A/N : The end two paragraphs of last chapter was a disaster. Both its formatting and grammar, so I apologise. I usually write the majority of the chapter and then finish it on Friday right before posting it. If you're back after that, thank you for believing in me!
A/N 2: Something is wrong with this chapter. I don't know what. Is it the way I order things? Do I go into too much detail about things? Is there not enough dialogue? Look, I have no clue, but if you do please drop me a message or leave a review. I'll fix it. Thanks, you beautiful people.
A/N 3: If anyone is going to be a drumplefrumple and complain about wandless magic, take it up with J.K herself. She had Tom Riddle and Lily doing it well before Hogwarts. Though Harry isn't up to that level, just know he could be.
A/N 4: Not J.K. Rowling or Warner Bros. Don't own anything you recognize. Quite poor, honestly.
Pertinent Prophecy Presentiments
Chapter 7: Never Enough
Despite being enthusiastic about his Hogwarts house Harry quickly realised everything would not be a walk in the park. Case in point, early the first morning when Harry exited his room to shower he was met with the distinctive smell of dungbombs in the entry room. Considering this prank was a relatively tame one Harry had extensive experience with due to Sirius, he continued with his morning knowing the best way to deal with the smell was to leave the area and cast a cleaning charm. Later Harry learned his roommates' actual rooms had been hit as well, and he was glad he had cast the protective charms on his door he knew from protecting himself from Sirius and Dora over the summer.
"You have a wand now, you can defend yourself. It's open season!" Sirius had declared, and Harry was forced to learn the Locking Charm and more importantly, though it was incredibly difficult, the Imperturbable Charm so they didn't stick any number of things, from dungbombs to Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start No Heat Fireworks, through the crack under his bedroom door.
"The older Slytherins do this every year, father told me," Malfoy said. "It makes us all be friends. As if." The last of his statement said while looking straight at Harry, who didn't particularly care to be friends with Malfoy either and only shrugged while leaving the dormitory on his way to breakfast.
He kept the fact that he knew how to defend himself against the prank from his roommates, they'd probably be mad at him or jealous or something. In his mother's journals she had talked about the difficulty of being muggleborn and the prejudice she was treated with by certain students from Slytherin, which had only been exacerbated by her apparently instinctive grasp on magic. Being a half-blood with a muggleborn mother was just as bad in the minds of the bigots, he'd been told, and he wondered how they would react to his incredibly advanced, for his age at least, magical ability. It was amusing though, watching Malfoy and Blaise fuss over removing the smell from themselves. He would defend the main door tonight, he just wouldn't tell anyone.
A factor for the reason he was so far ahead of his classmates was he had read all of Dora's old school books. When he had gotten his wands at the beginning of summer he'd spent hours on end holed up in his bedroom performing every spell he found. Another factor was Remus' expansive tutoring both Sophie and himself had received, learning a great deal of subjects from him. Broad magical theory that covered his knowledge of how magic worked and feeling magic, something Harry was intrinsically good at and had inherited from his mother according to Remus. Spells that were good to know but wouldn't be found in a school book, like the Alarm Charm which could wake a person up at a certain time. Lastly, he taught them self-defense.
Considering the yearly turnover of Defense teachers at Hogwarts nobody knew what they would learn so Remus made sure they could adequately cast a sufficient list of offensive and defensive spells. The most exciting part of these lessons was towards the end of summer when they'd been allowed to participate in mock duels, both with Sophie and Harry against each other and against an adult. Although Sophie was no slouch, Harry proved to be the better duelist of the two, even while only using one wand as Remus had told him he'd want to get used to it and only use both when he absolutely had to. At the moment it was a difficult decision which wand was better for duelling, the elm wand excelled at a wide variety of magics while his ebony wand specialized in specifically combative magic, however Harry knew the ebony wand was a better transfiguration wand and once he was proficient enough with transfiguration to use it in a duel it would be immensely useful.
