In My Head
Disclaimer:
I neither own the rights to the Harry Potter franchise, nor do I make any money by writing this; it is a work of fanfiction. (Kudos to the first person to notice the Monty Python reference).
...~IMH~...
...~IMH~...
Chapter Seven
Charms and an Introduction to Politics
"Where on earth did you run off to?" Justin asked as soon as Harry caught up with the other first year Hufflepuffs.
"Not a clue," Harry said dishonestly, hoping that his attempt at a winning grin would put the others at ease enough to accept that he'd just gotten lost.
"You know, I wouldn't have minded if you'd borrowed my history book," Justin pointed out.
"I wouldn't want to impose," Harry countered.
Thankfully, Susan chose that point to change the line of conversation. "Not that it matters, boys," she said as she and Hannah caught one of Harry's arms each and started to frog march him down the corridor, once again getting the group moving. "We'll be late for charms if we don't hurry up, and I for one have no intention of missing what should be a decent lesson after that rubbish history lesson."
"Was it really that bad?" Harry asked while trying to get his arms free (he was not at all accustomed to so much touching).
"Ernie fell asleep, Justin drew a portrait of Binns, Zach spent the entire lesson playing tic-tac-toe with Megan, and the rest of us just spent the whole time gossiping," Susan said, counting off each member of their group on her fingers.
"Sounds productive," Harry quipped as he managed to wriggle free of the two girls.
"It was actually," Hannah put in as she threw a mock glare at Harry for escaping. "That is, if you're at all interested in Hogwarts politics."
"Don't ask," Tom muttered at just the same time as Harry asked "What's that?"
"Basically, most of the influential families send their kids to Hogwarts so they can get to know their peers and start to form their own alliances for future political careers," Susan informed him.
"Others send their kids for the 'Hogwarts experience,'" Hannah added. "That's the main reason my parents sent me instead of having me home tutored. Its the same for most halfbloods here."
"And the muggleborns usually get in on the Hogwarts scholarship fund," Susan finished.
Harry let out a groan, the sudden realisation that he'd have to worry about making alliances and such sinking in. Why can't I just do normal kid things, like play football and not have to worry about who my future adversaries are going to be?
"I told you not to ask," Tom pointed out, "Now you can't claim ignorance."
Shut up.
"Speaking of, Harry," Ernie joined in. "Do you think you'll align more with the Dark families or the Light ones?"
"How do you tell the difference?" Harry asked.
"Just look at their behaviour, really," Ernie replied. "The Dark families traditionally vote for less secrecy more power. The Light families go for the opposite."
"How did they get tagged with light and dark then?" Harry asked, genuinely confused. "That has nothing to do with types of magic."
"True, but Dark families usually practice the Dark Arts in secret," Ernie told him, his voice dropping to a conspiratorial whisper.
"So couldn't you have a 'Dark family' that supports the views held by the light ones?" Harry asked, trying not to smirk as Tom chuckled.
Of course, when faced with such an unusual question, Ernie, Susan and Hannah all looked highly confused and exchanged several questioning glances. The silliness of the situation almost caused Harry to chuckle (only not doing so because of how irritated he was at being stuck in the political training ground for the wizarding world's future elite).
"I suppose that's possible," Ernie finally said, his voice sounding utterly unconvinced.
"So what are the main political parties then?" Harry asked, deciding that he may as well find out what sort of a mess he was going to be sucked into.
"Parties?" Susan sounded seriously confused by the term.
"Oh this should be good," Tom chortled while Harry felt an increasing level of dread rising in the pit of his stomach. All through his childhood he'd been kept informed of politics (having the TV always within hearing distance when he was locked in his cupboard meant that he heard every time Vernon went on a rant about 'those useless liberals' when the news was on).
"You know, the political factions?" Harry suggested tentatively.
"Duh, we just told you," Ernie laughed, "light and dark."
