Chapter 3 – Aftermath
Big changes to the chapter, and an authors note at the end.
Disclaimer: The Harry Potter series and all its attachments belongs to J.K. Rowling, all I own is Kishan, the plot (Most of it) and Ivy
The following morning, Malfoy was shocked to find that Harry and Ron hadn't been expelled; instead they looked completely fine, if a bit tired. They had been discussing the trapdoor in whispers on their way to the Great Hall, but when they saw Malfoy, Kishan started planning their counter attack.
"It's simple really," he said, "all we have to do is borrow a prank potion from Fred and George and test it on Malfoy." Meanwhile, a few seats down, a pair pranksters eavesdropping on their conversation smirked at each other and began plotting.
Midway through breakfast, their plotting was interrupted by the mail, and more importantly, by a huge parcel, carried by no less than five school owls, which came to rest in Harry's cereal, shortly followed by a letter. He opened the letter first, and was thankful he did so. The letter was from Professor McGonagall, instructing him not to open the parcel at the main table as it was his broom. As they were already finished eating, they took the parcel upstairs to the Gryffindor Dorms, momentarily sidetracked by Malfoy, who tried once again to get them in trouble, this time reporting them to Professor Flitwick, the charms professor, who simply congratulated Harry and went on his way.
As they were making their way upstairs, they were pulled to into an empty classroom by Fred and George.
"It has come to our attention," began Fred,
"That the three of you," continued George,
"Are planning on pranking a single Slytherin,"
"We refuse to help you unless you prank all the Slytherins,"
Harry spoke first, "We can't do that," he said
"And why not?"
"Because we have friends in Slytherin, we don't want to prank them," answered Harry
"Ah, but we have a solution to that problem,"
"You would simply have to prank a few random Slytherins, and cleverly leave out your friends."
Harry spoke with the others for a moment before answering, "Fine then, so how are we going to do this?"
They were filled in on the twins plan and agreed to meet up again after Harry's Quidditch practice.
'P,
After Harry had returned from Quidditch practice tired but ecstatic, they began preparing the prank. All parts of the prank were laid out with care, Kishan convincing the house elves to help them, the twins deciding which Slytherin first years to prank, Harry and Ron making the potion that was vital to their prank. Once Kishan had returned, and the potion was ready, they called Ivy and asked her to take the potion back to the kitchens, telling her exactly what to do with it.
The following morning the Slytherins marched into the hall to laughter and ridicule. About half of them now had green scaly skin, which refused to come off, no matter how much they had scrubbed at it. Snape had stood up immediately, saying he would get to the bottom of this. He had ended up spending all his spare time magically cleaning out the Slytherin water supply, which had been contaminated by the potion. All potions lessons were spent brewing the antidote, a foul smelling lotion that had to be spread on the scales, causing them to peel off. In the end it was highly embarrassing for the Slytherins, but there were no long lasting effects, a prank well done, as George had said.
'P,
Before they knew it, it was Halloween, and they woke up to the smell of the delicious feast they would eat that night wafting through the corridors and up to the Gryffindor dorms. In charms that day, Professor Flitwick announced that they would be learning to make things fly today, something they had been looking forward to ever since the Professor had made his desk fly around the classroom. They were divided into pairs, Harry being paired with Ernie Macmillian, while Kishan and Ron were paired together, and given feathers to levitate, using the Wingardium Leviosa spell. Hermione, who was paired with an unpleasant Hufflepuff boy named Zacharias Smith, was the first to make her feather levitate, earning a squeaky approval from Flitwick and a disgruntled glare from Smith. Kishan was the next to succeed, and quickly explained to Ron how to do it, after which they ended up using their feathers to fight a vicious aerial battle, until eventually Flitwick took the feathers back saying that they clearly didn't need them anymore. Just as Ron was putting away his wand, he was whacked in the face by one of Smith's windmilling arms, who didn't even apologize as Hermione attempted to correct him. After the lesson a fuming Smith shouted to Hermione that she was "Such a nightmare that it was no wonder she didn't have any friends," at which Hermione burst into tears and ran off. The moment they heard this, Ron, Harry and Kishan pulled out their wands to curse Smith, but were stopped by Ernie, who said they would "deal with Smith as a house," at which they reluctantly left, leaving Smith at the mercy of the Hufflepuffs.
Harry and the others later regretted not doing anything further to Smith, as they didn't see Hermione at all during the next class, or anywhere that afternoon, eventually they overheard Parvati telling Lavender that Hermione was crying in the girls bathroom and wanted to be left alone. This almost made the three of them go after Smith again, but the moment they entered the Great Hall, all thought of going after Smith left their minds.
Thousands of live bats fluttered on the walls and ceilings, hundreds more flapping below the night sky, lit up by a particularly bright half-moon, while carved pumpkins floated above the tables, candles glowing from within them. The gold cutlery had been restyled to match the season, their handles shaped like skulls or pumpkins while the other ends were coloured blood red. The plates had pumpkins around the edges, while the stems of the goblets were shaped to look like skeletons holding up their drinks. All in all it was an awe inspiring sight.
