Chapter six - A school year begins
As the name Griffindor was shouted out the red and gold table erupted into cheers and a pair of red headed twins even stood on their benches hollering 'we've got potter' with a slight smile Harry walked to the table where he was greeted with great happiness. He was hugged and grabbed and had his hand shaken so much he thought someone would try and steal it. As the sorting finished Dumbledore stood and welcomed them to Hogwarts, said his words that made everyone think he was loosing his marbles and sat back down as the feast appeared.
As the feast was eaten introductions were made.
"Ah Hogwarts meals they look just as good as they always do it's a shame i can't eat" a ghost said floating beside Harry "it's one of the things i miss about being alive, i am sir Nicholas de mimsy-porpington Griffindors resident ghost."
"I know who you are" a Red head that Harry vaguely remembered from the sorting as being Ron Weasley "Your nearly headless nick"
"Nearly headless? how can someone be nearly headless?" another boy asked with a strong irish accent and Harry placed him as Seamus Finnigan.
The ghost frowned "I'd prefere if you'd call me sir Nicholas or Nick, but if you really want to know how i can be nearly headless, here"
Harry realised what was coming and turned away slightly but he still heard the sounds of disgust as Nick lifted his head to show it was only attatched by a thin piece of skin and muscle. On looking back at the Ghost Harry noted a look of barely hidden amusment on the ghosts face "Well young Griffindors i hope you'll all help us win the house cup Griffindor has never gone so long without winning The bloody baron, thats slytherins ghost has been gloating."
and in responce to a question about the bloody barons bloodyness and how he came to be that way the ghost told them he'd "never asked"
"I'm half and half" Dean said in response to a question about his bloodline Harry frowned slightly at the fact the question was asked what did it really matter? "Me mam didn't tell me dad that she was a witch 'til after the weddin' bit of a nasty shock for him."
While Neville talked about his childhood Harry turned his hearing to Hermione and the red headed prefect where they were talking about Transfiguration. Harry turned slightly to look up at the head table, where his eye was caught by the defence professor as their eyes locked the Ex-kings vision wavered and he was suddenly looking at two overlaying images, one was of the professor but the other was of a transparent snake-like man standing over Quirrel he flinched as the vision cause a white hot pain to flash through his mind and when he looked back there was only one man.
"You alright Harry?" Ron asked and Harry nodded but was inwardly frowning he had never seen anything in double like that before.
As the feast came to the end Dumbledore stood again.
"Welcome students to a new year at hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry, as usual the forbidden forrest is as always forbidden a fact which all of you should keep in mind even our older students , and you can get a list of any and all forbidden items from mr Flich our caretaker who has asked me to remind you all that magic is not to be used in the corridors between classes. Quidditch trials will be held on the second week of the term and captains should talk to madame hooch to book the pitch for practices and finally for the rest of the year the third floor corridor is out of bounds unless you wish to die a horrible death. And now before we go to bed let us sing the school song." With a flick of the old wizards wand the words flew out and arranged themselves so they could be seen and together the school sang in perfect disharmony.
"Ah music a magic beyond what we do here" Dumbledore sighed smiling "Now off to bed with you all"
A red headed prefect led them up to Griffindor, upon reaching the guardian portrait he said "Caput draconus" which was obviously the password as the picture of the fat lady in pink opened to allow them through.
"Welcome to Griffindor" the prefect said "this tower will be your home for the next seven years and the people with you will be your family, girls Angelina will take you to your dorms boys follow me please" Percy led them up a spiral staircase and through a door where five beds were waiting. "This is your dorm room, your trunks are already here" With that said he left them to it and the five boys headed into the room and Harry went straight to the bed which was right beside the window in the corner. "Hey Harry how'd you get such a strong american accent anyway?" Dean asked "I mean the books and everything say you've never left England"
"The books were wrong" Harry said simply "I haven't been in England since i was six" that was the last of the conversation before the five settled into their beds to sleep.
