Thank you for all the reviews guys, it makes me really happy to see that you are enjoying this story.
Answers to specific reviewers:
Zephal: I know its really focused on Hogwarts right now, but I wanted Harry to have meaningful connections with people, to learn how to actually interact with his peers. The last story didn't really have that; Harry matured too quickly to be believable, and was often strained in connecting with others he did not know.
Technology will definitely be a big part of his Hogwarts years, and I hope that will make it seem less like "it doesn't really feel different to any other Heir!Harry story where he learns UBER SECRET MAGIC that no one else knows."
Elim Garak: First of all, thanks for the points you made on the effects that magic would have on specially shielded technology, and that there was no dead zone around Diagon Alley. You're definitely right about that. When I was talking about technology I meant solely electronic circuit based technology, CD players, radios, digital watches, but you are correct about purely mechanical devices being safe from the interference.
As for the education in Hogwarts...this ties in to what I was saying to Zephal, but also the last story had him learning about magic from real living wizards, namely his family that came with him. In this version, he could still have that through Sirius, but at the same time he is unlikely to learn about the man until his third year anyway. Learning from books would not be enough, and though he could learn from private wizard tutors (and still might in the future, haven't decided on that yet) he would not learn how to properly interact with other people, which like I said to Zephal, wasn't a good thing for him.
I hope this clears up why I wanted to have him in Hogwarts, and I'm sorry that it detracts from the originality of the first story, but thats just how it is I guess.
Moi: Thanks Moi, Hermione is one of those characters that has a lot of potential in fan fiction, but in many cases is seen as the one dimensional bookworm obsessed with authority. She is definitely going to be a part of Harry's life, but I'm uncertain as of yet how much she will really know about Merlin. Still, she will meet Merlin along with Neville and I plan to have them learning some things alongside Harry, namely logical thinking and critical skills based off of the Lantean methods of learning.
M.L. : In the last story I tended to focus more on what could be done with magic and technology than if it should be done or how it should be done, which was one of the reasons that I grew tired of the other story and thought that it didn't make sense. Character development, like you mentioned, was another issue I really had, and I'm glad that you think it is improving in this story.
Finally, thanks to guests 1 and 2 for the points you made. As for Merlin being a practitioner of hand to hand, I thought that a people with as long a history as the Lanteans would have at least some styles of fighting unarmed, and that being human or at least very close to human in physiology, would have similar movements as the base of their martial arts styles to the ones on Earth.
As always, a big thank you to my Beta Joe Lawyer for his work on the chapter.
Chapter 3:
Same day
Arriving at Hogsmeade Station
Harry could not see much of the station as they arrived. Night had covered the sleepy station like a dark blanket, only alleviated by distant glowing lights.
Harry followed the rest of the students off the train and lightly pulled Neville with him to a less crowded area of the platform. Despite having calmed down slightly while in the cabin, the boy was beginning to look nervous again.
Neville had mentioned that his grandmother was expecting him to be sorted into Gryffindor, just like his parents had been, and from what Harry had gathered through their conversation Neville had the burden of quite a few unfair expectations set on his narrow shoulders.
Harry knew Merlin was strict, but the man was also respectful of the achievements that he had made. Neville's grandmother, however, seemed to dismiss every good quality of the boy and only focused on his perceived faults, whether real or not.
It was no wonder that his self-confidence was in this tattered state if any progress he made was looked upon with scorn.
"First years gather round. First years!" An absolute giant of a man appeared out of the gloom holding a dim lantern. Despite his intimidating size, the man gave off an aura of kindness, and Harry relaxed, if only a little.
The man waited for a minute as the elder students left the platform and headed in a different direction.
After quickly surveying the crowd of first years, the man's veritable forest of a beard opened in an honest smile.
"Well then, my name is Rubeus Hagrid, keeper of the keys at Hogwarts. Follow along please." The man turned and walked at what he likely believed was a very slow pace, but for the first years, whose legs were considerably shorter, a bit brisk.
They were led to a pier with what looked like dozens of small wooden rowboats rocking gently in the water. Harry gingerly sat down in a boat with Hermione and Neville, along with a dark-skinned boy whose name he did not know.
Once they were settled, Hagrid looked over the small fleet before nodding to himself and bellowing a command, "Forward!"
Harry felt the boat gently accelerate, gliding through the water as if there was no resistance from it at all. More magic at work?
As they grew closer to the castle Harry could feel a warm presence brush softly against his mind, feeling both welcoming and strong. He flinched slightly when he first felt it, drawing questioning stares from his three boatmates, before he rubbed his arms as if he was cold. There was a strange feeling in the air in response, almost like what he felt from Merlin when the man was highly amused.
If Harry didn't know any better, he would have thought that the castle was laughing at him.
As the boats drew closer to the castle, Harry stared in wonder at the beautiful lights that flickered against the stone walls. It was an awe inspiring sight, but still paled in comparison to the images that Merlin had shown him of Atlantis from his memories, when that great city was vibrant with life. Then again, the castle seemed to give off a worn, well-loved feeling compared to the sharp and unyielding angles of Atlantis.
Once they docked they were lead up a worn stone path. The stones having seemingly been polished by centuries of first year students trampling up them in the same uneven mob as right now.
They were met at the doors of the castle by a severe looking woman with an equally severe bun of hair.
"Hello Professor, I've got the firsties here for you." Hagrid spoke gruffly, his words slightly muddled under his countryside accent.
She gave Hagrid a tight grin and a nod before gesturing toward the students behind him. "If you will all please follow me?"
She turned toward the enormous set of solid looking doors, more than appropriate for a castle, a fortress, which opened seemingly of their own accord.
They were led into a bright hallway lit by flickering torch light, smooth granite stonework giving way toward polished slate and marble. Portraits of hundreds of people were placed on the walls, and Harry had to make sure that his eyes were working correctly when they seemed to be moving and even talking. They were.
Deciding to ignore that seeming impossibility for the moment, he turned his attention back to the professor as she came to a stop before another pair of large doors at the base of the landing staircase.
"Welcome to Hogwarts." She stated kindly, looking over the assembled first years with a slightly warmer gaze. "Behind me is the great hall, where all of our students and professors eat their meals together. Students eat their meals with their house, while the professors have their own table at the end of the hall."
"Your house is where you will spend your years at hogwarts. Your house is akin to your family while you are here; you will have your classes with them, sleep in the same dorms as them, and you will spend your free time in your house common room. There are four houses; Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. No one house is the same as the other, as each emphasizes the traits that their founders most valued. Gryffindor for the brave and noble, Hufflepuff for the hardworking and humble, Ravenclaw for the studious and intelligent, and Slytherin for the ambitious and cunning."
Harry frowned slightly. He had known about the houses before, from studying the various books and materials required for classes, but the way this Professor was explaining it, they almost sounded like they were being sorted into opposing factions and once sorted there was very little mixing.
"Your house is decided for you by the sorting ceremony, before the start of term banquet tonight. Once you are sorted, you will go sit down at your house table, and wait patiently for all the sorting to be completed." The way she finished her last distinctly reminded Harry of Ms. Wagner. If they did not sit down quietly, he had a feeling that she would give the offenders quite the admonishment for their behavior.