The final and most important factor in Harry's drive to learn magic was his parents. Both of them had been uncommonly gifted with magic and Harry was no different himself, except he wanted to be even better to honour their memory, to be the best, the most impressive and the most powerful wizard he could become. Growing up hearing the stories of Lily and James' achievements left a deep feeling of hollowness within him, he was almost never satisfied with his accomplishments, but when he did something he knew would impress his parents a minute portion of that feeling went away.
Sirius had told him how his father hadn't learned anything in Transfiguration until fourth year and breezed through the majority of his classes with ease. His mother, on the other hand, was in a world of her own, slightly obvious considering she had earned a Charms Mastery at nineteen years old, as Harry found on his tenth birthday when Sirius had given him his family's history book and Lily's personal diary from her first year at Hogwarts. Some of the things she had gone through, like learning her dad wasn't actually her father and dealing with being a muggleborn at Hogwarts, were difficult to read and Harry sympathised with the emotional time she went through. But her magical prowess was ridiculous, by the end of her first year his mother had finished studying and could perform all the second year Charms and Potions material, and Harry had all of her notes from not only those subjects but everything, up to and including how to reverse the pranks his father and friends had executed.
So it came as little surprise when classes for Harry were unfortunately incredibly boring, in hindsight learning as much as he had before coming to Hogwarts would have inevitably ended up with this result. In Charms, Transfiguration and Defense Against the Dark Arts, the classes Harry was particularly interested in, he could already perform every spell they'd be required to learn for first year and had been starting to learn the second year material on his own. Even if in Charms and Transfiguration he used his off hand it only taught him how to channel magic especially fluidly. His other classes, Potions, History of Magic and Herbology, didn't hold much interest for him so he slogged through them with appropriate diligence. He may not have enjoyed them but that didn't matter, he wanted to make his parents proud, and part of that was being top of his class just as his mother was.
His teachers as well didn't give the impression they had expected anything different. In Charms the half-goblin Professor Flitwick applauded him on inheriting his mother's skills and to keep up the good work, Professor McGonagall looked teary-eyed and sniffed while telling him his father would be proud when he changed his matchstick into a needle on his second try and Professor Snape watched him in an evaluating manner over the two Potions classes they had the first week, an improvement over the welcoming feast.
Their reasoning may have been different but Harry quickly discovered that much of the remainder of the school didn't treat him much better than the older year Slytherins. The Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs often regarded him and his housemates with varying levels of disdain, while Ravenclaws kept to themselves. Harry was okay with that, he'd been an outsider most of his life in some way or another, despite the efforts of the adults in his life sometimes they even made it even more apparent without meaning to. As long as the other houses left him well enough alone that was fine and if they tried to prank him, or attack but he really doubted that would happen, he'd learned the signs and feel of the magic of a prank about to commence and he knew he could get the upper hand on almost anyone. Except for Remus, the sneaky bugger.
The other houses attitudes towards the Slytherins were not unjustly founded though. In fact before their very first class, Potions with the Gryffindors on Monday morning, Harry learned that Malfoy had already pitted himself and his friends against the Gryffindors, Neville Longbottom and Ron Weasley to be exact, not surprising considering how they had interacted the previous night before the sorting.
"Father told me Professor Snape has been instructed by Dumbledore himself to be easy with Longbottom. I hope he's twice as harsh with the rest of the Gryffindors," Malfoy said to his group of friends outside of the classroom.
"Whatever do you mean Draco?" Pansy Parkinson, he'd been told her name by Sophie, asked.
"Professor Snape loathes Gryffindors. He says they're the biggest bunch of dunderheads in his class out of all the houses, even worse than Hufflepuffs!" Draco said.
"Why Longbottom though?" Parkinson asked.
"Something about Longbottom's grandmother being on the Board of Governors. Like myself, people with relatives on the Board are entitled to benefits. I hope it's because Longbottom's dim. Wouldn't that be something? I say we fill in where the good professor cannot" Malfoy said as the rest of the group nodded.