A few hours later Harry woke up he'd gotton plenty of sleep on the train so he was wide awake, in the early hours of the morning. slipping out the door Harry headed down to the common room and then out into the castle itself. He walked silently slipping from shadow to shadow along the corridor heading for the third floor half way there he stopped and shook his head before teleporting down to the chamber where he immediatly headed for one of the storage rooms, these rooms were among the few he had not revealed to Sirius and Remus the items kept there were too private for anyones viewing except for himself and Selena. Unfortunatly there were three large storage rooms and he didn't have a clue which room the item he was looking for was stored in. Shrugging he entered the first room and glanced around the room was full of boxes, shelves, trunks and filing cabinets. Selena found him there two hours later with his front half leaning into a trunk and his bottom stuck up in the air.
"Father? what are you doing?" She asked causing harry to jump startled and there was a loud bang from inside the trunk before he wiggled his way backwards and out of the trunk rubbing his head where he'd obviously hit it.
"I'm looking for something."
"Obviously" Selena nodded and then raised an eyebrow when Harry stayed silent "You do realise i have a better memory of whats here and where the things are"
"Well yes but i was having fun going through this stuff and seeing whats here" "I'll leave you to it then father, however i just thought i'd remind you that you have to be upstairs this morning"
"How long have i got?" Harry grimanced having totally forgotten "About an hour till food starts getting served in the great hall"
"Ok" Harry nodded standing "i'm going to go have a nap for the next hour then start the day"
"Wait father, what were you looking for? is it important?"
"I'm looking for a tapestry i've decided it shall be the first step to go uniting the School"
"A tapestry? well there all together in the third store room, but why would you want a tapestry all of them are unmoving?"
"I don't know whether you remember but i had a jupition tapestry made of Rowena it was only returned to me a few days before the Beryl attack."
"Jupition tapestry" Selena mused "Aren't the jupition tapestrys the ones that incoperate hair and magic from the subject there the only things outside a painting that do so so that the tapestry, if it's of a person, gains the memories of the actual subject? and the memories would be their true memories leaving out any false or fabricated memories?"
"Exactly, no spell on the actual subject is transfered only memories and personality, so the tapestry of Rowena would have her memories and personality, i think she could be just what the healer ordered especially if you also reveal helga's portrait and move her to" Harry paused thinking "the great hall?"
"Why would we reveal Helga? she's annoying and she was one of the strongest supporters of your execution." Selena argued "plus she's Helga Hufflepuff the kindest most nicest founder the students and teachers would take her words at face value and she'll have them believing that their right to look down on other creatures"
"Alright alright, i just thought havng the two of them there would give people a good argument to listen to, can you imagine Helga's face when she comes across female students wearing trousers and short skirts?" "I'm getting a headache just thinking about it" Selena groaned which made Harry laugh as he teleported back up to Griffindor tower, where he reappeared on his bed which had the curtains drawn, after taking off his shoes and placing them where they wouldn't be seen Harry pulled open the curtains and got out of bed to see only Neville awake.
"Morning Neville"
"Good m-morning Harry." Harry smiled at the young wizard and collected his clothes to go and shower. Half an hour later he and Neville headed down for breakfast wispers followed in their wake it wasn't long before they were joined by there housemates. Soon after it was time for them to go to their first class, Charms with Professor flitwick, when calling through the register he got to Harry's name and the small wizard fell off his stack of books with a squeak as Harry answered the ex-royal refrained from raising an eyebrow at the act.
After a brief introduction to the branch of magic called charms they headed to the next lesson which was History of magic the class was exeedingly boring and easly sent the mage to sleep, now he realised why Remus had asked him to show him some of the wizarding worlds past in the time mirror he obviously slept through his history of magic classes too.
After lunch in the great hall their last lesson was Transfiguration where Harry let Ron lead not wanting anyone to know of his knowledge of the castle and the two ended up being late to the class. Ron was of course relieved that the professor wasn't there but Harry could sense the magic eminating from the cat sitting with perfect posture on the desk. The class watched with amazement as the cat became Mcgonogal. She like Flitwick explained what transfiguration was and how if differed from other branches of magic, and about the dangers that could happen if they did it wrong, she demonstrated by turning the desk into a pig and back again. For the last hour they focused on attempting to turn a matchstick into a needle by the end of the lesson only Hermione had gotten anywhere close.
During the two hour free period Harry avoided his classmates as he headed for a passage in the dungeons which would take him down to the chamber where he spent the two hours looking through the storage room with selena watching on in bemusment.