Now then, I will will return shortly to bring you to the sorting ceremony. Please wait here until then, and do attempt to smarten yourselves up a bit." Harry noted how her eyes lingered on the redhead with a noticeable smudge of something on his nose and stifled a snicker at the boy's flustered expression.
She opened the door briefly to pass inside, and the sound of many voices murmuring at once reached his ears before it soundlessly shut.
Almost immediately the other first years began talking amongst themselves. Harry rolled his eyes. No matter if they had magic or not, people were still people. As soon as the authority figure left their immediate sight they all degenerated into noise and chaos, save a few.
It was these students that Harry focused his attention on. There was the girl from the train ride, Hermione, who seemed to be muttering various things under her breath. Several of the students wearing more expensive versions of the school uniform (with the glaring exception of a platinum blond, with two other students seemingly posed as his bodyguards) were far more aloof and uncaring of the information they had just received, suggesting that they had already known everything that the professor had told them.
In less than a minute, the Professor came back and brought them through the doors.
Harry looked around the great hall in wonder. Yes, he knew that he was in a castle, but he had not expected the sheer size of the dining hall, packed with what looked like at most 500 students.
He then frowned in thought, looking at the number of students. This was supposed to be the best school in Magical Britain. Was the population of magicals really this low? Or were there other schools that took away the majority of the students?
Professor McGonagall brought the line of students in front of a stool which held up a dirty looking hat.
A hat that then began to sing.
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was old. And though he enjoyed seeing the youthful enthusiasm of the students under his care, seeing this group made his heart clench painfully.
The war with Voldemort and his Death Eaters had been incredibly damaging to Wizarding Britain. Many of their more talented muggleborns had left their society, rather than risk their lives, and had never returned after experiencing a better life abroad, even after the war had ended. And many of those that had decided against leaving or simply could not leave were killed. Dumbledore was a pureblood through and through, but he knew that the old bloodlines were dying out. Too much inbreeding and not enough fresh blood flowing into the families. And Tom Riddle had either not cared or not known, but had seemed determined to bring about the utter collapse of their society.
The greatly diminished numbers of students over the last decade had been a sobering reminder of the devastation that the war had brought upon them, one that haunted him yearly when seeing these small groups. It wouldn't be for another few years that the number of students increased, few parents having wanted to bring a child into a war after all.
That war had been devastating, and to his regret he was unable to do much to fight against Voldemort. The Order of the Phoenix did all they could to stop the attacks, but without the support of the ministry they were largely ineffective, thanks to the prejudice against muggleborns that pervaded their society.
At least three out of four wizards in the ministry was a pureblood, and many of them, while not truly violent by nature and thus willing to directly and personally harm those they perceived as inferior, did not care for the muggleborn plight during the war, and so did nothing to limit Voldemort's attacks in the beginning. By the time they realized that they needed to act, when it became clear that he was also attacking halfbloods and even other purebloods that did not agree with his views, his power was just too great to stop.
It was only the miracle of Harry Potter somehow defeating the madman that gave them this peace, fragile as it was. There was still a great deal of tension between the muggleborn and the pureblood, mainly due to the lack of opportunities afforded to these people. It was still all too common for less deserving purebloods to automatically receive positions that they had no ability for, even when a better qualified muggleborn or several had applied for the same position.
A frown crossed his face at seeing young Harry Potter enter the great hall with the rest of his yearmates. He looked confident and strong, but at the same time cold and detached. He did look somewhat impressed at the great hall, but other than that, there was a sense of indifference in his body language that made Dumbledore's heart twinge with worry. This was not the face of an innocent child, but one that was hardened to the harsh realities of the world, and at such an age…
He was concerned.
In her own rambling way, Bathesheda Babbling had mentioned that the boy was under some form of apprenticeship, and that was quite troubling given that the whole point of placing Harry at Privet drive was to prevent undue influence from the magical world in the boy's development.
And if young Harry was indeed under an apprenticeship then he would need to know exactly what he had been learning from this person.. He needed to ensure that this mystery Master's teachings would not clash with what he needed to teach the boy.
Voldemort had vanished that night ten years ago, but that did not mean that he was truly gone for good, as much as he wished that that were the case. Harry needed to be ready to face the man once he was resurrected.
The boy could not be swayed from his destiny, for the sake of their world, for the sake of them all.
Harry watched as the other students were called up to take their turn and sit under the hat. The process seemed to vary for each student, but each went through similar emotions. Slight fear, worry, determination, acceptance, and in some cases denial and then satisfaction. He smiled to himself. It seemed like the sorting hat's decision could be influenced.
While on the train he had been thinking of his fame and wondering what to do about it. It seemed clear that people expected him to become the next Merlin. He smirked at the thought of how they would react if they learned he had actually been taught by the man. Their heads would likely explode from excitement.
Though he had been mostly training his telepathy since his birthday, Harry had also learned the basics of empathy and telekinesis as well. Empathy was more akin to a subset of telepathy, and in fact was far too easy to learn the basics of. Merely feeling the emotions of others was not at all difficult, but empathy was not only the sensing of emotions. Like telepathy, the more advanced practitioners could go far beyond merely sensing and could in fact directly influence the emotions of others, a technique used almost exclusively by Lantean Diplomats when dealing with two opposing factions.
Sally-Anne Perks was the last student to be sorted before him, and as she went to Hufflepuff he could hear the level of background noise in the hall start to pick up as the students looked for Harry Potter.
He sighed to himself as his name was called, moving forward even as the hall hushed completely. The sudden silence was rather unnerving and he felt his face twitch slightly in annoyance before he smoothed his expression, sitting on the stool and covering his head with the hat in order to not see the hundreds of faces staring unashamedly at him.
If he wasn't already somewhat accustomed to the feeling of another presence in his mind from his telepathy training, he would have jumped. As it was, he had to still himself when he felt the mental presence slither around his rudimentary barriers with unnerving ease.
Ah, hello there young Master Potter. Your barriers are not so bad for someone your age, but you should really work on them a bit. Even a mildly talented legilimencer would have no trouble getting through them, but at least your shields would let you know it was happening.
Before Harry could give an annoyed comment back to the hat it continued.
So, let us get to it….I see plenty of bravery in you, but somehow I do not think that you would do well in the house of the Lions, their bravery tends to border on recklessness while yours is far more calculated…hmmm.
Hmmm...Slytherin is definitely out. While you have some ambition, it is nowhere near as powerful as your other traits.
You have a decent thirst for knowledge, but you do not hoard said knowledge. You intend to use it to….Oh my.
Harry felt a bead of sweat drip from his neck as he realized that the sorting hat could see the memory of Merlin explaining his origins and the nature of the universe beyond Earth to him when he was younger.
Well, that was not something that I was expecting to find in you, Mr. Potter, but your goals are indeed admirable and your drive to succeed in them is even more so. The way I see it, you can only be sorted in one place….Hufflepuff!
It took Harry a moment to realize that the hat had said that last word aloud before the hat was taken from his head and the sound of cheering made him look at the Hufflepuff table. He noted that the other tables were also clapping, even if in Slytherin it was only polite applause.
