Squib's Revenge
Chapter 2
Harry woke after one of the most peaceful nights he could remember to Crabbe and Goyle blundering around the room trying to get dressed, Malfoy was waiting for them and Theodore Nott was nowhere to be seen.
He collected a clean set of robes, his shower bag and went for a shower. He returned to find Blaise finishing getting dressed, after putting his shower bag away they went up to the common room, where Tracey and Daphne were waiting for them.
As the four headed up to the great hall for breakfast, Harry noted that the other slytherins were all ignoring them, apparently following professor Snape's command.
Once in the hall, all conversation stopped for a moment before starting again, a few insults and hexes were sent at Harry but the quick appearance of Professor McGonagall stopped them quickly.
It was while they were eating the Daphne noticed something, "Your brother is smiling at you," she said to Harry.
Harry looked up to see his brother and his idiot friend Ron grinning like madmen, but at the same time seemed to be waiting for something.
"He probably sent a letter home last night, which means I'll be getting a howler from my father, two if he gets the paper first," Harry said, annoyed.
"Anyone know a very good silencing charm?" Blaise asked the third and fourth years around them, three, including Marcus Tranton, nodded and got their wands out.
Ten minutes later a loud screech echoed over the hall and over a hundred owls descended into the room, flying in great circles around the perimeter of the hall until they spotted the recipient of their cargo.
A regal looking eagle owl headed straight for the slytherin table, an ominous red letter in its talons.
"Harry?"
"I know, that's Apollo," Harry said, watching the bird descend then land.
Harry removed the letter and drew a six inch, double edged dagger as Apollo fled, showing more common sense than most of the people in the great hall.
"You might want to put a charm on your ears first, my father has likely enhanced the howler's volume," Harry said, waiting until everyone around him had performed the charm on themselves, Marcus casting one on Harry too.
He slit the wax seal open just as the corners started to smoulder and threw it onto the table.
"HARRY POTTER!"
The whole hall fell silent, most clutching their ears at the volume of the Howler, even Aaron seemed to be thinking getting Harry sent a Howler was a bad idea.
"HOW DARE YOU DISGRACE OUR FAMILY FURTHER! HOW CAN YOU BE AT HOGWARTS, YOU ARE A SQUIB! AND HOW DARE YOU SULLY OUR NAME AND AARON'S REPUTATION WITH YOUR PRESENCE, NOT TO MENTION BECOMING A FILTHY SNAKE, YOU ARE TO COME HOME AT ONCE OR…"
The Howler suddenly fell silent as Harry managed to signal for someone to 'shut the damn thing up' and it continued to silently mouth the words of its letter until it noticed its silence and glared mutinously at Harry.
Harry just stared back with a defiant look, surprising everyone including his brother, and gave the letter a two fingered salute, which made it stiffen in shock and collapse with a massive tear in it.
"Well that was interesting," Blaise said dryly, everyone in the hall was staring at the now ruined Howler, Aaron's jaw was nearly on the floor, no-one had seen a Howler dealt with like that before.
"I think your brothers upset," Tracey whispered in a teasing tone, Harry looked over to find his brother was indeed sulking.
He was about to say something when Professor Snape arrived and began handing out timetables.
Harry's schedule was very different, his classes were mainly electives but there were several openings, with a note from Snape that said he would assign 'additional' classes in these blocks, Harry surmised that he would be having his magic lessons with tutors in those time slots.
He was taking Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Muggle Studies, Potions, Herbology, Astronomy, Flying and History of Magic.
Harry said goodbye to his friends and hurried back to his dorm to get the books he needed for History of Magic and Muggle Studies, and then rushed off to his first lesson.
Harry entered the muggle studies classroom to find it full of different muggle items, from old fashioned light bulbs to a mangle, heck there even seemed to be an Army BSA motorcycle at the back.
He took a seat in the second row behind a partially dismantled portable FM radio from the 1970's, on the table next to the radio and assorted (and mismatched) components was a sheet of parchment detailing instructions for the examination and study of the device.
