Disclaimer: All rights to Harry Potter and its Characters belong to J. K. Rowling. I make no money with this story.
A/N: Here is my next chapter. The first few lessons of school + a bit of exciting magic at the end! I hope you enjoy and R&R.
Chapter 6:
Harry woke up feeling more rested than he had in a long time. The air around him was fresh and cool and around him everything felt soft and warm. He felt like he was lying on a cloud. After enjoying the softness and warmness of waking up on a proper bed instead of an old blanket on the floor for a few more minutes Harry stood up and after a short search for the bathroom he made himself ready for his first day at Hogwarts.
Harry didn't meet any of his year mates while he was making himself ready. The reason for that became apparent when Harry performed the tempus charm, a charm that technically wasn't part of the curriculum, but everyone simply knew, and it showed the time 6 o'clock in the morning.
After Harry had put on his Hogwarts robes, he left the first-year dorms and admired the Slytherin common room. He hadn't had time to do that last night, he had been tired and he had been worrying about being killed by a bunch of Death Eater kids. That hadn't happened but Harry wouldn't let his guard down he knew that practically half the children in Slytherin had parents that had worked together with the Dark Lord.
The common room had dark green walls. The floor was made out of dark wood but was mostly covered up by green carpets that had silver linings. There were multiple windows that were blocking out the water of the great lake. There was also a big fireplace that was surrounded in a half circle by multiple love seats and couches. The fireplace had all sorts of snake designs all over it the most prominent was a metallic snake head above the fire that seemed to be lunging at the person who would seat on the middle of the couch that stood before the fireplace.
Harry went out of the common room. And thankfully he remembered the path to the great hall from yesterday, so Harry had no problem in navigating the few corridors and the star that laid on the way to the great hall, although he did nearly fall into a trick step that the prefects had warned them about. Why were there steps that weren't actually steps anyway.
He came into the great hall and seeing that there were no other students that were in first year around he sat down at the end of Slytherin table and ate breakfast. As he had nearly finished eating the teacher with the greasy black hair and a hooked nose that according to Theodore Nott was called Severus Snape walked by and without looking at Harry handed him the timetable.
After he had finished eating breakfast Harry went to the library in order to lock at a few charms and Transfiguration books since those were the two classes he had today. The first book was simply about a few charms that Harry was sure would come in useful sometime in the future. Charms like the marking charm, the unlocking charm or the grinding charm for example. Although the last one could probably be used for torture too
Harry skimmed trough the book and tried to remember the charms he thought useful. After that he retrieved a transfiguration book out of the shelves and read it until the classes began at 9 o'clock. The book didn't really mention anything that Harry didn't know from his wandless transfigurations. It was mostly about how you had to picture what you wanted the object to become and that it was very delicate work that not only needed a decent amount of magic but also concentration. All things Harry already knew.
Then it was already time to go to his first lesson at Hogwarts. Harry made his way up the stairs to the third floor and after a quick search found his housemates together with the Hufflepuff first years going into the classroom of Professor Flitwick.
Harry stepped into the classroom and sat down in one of the front rows beside Theodore. The boy didn't seem to mind but didn't say anything to Harry either. The short professor came into the classroom and the class began.
The first hour the professor explained the basic theory behind charms and magic in general which bored Harry out of his mind since the professor literally summarized the charms book that Harry had read yesterday on the train to Hogwarts. But finally, after what felt like hours to Harry Flitwick explained to them the Lumos charm and then said that they should try to cast the spell.
Harry smiled, they would actually start with magic now. Perhaps they could get the first five spells of the book trough in the half hour that was left of the lesson.
Harry lifted his wand and together with the rest of class said "Lumos". He pushed a bit of magic in his wand and the tip of his wand started glowing brightly. He could literally do that spell windlessly and aside from using a bit less power there wasn't a big difference in casting the spell with or without wand.
Then Harry looked to the people around him and saw that none of them had even succeeded in producing a spark out of their wand. A few were shaking their wand and practically shouting "Lumos!" others were doing useless exaggerated wand movements and others were staring at him in wonder. Harry also looked to Draco Malfoy, a boy who lived all his life around people doing magic and saw him staring intently at his wand and whispering Lumos furiously. Are they all completely incompetent?
His thoughts were put to a halt when the professor noticed his brightly lit wand. "Very good Mr. Potter. 15 points to Slytherin. Can you perhaps give your classmates a tip on how to do the charm?"
All eyes were now on him and for a few moments didn't know what to say, but then he remembered how all of them had stared at their wands as if there was something wrong with them and knew the problem they had. "Well, I've seen a lot of people put a lot of focus on making the perfect wand motions or saying Lumos in a very exaggerated way, but the wand movements are rarely the problem. The problem is that you have to concentrate on channeling your magic into your wand and then picturing it lighting up."
"Quite right Mr. Potter, concentrating on what you want your magic to do is very important! Take another five point for Slytherin." The professor said.