He hid his disgust at the fact that all of these people were applauding because of a false image and infamy that he had never wanted. Walking toward his table he noted many people trying to give him openings to sit. He couldn't prevent a slight scowl from appearing on his face until he saw Cedric giving him a welcoming smile and a seat next to him, though the boy looked understandably surprised by the fact the the 'Harry' he knew was, in fact, Harry Potter.
Harry decided to sit next to him if only because he was a familiar face, and then tried to ignore the numerous eyes staring at him. This was going to get annoying really fast.
None of the other students received a reaction even remotely similar to his, and though it irked him, he was glad that at least the amount of attention that had been focused on him had now diminished, if only slightly.
The Headmaster rose from his ornate chair and gave a long glance across the Hall, his eyes resting a fragment of a second longer on the Hufflepuff section than the others, but nothing overly noticeable.
"Welcome back to another year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Though I have many things to say, I believe that they will be much better received after we have all been fed and watered." The man smiled and clapped his hands once, before sitting back down as the previously empty serving platters were suddenly full of food.
Harry startled slightly, and was gratified to note that most of the muggleborn first years did the same. How had the food appeared? Was this another form of magical transportation?
Cedric reached for a platter of crumpets, taking one for himself. Harry decided to follow suit, wondering what other crazy things he was going to see as a student in a magical school.
"So Harry, when were you going to tell me your last name?" Cedric asked, a teasing note in his voice.
Harry felt his face heat a bit in embarrassment as he shrugged. "I didn't know I was famous until after I went to Diagon for the first time, and by then I had seen some of the stuff that was written about me and didn't want to be surrounded by a swarm of fans." He said this with a pointed look toward several of the people that were not even trying to be discrete in listening to their conversation." Most of them had the decency to look at least a little embarrassed, but that didn't mean they stopped listening either.
Harry followed along with the rest of the First Year Hufflepuffs as their Head of house, Professor Sprout, led them to their common room, trying to sooth his ears from that horrible, horrible school song. It was like the students were trying to sound dissonant, and they had succeeded masterfully.
He was also doing his level best to ignore the continued whispers and not-so-discreet looks sent in his direction, and was wondering if it would have been any better if he had been sorted differently.
Remembering the enthusiasm of the other houses at the opening feast, it seemed very unlikely.
Already he could feel himself longing to go back to Glastonbury Tor, and he hadn't even spent the night yet. To distract himself from the other students he was looking at the castle around him, marveling at the fact that what these people called magic was turning everything he knew of physics on its head. It was astonishing what they had accomplished with their power.
So far, the thing that bothered/intrigued him the most was the moving portraits. He could not understand how something made of simple paint on canvas could move around and interact with other people as if they were the original person. It was as if the paintings themselves were actually imprints of the minds of the people that they had been while they were alive. How was that even possible?!
In a way, Harry was very excited. Exotic particles and their potential uses was an area that the Alterans had only lightly studied in comparison to many other fields. This society, however, was completely specialized in it and used virtually no advanced technology whatsoever. Millennia of relying on it exclusively had obviously led to amazing and unthought of innovations and applications. In this area the wizards and witches far surpassed anything the Alterans knew on the subject in practical terms. He would have so much to learn and incorporate into their technology!
"Well, here we are." Professor Sprout stopped the group of sixteen first years in what looked like a wine cellar. There was a portrait of a jolly looking woman that looked a little like Professor Sprout. "Everyone, I would like you to meet the founder of our house, Helga Hufflepuff."
Harry's eyes narrowed. This was an imprint of one of four founders of Hogwarts.
"Welcome to my House, my children." The woman smiled as she stood up from the potting plants also depicted in her portrait. "As you all know, my name is Helga Hufflepuff, and I am glad to see you all here."
I am sure that some of you are thinking that the hat was wrong to put you here, that my house is not one that is well known for producing powerful wizards and witches, but that is simply not true. Every person has a potential inside of them for something, no matter what it is. My house will nurture that potential, and help you find what you are meant to do. You are all smart in your own ways, so try your best for your house and your house will always support you, no matter what."
"Now, the entrance password for this week is 'cooperation.' The password will be posted with the rest of the house notices every week, so do pay attention."
Professor Sprout nodded in thanks to the founder. "Now children, to enter our house all you need to do is give the password, no matter what the older years may try to tell you." A look of good humor entered her eyes as she said this, and the portrait hole opened.
Harry looked around and breathed in the calming, earthy scent of the common room. Subtler smells like lavender and jasmine mixed with it to make him feel as if he were standing in a wild meadow, not a stone castle. It was strangely comforting.
Much like the flowers, the common room was a soothing blend of browns, creams, and yellows that gave the impression of an animal den. The plants and flowers that were literally growing out of the walls also helped to reinforce this image.
There were six people waiting in the room, three older boys and three older girls. Professor Sprout gave them a nod even as she turned to address the first years behind her. "At Hogwarts we have many students. As such, we give students that have proven their responsibility and good judgement the privilege of being a prefect of Hufflepuff."
At this point she nodded to the eldest boy, likely to be in his last year.
"Hello everyone, my name is Adrian Cartwright, and I am one of the 7th year prefects."
The girl to his left took two steps forward before smiling. "My name is Lisanna Croft, the other 7th year prefect." She looked expectantly at the surly looking boy to her left.
"Edwin Fairbairne, 6th year prefect." He said quietly, before stepping back into the line.
"Alecto Gray, 6th year prefect!" His female counterpart was very bright and cheerful in comparison, and gave a brief curtsey before stepping back into the line.
"Trevor Hunt, 5th year." The next boy stated simply, then gave a look to his left almost disinterestedly.
"And I'm Tonks, 5th year prefect." The girl's bright pink hair suddenly changed to a dark blue and back again as she smiled, and Harry was gratified that he was not the only first year who did a double take at the strange sight.
Professor Sprout seemed to roll her eyes at the last girl's introduction before she spoke up again. "Prefects are students that you can bring problems to when your head of house is not around. I am often working in the greenhouses until fairly late at night, so if you have anything you need to tell me, tell them and I will get to it as soon as I can, alright?"
At the nods she received she smiled, dimples showing on her cheeks. "Alright then, I know you all have had a very long day, the prefects will now show you to your dormitories so you can settle in and get some sleep."
Harry absently wondered what the other common rooms looked like even as he was directed to the first year boys' dormitories by the seventh year boy prefect. He was a little tired from sitting around all day, but being trained into the ground by Merlin for months on end had taught him the true meaning of exhaustion.
The dorm room was done up in a style very similar to the common room, though in this case the plants were all potted and not growing and creeping from the walls. There were more browns in this room though, darker colors. He could also spot his trunk grouped with three others, obviously those of his dorm mates.
"This is one of the first year dorms." Adrian said, his eyes briefly glancing over each of the new students. Surprisingly he did not show any sign of awe or such that Harry was there. Harry was thankful that at least someone in this school had some sense.
"You are responsible for the cleanliness of your own rooms, there are no house-elves allowed to clean the dorms in the school." He gave two of the boys sharp looks for their groans, while Harry kept a blank face, having no idea what a house elf was.
"There are six showers for the four of you, so I really don't want to hear any complaints about them either. Homework can be done in the common room, in the library, or even here in the dorms if you really want to."