They had been trying to convince Fred and George to tell them more about the map, after finding out that the map also told them where people were in the castle, when Professor Quirrel burst dramatically through the doors of the Great Hall, proclaiming loudly; "Troll! In the dungeons! Thought you ought to know," before collapsing onto the floor in a dead faint. There were exactly five and half seconds of absolute silence, before Zacharias Smith let out a high pitched scream and the entire hall burst into terror. It was several minutes later that Professor Dumbledore brought everything back into order, commanding the prefects to lead the students back to their dormitories while the teachers went down to the dungeons to battle the troll. As Percy began leading them out of the hall, Kishan suddenly froze in panic, pulling the other two aside, and whispering "Ivy?" He breathed a sigh of relief when she appeared before him, then he quickly instructed her that neither she nor any of the other house elves should leave the kitchens until the threat had passed. She nodded once before softly popping back to the kitchens. Kishan turned to the others to explain "The Kitchens are in the dungeons," he told them, "That reminds me, aren't the Hufflepuff and Slytherin Dorms in the dungeons too?" When Harry confirmed this, Kishan began to lead them back to the group so they could tell Percy about it, but Ron stopped them saying, "What about Hermione, she doesn't know about the troll, we have to warn her!" They informed Neville about the situation with the dorms, asking him to tell Percy before they snuck off to find Hermione.
The trio arrived at the girls bathrooms in time to hear the troll roar in anger, while Hermione screamed in reply. They stormed in through the doorway, and were confronted by a horrifying site. The troll was twice as tall as Hagrid; it had greenish grey skin, long arms and short stubby feet. Its tiny head was perched upon its huge body, not unlike a coconut atop a boulder. Hermione was cowering in the corner between a destroyed stall and the sinks. "Distract it!" yelled Ron, as the troll made to swipe at Hermione with its club. Ron felt his heart pound faster in his chest, and suddenly everything around him slowed down. In slow motion Harry shouted something and threw a broken pipe at the troll, who turned to advance on him. Ron knew it was only a matter of time before the troll turned its attention back on the cornered Hermione. He ran across the room, as Kishan shot sparks out of his wand, mesmerising the troll for only one, agonisingly long second. As Ron reached Hermione, the troll turned to attack him again. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Harry make a flying leap at the troll, landing on its back. Ron pulled Hermione into his arms as the troll roared in pain; Harry's wand had somehow gotten stuck in its nose. He sprinted towards the doorway, as Kishan somehow shot lightning at the troll in what Ron recognised as an overpowered version of the spark spell. As Ron put Hermione down near the door, time sped up again, and he heard Kishan shouting to Harry to use the spark spell again. The troll twitched violently as Harry shouted "PERICULUM!" Sparks streamed from the trolls nose as its brain short circuited. When Harry stopped the spell, the troll slumped to the ground, twitching slightly as a few errant sparks left its body.
"Is it dead?" asked Hermione, breaking the silence.
"I think so," said Kishan, "Electrocution tends to do that to people."
"Kishan are you ok?" asked Ron, "you look like hell."
Indeed, Kishan looked pale and exhausted; he was leaning against the wall for support, but looked ready to collapse onto the ground.
"It was just that lightning I cast; it took a lot out of me." He grinned weakly, "At least I distracted it long enough for you to escape. How did you do that, you ran across the room and back so fast that you were a blur."
Before Ron could answer they heard thundering footsteps, followed by the Professors bursting through the door. Quirrel took one look at the unconscious troll before fainting yet again. Snape looked at them inscrutably. Flitwick began performing diagnostic spells on the troll, and when he declared that it was dead; Professor McGonagall turned to them and said "Explain."
Before any of the others could speak, Hermione said "They were looking for me Professor. When I heard about the troll, I went looking for it. I had read about them, so I thought I could beat it." The other three looked at each other in shock – Hermione Granger was lying to a teacher to save them. "Harry and Kishan kept it distracted with noise and sparks while Ron ran across the room to get me out of danger. Harry jumped onto its back and stuck his wand up its nose, and then Kishan overpowered the spark spell and shot lightning at it, so that it didn't attack Ron and me, then Harry shot sparks into its brain and electrocuted it, and then it died."
"Miss Granger, that was a very foolish thing to do, a lone first year student, no matter how bright, would not be able to defeat a fully grown mountain troll. Ten points will be taken for this." She turned to the other three and said "Did you not think to inform a prefect, as you had done to alert the staff to the fact that two common rooms are in the dungeons?"
They were shocked that Professor McGonagall knew that they had asked Neville to tell Percy about the common rooms, but ignored that to answer her question.
"With all due respect Professor," began Kishan, "When we arrived, the troll was already attacking Hermione, had we taken the time to inform someone, she would have been dead long before we found her."
"A valid argument," conceded the Professor, "and as such, each of you will receive twenty points. However, all four of you will receive detentions; you will be informed of the time and place at a later date. Mr Parekh, I believe I heard that you severely overpowered a spell, that can be dangerous and very draining, how are you feeling?"
"Just exhausted, Professor," Kishan answered, "I'm sure I'll be fine by tomorrow."
