on the Origin of Magic in Muggleborns!'

Harry had to fight to school his expression and keep the smirk off his lips. He'd wondered when this would finally make the Prophet.

A new study that has been published simultaneously in the ' 
Journal of Magical Genealogical Study', and 'Trends in Magical Genealogy' entitled 'The Annihilation of the Muggleborn Myth'. The study, led by 
Professor Phoebus Penrose of the 
Royal Academy for the Advancement of Magics, claims that the idea of any magical person descending entirely from non-magical muggles is impossible. The study states that every muggleborn witch or wizard who participated in the study was, in reality, the descendant of a squib cast out from a magical family. The study states that all people with magic have to have a magical person somewhere in their family tree. That it is, in fact, impossible for a person with only muggle ancestors to 
develop spontaneously 
the ability to use magic.