Harry idly began examining the radio as the rest of the class filed in, mostly third years with from all houses (only one other slytherin though) and a few Ravenclaw fourth years, one of whom decided to sit with Harry after seeing that he was drawing a rough schematic of the radio's fitted components and listing the missing parts as well as what were in the box of bits provided.
"May I sit here?" a soft voice asked, Harry looked up to find a girl in Ravenclaw robes with curly brown hair, fair skin, and light green eyes looking down at him. "Sure," Harry said simply, and put down his quill as the girl sat down and got her stuff ready for the lesson.
Professor Burbage entered within a minute and began her introductory speech, explaining that muggles didn't have magic, or at least couldn't use it, and had developed technology to perform the same tasks that simple charms did in the magical world, but also explained that there weren't always direct counterparts and that in some areas particularly transportation and communications muggle items were in fact superior.
That didn't go down well with the purebloods so the professor asked Harry what was in front of him.
"A portable FM radio"
"And what does a radio do?"
"This example or the technology as a whole?"
"Both,"
"The concept of the radio is to broadcast messages across energy waves to other radio sets where they can be received and understood. Originally this was done using a series of beeping noises produced by the radio wave transmitted, one beep for one wave, this was developed into a usable system by the invention of Morse code which allowed the previously unintelligible beeps to be transmitted in recognisable series of beeps with particular patterns corresponding to certain letters and numbers. This same code was previously used on the telegraph system which was in extensive use throughout the world by the time of the invention of the radio. The first radios were called Wireless Telegraphs, which is why the wizarding world knows this technology as the wizarding wireless," Harry said, surprising and intriguing most of the class. "This particular device functions only as a receiver just like a wizarding wireless."
"Well done, Ten points to Slytherin," Professor Burbage said.
"The Wizarding Wireless Network was taken from a muggle invention?" one student asked.
"So was the Knight bus and Hogwarts express," Harry said, again surprising everyone but it wasn't as profound, it made sense considering Kings Cross was a train station and there were buses outside it every September.
The lesson continued after that, the magically raised students learning how muggles compensated for a lack of magical ability and to a lesser extent their culture.
After the lecture the students were asked to attempt to assemble the items in front of them, Harry having an advantage due to working on a radio of the same model for his uncle, after Dudley broke it of course. He actually got along quite well with his partner, Penelope Clearwater, and a half blood like him but raised in the magical world, and together they managed to finish early, Harry even managed to engrave a pair of Norse power and flow runes onto the batteries and got the radio working, which meant BBC Radio 2 was heard in Hogwarts for the first time, earning both Slytherin and Ravenclaw twenty points for completing the task and another ten for house unity.
At Lunch Harry was approached by Professor Babbling about the Runes he used on the radio as that had never worked before. Harry explained he just used a Norse power rune with a flow rune to regulate the energy from the power rune.
The two talked for a further ten minutes about Harry's solution, earning ten more points to Slytherin, before Professor Babbling left and Harry returned to his meal. He missed some of the older slytherins eyeing him and the hourglass that showed the house points for slytherin, maybe it wasn't so bad having this squib in the house after all.
The good feeling didn't last long as a tall man with shoulder length blonde hair, and somehow a bald patch too, strode into the hall and went straight to Dumbledore, with whom he argued for several minutes until Draco Malfoy walked up and apparently asked to speak to the man and led him out of the hall.
Harry and Tracey headed off to History of Magic a few minutes later, but stopped by the barely open door of an empty classroom.
"…old fool thinks he's doing? Allowing a disgusting squib…" an older male voice said.
"There's more to this than you know, Father," said the voice of Draco Malfoy.
"What else could there possibly be?" the older voice snapped.
"Harry hexed Crabbe and Goyle last night."
"A squib can't… You mean to say the boy isn't a squib?"
"He told me as much on the train, and later in the common room, he claims his parents used a magic transfer ritual but screwed it up which left any magic his core replenished being sent to his brother."
"Yes, that is a possible side effect of such rituals, but he announced this on the train? And to the common room?" the older voice becoming softer, more calculating.