"If that is the case then I recommend you return to the Gryffindor common room, the Hufflepuffs have joined the rest of your house to continue the feast there."
The teachers left, and the four first years were silent for a few seconds before turning to each other and saying "Thanks," then heading off to their common room
When they had finished eating, they found a table in the corner to sit at where Ron explained what the fight had looked like from his point of view, detailing the way everyone else moved extremely slowly.
"It's been happening for years now, every time I'm upset or panicked, time will slow down around me. It started when I was five. Dad – he works in the Misuse of Muggle Artefacts Office – had brought home this grandfather clock, it had been owned by some old muggle guy, and it used to make time slow down every time it rang, and it turned out that, instead of just messing with the guy's head, the clock had bits and peices of a time turner inside it. A time turner is a highly regulated magical device, it's use is controlled by the ministry of magic, but before the clock could be handed over to the department that handled time turners, my dad had disenchant it so it wouldn't mess with all their other stuff. Well what happened was that Fred and George stuffed me inside the grandfather clock, thinking it would be funny to give me a scare. The clock struck one O'clock and suddenly the thing went haywire, glowing and shooting off sparks all over the place, nearly brought the house down. From my point of view everything was happening in slow motion, and then suddenly it all just stopped.
"My dad had come storming down the stairs, and hit the clock with this weird spell, petrificus magicus, and then he was pulling me out of the clock, and shouting at Fred and George. I reckon he would've beaten then within an inch of their lives if he hadn't been so relieved we were all okay. They took me to Saint Mungos, the wizarding hospital, but the healers couldn't find anything wrong with me. Later we found out that there wasn't a trace of magic left inside the clock, dad thought it had all dissipated into the air, but he was wrong, some of it had gone into me. I didn't tell anyone, they wouldn't have believed me, but I went and found out everything I could about time turners, and about that spell. Turns out that petrificus magicus is a spell designed to freeze the magic of any inanimate object. I've never been able to take advantage of the slowing down effect, today was the first time I've been able to. " he finished, before turning to Kishan and asking, "Where'd you get the idea to overpower the spell like that, what you did with the lightning was really cool,"
Kishan shrugged saying, "I just panicked; I put a whole lot of power into the spell hoping it would do something, and that was the result, although it did take a lot out of me, and it was only made worse because of the - " he stopped, before saying "There's something I need to tell you guys. Growing up I used muggle devices a lot, I loved using computers, but magic and technology aren't supposed to mix, especially accidental magic, so when my magic first manifested, the muggle technology malfunctioned often, until eventually my magic adapted to the technology, and no one knows how, Professor McGonagall said it was similar to when muggleborn children's magic adapts to any life support devices they have. It's not exactly the same, since my life isn't dependant on muggle technology, but that's beside the point. The point is that it changed my magic, it's become more adaptable, I can learn new magical skills faster, but their harder to master, and even more difficult to control, and the more power I put into a spell, the harder it is to control. When I overpowered the spark spell, I had to put way more effort into controlling it compared to if one of you did the same thing, and that was what I was saying before this explanation, my exhaustion was made worse by the extra effort I put into controlling the lightning. That was why McGonagall was concerned, she knew about it since she was the one who explained all of it to me. One more thing, because my magic is 'wild' as McGonagall called it, it means my magic is more affected by my emotions, sometimes it may be harder for me to cast spells, other times it may be easier, it all depends on my emotions."
They were quiet for a few moments before Hermione spoke up. "I can see magic," she began, "For as long as I could remember I could see splashes of colour and lights that no one else I knew could. I stopped telling people after I turned nine, and my parents put it off to an overactive imagination, but I still got teased at school sometimes because of it. Until professor McGonagall came to tell me I was a witch, it was only ever a little splash of colour here or a patch of light there, but then everything just became bright and full of colour, I could even see Professor McGonagall's animagus form when she was human, and vice versa. Being able to see magic helped me believe her when she told me, but I still never told anyone. The three of you are the first people I've ever told." she ended in a mumble.
There was an awkward silence, as Harry cast about for something to say, feeling he had to share something about himself, as everyone else had done. His frantic mind landed on the first out of the ordinary thing about himself he could think of.
"My relatives hate me." He blurted out, then clapped a hand over his mouth, but it was already too late.
"What do you mean they hate you?" asked Hermione, looking shocked.
"It's nothing, I just, er, well…" he trailed off to a mumble, but his friends weren't having any of it, and, after much questioning, they finally got him to open up about his relatives. They were shocked, but Harry reassured them it wasn't so bad anymore. They dropped the matter, seeing as it was almost curfew, and they really needed to go to bed, but none of the three completely forgot about it, instead an unconscious decision was made by all three to ensure Harry got to experience everything he had missed out on because of his relatives.
'P,
AN: *Dodges rotten tomatoes* I am soooo sorry for not updating, I was tied up in writing my O'Levels and was offline for 3 months, and I was sure I had told you guys I wouldn't be updating until they were over. Ive done some major changes to the text that have dropped my word count a bit, but I really hated the original chapter. A new chapter should be up soon, so be ready for the next chapter of the Phoenix Cycle.
Until Next Time
Nox