It turned out that Longbottom could give as good as he got where Malfoy was concerned, sparking up a rivalry between the two that mostly revolved around the trading of insults of fluctuating degrees of viciousness. The rivalry forced a definitive line between the Slytherin and Gryffindor first years, who all thought Malfoy was unfairly berating their housemate. The Potions lesson following Malfoy's declarations hadn't helped either, Professor Snape was exceedingly biased towards the Gryffindors while favouring the Slytherins. Discussing the rivalry later with Sophie, she and Harry determined it did make a lot of sense for the two of them to disagree on basically everything. The Malfoys and Longbottoms were the leaders of two opposing factions on the Wizengamot and the two young boys were doing a fantastic job of imitating the positions their respective families took. They would be against each other regardless of which house they were in, the fact Slytherins and Gryffindors usually disliked each other only added another layer to their strife.
Divisions within Slytherin House itself rapidly developed among the first years as well, albeit not as decisively as between houses. Other years of Slytherins appeared to be compatible with each other, though Harry's year did not appear to be heading that direction despite their attempts at hazing. There had unknowingly already been separation immediately following the sorting, with a main group of purebloods that had all known each other before coming to Hogwarts centred around Malfoy containing the rest of the boys in Harry's dorm plus three of the girls, Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode and Daphne Greengrass. Sophie was welcomed in this group but preferred to spend time with Harry, who was excluded because had only known Malfoy and Greengrass before Hogwarts in addition to being frowned upon by them because he was a half-blood. Tracey Davis, also having the same problems as Harry, often spent her time between the library fulfilling her desire to learn and with the second years whom Bartholomew Dylan had introduced her to.
When Harry did exceptionally well during classes his peers reacted with anger, because they didn't think a half-blood could be so adept with magic unlike what their parents had told them their whole lives, much the same way he expected. What he hadn't expected was Tracey wanting to be his new best friend and learn from him. Harry wasn't sure he wanted to devote time to teaching, he had his own studies to pursue with second year material, but the main problem though was Sophie did not get along with Tracey. Their differing personalities, Sophie going along reacting to things as they occurred and Tracey needing a plan for literally everything, clashed daily.
When Harry talked with Sophie about it, she'd hardly been sympathetic. "If you weren't friends with her I'd probably never talk to her. She has a plan for everything and I'm sure there are many we don't know about."
"So?"
"I can tell she hides behind friendliness but is really cunning and subtle. Who knows what she actually wants to do long term," Sophie cautioned.
"She just wants to be a good witch, what's wrong with that? I want to be the best wizard I can," Harry told her, playing devil's advocate.
"She gets awfully angry easily and holds grudges. You may not have noticed but she already hates Greengrass because she takes so long getting ready in the morning. What if you teach her something and she uses it to hurt someone?"
"Nobody is perfect. But yeah I do see what you mean, I hadn't decided what to do about it yet and I don't really want to put the time into it regardless. It would be smart to stay on her good side though, with what you've told me I don't want to make her mad." Harry mused as he decided he would answer any questions she had but not outright tutor.
"Sure, sure. There's something else though, it's not I don't like her for it but you'll want to know if you're going to be friendly with her. She's one quarter lilin," Sophie disclosed. "Parkinson got her to admit it asking about 'her elegant looks'," she finished with a drawl.
"Er, what's a lilin?" Harry questioned
"Oh, they're a humanlike species but more closely related to veela. Take a veela, make them half the size, drop the allure and bird transformation and that's what a full blooded lilin is. They're from Northern Europe and are known to make men do even more crazy and stupid things than they usually do through manipulation. That's why her chronic planning is so worrisome and why I want you to be wary of her," she explained. Harry, who had been introduced to veela by Sirius about a year ago, understood what Sophie was telling him and promised her he'd be extra careful.
The other problem classmate Harry had was Malfoy, who had decided Harry needed to be taken down a few pegs. Harry could expect to receive pot-shots concerning anything from his ever messy hair to not receiving any packages of sweets from home, which had been a particularly amusing conversation.