Thursday started off the three hours of Herbology where they were learning some of the most common magical plants, after lunch was another transfiguration lesson where they were given a pile of homework asking them to write an essay detailing the five main rules in basic tranfiguration and to explain the reasons behind those rules, the last lesson of the day was double defence, On friday the only lesson they had was potions with the slytherins. Just as the time turned ten on the dot the door of the classroom slammed open and the greasy haired professor stormed into the room and spun the face them with a malicious air about him. Harry did not like what he sensed from the potions master.
"In this classroom there will be no foolish wand waving, you are here to learn the exact and subtle art of potions, many of you will hardly believe this is magic and i don't expect many of you to ever under stand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as i usually have to teach" his gaze then locked onto Harry "Ah Mr Potter our new Celebrity" THe last word was said with so much venom that even the slytherins flinched. "Mr Potter what would you get if you added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood"
"I don't know sir" Harry answered despite many peoples beliefs Salazar Slytherin was NOT a potions master in fact he was horrible at potions and left the brewing to Helga. "Tut tut it seems as if Fame isn't everything." Snape sneered. "lets try again shall we, where would you look if i told you to find me a bezoar"
Harry frowned in concentration he knew this one and had used it several times in the past "In the stomach of a goat or sheep professor"
"And what does it do?"
"It's an antidote that will cure you of most poisons"
"What mr potter is the differance between monkhood and wolfsbane?"
"There isn't one professor it's also called aconite" he may not have been any good at potions but he was adequate at herbology and gardening.
"Well it seems you did open your books before class, well why aren't you all writing it down and for your information Asphodel and wormwood make a sleeping potions so strong that it is called the daught of the living death."
Thing got worse for the griffindors as the lesson continued with snape setting them a boil curing potion. The class was split into pairs and Harry watched as Snape berated the Griffindors and praised the slytherins even though some of the Slytherins were worse than the Griffindors. All the time he was berating the Griffindors he was almost bragging about how good Malfoy was and how well he had stewed his slugs it was sickening if he didn't know better Harry would have thought the potions master had a crush on his eleven year old student. Harry closed his eyes and wrinkled his nose disgusted at that image.
"You alright Harry?" Ron asked
"Fine" He replied just as they heard a scream from the work station next to theirs, They turned to see that Neville had managed to melt Seamus's cauldron and the resulting substance was now leaking over the floor and had gotton all over Neville himself. After taking points off for blowing up tha cauldron Snape turned on Harry and Ron and took points off for not noticing that Neville had put his quills into the potion while it was still on the fire.
The griffindors left the potions classroom all of them were quietly fuming with anger. Stewing with a simmering rage Harry slipped away from the other griffindors and un-noticed headed deeper into the dungeons and through the passage down to the chamber. Inside his home Harry let his rage free and it sparkled around him in a red light at that moment he was truely King tranquility the immortal warrior and mage.
"Father?" Selena called anxiously "I'm never been so dissapointed in something EVER" Tranquility snarled pacing "It's been a thousand years" Selena said sofrly "Things always change"
"My house was never a place for bullys to be hated to be to be" He snarled with incoherant rage Selena took a half a step backwards she had never seen her father so consumed with anger he must have been holding it in for a while "And that man they call head of slytherin, he's a bigger bully that the rest, my house is a nest of rats"
"Time changes everything father you knew it would, you knew Godric and Helga wouldn't allow your house to remain as it was."
"I knew it would change but to change so much, according to everyone else Slytherin is the 'dark' house where the evil people are sorted. They're eleven" Trance ranted "What do they know of Evil? what do they know of me" Trance whispered the last and sunk down on the chair before getting up and storming to the library. Selena followed cautiously and upon walking into the library she found him searching through the books for something she jumped when he cried out "AhHA" and pulled of of the books down, he then placed the book on the lecturn and started to flip through it when she came to stand at his side she was suprised to see the book was a book of information about various art forms and she got an inkling of what he wanted when he stopped at the information on jupition tapesrys. He then went and got his time mirror and began watching lessons of artisans learning how to create the tapestrys. From then on whenever he could sneak away Trance would be learning how to make the tapestrys using animals to practice with.
Months passed slowly as lessons continued and He spent every spare moment he could creating a practice tapestry, but it would take another eight months before it would be completed and then another year before he would be ready to attempt a true jupition tapestry.