"They don't have parties, Harry," Tom informed him, much to Harry's horror. "Candidates for the position of Minister for Magic go through a vote at the Wizengamot. Whoever gets the most votes wins."
"So how do the people who aren't on the Wizengamot vote?" Harry asked.
"They don't," Susan replied, completely unconcernedly.
Harry felt his mouth drop open (no voting?!) and was just about to ask a flurry of angry questions when a door just in front of them opened and a tiny little man walked out to start ushering them into class, his presence causing Harry to close his mouth with an audible snap.
Filing into the classroom, Harry noticed that the Slytherins had already made it inside and were filling out half of the seats.
Deciding that he'd rather not risk upsetting Susan, Ernie, and Hannah by going on about wizarding politics, Harry moved swiftly over to the Slytherins and sat next to Blaise Zabini with Megan Jones taking the seat on his other side.
"Hey, Harry," Blaise whispered to him as Professor Flitwick started the class roll call.
"Hey, how're things going in Slytherin?" Harry asked the other boy.
"Shit, if you'll pardon my French," Blaise whispered with a smirk. "Malfoy and Nott are both vying for control of the first years and there's some weird feud going on between our Quidditch captain, Marcus Flint, and our seventh year prefects."
Harry almost hit his head off the desk in frustration. "More politics?"
"Welcome to Hogwarts," Blaise grinned by way of an answer.
"At least we haven't had it that bad in Hufflepuff – here, Professor," Harry answered as his name was called.
"It's worst in Slytherin and Ravenclaw," Blaise informed him before answering as his name was called. Any further conversation was cut off as their diminutive teacher started explaining what they would be doing today.
"Now class, I've got something very fun lined up for you today," he said as he hopped down from his desk and walked towards the centre of the room, where stood a life sized mannequin. "Doubtless you've all been eager to put those wands of yours to good use."
The tiny Professor looked at the class as they all nodded and muttered their agreement, their eleven year old faces nearly shining with excitement.
"So today I'll be teaching you a handy little jinx that you can use whenever you end up duelling on the school grounds... not that you're supposed to do so," the Professor continued with a chuckle. "Now, this spell is covered in the Standard Book of Spells: Grade 2, but is such an easy one to use that I teach it before anything else."
"The spell itself is known as the Knockback Jinx, and is a nifty little spell that can be used to knock people over," the Professor smiled at them as he saw many of them (mostly the boys) grinning excitedly at the idea of knocking each other over with magic. "Now, let me demonstrate."
Professor Flitwick then turned to face the mannequin and with an overemphasised wand movement cast "Flipendo!" in a clear voice.
Harry watched in amazement as a ball of bright light shot from the end of Flitwick's wand and hit the mannequin square in the chest, sending it flying across the room (to the glee of the first years).
"Now, why don't we all get into little groups and practice on each other then? I've charmed the whole room with cushioning charms so don't worry about knocking your friends into things. It will just be like playing in a muggle bouncing fortress!" the Professor told them excitedly. "I've put the wand movement and phonetic spelling on the blackboard so you should all be able to pick it up by the end of the lesson."
Immediately there was a rush of young people dashing about as everyone formed groups and started shooting spells at each other. Harry found himself with Megan and Blaise, who had been sitting next to him, along with Millicent Bulstrode, a hulking girl who strongly resembled the Crabbe boy who was in a group with Malfoy.
"What's a bouncing fortress?" Millicent asked the group at large in a gravelly voice as they moved to an empty part of the classroom.
"I think it's called a bouncy castle, it's a sort of inflatable room type thing that muggle children play in," Harry replied, ducking out of the way as Malfoy sent Pansy Parkinson hurtling across the classroom into a particularly springy looking desk.
"You think? Didn't you grow up in the muggle world? Flipendo!" Blaise asked as he cast at Ernie MacMillan who wasn't even in their group (when glared at by said Hufflepuff boy he said he was aiming at Harry).