"Hey Potter, no care packages again? Pity there's no charity for half-bloods around," Malfoy taunted.
"Pft, some of us are simply better prepared," Harry dismissed him. He'd been told where the kitchens were so he had access to essentially any food item he desired and requested the house-elves to make.
"At least I have parents who can care about me," Malfoy goaded.
Harry, seeing it for what it was, outwardly kept himself calm even though he seethed inside. "One could argue I'm actually better cared for because my guardians don't want me to get fat," he responded.
"Are you a muggle, Potter? Us wizards can fix that," Malfoy teased.
Doing his best imitation of Andromeda as he quoted one of her favourite things to say, he primly replied, "it's the principle of the matter, Malfoy."
Harry spent much the first week at Hogwarts exploring the castle with Sophie during their free time, usually between the end of classes and curfew with a break during dinner. With the Marauder's Map exploring the castle was easy and exciting, it also allowed them to keep a watch out for unfriendly people, such as Filch or Mrs. Norris. Secret passages of numerous designs, some hidden as a plain section of wall further hidden behind tapestries and others simply hidden by a door, chambers looking long disused that required a password to enter, one hundred and forty two staircases of all shapes and sizes of varying quality could be found throughout the castle several of which shifted at seemingly random intervals, false steps that your leg would sink into if you didn't jump over it and the kitchens filled with a veritable legion of house-elves were among the many things the duo found during their adventures.
Sophie always brought along a simple self-made painting kit, and when they found a secluded area they would take a break every so often and she would decorate the castle with an assortment of small paintings. While she was doing this Harry would try to work on wandless magic, though without any success. Harry had been able to control his accidental magic since he was seven, but only direct it a certain way, not make it happen on demand. Remus had shown them a few examples during the summer, he could summon or banish objects, levitate things and cause his hand appear to be aflame with magic. Allegedly, wandless magic was quite different than with a wand as you couldn't use actual spells.
"You have to understand magic, how it works and what it does. Yes it does take much more power but that's barely scratching the surface," Remus had said. Harry thought he understood magical theory pretty well, all about intent, visualisation and proper channels of the flow of magical energy, so he took to carrying a stick around with him, attempting to get it to levitate. He thought he'd seen it vibrate a few times, but he wasn't sure.
One area they had yet to explore was the restricted third floor corridor they'd been told about at the welcoming feast. According to the Marauder's Map it was guarded by something named Fluffy, Harry couldn't decide if that was a bad or good thing, but it was all they had to go on. When Harry had written to Sirius the first night telling him about Dumbledore's warning his godfather had replied by the next morning's post saying he should look into it and have some extra adventure but to be careful. Sirius was certain Dumbledore wouldn't keep anything exceedingly dangerous in the castle, and if it was something somewhat dangerous there would be preventative warnings before the actual danger. Harry wished he had his father's infamous invisibility cloak but Sirius had told him, again, that James hadn't received it until his thirteenth birthday and neither would Harry, he would have to rely on and hone his own skills until then.
It was fortunate Harry decided to wait to investigate the third floor corridor until spending some time watching the Marauder's Map to see if any teachers patrolled it. On the second Monday of term after his third Potions lesson Professor Snape's voice carried over the sounds of students packing up to leave. "Potter, stay behind," it was said softly but its tone was grave. The professor had been watching him very closely all lesson and Harry couldn't think of anything he could be punished for, as Snape's voice nearly promised, his potion was nearly the best in class thanks to his mum's notes. Was avoiding the hazing by older Slytherins wrong? Or did this have to do with his father and Sirius?
Sophie told him she'd be waiting outside for him so they could go to Transfiguration together as he made to approach Professor Snape's desk. "Yes, Professor Snape?"
"The ignoramus who was your father and the imbecile you call your godfather were remorseless delinquents. Despite this, you have ended up in Slytherin House, and unfortunately for both of us, I am your Head of House. Therefore it is my duty to inform you that the Headmaster, for whatever reason, has chosen to take an interest in your schooling and behaviour. I suggest you seek to avoid any trouble, should I find the slightest indication of rule breaking the consequences will be quite harsh, believe me," Professor Snape divulged in a menacing tone.