"Yes, he knows that slytherins know the value of information, he knows that we won't reveal his secret, not just because of Snape's order, but we understand the political consequences, it's unlikely that James Potter will survive the backlash and come out of it smelling of roses. Which means it's in the interests of at least our families to go along with the deception, that we see the Brat-Who-Lived squirm or get brought down a peg is a bonus," Draco replied.
"I would be careful of your words, Draco, it is not… prudent, to appear less than fond of our proclaimed saviour," the older voice scolded gently.
"I think we got the better deal, fake squib or not he's far easier to get along with and while he has no interest in politics he's cunning enough to outwit his opponents and has a certain presence… I can't really describe it, but when he's displeased he's doesn't need to say or do anything for you to know it."
"Maybe there's hope yet…"
"Don't get your hopes up, he's still a champion for muggleborns, but some of his suggestions last night… he's not completely blind or ignorant like most, he thinks things through, asks why things are the way they are and how could they be done differently, he looks for compromise and accepts that not everything has a parallel in the muggle world or that they just have to be," Draco said, surprising both the eavesdroppers, who quickly scurried away after they heard movement.
The pair spent the next lesson taking notes and discussing what they'd heard, well, Harry was taking notes while Tracey tried not to fall asleep, Harry noticed that the bushy haired girl who got sent to Gryffindor was the only other student paying any serious attention but she kept shooting glares at him and Tracey for talking.
By dinner the two had come to the conclusion that the slytherins would keep the secret, if only to enjoy watching his father and brother flounder in the fallout, but that now Mr Malfoy was aware he would likely be drawn into the power plays of pureblood politics.
Tuesday was much the same, having Ancient Runes in the morning and Herbology in the afternoon.
He arrived early for ancient runes and spent the time until the rest of the class entered and the bell rang discussing the particular runes used to power the radio and how he did it, earning a deserved reputation from not only the professor but his new classmates for having a good understanding of the subject, enough that some Hufflepuffs actually asked him to tutor them, something he quickly agreed to as he was having trouble with the Saxon alphabet normally used in Britain and the north coast of west Europe.
Herbology was his second class with his year group, this time it was with the Ravenclaws. The lesson was mostly to find out how much everyone knew and then setting out to identify the different types of magical plants, their properties and how to care for them. Harry went through the actual treatment of the plants quite well, the techniques being nearly identical to the ones he was forced to use in the Dursley's garden, and earned Twenty points for not only proper technique but assisting his classmates.
Wednesday's schedule was a repeat of Monday's, with the exception of Astronomy at Midnight. While Harry enjoyed the subject, he was told off twice, first by Professor Sinistra for staring at the stars for too long and the second time followed a nudge in the ribs after staring at the reflections of the stars in Tracey's eyes. Both left the tower blushing from the teasing by their friends that night.
With the exception of a late start to compensate for the previous night's Astronomy lesson, Thursday was the same as Tuesday's schedule.
Friday however was the day Harry feared the most, Double Potions with the Gryffindors.
Harry and his friends arrived early and chatted as the rest of the class arrived, Harry noted that one of the gryffindors, a slightly large boy with brown hair, was trembling and that the bushy haired girl from History was watching him, he decided to talk to her after class.
He also noted that Aaron and his friend Ron Weasley weren't there as Snape arrived.
"In," Snape commanded as he opened the door with a flick of his wand.
The gryffindors went in before the slytherins, taking seats to the left of the classroom with the notable exceptions of the bushy haired girl and the nervous boy taking seats in the two centre desks and they were joined by Tracey and Harry respectively.
"Hey," Harry said as he sat down behind the small Flanders cauldron, "Harry Potter."
"Oh, hey. Um, Neville Longbottom," the boy replied nervously.
"Don't worry about Snape, while he has no tolerance for fools that don't take his craft seriously, just relax and everything should be fine. If you find yourself not able to concentrate, step back and think of the ingredient's properties, how they react to other ingredients and how they work in this potion," Harry advised, Neville glanced at the formidable Potions Master and whispered, "Thanks."
Just as Snape was about to take the register, Aaron and Ron burst into the room looking like they'd run all the way from Gryffindor Tower on the seventh floor. Harry thought that they probably had.