"Yeah, but my aunt never let me go on one," Harry answered with a shrug. "Now hold still. Flipendoh!"
Blaise winced as Harry's spell made him stumble back a couple of steps and immediately cast the spell back at Harry who managed to dodge out of the way.
"You overemphasised the 'o' sound at the end, Harry," Megan told him kindly. "Try more like this, Flipendo!"
Harry hadn't been expecting her to shoot at him, and as such found himself flying away from the group as her spell connected with his chest and into a chair.
"Well to the void with that!" Tom suddenly piped up as Harry pulled himself from an undignified pile on the floor. "Forget the wand motions, just push extra power through with the spell."
Heeding Tom's advice, Harry jumped up and bellowed the incantation three times in quick succession, pointing his wand at each of his group members in turn.
The first spell hit Megan in the stomach, sending her flying across the room, Blaise managed to dive out of the way of the second with a startled yelp, while Millicent was caught on the shoulder mid dive and went tumbling into Tracy Davies.
The two girls bounced off each other with an almost comic 'boing' sound that was almost lost amidst their shrieks of surprise. Harry was highly glad that the charms teacher possessed the foresight to have even charmed the students with a cushioning charm before letting them loose on one another.
Harry was so glad that he hadn't accidentally killed anyone that he completely missed Tom's shouted warning to "look out!" and thus was immensely surprised when Blaise's retaliatory shot caught him in the ankles and sent him tumbling head over heels.
As Harry was once again climbing up from the floor he heard a loud bang as Professor Flitwick called the practical part of the lesson to a close.
Sighing, half with relief at not getting blasted around the room any more, and half in annoyance that the practical was over, Harry returned to his desk and sat down heavily alongside Blaise and Megan.
"You cheated," Blaise said as he took his seat.
"What?" Harry asked, startled by the accusation.
"Yup," the other boy nodded solemnly, "power to purpose casting is definitely cheating. Especially when we're meant to be learning wand motions."
"But I didn't know that!" Harry muttered back frantically, worried that he'd done something wrong.
Blaise chuckled, a wide grin appearing on his face. "Oh, Harry, don't be such a Hufflepuff about it. If you have the power to toss off a spell without using the wand motion then do it. Merlin knows it'll be easier than actually bothering with remembering all those motions."
"Okay, okay. I suppose it isn't that bad then, but what exactly do you mean by purpose to power casting?"
"Power to purpose," Blaise corrected. "It's one of the methods of casting. Haven't you read up on magical theory?"
"No... should I have?" Harry replied worriedly.
"I suppose not," Blaise mused. "Flitwick will probably start talking about it once he's finished consoling Parkinson." (It turned out that she was distraught after one of Malfoy's spells had flipped her upside down, giving their group a show of the girl's knickers).
"Fair enough," Harry accepted, looking over at the blubbering girl.
"But then again, chances are he'll only go over the standard model of casting. Intent, motion, and incantation," Blaise said in a speculative manner. "I could summarise if you want."
"Would you?" Harry asked eagerly. "That would be great!"
"Right then, to start with you have your standard casting, as I just mentioned. You need to know the spell, the wand motion, and want to do it in order to cast. The wand motion is based on the runic form that would have done the same or a similar function before wands were developed." Blaise paused there to check Harry was paying attention (he was, although Tom was making snoring noises in the background of Harry's mind).
Satisfied that Harry was listening, Blaise continued. "That method is the easiest to do for most wizards as it has the lowest power drain; using both the motion and the incantation helps the magic come easier. However, it is also the most technically difficult to perform, as you need to be precise with the wand motion, the pronunciation, and you have to time the whole thing so that you do the spell properly."
"Why do we learn that first if it's the most difficult?" Harry butted in, to his right Harry noticed Megan nodding along to his point.
