Disclaimer: I don't own much of this. General rule? If you recognize it, it isn't mine. I'm just taking the characters out to play.
Quick A/N: I don't do many Author's Notes, and this might very well be the only one in this story. Having said that, I felt that it was important to address an apparently common concern. This story takes place ENTIRELY in the past. There is a sequel already planned that will discuss what happens in the original timeline. For those of you who have looked, you'll know this is also stated on my Author's Page. I got this chapter done relatively quickly, but there wasn't much happening, more of a build up. The next chapter should be longer and thus will take longer to publish. Enjoy!
Nighttime Wanderings
Aaron jogged into the Great Hall just minutes after dinner had begun and handed his notes to Harry. "There's some really good charms in there. Comfort charms, decoration charms, and even charms to make things lighter or smaller so they're easier to move. I'd recommend focusing on the charms for comfort for tonight though. You can go through the rest this weekend."
Harry looked across the table and saw Christina handing her notes to Hermione. Judging by the look on his sister's face, she'd be reading all of the notes tonight. And Christina seemed to have taken more notes than Aaron, though not by much. "Thank you," Harry told Aaron, "I think I'll do that." He reached for the serving platter in the middle of the table and put a slice of beef on his plate, following it up with some potatoes.
Harry ate slowly, reading through the list of charms he wanted to perform tonight. He still couldn't get over the idea of magic being real, and that he could do it. After years of being called a freak, it was hard to believe otherwise. 'Hmm' he thought to himself, 'what should I do tonight? Definitely the temperature charm. Is there a charm to make my ceiling like the Great Hall's? I'd like to be able to wake up with the sun. There it is! Ok, so temperature, ceiling, and of course one to make my bed more comfortable. Softer maybe? I'll have to test out the bed to see if I want it softer or harder.'
He continued making his mental list until the dishes were cleared from the table. Looking at Aaron expectantly, he stood from his seat and followed the other boy from the room.
Harry followed his new friend toward the dungeons where they stopped in front of a snake tapestry. "Ater Rosa" Aaron told the wall, revealing a doorway through which he led Harry. The door led to a large room filled with desks. "Right," Aaron said, "our rooms are on the fifth floor of the tower. Each of us has our own room and we have a common area in the middle of the rooms. Our rooms won't change from year to year, unlike other houses. That means that any charms you do will stay put until the end of our 9th year, unless you take them down."
"Our tower is the shortest," he continued "but that's only because it starts in the dungeon level. If you need to speak to Headmaster Slytherin, his rooms are also in the dungeons, at the end of the hall. I don't recommend wandering too far down here though, it's pretty easy to get lost, and it's hard to find people."
"4th year and above tutor students three days per week in this room," he gestured to the desks, "the days rotate by grade, so there's almost always tutoring available after dinner. Tonight it's the 5th and 8th year students. First years are expected to be in bed by 9 pm, but once we get to 3rd year it starts getting later. Do you want to get started on those charms or work on the assignments?"
"I think I'd rather get started on the charms work. I'm pretty tired, and want a comfy bed to fall into." Harry laughed.
"Fair enough. There's 5 rooms connected to the common room. One room per person in first year. I checked when I came up earlier and your room has been added already. The house elves are really good about working quickly." Aaron led Harry up the stairs to the fifth level, "Your room is marked with your name, but you also, for some reason, have a snake carved into your door. Everyone else's doors are plain."
"I have a feeling I know why. I bet headmaster Slytherin requested it. He knows I can speak to snake."
"Really? That's great! That's a really rare gift, you should be proud of it!"
"I'm still getting used to it, but it is nice to be able to talk about it. My first family…well, they didn't like me being 'different'. I can only imagine how they would have reacted if they'd known."
"Well, the good news is that you aren't with them anymore. You're here. And you have a new family. Now, let's go see about getting your room set up." Aaron led him over to the correct room and opened the door. "As you can see, it definitely needs some work. Personally, I thought the beds were awful. I think that's on purpose to make sure we learn the spells. And the blankets do nothing to keep out the cold. I learned that last semester."
Harry consulted the notes in his hand. 'I think I'll start with the bed,' he thought to himself. He moved over to the bed and laid down. 'Too hard. Definitely too hard.' "Ok," he said to Aaron, "I think I need to fix this bed. If I need help, I'll come get you." Harry got out of the bed and found the page of notes that dealt with the charms for the bed. Pointing his wand at the bed, he incanted, "demissiore". Seeing the bed light up in a halo of blue light, he moved to lay on it once more. "Much better," he sighed. "Now, temperature."
By the time Harry was done for the night, his room was a very pleasant place. With the temperature permanently set to 24 degrees, and a ceiling mimicking the Great Hall, he was able to comfortably sink into the wonderfully soft bed. When Aaron came over an hour later, he whistled in appreciation. "You did all of this in an hour?"
"Yeah, I think it turned out well, don't you?"
"Yeah, I'll say. You got the temperature charm perfect, and I love what you did with the ceiling. But you realize that charm was theoretical only?"