"Your classes start tomorrow, so wake up bright and early to eat breakfast and familiarize yourself with where your classes are. The castle can be tricky sometimes, but if you are lost, try asking one of the portraits on the walls to help you and they should be able to direct you. Finally, Professor Sprout will hand out your class schedules tomorrow morning. Breakfast starts at 7:30am and ends at 9:00am. Goodnight."
And with that, the prefect swept from the room.
Harry groaned mentally when the other three first years turned to him as one, the interest clearly showing in their eyes. That was just creepy.
"Ok then," he cleared his throat. He wanted to nip this in the bud. "I don't know what you all have been told about me, but I wanted to start this off right. My name is Harry, not the Boy-Who-Lived, he-who-slayed-he-who-must-not-be-named or any other of those ridiculous titles. Just Harry."
He took in a breath and held out his right hand. "What are your names?"
The golden-blond boy was the first to recover and quickly held out his hand for Harry to shake. "Ernie MacMillan, very nice to meet you." Harry noted that his voice sounded like someone from a well-to-do family and nodded at him.
The second boy with dirty blond hair held out his hand, though it was trembling slightly. "Wayne Hopkins." He said softly.
"Justin Finch-Fletchley." the last boy, a brunette held out his hand and shook, his grip slightly more firm than the others, and also seemed to be less in awe of him, which Harry took as a plus, though it likely signaled that the boy was a muggleborn.
Harry gave a small, heartfelt smile and a short head bow before remembering that that was an Eastern custom on Earth, not a western one, before flushing slightly. "It's very nice to meet you all, I hope we can get along."
He paused as they all stood there, as though waiting for something to happen, then gave a nervous laugh and scratched the back of his head. "Well, I don't know about you, but I'm going to get ready for bed, I'm knackered."
The genuine chuckles from his new dorm mates gave him a sense of relief as he left to open his trunk from where it was sitting on the ground by his bed.
September 2
The next morning Harry rose bright and early at five, eager to start looking for a place to train. Just by seeing the size of the castle last night he was fairly certain that given the numbers of students, there were quite a few unused and out of the way spaces within it.
He noted that the other boys were all sound asleep as he quietly pulled on his new training clothes. What looked like typical muggle wear, however, was made from advanced reactive nanofibers to keep his body temperature the same level at all times. Merlin had the clothing in storage, and also mentioned that once they went to his vault, they could retrieve a very useful piece of technology, namely a matter-constructor. That piece of technology could be used to make just about anything.
Harry was embarrassed to admit that his jaw had been hanging open at the explanation of the technology. To think that they could literally create something out of nothing, something which earth's science said was completely impossible, was something that had left him utterly stupefied. He had wanted to grab the technology immediately, but Merlin had just laughed and said that there was no need for him to use the technology yet, and besides he was not old enough mentally to take the immense strain of using the machine, and Merlin did not see a use for it at the moment.
He crept down the stairs, standing on the edges to reduce the chance of creaking. The air felt so fresh in here, nothing like what he would expect from a centuries old castle, but there it was.
It wasn't until he walked out of the common room that he had any problems.
"Good morning, Mr. Potter, you're up quite early."
Harry was grateful that no one else was there to see him jump nearly half his height in the air, barely managing to land on his feet from the surprise.
He turned to see a very amused looking portrait looking back at him.
Harry gave her a respectful nod, trying to force the red from his cheeks.
"Good morning, Lady Hufflepuff."
She giggled slightly at the title. "I am no lady, Mr. Potter, but I appreciate the title nonetheless; now what is it that you are doing out of the common room so early?"
"I...was looking to get my morning exercises in….er, what title would you prefer?"
She giggled again, and the badger sitting on her worktable seemed to follow suit.
"'Madam' would be just fine, Mr. Potter." She replied before pausing in thought. Harry was truly impressed at the level of complexity in the imprint. It was as if she were the actual person.
"As for your morning exercises….you could possibly use the old dueling hall, though it hasn't seen use in more than half a century and I'd imagine it is covered in dust..." She hmmed for a moment.
"Mr. Potter, could you please call for a house elf?"
Again not knowing what a house elf was, Harry mentally shrugged, and decided to follow the founder's instruction. "Can I have a house elf come here, please?"
A sharp pop split the air as a diminutive being appeared in front of him clothed in a long black vest with the Hogwarts' crest on its left breast. "Student be calling Pipsey?"
The voice was very high, and given how little he knew of this creature's physiology, Harry could not be sure whether it was male or female. More study would be required.
"Hello Pipsey, Mr. Potter needs to use the old dueling room for his morning exercises, could you please clean it up before he uses it?"
Before Harry could protest at inconveniencing Pipsey the house elf disappeared with another sharp pop.
Correctly interpreting the look on his face she made a negligent gesture with her hand. "Don't worry, Mr. Potter, it will only take her a minute to do so. Harry blinked in surprise. "Now then, you will need a guide to get to the dueling hall." She hmmed before spotting the badger now snoozing on her worktable.
"Ferox, could you be a dear and escort Mr. Potter to the old dueling room."
The badger made a sound suspiciously similar to a grumble before jumping off her worktable and looking directly at Harry.
Before he could ask how a painting could direct him to another room the badger walked toward the side of the portrait and disappeared from view.
"He'll be waiting for you in the portraits outside dear, don't worry." Madam Hufflepuff explained patiently, obviously used to helping new students unfamiliar with the magical world learn how things worked.
Harry nodded numbly, walking toward the entrance to the main hallway. Ferox the badger was waiting impatiently in the portrait of what looked like a summer tea party complete with gardens and tables. Several of the patrons were petting the badger and making cooing sounds, and Harry was forced to muffle a snicker at the badger's discomfort.
Ferox gave him a short growl and darted away from the well dressed ladies to the edge of that portrait, then appeared in the portrait next to it. Harry followed the badger at a low jog as they journeyed deeper into the castle.
Finally, Ferox stopped in a portrait directly across the hall from a single door. It looked old, the wood faded and worn while the bronze doorknob was tinted green.
"Is this the dueling hall?" He directed towards Ferox, who gave him a short affirmative growl. "Thank you. I can find my way back."
The badger gave off a small noise before it slowly padded out of view. Harry turned back to the door and pushed it open.
The room was large and airy, dominated by a large rectangular platform depicting the phases of the moon in the center of the room. There were also some rudimentary stands not unlike the bleachers he had seen in junior school.
Harry frowned slightly at the limited size of the platform before shrugging. Merlin would likely approve of him having another thing to consider while training.
He gently touched the band hidden under his shirt sleeve, and though there was no physical sign of the device being activated, almost immediately he could feel a sense of warmth in his mind that felt just like Merlin.
"Hello Harry, I see you've found a good place to practice?" Before his eyes, an image of Merlin appeared less than a foot away from him. Harry knew that the man in front of him was only an illusion generated by the band sending signals directly into his brain, but for a moment, he seriously thought his mentor was really in front of him.
Harry nodded and Merlin spent a few seconds 'looking' around the room, but in reality he was only seeing through the band around Harry's wrist.
"This room seems adequate for your stances, but first we will begin with the normal stretches."
Harry muffled his groan. He hated stretching.
Though Merlin had insisted on keeping the morning exercise 'light', Harry's muscles were still a little sore from repeating the advanced kata so many times. He knew that it was needed to ingrain the movements into his memory, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy the process.
