Disclaimer: None of this belongs to me etc.

Author's Note: Hope you enjoy the story – I realise it's maybe a bit complicated to begin with but I hope that you hang in there! Not really sure where in the timeline this is set but I'm guessing somewhere after OotP and discounting the events of HBP. Also as yet, I have no plans to include a romance – I'm really just indulging an idea I had. (Man I'm really talking this one up!)

Enjoy! x x x

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The Ivory Cane

A Little Distracted

"See if you can get this one right!"

"Don't splinch yourself, Potter!"

Harry scowled and closed his eyes, trying to block out the jeers coming from the Slytherin side of the room. In fact, he was sure some were coming from the other houses too but he didn't want to think about that.

"Ignore them, Harry. This is completely different. You can do it no problem at all."

Harry opened his eyes and smiled wearily at Neville.

"Thanks." Harry returned quietly.

A little nod of acknowledgement came from his friend before Neville's attention returned to his notes.

Truth was, Harry's heart was in his boots at the moment. He was third in the queue now. He glanced around the room again, trying not to catch anyone's eye as he observed his housemates chatting away about their nerves concerning the apparation lesson.

He bet that most of them would manage to apparate at least some of the way… he probably wouldn't though.

His reasoning behind this came from this year's lessons in deconstructing spells. Out of his whole year of classmates and six weeks worth of classes he was still the only one who was unable to make sense of the equation. McGonagall had assured the class that only a minimal understanding of the subject was necessary - they just had to be able to understand roughly why spells worked the way they did and then they could continue with their normal work.

But Harry couldn't.

He couldn't even begin to see where he was going wrong; it just didn't make any sense to him.

Hermione had tried to help him at first, then even Ron. Then he'd asked a seventh year for help but that hadn't done much either. By the third week McGonagall was getting impatient with him because she'd thought he wasn't trying. By the fourth week and several detentions of watching him struggle through even one question she'd passed him on to Snape (which had been hell). Strangely he hadn't learned much with Snape and soon went back to Hermione, trying to hide the fact that he felt completely and utterly useless and was starting to agree with his classmates whisperings that he wouldn't finish the year, never mind survive against Voldemort. Apparently the Light side was doomed.

He'd sent a letter to Remus asking for help and although the werewolf had sent him plenty of helpful notes and material none of them had helped him work it out. It should have been straightforward – Harry knew he could solve maths equations and it was supposed to be similar to that. His mind just kept telling him there had to be a different way around it. A way to solve the sum without as much work as it seemed to involve. He just couldn't work it out.

"Next please."

Harry looked up. It was his turn. He gave an uncertain smile and then stepped forwards. He could feel the eyes of the surrounding students watching him, but zoned them out and tried to concentrate on the task in hand. He'd never solve the equation if he apparated and left his arms behind.

He focussed on the small circle that he was meant to apparate within.

But, he supposed, he'd probably never solve the equation anyway so it didn't matter.

He closed his eyes and willed himself to move to the other side of the room as they had been taught.

"Just as well you don't need to work out the spell to apparate by yourself, eh Potter?"

Harry scowled at the shout and the sniggers that followed it, wishing himself away from the situation and wishing, with all his heart (even if it was all the way down in his boots), that he would soon make sense of the equation.

Harry tensed as the loud surrounding pop and whooshing noise filled his ears, stopping as suddenly as it had started. Everything was quiet. Maybe he had done it right! Maybe everyone had stopped laughing at him because he'd managed it perfectly.

Harry opened his eyes.

"Uh oh." He muttered quietly.

He certainly wasn't in the circle. In fact, he wasn't sure if he was even in Hogwarts any more - it wasn't a room he recognised anyway.

Harry stepped back uncertainly and surveyed the small room around him. There was a stuffed raven that seemed to watch him, sitting on top of an old dusty bookcase in the corner. Yellowed parchment lay scattered across a large oak desk and books lay open on most available surfaces. There was a window that was partially hidden by a heavy-looking red curtain and maps sat expectantly on the windowsill.

Harry decided it would be a bad idea to move about too much when he bumped against a large brass telescope and had to catch it from falling on his third attempt at getting to the door. Everywhere he moved he came into contact with something. He squinted at a map on the floor by his feet trying to work out if it looked important enough to step over and cursing at the dim light in the room.

"Well now, what have we here?"

Harry jumped violently at the voice, knocked against an unstable coat-stand and had to duck as it swung around in a circle, grabbing after it as it toppled away from him. Unfortunately he couldn't reach far enough and the stand clattered against a pile of books, scattering them across the already untidy floor in a cloud of dust.

Harry looked up in horror, expecting to be blasted into hundreds of pieces for breaking in and messing up a stranger's home – maybe he'd join the stuffed raven on the bookcase…

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A/N:

What have we here? Where has our little Harry ended up? ; )

I realise that I have invented a school subject here, but I just liked the idea of there being a logic and complication to the normal spells that wizards learn – kind of like advanced maths and algebra. But don't worry, it won't be complicated at all because I'm rubbish at maths.

Hope you enjoyed this introduction and feel free to review!