"Thank you, sir, your advice is much appreciated," Harry replied in a dazed tone. The revelation was startling to him, but he figured being as far ahead in classes was reason enough to garner the attention of Dumbledore. Snape nodded and motioned towards the door as a dismissal, which Harry heeded absentmindedly.
The rest of the week Harry was in a constant state of anxiety due to Snape's information, between pushing himself even harder in classes and attentively watching the third floor on the Map, Harry was glad he could relax during flying lessons on Thursday. Harry himself was a fabulously gifted flyer, had been ever since his first birthday when Sirius had gotten him his first broom according to the man. Growing up he had always looked forward to when he would be brought to the Black Manor in the countryside, where he could zoom around to his heart's content. He was looking forward to trying out for the Slytherin Quidditch team next year. Unfortunately, these would add an extra classes with the Gryffindors every Thursday, in addition to Potions twice a week, and provide a theatre for the annoying Malfoy and Longbottom to continue. When Longbottom's broom had malfunctioned Harry was worried their flying time would be cancelled, but the boy had enough experience with a broom to make it to the ground unharmed, despite Malfoy's attempts to goad Longbottom by blaming his accident on user error.
While he was flying Harry felt his mind clear like it always did and he could think much more clearly. He realised the least likely time for someone to be around the third floor corridor was before breakfast on Saturday morning, so that was when he would investigate. Heading back to the castle afterwards he discussed it with Sophie and she agreed his idea would most likely be the best.
That's how the two of them found themselves slipping out of the Slytherin common room at six in the morning on Saturday. With the map out they dodged both Filch and Mrs. Norris, took a detour around Dumbledore who was descending the grand staircase onto the first floor and made quick time with several shortcuts. The whole corridor looked dusty and unused with none of the torches found throughout the castle lit, not altogether unexpected.
"Do you think they have any wards?" Sophie whispered.
"Nothing bad, this is a school after all. An invisible barrier if anything, but those aren't hard to break. I think I could do it?" Harry acknowledged.
They crept along the corridor without hindrance until they came to the door where the Map displayed a dot labelled 'Fluffy' on the other side. Harry withdrew his elm wand as Sophie did the same, just in case, as he reached for the handle. Both of them holding their breath, Harry moved to open the door as quietly as possible. It was locked.
"You cast the unlocking charm," Harry told Sophie.
"Alohomora." With a loud click that sounded like an explosion in the silent corridor the lock disengaged.
Harry eased the door open. "Shite," he breathed out. The room contained a humongous three-headed dog, asleep. It nearly filled the corridor even lying down, its snores were thunderous, ropes of saliva hung from yellow fangs as it drooled and its noses twitched every which way.
"This is Fluffy?" Sophie murmured. Then her eyes widened, and she pointed to the floor in between two of the heads, "look."
Harry saw the trapdoor she had brought to his attention, and he knew for sure now that whatever had been at Gringotts was now hidden at Hogwarts. He needed to tell Sirius. "Let's leave before it wakes up, we found what we wanted," he said. They closed the door and Harry reapplied the lock with a charm.
Since breakfast wouldn't start for another thirty minutes, they went back to the Slytherin common room where Harry could write to Sirius asking if he wanted to do some literal marauding. Once he returned from his room to gather writing material Sophie and he found a secluded table. While writing his letter he noticed Sophie was acting decidedly distressed, as she did every time they were in the common room.
"What's wrong with the common room?" he queried.
"Nothing."
"Uh huh, I believe that as much as the sky is green. Try again," Harry coaxed.
"Wait, the sky isn't green?!" Sophie gasped.
"Ha ha, you can tell me you know. We just went on an adventure together, does that mean nothing to you?" he asked in a faux hurt tone.