He made his way back into the common room at 6:45, not expecting anyone to be up at the early hour. If they were, then he hoped they had the sense not to ask him where he had been.
Almost absently, he made a mental note to ask Merlin about providing a personal cloak like those of the gateships. It would make leaving and returning from his morning exercises much easier if he didn't need to worry about someone seeing him.
Thankfully, the common room was empty, and he entered his dorm, shaking his head at his still sleeping dormmates before gathering his school robes and heading to the bathroom.
Unknown to him, one of his roommates was, in fact, awake. Justin was just contemplating getting up when he heard the noises coming from outside their door. A little worried that other students were about to haze him like in his uncle's stories of university, he closed his eyes just enough to see and was surprised that it was Harry Potter that entered the room, looking a little tired and sweaty, wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Justin blinked in surprise. Just how early had the other boy gotten up to do exercise?
The Breakfast spread that awaited him in the great hall, while impressive, was nothing compared to the feast of the night before. Harry was glad, otherwise he would likely need to spend twice as much time as he normally did training to burn off the excess calories.
The hall was mostly empty, given that breakfast had only just started, but there were a few students there, mainly at the Ravenclaw table intently reading their books and seemingly oblivious to just about everything else. Harry shook his head in amusement. They were playing right into their own stereotype.
Professor Sprout was sitting at the head table, reading what looked like a magazine, only with moving pictures. Her eyes flickered upward when she noticed him entering the hall and she smiled before getting up from her seat, a piece of parchment in her hands.
"Good morning, Mr. Potter, I'm glad to see at least one of my students coming to breakfast early, it gives you much more time to socialize with your peers." She said warmly.
Harry gave her a small smile in response and thanked her for the parchment, which turned out to be his class schedule. He gave it a quick glance over. Today was a monday, which meant that he had a double Transfiguration this morning, then lunch, followed by Potions and Charms.
He took a glance at the head table, noting that most of the professors, other than Flitwick, were already sitting there. He knew that Professor McGonagall taught transfiguration, but the other two subjects he did not know for sure. Shrugging to himself, he decided to eat and work on his mental exercises until classes began.
Albus' eyes locked onto Harry Potter the moment he entered the room. He had been greatly surprised and worried by the fact that the boy had not been sorted into Gryffindor like his parents.
Though he tried to be discreet, the sound of his Deputy Headmistress clearing her throat made him look away from the boy.
"I'm sorry my dear, what were you saying?"
Minerva McGonagall was not an idiot. No matter how discrete Albus tried to be, she had known him for decades and she knew when he was hiding something. She glanced in the general direction that he had been staring at before realizing he had been looking at a specific part of the Hufflepuff table, as the majority of the room was now doing.
She sighed when she realized that Harry Potter was the one being stared at. From what she could see, he was terribly uncomfortable with the amount of attention, so much so that he was eating at a pace that rivaled that of Ronald Weasley the day before. "Really Albus, are you still focusing on that apprenticeship nonsense?"
Like Albus, she had learned about Harry's status as an apprentice from Bathsheda weeks ago. Unlike him, she had reserved judgement on the matter till she saw Mr. Potter with her own eyes.
He seemed cold, yes, somewhat detached and introverted, but that was only to be expected with his early upbringing with those awful people. No, what she noticed was the way that his posture tensed as more people stared at him, the way his gaze darted all over the hall as if he would need to escape at any moment. That kind of behavior was telling, and her regret about not being more forceful over the boy's placement felt heavier than ever.
Dumbledore internally scoffed at the idea of his worries being nonsense. Harry was too different from his parents, too different from what he was expected to be. And in Hufflepuff, on top of that!
The Potters had been in the house of Lions for the past ten generations. Harry not being placed into that house meant that something had greatly affected him in his childhood, and he was certain that this mysterious Master was the catalyst for this change.
Harry did his best to maintain his calm, ignoring the whispers as more and more people came into the room and noticed him sitting at the Hufflepuff table.
"Can't believe it….Hufflepuff?"
"You reckon You-Know-Who did sumthin' to his head?"
"...not like his parents."
On and on the whispers went and though he was working on blocking them out, the sheer amount of comments that he could hear made him clench his fists in an effort to keep his temper in check.
What did these people know about his parents? What right did they have to judge him for being in Hufflepuff? Hell, he could hear even other Hufflepuffs making these comments!"
Shoulders hunched and fuming, he grabbed his books as soon as he finished his food, not noticing Wayne Hopkins wave him hello before darting out of the hall with his bag.
Wayne frowned at not even being acknowledged, sitting down at the table with a disgruntled huff. What an arse.
Five minutes later Harry wanted to scream. What was wrong with these people? Did they not have any shame?
He refused to think that he was using the excuse of waiting for his class to hide from the school population. How was he supposed to deal with the overwhelming attention of all these people? He just wanted to hit something!
Harry now sat in a particularly well shadowed corner of the transfiguration classroom. There was still at least an hour and a half until the class started, but he really needed to be alone right now.
He knew that something had to be done to make people at least look at him normally, but what could he do? He had no friends, and given his time in Primary School, it would be very hard for him to trust others his age enough to befriend them.
His dorm mates hadn't seemed that bad… but maybe older students would be a better choice? He pondered. In general he would think that older students would be more mature...hopefully.
However, the only older student that he knew was Cedric. Even if he was very friendly, Harry didn't know how he would react to a first year wanting a friendship with him. For now, he would have to try to get to know his dorm mates, and try and reach out to Cedric later. Harry nodded to himself, his course set for now.
He then spent the next hour spreading his mental awareness around him, the more often he practiced, the longer and farther he would be able to do this, something that Merlin insisted had saved his life more than once.
Harry came back into himself when he felt at least twenty minds heading in his direction, all of them his age. Was it already time for class?
He opened his eyes and grabbed his book from his bag under the desk, making it look like he had been sitting and reading the entire time. From what he read so far Transfiguration was an interesting subject, something that would require some very advanced technology to accomplish by the Alterans. He couldn't wait to see what kinds of effects it might have on metallurgy and organic compounds.
He frowned when he noticed the cat sitting on the top of the professor's desk. It was sitting far too rigidly for any animal he had ever seen. Was it a magical cat perhaps?
Curious, he reached out with his mind, only to rear back as he felt a distinctly human mind trapped in the body of a cat. What on earth was this?
He walked up the aisle between the desks, fingers slightly outstretched, only for a low growl to come from the cat as its eyes narrowed. Harry backed off, but peered curiously at the markings around the face of the cat. They looked almost like…
Harry blinked, taking a look at the doorway before whispering. "Hello, Professor."
The blatant shock on the transformed professor's face made him crack a small smile. His ear twitched involuntarily at the sound of the students nearing the door and he made his way back to his seat, leaving the professor turned cat to try and compose herself before more of her students entered her classroom.
Harry was simply fascinated by the class. Being able to change an object from one form to another, even to simulate life, the professor had been oddly adamant about the fact that they were not creating life for some reason. That would bear some looking into. Despite that strange emphasis, the subject was amazing.
Even the theoretical aspect of the magic was really fascinating. Wizards and witches were able to literally shape an object simply using their imagination and sheer will. To do so with technology took an incredibly complicated series of calculations regarding material composition and spatial dimensions and was still not nearly as precise, quick, or fluid. There was something to be said about the computing power of organic minds, even if it was almost entirely done unconsciously.