Blaise faked an annoyed scowl at him. "Simple, lowest power drain, and it's meant to be good practice for patience and control. Anyway, the next is power to purpose casting. It has multiple levels, such as the one you used, which still involves using the incantation. The next level is non-verbal incantation, which is meant to be much harder. Basically, this method removes the runic form to make casting simpler as you don't need to bother with motions and timing at the expense of doubling the power required to cast."
"And that's what I did?"
"Yup," Blaise informed him succinctly.
"What are the other forms then?"
"Ah, there are loads," Blaise supplied with a shrug. "Intent based casting, free magic, wandless magic. The list goes on. Suffice to say that not many people can do anything other than the two I've just told you about. And few enough can do power to purpose to begin with."
"Can you?" Harry asked timidly, nervous that Blaise would be offended by Harry's asking in case he was unable to.
"Not sure," was his honest reply. "Can't say I've ever tried it, to be honest. Although, it's probably unlikely that I would be able to right now. The only reason I'm not really surprised that you can do it is because you're Harry Potter."
Harry shifted uncomfortably at those words. Even knowing he had power in spades (not to mention that he could do some wandless magic) and that he could use it in a way his classmates couldn't didn't offset the reminder that the magical community had heaped a lot of expectations upon him from something he had done as a baby.
As such, Harry was highly relieved when Professor Flitwick once again took to the teacher's desk, having successfully calmed down Pansy Parkinson, and began to lecture them on (as Blaise had predicted) the necessity and theory behind the standard model of casting. Flitwick's lecture was much more detailed and informative than Blaise's quick run-through, and Harry found it highly useful, even going so far as to vow to himself that he would learn all his spells using that method before moving on to power to purpose casting.
"Hey Blaise, I have another question," Harry said to the other boy as they packed up at the end of the lesson.
"Go ahead," Blaise replied with a false sigh.
"How come all the Slytherins were already in the class when the Hufflepuffs arrived, even though you both came from history of magic?" Harry asked.
Blaise lifted an eyebrow at him. "Malfoy overheard Bones saying that she thought his legs looked weak, and that she thought he would probably be too slow to get to class on time. Naturally, he dragged the rest of us along in an attempt to prove her wrong."
"He actually fell for that?" Harry asked, disbelieving that anybody could be quite so gullible.
"Of course not," Blaise replied with a laugh. "We all knew that she was just trying to get rid of him – well maybe not Crabbe and Goyle – but Malfoy's father is one of Bones' aunt's biggest political rivals. They have to make a show of not liking each other."
"Urgh, not more politics," Harry face-palmed. "Why do they even bother?"
"It's all part of Hogwarts life, Harry," Blaise grinned back at his stony face. "You'll just have to accept it for what it is and ignore any lack of common sense or logical fallacies that you may notice."
"But why-"
"Shush!" Blaise interrupted him. "Stop questioning the status quo, we need it for things to keep working properly."
"Blessed are all those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo," Tom quipped.
"Shush you," Harry muttered.
"What was that?" Blaise asked, eyebrow once again leaping up as he looked questioningly at Harry.
"Nothing," Harry waved him off.
"Good, now why don't you run along and go to lunch with the other Hufflepuffs," Blaise said with mock condescension. "It seems about time for me to go and act all cold and aloof with the rest of my house while making derogatory comments about the classes and other houses."
"Umm... have fun?" Harry asked as Blaise moved over to the Slytherins.
Taking that as his cue to leave, Harry moved over to the other Hufflepuffs as they started to leave the classroom to head down towards the Great Hall.
"I still can't believe that Zabini had the nerve to jinx me," Ernie was grouching. "I mean, we were only meant to be casting on people in our own groups!"
"He did say he was aiming for Harry, he probably just missed and hit you by accident," Hannah said diplomatically.
"No, I think he meant to do it. Although I have to admit your face was quite hilarious, Ernie," Susan said with a grin.
"So how did you guys find the lesson?" Harry asked before Ernie (still looking rather mulish) could start complaining again.
"Tedious," Tom replied instantly. "Especially the part where Flitwick talked about casting theory. Such simple things hardly require an explanation."