Twenty points each from Gryffindor for being late," Snape barked, ignoring both boys pleas, "I don't care, I saw you both receive your schedules an hour ago, you would have been here on time if you were motivated to do more than stuff your faces at breakfast."
The whole room burst into low chuckles and giggles, even the bushy haired girl and Daphne were smiling.
The two grumbled mutinously as they took the remaining seats at the front of the classroom on the Gryffindor side.
Snape took the register, only pausing when he reached Aaron's name – "Aaron Potter, our new celebrity," he said softly.
"That's me," Aaron said arrogantly, earning a raised eyebrow from Snape and making Harry face palm.
"Harry Potter," Snape continued.
"Sir," Harry replied respectfully.
Snape then continued calling names until he was finished with the register. He then stood and walked to the front of the class and leaned back against his desk.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began.
He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but the whole class caught his every word - like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.
"As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death - if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
Harry grimaced when Snape finished his speech, it wasn't the best way to inspire them, especially as Neville was shaking again.
"Just remember what I said, if it gets too much just start reciting the properties of each ingredient," Harry reminded him, putting his hand on Neville's shoulder to calm him, Neville nodded and his shaking stopped.
"Potter!" Snape barked.
"Yes" "Sir!"
"Gryffindor Potter," Snape amended, rolling his eyes slightly as everyone sniggered.
"Yes," Aaron repeated.
"Yes, Sir" Snape corrected.
"There's no need to call me Sir, Professor," Aaron replied, winking to a sandy haired Gryffindor boy to his left and shooting a patented Potter grin to a girl with long golden blonde hair who blushed furiously.
"Detention Potter," Snape drawled, smirking at the incredulous look on Aaron's face, a complete contrast to Harry's 'what in the name of Merlin's left effing nut are you doing?' "And thirty points from Gryffindor for insubordination."
"Gryffindor Potter," Snape continued, cutting off Aaron's indignant spluttering, "What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"
Aaron's eyes suddenly went wide and he paled dramatically, Harry thought he looked like Prongs caught in the crosshairs of a loaded 88mm flak gun. 'I bet he's regretting going flying with father instead of being tutored in potions with me by mum and Severus,' Harry thought.
Aaron opened and closed his mouth twice before Snape ended his misery. "You don't know?" Snape asked sarcastically, shaking his head slightly.
"Let's try again, where would you look if I asked you to find me a bezoar?" Snape continued.
Aaron looked to Ron who shrugged helplessly.
"You don't know," Snape deadpanned. "Clearly, FAME ISN'T EVERYTHING," he said loudly, making several students on both sides of the room snigger.
Aaron looked offended by this but Snape didn't let him speak, "What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"
"I don't know Sir, but I think that know-it-all Granger might," Aaron shot back flippantly.
Snape raised an eyebrow, then glanced at the bushy haired muggleborn who Tracey had worked very hard to keep in her seat.
"Another detention I think and twenty points from Gryffindor for insulting a classmate," Snape said silkily, making most of the gryffindor's jaws drop and then glare at Aaron who now looked very uncomfortable.
"Let's see if your brother can do better," Snape said softly. "Well, Mr Potter?"
"Powdered Asphodel root to an infusion of Wormwood would make the Draught of Living Death, a Bezoar would come from a goats stomach and will save you from most poisons but I would expect a large number in the storeroom as their a vital part of most antidotes, and monkshood is the same thing as wolfsbane and is also called aconite," Harry said, surprising everyone except Snape and making Aaron and Ron glare.
"Thirty points to Slytherin," Snape said, looking very pleased. "I am glad that one of you inherited your mother's intelligence."
He turned around and flicked his wand at the blackboard making a set of instructions appear in chalk, "These are the instructions to a simple boil cure potion, you have one hour, begin,"
Things didn't really improve for the gryffindors after that point, Snape swept around the classroom criticising nearly everyone except Malfoy, who he seemed to like, Harry, probably because he knew Harry was somewhat competent from the tutoring sessions and Tracey and Granger, who he couldn't find anything to criticise about.
Harry had just made Neville calm down by going over the ingredients properties as Snape swept past them for the third time, preventing Neville from making a mistake again, when he heard a faint but ominous hissing from the Gryffindor side of the room.