The potential that this field alone had for him and Merlin though… Harry could scarcely imagine the possibilities.
After the double period, Harry's hand was cramping slightly from the difference between holding quills and pencils, but the bracelet around his wrist had been designed to relax muscles stressed after exercise, and a low warm feeling permeated his hand as he walked to lunch.
The stares hadn't gotten much better, and the whispers were even less discrete than before, as if Harry's lack of reaction that morning made them think that he couldn't hear them. He was close to clenching his fists at this point, despite Merlin's emotional control lessons.
Shoulders slightly tense, he made his way to the Badger table, noting the seats opening up to him almost immediately and disregarding them as people that only wanted to know him for his fame. He did give a nod to Ernie though, seeing the boy give him a tentative smile in response before sitting down beside Cedric.
The boy looked surprised to see him, but gave him a genuine smile and moved over slightly to give Harry a little more room.
"'Lo Harry, been having a good day so far?" He asked reaching for a plate of steaming potatoes.
Harry shrugged slightly, uncomfortable as many of the students stopped in the middle of their own conversations to listen.
"Transfiguration was good, Professor McGonagall seems to really know her stuff."
Cedric nodded, before passing Harry the plate. Harry thanked him, though he took very little before moving on to a platter of sliced ham.
"So what classes do you have after lunch?" Cedric said, trying to start another conversation. From what he had observed so far, Harry was not very good at interacting with other people his age. In a way it made sense for the Boy-Who-Lived to have led a sheltered life; it was an open secret, at least for those whose parents worked high up in the ministry, that a number of Death Eaters had been pardoned after exorbitant bribes were paid to the minister. Whoever was caring for Harry probably kept him locked up for his own safety.
If only he knew how wrong he was.
Harry reached into his pocket to grab his schedule. "Potions right after lunch and then Charms last period."
Cedric grimaced at the mention of Potions. "Be careful in your next class then, Professor Snape is very intolerant of every house except for his own."
Harry frowned. "If he's so biased, then why is he still a teacher?"
Cedric shrugged and lifted up his fork, beginning to eat.
"He has the headmaster's favor." Another voice popped in.
Harry turned to look at the new voice, seeing a hand thrust nearly in front of his face. Warily, he glanced at Cedric, who looked somewhere between amused and annoyed. "Harry, my best friend, John Abney."
"At your service." John replied with an over-the-top bow that had Harry holding in snickers.
"Nice to meet you." He said, once he had control over himself again.
"And you as well." The boy said brightly, grabbing the same ham platter Harry had just taken from.
"What do you mean 'he has the headmaster's favor?'" Harry asked after a moment, waiting for the other boy to finish his bite.
John shrugged, "Nothing concrete to prove it, but rumor has it that Snape was a big help in the war, and Dumbledore vouched for him in the trials, so it must be somewhat true."
"Trials?"
John glanced sideways along the table before taking his wand and making an encircling gesture. Suddenly, the sound around them seemed to disappear, anything beyond 3 feet was silent.
"There are rumors that Snape was a Death Eater; one of You Know Who's followers, and that he helped our side win the war. Don't know how true it is, but like I said, Dumbledore vouched for him when the ministry was interviewing all of You Know Who's followers, so he must have done something to earn that…" John trailed off, making another movement with his wand before the sound came rushing back in.
Harry nodded. "That ..spell you just used, what was it?"
Here John looked slightly uncomfortable. "That was a family spell, Da's been starting me on learning from the family book of shadows this last summer, heir duties and all that nonsense." He sighed.
Harry decided not to press him further, surmising family spells were private, and quickly ate his breakfast before bidding John and Cedric a good day and leaving for the dungeons.
Harry was not very impressed. There was a visible layer of grime on the walls as he walked further down, and the musty smell of mold permeated the air.
He was slightly surprised to see a number of the Ravenclaw students already there, some frantically reading their books as though they had all the answers to life's questions. Again with the close following of stereotypes.
Deciding against leaning against the wall, he stood off to the side of the blue robed students and decided to reread the introduction to his potions book to pass the time.
Roughly ten minutes later, the other members of his year appeared, Ernie at the lead. Harry waved them over. "You know anything about Professor Snape?" He asked, knowing that the other boy had been raised only in the wizarding world.
Ernie shuddered, and even though it was somewhat cold in the dungeons, Harry doubted that was the reason.
"Nothing good, my cousin is a 6th year and she complains about him all the time." He muttered, looking around as if the object of their conversation would appear at the mention of his name.
Harry frowned, again wondering what would drive the headmaster to keep a man so despised by the students on staff.
All of a sudden, the door to the lab opened, seemingly of its own accord. Half expecting the sound of maniacal laughter, Harry was the first through the door, carrying his bookbag and settling down in one of the front seats.
He glanced at his hidden bangle, mentally prompting it for the current time. It seemed that there was still a minute before the class was scheduled to start. Looking around the room made the parallel between the potions classroom and a B-Horror movie even stronger as jars of questionable and creepy creature parts in even more questionable fluids were on shelves all around the room. The other door in the room was locked, and had a small wooden sign with the word 'supplies.'
Right as the second hand was coming up to the twelve, Professor Snape stalked into the classroom, his cloak billowing around him rather dramatically. The man certainly had a flair for showmanship.
Almost immediately, the classroom silenced. The man had a very intimidating aura that seemed to dare them to put a single toe out of line, much like Professor McGonagall. Unlike her, he seemed more likely to hang them by said toe if they made trouble than simply give them detention.
The man then gave a speech on the wonders and dangers of potion making, one which had Harry mentally rolling his eyes at the dramatic language. Bottling fame? Brewing glory?
"And we are ever so lucky to be in the presence of our newest celebrity." Harry tuned back in at the clear sarcasm, surely the professor wasn't…
"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry gave the man a blank stare. "I'm sorry professor, I don't know."
The man sneered at him. "Never bothered to open a book until coming? Let us try again."
From there the man asked him a series of questions that he had no hope of answering, the rest of the class watching the verbal tirade with a sense of both fear and wonder. Harry was growing more and more frustrated by the second. This teacher was being blatantly unfair, attacking him with these questions in such a public manner for no other reason than his own selfish pleasure.
They then moved onto note taking for the rest of the class, Snape covering the basics of potion ingredient preparation, making snide comments all the while.
Harry was more than glad when the class was over, having lost twenty points for "lack of preparation," something that had his fellow classmates seething. He himself was barely keeping from shouting back at the teacher, clenching his left fist under the table until it turned nearly white.
"I can't believe that man!" Justin complained as they walked toward the charms classroom. "He really seemed to have it out for you!" Harry nodded, his eyes still narrowed and his breaths slightly deeper than normal. While Professor McGonagall had impressed him, Snape was the polar opposite on the scale.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Ernie asked, looking worried.
Harry gave him a humorless smile. "No, but once I find a way to get away from him I will be."
"What do you mean?" Wayne, who had been looking rather sullen until then, asked.
"I'm going to see if I can find a book on the Hogwarts rules of conduct; there has to be some way of getting rid of that man, and if not, then maybe I'll find some way of opting out of his class."