"It was? Why?" Harry frowned.
"Because it's a difficult spell, that's why. It takes a ton of power to successfully do that charm. I've heard of upper years doing that charm, but for a first year to do it? It's practically unheard of! Just wait until the professor hears about this! He'll be ecstatic." Aaron rambled, "Well, I was just coming to let you know that curfew is in a few minutes. I'll see you in the morning?"
"Yeah, ok. See you then." Harry smiled and shut the door behind his friend. 'Well. I don't understand what he meant by the charm being too powerful, but it sure looks nice in here now.'
Harry lay in bed, trying desperately to fall asleep. But sleep just wasn't happening. He turned over again, but in spite of how comfortable the bed was, he couldn't force his mind to stop. He needed to walk around, to do something, but he couldn't because of the curfew. He looked at the time. 10:04. He'd been laying here for over an hour. "Ok. Enough of this." he spoke to the empty room. Putting on shoes, he crawled out of bed and went quietly to the door.
Harry crept silently down the stairs, and looked around the main room with the desks. Empty desks. 'Perfect' he thought to himself. He quietly made his way across the room to the main entrance and stepped into the hall. Once there, he turned towards the exit and walked along the walls, making sure to stick to the shadows in case he ran across any other students or teachers. Not sure where he wanted to go, he was only slightly surprised to find himself in front of his parents' apartment. Unsurprisingly, it was locked.
Harry decided not to chance waking them up. Instead, he wandered off in another direction, stumbling across an empty hallway. Deciding to explore a bit, he ventured down the hallway. Looking down the hallway, he saw a window with a man standing in front of it. He crept closer, to see if he could look inside the window without the man seeing him.
"Interesting, isn't it?" The man spoke, "I assume it's well past your curfew by the way you're trying to hide in the shadows. You can come closer, it must be hard to see from back there." The figure conjured a stepstool for the boy to stand on. Harry moved forward eagerly, desperate to see what was happening on the other side of the window. What he saw, should have made him cringe, but it drew him even closer to the pane of glass. Blood. Etched in spiraling designs of strange shapes all around the room, and freely bleeding from the figure in the center of the room. A knife, hovering in the air, was slowly carving more shapes into the older student's arms now. "It's fascinating isn't it? It's blood magic. You're a first year," the man looked down briefly, "but you'll be seeing more of this soon enough if you're interested. Fifth year will come soon enough, just you wait and see. In the mean time, if you are interested, I recommend some research to get you started. And pay attention in Runes class. It's vital to any success you may have in this field. Now, go on. Here is a pass to go to the library," he pulled out a piece of paper from his robes, "This is good for one hour, and then you will need to return to your rooms." The man turned and stalked away.
Harry couldn't believe his luck. A whole hour to himself in the library! Oh, the things he could look up without others looking over his shoulder. He scrambled to go to where he knew the library was. 'Blood magic. I wonder what that is.' Harry thought to himself, 'it certainly looked painful. But the boy in the room wasn't even flinching, so maybe it doesn't hurt so bad? It can't be worse than what I got at the Dursley's.' He'd stopped thinking of them as family. They were just three muggles he happened to have known. The broken bones nothing but a painful past. He had a family now. And he would do whatever it took to keep them.
Without realizing it, he'd made it to the library doors. The doors were open, and lights were still on as the older students had no curfew. Harry made his way over to the giant catalogue book his parents had shown them and tapped it with his wand twice, whispering 'blood magic' to it. Instantly, a stack of three books appeared next to him. The catalog would only retrieve books that were appropriate for the student's grade level, so these were mostly informational books.
The top book, Light Versus Dark: The True Difference, caught his eye. He immediately placed that book to the side to look at later. The other two books looked interesting, but only one of them really sounded like something he wanted to read. Blood Magic: The History and Theory Behind the Art went on top of the other book. He tapped his wand against the third book twice and it disappeared back onto the shelves.
Tapping the catalogue again, Harry this time whispered "Charms" to it, watching another stack appear, this one much larger than the first. He looked through the stack of books and selected two that seemed like they would be useful. One was on something called "warding", though he wasn't sure what that meant. But looking through the table of contents, it sounded like it might be interesting. Topics such as Protecting Your Room and Hiding Your Things made him stack it, along with one strictly on hexes, on top of the blood magic books. Casting one of the only spells he knew, tempus, he looked at the time. He had 15 minutes left before his pass expired.
Harry tapped his wand against the stack of books he didn't want and they all vanished just like before. Finally, Harry activated the register one final time and a collection of books on runes appeared before him. Of the ten books provided, Harry selected three and returned the rest just as his pass was getting ready to expire.
Harry carried the large stack of books to the front of the library to check them out and saw a sign explaining the process. "Simply tap the book three times," it read, "and state your name. You will have three weeks to return them before they are returned automatically." 'Easy enough.' Harry thought. Worst case scenario, he didn't make it through the books before the deadline and they were sent back to the library for him. Best case, he finished them all and would be able to return them on time. He was hoping for the second option.