Well I didn't know it, and you were completely less than helpful in that regard, Harry shot back. Annoyed at Tom's seemingly melancholic mood. "Sorry, Susan, could you say that again?"
"I said it was really fun," Susan repeated good naturedly. "You should have seen Hannah's face when Ernie got her; it was hilarious!"
"It can't have been that bad," Hannah laughed. "At least I'm sure it wasn't as bad as how Sally-Anne looked when she hit you into that stool, Susan."
"I thought I'd bloody well killed her!" Sally-Anne justified her reaction.
"Even though Flitwick had already told us that he'd charmed the room?" Zach put in snidely. Although his words were swiftly met by a chorus of "Shut up Zach!" from Susan, Megan, and Ernie.
"Well I for one found the whole thing to be utterly exciting!" Justin informed them all happily. "I can't wait for our next lesson."
"Don't get too excited, Justin. We've got maths after lunch," Harry said with a wry grin.
"Such a loathsome subject," Ernie muttered from beside him.
The Hufflepuff's conversation continued in much the same vein all the way down from charms to the Great Hall. It had taken them much longer than expected as at one point they came to the realisation that the staircase they were walking down had somehow placed them on the sixth floor. They then had to take a ludicrously long route back down to avoid any other unexpected traps in the bizarre castle.
Finally settling down at the Hufflepuff table, Harry tucked into his food with a wild abandon (he was still rather excited at being able to eat as much as he wanted) and listened contentedly to the conversations going on around him.
Susan and Hannah had engaged Megan and Sally-Anne in some sort of fashion conversation that went right over Harry's head. Tom summed it up by saying, "In short, Harry, women like to look good, or at least to give the impression that they look good. Or is it that they want you to think they look good? Or maybe something to do with being seen to care about looking good? Anyway, as I was saying, there's no point whatsoever in trying to understand the reasons women do the things they do. Many a man has wasted away thinking about it, even gone mad."
That was completely unhelpful, Harry pointed out as he tucked into a chicken leg.
"Yes well, my experience with women is rather limited," Tom said uncomfortably. "That's not to say that I was unappealing to women, on the contrary, in my youth I had a great many female suitors. It just so happens that I was both devilishly handsome and an amazing smooth talker."
I think that ego of yours should go live in someone else's head, maybe Ernie; it's getting entirely too cramped in here, Harry replied sardonically.
"Hmph! Now where was I? Oh yes, my experience with women," Tom continued despite Harry's protestations. "As I got older the women that threw themselves at me became more and more – how can I say it – insane. Bellatrix, for example was absolutely-"
Shits, Tom, I don't give any, Harry interrupted him. Tired of Tom's line of conversation, Harry turned to the other first year boys who were discussing what lessons they were most looking forward to.
"Personally, I'm rather looking forward to transfiguration the most," Justin was saying to Ernie. "Being able to turn one thing into something completely different will be absolutely fabulous!"
"I'm much more looking forward to defence against the dark arts," Zach said. "We'll probably learn how to duel there!"
"I wouldn't be so sure of that," Ernie cautioned in as sage a voice as an eleven year old could muster. "They say the DADA position is cursed, and they've had a different teacher every year for as long as anyone can remember. Not to mention that Professor Quirrell looks like a strong breeze would do him in. I don't think he'd be able to handle a duelling lesson."
"Good point," Zach conceded glumly before turning to the new addition to their conversation. "What about you, Harry?"
"I'm actually looking forward to potions the most," he answered to a myriad of facial expressions ranging from shock (Ernie), horror (Zach), and confusion (Justin).
"Seriously?" all three said nearly simultaneously.
"Yeah, I'm fairly well grounded in potions theory and I've had plenty of practice cooking, so I should be able to handle it fairly well."
"If you say so," Ernie said doubtfully. "You know, I heard that the potions master, Professor Snape, is utterly dreadful to anybody not in Slytherin."