"But potions is needed for so many things!" Ernie interjected.
Harry shrugged. "If worse comes to worst I'm sure there are tutors that I can find over the summer for an accelerated program."
"I guess." Ernie replied as they entered the charms classroom, where the diminutive Professor Flitwick was currently writing his notes on the board.
"Ah, is it time for my class already? How swiftly time flies!" The Professor jumped down from the strangely sturdy pile of books he had been using as a ladder as more students came into the room.
"Welcome, all of you to the study of Charm magic. Charms are a branch of magic that originally came from the less war oriented peoples of the magical world, like the celtic druids and the romanic gypsies, though the latter tends to be based more in potions and amulets than actual charms as we commonly know them. Charms can be used for practically any task, they are the vast majority of all created spells. though some of them can also be classified as hexes and mild curses, such as the tickling charm."
Harry wrote as quickly as he could, smiling slightly as the professor went on with his introduction. At least this professor seemed to be far more even tempered than Snape.
The next day
Harry blearily opened his eyes, not at all happy to be waking up so early when he had only made his way back to bed near 2:30 in the morning. He understood that to see the stars they needed to be up that late, but it was still very irritating.
Groaning lowly, he got dressed and followed the path Ferox the badger had shown him the day before. He kept his footsteps as silent as possible, warily looking for the Professors. He wasn't sure if being out of his common room this early was actually against the school rules, but he didn't want to ask and risk losing the time to work on his exercises.
Breakfast was much the same as the day before. This time Harry decided to simply ignore the words of the ignorant masses and stay for the rest of the meal. He needed to get better at socializing, even Merlin said so before he left for Hogwarts. And Merlin was the very definition of antisocial at times, given how long he had been by himself in Glastonbury Tor.
Justin was the first to the table, giving him a half smile before reaching for the toast and jelly.
"Lo Harry." He said, speaking around a mouthful of food. Seeing Harry's disgusted expression he chuckled weakly before swallowing. "Sorry mate, my ma would be horrified if she saw that." He shivered slightly, and Harry noticed his right hand move back as if to rub his arse.
"You're not as bad as others." Harry muttered, his eyes glancing at the gryffindor table.
Justin shrugged as he took another bite, then thankfully swallowed before asking. "You know what we have today?"
Harry without even looking for his schedule replied. "Defense, History, Lunch, then Herbology, Charms, and flying."
Justin looked at him strangely. "You already memorized the schedule?"
Harry blinked. Was it that unusual? "Of course." It wasn't even that complicated, all the time periods were the same, except for Tuesdays when they had flying classes midafternoon.
"Huh...Wait a minute, you said flying classes! We learn how to fly?" Justin's face brightened up at the thought of flying unaided.
A soft chuckle came from behind Harry, who spun around before forcing himself to relax. "Hey Cedric."
One of Cedric's eyebrows rose at him, but the teen smiled. "You guys have your first flying lessons today, huh?"
"Oh, first time flyers?" John asked brightly. When both Harry and Justin nodded, he frowned slightly before smiling again. "Then let me say one thing, do not mess around with the brooms; Professor Hooch will have your head!"
Thus finished giving his sage advice, John quickly swiped the plate of biscuits that Harry had stopped serving from and sat down to eat.
"We fly on brooms?" Justin sounded so despondent at the thought that Harry couldn't help but snort in amusement.
"Well, yeah? How else would you fly? Carpets are banned in most of Europe." Cedric replied, looking honestly confused.
Harry perked up. Maybe there was some truth to the stories of 1001 Arabian nights.
"I thought we just, you know, flew…"
Cedric chuckled lightly. "I think all of us have wanted to do that at some point, but it is impossible to fly without an enchanted object like a broom or carpet."
"What about aeroplanes?" Justin asked, his eyes widening in horror when none of the pureblood students showed any recognition of the term.
"What are those?" Cedric asked.
Harry was also horrified. Just how separate was the magical world from the mundane that they would know nothing about something that had been common since the early 1900s? Not even the word registered.
"They're machines, made of metal, that carry hundreds of people around in the sky, thousands of feet above the ground."
"Hundreds?" John asked incredulously. "The most wizards they could ever get a carpet to lift was 49, and the thing barely moved a foot off the ground!"
"And I don't know what the top speed of brooms are, but the fastest planes can travel from London to the US in around three hours." Harry added, secretly enjoying the flabbergasted expressions of the wizards in front of him. If only they knew the things he did, of spacecraft that could literally circle the earth in less than a half hour or cross the great void between stars, even galaxies.
Still looking shocked, Cedric shook his head roughly. "Anyway, what we wanted to say was don't mess around with the brooms, and if you're good enough, next year you can join the tryouts for the inter-house Quidditch competition."
Though Harry had read all about it, he couldn't resist himself. "What's Quidditch?"
The truly horrified expressions on their faces made him smother a cackle.
Whatever he had been expecting when he thought of Defense against the Dark Arts, it had not been a man that was so incapable of speaking properly that Harry resorted to recording his lecture and asking Merlin to run it through a dictation program.
In a word, Professor Quirrell was strange. Paranoid, stuttering, flighty, and distracted were also good contenders. Still, they did learn more about the differences in types of spells, as well as the basics of the many magical creatures hidden from the normal world.
Harry had a low level headache by the end of the class, and was even less happy when the next class turned out to be taught by a ghost. He ended up recording that lecture as well, still tired from the late night and falling asleep twenty minutes into the hour and a half long class. Even the novelty and impossibility of a real ghost just couldn't keep him up.
It was an irritated Harry that trudged over to the Hufflepuff table for lunch. He seriously hoped more of the professors here were competent, because so far only four out of the seven he had were adequate. Snape shouldn't be let within a mile of a classroom, period. The man proved the adage that not everyone that can do a thing has the ability to teach it.
"Uggh, how can anyone stay awake in that class?" Wayne complained as he sat down.
Good question. Harry thought grumpily. He really hoped Herbology was a good class, or he would….do something. He didn't know what yet.
"I see you guys had Binns, huh?" Cedric asked sardonically. Harry gave him a minute frown at his tone and the instant recognition of the class they came from.
"I don't think that any of us could stay awake, especially after astronomy last night." He finally replied.
"You don't have to worry about missing notes, he reads word-for-word from the book." James added. Harry was starting to notice that the third year was never very far from Cedric, it was more than a little amusing how he followed after him like a puppy.
"Then what's the point of actually going to his class?" Justin complained.
"Naptime." Was Cedric's deadpan answer, and Harry was forced to stifle a laugh at the scandalized expression on Justin's face.
Herbology was paradoxically both interesting and boring. The fact that the bouncing bulbs they were working with had some form of musculature, instead of reactionary cell growth to move, made him question if they were actually plants. Modern botanists would likely be somewhere between intrigued and horrified at the utter strangeness of them. Still, Harry did enjoy working with the earth. Even if he had been forced into working the garden at the Dursleys, there was something about feeling the dirt compressing under his hands that felt pleasant.
Of course, the boring part of the lesson was mainly the basic procedures that each student needed to adhere to while working in the greenhouses. Some magical plants could actually harm students that were not careful with them, though Professor Sprout had added that they wouldn't see any of those until after Christmas, and even then they'd be low-level threats. Only the much later year herbology students got to work with the far more dangerous plants.