Ignoring Snape, who was telling the class loudly about Malfoy's preparation technique, he looked over to the gryffindors to find his brother and Ron's cauldron now had a bright green potion that was hissing angrily and shaking on its stand.
Once again Harry's mind erupted in expletives that would make Bellatrix the Strange faint (not a typo, just Harry's nickname for her), he pulled his robe, which he'd taken off so the sleeves wouldn't dip into the potion, and covered his and Neville's cauldron.
"HIT THE DECK!" he shouted, grabbing Neville by the shoulders and pulling him under the desk.
Everyone looked round when Harry shouted, even Snape. Several people, including Tracey and Granger, either covered themselves or their cauldron with their robes while the rest dived for cover.
BOOM!
The cauldron exploded, sending great dollops of green liquid in all directions, most people were either covered or in cover so they were safe, but Aaron and Ron each a got face full of the potion which caused large and painful boils to erupt on any exposed skin and in some places where their robes had been simply drenched.
Harry wrenched his now soaking robe off the cauldron he was sharing with Neville before any of the ruined potion could drip through and pollute the one he wanted to protect.
"Idiot Boy!" Snape snarled as he vanished the remaining potion.
"My face!" Aaron exclaimed in agony, "My beautiful face!"
"Get these two to the hospital wing," Snape growled to Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas who were working next to Aaron and Ron and were lucky their cauldron hadn't gone off in a secondary explosion.
Finnigan and Thomas hauled the two moaning and whining gryffindors out of the classroom as Snape levitated their ruined cauldron to an alcove the older students compared to a Hazmat site.
"Thanks Harry," Neville said as Harry helped him off the floor.
"Don't mention it, you two ok?" Harry said to Neville before turning to the two behind him.
"We're ok, Thanks for the warning, Harry," Tracey replied with a smile that made Harry's stomach do a backflip.
"Thank you," Granger said in a small voice.
"Are you alright?" Harry asked in a concerned voice.
"I'll be ok," she replied, looking behind Harry as Snape returned.
"Twenty points to Slytherin for quick thinking and preventing further injury," Snape said to Harry before turning to the class and asking them to leave any potion drenched robes and that he'd arrange for them to be cleaned then returned.
It wasn't long until Harry and Neville finished their potion, shortly followed by Tracey and Hermione and the Blaise and Daphne, Snape collected samples from each cauldron and told them to pack up.
Harry caught sight of Granger leaving the room just as he finished packing, he said bye to Neville and hurried to catch up.
"Granger," the girl in question turned around, apparently surprised that Harry had followed her, "Got a minute?"
"What do you want?" she said neutrally.
"You know how nearly everyone falls asleep in History of Magic?" Harry asked.
"Of course," she sniffed, "It seems that only you and I can stay awake."
"It's a challenge for me too," Harry admitted, "I was thinking, maybe we could start a study group for that class, I mean nearly everyone else is likely to struggle if they can't take notes and it's a little unfair for almost the whole year to fail because of the affect Binns' voice has," Harry said, hoping she'd agree to his idea.
"If they can't stay awake it's their problem," she said, "I'm not going to let lazy people copy from me.
"That's not what I'm asking," Harry replied, "I'm suggesting that we use an old classroom, read from our notes and the textbooks and get help from a prefect or older student to watch over us, maybe get copies of past test papers."
Granger bit her lip, "that could work," she admitted.
"We don't let them copy from anything but the textbooks, we use the study group to make sure we can actually pass the test," Harry reassured her.
"Ok, but only if your there too," she agreed.
"it's my idea, of course I'll be there," Harry said indignantly.
"We should approach McGonagall at dinner," Granger said.
"Good idea, its Harry, by the way," Harry said holding out his hand.
"Hermione Granger," Hermione replied shaking his hand.
"Friends?" Harry asked.
"Hermione blushed, "I'd like that."
The pair went up to the great hall, talking about how their lessons had gone so far, oblivious to the stares from the other students at seeing a Gryffindor and Slytherin talking civily for the first time in twenty years and the grins from Harry's friends.