On the 31st of October he had a charms lesson in which Flitwick began to teach them a simple levitating spell which wasn't easy as all, through the years with Sirius and Remus the three had avoided the spells that would be taught at hogwarts as to not leave Harry bored during the year, however that didn't extend to not teaching the young king prank spells nor spells that would NOT be taught. Even by the end of the class only one student had managed to make the feather float, It is possible that with a few more minutes Harry could have done it but the power needed to be so small and focused that he was more likely to make the feather explode than he was to levitate it, after all back in the age of the founders he had made it a point NOT to use magic for everything, what was the point of levitationg something so small and light like a feather, and now he had been reborn and lived with Sirius and Remus he still didn't see the point, in fact he had frowned on the other two wizards using magic for anything that could easily be done by hand. While walking from the charms classroom with the Griffindor boys Ron made a comment about Hermione and her know it all attitude saying that it ws no wonder she didn't have any friends.
Narrowing his eyes at ther redhead Harry turned away from the Griffindor and went after the young witch who reminded him a bit of Rowena. He followed her to the Girls bathroom and froze looking at the girls sign he then knocked on the door and called through to Hermione, however the witch ignored him and he hesitantly pushed the door open and pocked his head into the room ready to duck out again if any other females saw him. Keeping his wits about him in the dangerous territory known as the girls bathroom Harry walked cautiously forward calling for Hermione.
"Go away" She shouted "You do have friends you know, i'm your friend"
"You didn't even defend me" she shouted "I thought it would be best to come and talk to you" Harry said coming to stand infront of the stall in which Hermione's voice was coming from. "I like talking to you and having discussions and finding new things"
"You dissappear all the time and don't lie and say you were at the library because you haven't been"
Harry opened his mouth to lie but there was that spark that reminded him of his best friend. "i found another library" He answered "Another library?" Hermione questioned "Hogwarts is an amazing place and so big, my feet itched so i've been exploring and i was down in the dungeons and i found a passage which led to a library"
"Thats amazing Harry why didn't you take me before or tell the proffessors"
"I couldn't"
"But your telling me now so you can't say you couldn't"
"Well" Harry thanked every star in the sky when the door was thrown off his hinges then began to curse his stars when a troll came into the room.
"H-HArry" Hermione wimpered after she had opened the door and caught sight of the troll Harry grabbed the witch and pushed her back into the stall and out of sight at that moment Harry wished that Remus and Sirius had taught him Hogwarts level curses and spells he really did not want to show his true skills but on the other hand they were both in danger if he didn't act Hermione was startled by the cold and calculating look on Harrys face as his eyes swept over her as if assessing after a second he nodded once and she watched as he sheethed his wand which he had drawn when the troll came in, into a holster on his arm and dove out of the stall and rolled as he hit the ground his eyes locked on the figure of the troll mentally reviewing all the information he knew about troll, in a split second he had thought up and discarded every plan until he thought of one that would most likely work.
Resistant to magic was Trance's dominant thought he immediatly striked off any wizard magic off his offensive list his biggest problem was power, he didn't have it. His magic was limited to two or three low level planet attacks a day if he was lucky. Fire, ice, water, wind, electricity thouse questions ran through his head as he moved across the bathroom catching the trolls attention.
ICE Trance readied the spells his hands glowing blue his hands came up infront of him and a light started to form as he command "Shabon" then moved up to cross over each other in front of his face and the blue ball of light stayed hovering infront of his crossed arms "Spray" and as he said the last part of the spell "Freezing" His arms pushed the ball away from him and towards the troll as they were flung open wide. Hermione watched in awe as ice formed around the mountain troll and Harry had to physically pull her out of the bathroom.
"Why are we running?"
"It won't take long for the troll to escape" Harry answered shortly as the two ran "the ice wasn't that thick it'll easily break it"
"You have a lot of explaining to do Harry Potter" Hermione said sternly as Harry pulled her into a passage away "I know, and i will, later" He told her as the two ran through the passageway which came out near the stairs which would take them up to Griffindor tower, inside the tower Harry managed to slip away from the witch without answering her questions making the young griffindor witch very irritated at her friend.
AN - couple of small changes here but im still not 100% happy with it even reading through im not sure what im unhappy about in it so until i work it out it's staying as it is.