The first practical charms lesson had them learning the light spell lumos, an absurdly easy spell that was more about teaching them how to properly channel their power into the wands. Harry had a little trouble at first, used as he was to not needing any channel for his telekinetic abilities, but he quickly grasped the concept and experimented with the spell, increasing the flow of magic as well as stuttering it in patterns to form a light that dimmed and then glowed in a regular pattern. He had even briefly toyed with the idea of attempting to hyper focus the light into something akin to a laser, but decided it was too dangerous to attempt at this early stage in his education.
Walking around the room, Flitwick was the first to notice what his student had done, barely containing a look of surprise on his face. What Harry was doing required a wizard to have an extraordinary connection to their magic, as well as high degree of mental control and force of will. He resolved to ask the headmaster if he could work with Mr. Potter after classes, one-on-one. Talent such as this was rare and wonderful, and needed to be carefully nurtured. The normal pace of lessons would bore Mr. Potter and possibly lead to dangerous, solitary experimentation.
Harry walked with the rest of his year group to the Quidditch pitch where they would first be having their first flying lesson with the ravenclaw first years. The pitch was quite strange compared to what he was used to with non-magical sports, but he was definitely excited about seeing a sport that worked in three dimensions like quidditch.
When they arrived at the pitch most of the ravenclaw students were already there, staring at the 31 brooms lying on the ground. Each of them had odd looking footrests on them, which Harry supposed made sense. It would probably give riders much better control if they weren't constantly sliding around when they were flying. While these brooms certainly bore a resemblance to a mundane cleaning implement, they were truly meant for conveying a rider through the air.
Shortly after they arrived, Professor Hooch strode up to them, her own broom slung over her shoulder.
"Good, you're all here." She looked over them all with her sharp yellow eyes. "Well, everyone, get to a broom."
The students, Harry included, scrambled to stand over a broom.
"Now, hold your wand hand over the broom and say 'up.'"
"UP!" The majority of the students shouted, though Harry didn't see the need, as his broom leapt into his hand as if it could sense his excitement. How strange. Other brooms trembled, much like the people who were standing over them. That was interesting. Was their emotional state being conveyed to the brooms themselves through their intent and magic? Was a connection being unconsciously established? Something the enchantments themselves had been designed to detect and foster?
Once all of the students tried a few times, everyone was able to get their broom to come to them. "Good, now watch me closely…" She sat on the broom like it was a saddle, placing her feet on the rests and leaning back. The broom followed her movement, raising a few feet off of the ground.
"Now, you will take turns getting on the brooms. I will come around and help you if you have trouble, so don't worry if you don't get it the first few times."
From there she had groups of nine students get on the broom. Some of the wizard-raised were more than comfortable on them, the brooms barely swaying as they hovered in place, looking bored. Others, even if they were wizard-raised, seemed nervous of the brooms, swaying far more than the other students as they overcompensated for balance.
For Harry, who had been training his body since he met Merlin, keeping his body weight centered on the broom was incredibly easy. The broom felt like it was thrumming under his fingers, even eager, maybe?, seemingly happy that he was confident and comfortable aboard it. Again, how very, very strange.
"Now, when I tell you to, push off from the ground, gently." Hooch emphasized, pushing herself off the ground in example and hovering ten feet above them.
"Group 1, push off gently."
"Group 2." This was Harry's group, and he gleefully pushed off, rocketing up at least fifteen feet.
"Group 3."
"Group 4." The last group was the smallest, having only four people, but even the nervous ones were able to get off the ground safely, albeit reluctantly.
"Well done, all of you." She smiled.
From there they started learning how to control the brooms, leaning back and forth to control the pitch and acceleration, side-to-side to control turning speed.
"Remember, brooms can sense what you want them to do, if you panic, then you will lose control of them." She reprimanded as several students wobbled in the air, their movements too sharp from nerves.
"Now, all of you lower yourselves close to the ground, and we'll start flying around."
Though unhappy with having to go lower, Harry did as she said, not wanting to lose the right to fly this broom. In that moment, he decided that he was going to learn how to fly without a broom, even if it took him decades.
October 31, 1991
Harry was greatly enjoying the Halloween feast after a long two months of school.
Not that he wasn't enjoying some of the classes, it was just that some teachers had reaffirmed his belief that they should not be let anywhere near a classroom. Multiple times.
Still, even with Snape's acerbic teaching style, Harry had not found any books in the Hogwarts Library that detailed other methods of schooling. He had barely found anything about other schools in the world, let alone tutors and other private instructors. At this rate, it looked like he was going to have to spend his Winter break looking into it, given the lack of materials that he could find in the Hogwarts Library on the topic.
Still, the library was good for other things, even if he wasn't able to access the restricted section. Already he had been able to scan a number of books with his band, a software feature that Merlin had added after his first week in order to take as much knowledge as they could about the books. Thankfully all of the books he had access to were fairly normal, none of them had strange requirements for reading them, such as having just taken a shower or waiting until the new moon was at its zenith. The only magic on the pages was used to preserve them, making it easy for the scanners to take a closed book and scan every atom, then rearrange the information contained into a virtual text document. Already Harry had taken out nearly a thousand books from the shelves; the interference from the magical protections around the shelves made it impossible for the scanners as they were to scan large sections of the library at once.
That was another reason that Harry could not wait for the Winter holidays. He didn't mind grabbing the books and scanning them all, but it would take years at this rate with the sheer size of the Hogwarts library. Once Merlin upgraded the sensors and added a small ZPE source to the band to compensate for the increased power demand, he would be able to finish scanning the accessible parts of the library in a week.
Other than Potions,History, and Defense, Harry found himself enjoying the classes at Hogwarts very much. Transfiguration in particular was an amazing class, and they always spent it with Ravenclaw house, much like most of their other courses.
Herbology was the only class that he shared with the Gryffindors, and when he could, he tried to partner with either Neville or Hermione. Both of them seemed to be shy around their classmates, and Harry was determined to bring them out of their shells, much like his roommates had done for him when he first came to Hogwarts.
Harry would never be an extrovert, but he was able to hold conversations much better than he would have before, actually conversing instead of giving short answers only. That was progress.
Hermione tried to be extroverted by speaking about everything that she knew, but it was not endearing her to the rest of her housemates. Harry wondered why she had not been sorted into Ravenclaw.
Neville was shy because he was constantly thinking that his own results were more mediocre than they were. If he was brutally honest, he would admit that Neville was not the best at the wanded subjects or potions, but he had an instinct for Herbology that was second to none. Even Harry, who had spent years working on his relative's front yard, was nowhere near Neville's expertise in the subject.
Harry frowned as he looked over at the Gryffindor table for Hermione's distinctive hair. He had seen her earlier looking very upset as she passed him in the hallway, but before he could catch up to her she had disappeared in the crowd of students.
His thoughts on finding her were disturbed when the doors to the great hall slammed open, the Defense professor running down the center of the Great Hall, his steps rapid and panicked. "Troll! Troll in the dungeon!"
He stopped in front of the head table, now speaking faintly. "Thought you'd ought to know." before collapsing forward in a dead faint.
For a moment there was utter silence, and then the hall was filled with the roar of panicked students.
End Chapter
Posted:1/2/16