With a sigh she replied, "if you must know, I'm afraid of water." She motioned towards the long window that looked out into the quickly brightening lake as the sun rose. "I nearly drowned when I was five. I still have no idea how I survived, I can't remember. It must've been accidental magic because one moment I was panicking like mad and then I woke up on the shore."
Harry had no idea what to say to that. "Oh. I'm sorry for asking," he told her but she only shrugged.
By the end of the third week, Harry had settled into a routine at Hogwarts. He'd perform outstandingly during classes, breeze through his homework and then spend time studying ahead in the library or practising magic in one of the empty password protected chambers he'd found while exploring the castle. Sophie joined him sometimes, but she lacked Harry's aggressive drive to be the best, and spent much time painting in her dorm. In fact, she'd removed the tapestry and used the wall itself as a surface as well as paint her bedroom door which led to all her roommates asking them to paint theirs. She had agreed, for a price of course. Sirius had replied to Harry's information on the third floor with a Howler that Harry had deftly neutralised, reminding himself to thank Dora for teaching him the spell to do so, as the letter had contained the overused name joke Sirius used. "Are you serious? No, I'm Sirius. Good to know you're enjoying Hogwarts kiddo." Which Harry had no desire to be broadcasted to the Great Hall at Sunday morning breakfast. They were now in the process of deciding when Sirius would sneak into Hogwarts and they would go down the trapdoor.
Harry had resigned himself to the fact he would teach himself everything he learned during his time at Hogwarts. Well, except Herbology, but who cared about gardening anyway? So when Professor Quirrell asked him if he would join him for tea after lunch on Friday after a class, he was hopeful something would develop. The defence professor, while he did maintain a heavy stutter, was competent and did an acceptable job teaching. Harry had heard some Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs say he was hopelessly incapable, and he wondered if the professor taught the two classes differently because he was prejudiced, much like Professor Snape.
Knocking on Professor Quirrell's third floor office door, he was welcomed in. "H-h-hello Mr. P-Potter, I appreciate you joining m-m-me. You've d-done quite well in m-m-my class."
"Yes sir, defence is rather easy for me. I enjoy learning it as it's incredibly interesting. The other classes are all well and good, but really they're not as useful as Defence Against the Dark Arts," Harry informed him while Quirrell prepared tea.
When they both were seated Quirrell seemed to fortify himself, took a deep breath and then shuddered. When he spoke his voice had changed tone and quality, losing the stutter and gaining a self-assured aspect. "I quite agree Mr. Potter. You remind me of myself when I was here at Hogwarts. Not a point missed on quizzes, essays are well written and flawless practical work, never seeming to struggle with a single assignment, and not only in my class but all the other teachers are in agreement you are the most promising student in the year."
"I want to be, professor. To be the best wizard I can. Anything less would be unacceptable," Harry told him, passing off his change in voice as trivial.
"Yes, we are quite alike Mr. Potter, I to follow that line of thinking. Therefore I have a proposition for your consideration. How would you like to be tutored by myself? To explore magic on a practical and powerful level few magicals ever seek?" Professor Quirrell asked him.
Harry gaped momentarily, this was exactly what his highest hopes had been. "I would be incredibly grateful, sir. Truly."
"These lessons will not be easy Mr. Potter, you'll have to work very hard. I will not be there to teach you spells or incantations, though I will give you hints as to the type of magic which would be helpful, if I must. I will put you into situations where you will be required to adapt and decide the best magic to help yourself. I assure you, you will be motivated to learn not only jinxes, hexes and curses but also transfiguration, charms and counters, all portions of a proper defence education. Not the drivel the majority of people expect from my class, what do think of that?"
"I think I'm ready to begin at your convenience, sir," Harry said.
"Very well. You must understand as well utmost secrecy is required concerning these lessons. Personal tutoring is, unfortunately, rather frowned upon at Hogwarts," Professor Quirrell remarked.
"Understood, professor."
PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP PPP
A/N: Feel free to PM/review with any questions, concerns, discrepancies or opinions. In fact, I would love to hear some criticism. Especially constructive criticism because, you know, that's the most helpful kind.