"Yeah, I heard some older students call him the 'bane of Hufflepuff' earlier," Zach agreed with Ernie.
Harry frowned, disliking the idea of having a bully for a teacher (especially in a subject he was excited about). "Hmm, I'm sure that he'll be fine once he sees that we're competent. He can't really be all that bad, otherwise the Headmaster would have sacked him by now."
"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Tom muttered.
Now slightly fearful that Professor Snape was as bad as people seemed to say, Harry shot a quick glance at the high table, just to assure himself that Professor Snape was not some sort of creature of evil made flesh.
What he saw did not reassure him.
Snape was glaring at him with a level of malevolence that any normal person would have found almost impossible to maintain (especially when focusing said glare on a person he had not even met yet). Indeed, Snape's hatred was so palpable that even Professor Quirrell had turned away from the potions master and was leaning in the opposite direction. Then again, that could just be because Quirrell was a pansy and Snape was, well, the personification of hatred made flesh.
Taking in the baleful gaze, Harry had just enough time to gulp in terror and register a sharp pain centred on his scar before he snapped his eyes back to his plate.
Oh dear...
"You don't say," Tom agreed sarcastically. "He really does seem to hate you, doesn't he? And what the hell was that feeling when you looked at him?"
The pain in my scar? How the hell should I know? Harry wailed internally, now getting quite worked up over the idea of Snape hating him (horrible images of Snape using mind powers to torture him were flashing through his mind).
"Snap out of it!" Tom admonished sternly, putting an end to Harry's mental blubbering. "Whatever is going on, we won't be able to do anything about it while you're having a breakdown. We need to think this through and make a plan."
What do you have in mind? Harry asked, glad that he had Tom to help him through this horrific new line of thought.
"We need information," he said succinctly. "And it just so happens that we have a nigh undetectable source that can help us with finding out as much about Snape as we can. All we need to do is get the Basilisk to -"
You mean Elvis, Harry butted in. Even in his panicked state he got a kick out of antagonising Tom, and making him call the 'king of serpents' Elvis seemed like a good way to do it.
"Indeed, Elvis," Tom hissed with an air of loathing (which cheered Harry up immensely). "Anyway, when we get a chance, we shall ask her to spend some time monitoring Snape. Once we know a bit more about the situation we should be able to plan accordingly."
Sounds like a good plan, Harry agreed as he tried to regain his appetite by grabbing another chicken leg (he really did love those things).
Soon enough though, Dumbledore was standing up to call an end to lunch and ask the first years to stay behind for their first mathematics workshop in the Great Hall. Once all of the older students had left the first years were asked to stand up so the room could rearrange itself into desks for them to work at.
True to form, the maths lesson was utterly boring and Harry was able to keep up easily with the material being covered (although he noticed that Hermione Granger from Ravenclaw finished her work twice as quickly as the next best person, also a Ravenclaw).
All through that lesson, and even the one after that, in which they were lectured to about the art of academic writing; Harry's mind was only half on the content of the lesson. Thankfully Tom was able to remind Harry and help him out when he started slacking, but overall, his mind was just too bogged down with worries over Professor Snape to truly focus.
I really need to find out what his problem is before it becomes my problem, he thought to himself as he wrote another line on his practice essay (they had to write about a story called The Fountain of Fortune from a book called Tales of Beedle the Bard).
"Indeed you do, but you also need to watch your grammar," Tom admonished him. "That is clearly a run on sentence!"
Like you can talk! Harry shot back.
...~IMH~...
...~IMH~...
A.N. Wow, that took me a lot longer than I anticipated. Sorry about that.
Anyway, why don't you guys all tell me what you thought in a review?
Also, don't forget to check out the new poll on my profile. It's about what sort of pairings you guys would like to see (I've had a lot of different ideas put to me, so I want to see what people are interested in).
As always, thanks a bunch for reading,
blddmn