The class went on for another 20 minutes. While Harry sat there staring out of the window while cycling through the colors of the rainbow with the light on his wand. Had he been paying attention he would've noticed professor Flitwick staring at his wand in astonishment. At the end of the lesson half the class had at least been able to produce some kind of light from their wand. And Harry had to ask himself once again if none of his classmates ever did more magic than accidentally lifting a pebble of the ground in their whole life.
The bell rang and Harry made his way out of the classroom. The next lesson would be Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws. That meant he would see Diana! Harry got to the Transfiguration classroom and let his eyes wander trough the room in search of his best friend. He found her sitting alone in the corner of the room with a book in her hand.
Harry sat down beside the grey eyed girl and after she didn't make any move to greet him for a minute, he tipped her on the shoulder. "Don't you have anything better to do? I'm trying to read here." She snapped while not moving her head.
"Diana its me Harry and no I have nothing better to do" Harry replied soothingly.
Her head snapped up and she smiled at him brilliantly. "Thank Merlin its you! I swear my dormmates are all either afraid of me or completely stupid."
"Afraid of you? Like that Weasley guy from the train?" Harry asked her.
"Yes! One of them even asked her older brother to move her bed away from mine." Meridiana replied exasperated, but Harry could see her eyes flash with hurt.
"How was your first lesson here? Mine was bloody boring. Everyone needed over half an hour to get their Lumos charm to work and a few weren't able to cast the charm at all." Harry asked her then.
Meridiana snorted. "Mine wasn't much better. I had potions with that hook-nosed bat Snape. He stormed into the room insulted all of us and then just gave us instructions to brew a potion all the while he was scowling and glaring at me."
"Perhaps he was just afraid of you like your dormmates. "Harry joked. Diana giggled and was about to reply to him when the bell rang, and Professor McGonagall transformed from cat to human.
The class fell instantly silent and many were gaping at her. Harry too was completely shocked. He never read about transforming into an animal. "We have to learn how to do that" Meridiana whispered in his ear. And he had to agree with her transforming into an animal would be really cool and useful.
Like Professor Flitwick McGonagall started by explaining the basics of transfiguration. Harry simply leaned back in his chair and half listened to her and waited until they would begin to transfigure things. He was startled out of his daydreaming by the professor. "Mr. Potter could you tell us what the most important things are when someone wants to transfigure something?"
Harrys eyes focused on the professor and he answered. "You need to focus on what you want to transfigure an object into, perhaps picturing it in your mind. And it would be advantageous if you possess a magical core."
"Essentially yes Mr. Potter take five points for Slytherin, although I would appreciate it if you would listen to me the next time. And it would probably also be advantageous if you had a wand." McGonagall took out her wand and with a flick of her wrist a matchstick appeared on everyone's desk. "As your first exercise you will transfigure your matchstick into a needle"
Harry desperately wanted to wandlessely transfigure his matchstick into a perfect needle right before her nose just for the hell of it, but that would raise a lot of questions and get him a lot of attention that he didn't want. So like Diana beside him he took out his wand and pointed it at his Matchstick.
He pictured a needle with a snake as its blunt end and sent a bit of magic into his wand. Not a second later the Matchstick turned into metal and took the exact form he had pictured. Beside him Diana had done the same just without snake. She must have felt his eyes on her then she looked up and after seeing his needle smiled at him.
Harry cast a quick tempus and groaned. The lesson would still go on for over an hour. Since they were finished with the task Harry and Meridiana started talking quietly about where they would meet after the lessons had ended. They both wanted to test out the spells they had read about in the books that they had bought in Knockturn Alley. And they needed a private place for that. They decided to meet before the great hall when the lesson after lunch had ended and then search for an unused classroom. Diana was just mentioning where they would probably find an unused classroom the easiest when Professor McGonagall stopped before their desks.
"Why aren't you two working on your transfiguration?" The professor asked them sternly.
Meridiana pointed at their two needled and said. "We have already transfigured our Matchsticks professor."
"Exceptional work! Could you show me how you did that?" The professor said as she laid down a matchstick before Harry.
Harry barely glanced at It, pictured a needle and flicked his wand. The matchstick once again turned into a needle although this one didn't have any decorations.
"Very good! 15 point to Ravenclaw and Slytherin." The professor said while smiling at them nostalgically.
The lesson ended and Harry and Diana went to the great hall to eat lunch. Sadly, they couldn't eat at the same table. Harry couldn't await the evening when they would try out dark magic for the first time.
After lunch Harry had Herbology with the Gryffindor's. It was the first lesson where he didn't know over half of what the teacher was telling them already, but it was also a class about planting slightly magical plants and fungi which made it just as if not more boring as the rest of the classes.
The bell rang and Harry practically sprinted out of the greenhouse. He came to the great hall in record time and soon Diana came too. While they walked up the stairs Harry asked her where they would find an unused classroom the easiest. "In the dangerous corridor on the 3rd floor that the headmaster talked about in his speech yesterday." She answered him
"Have you gone mad?! He said everyone would die painfully!" Harry snapped at her.
"He was obviously exaggerating, or do you really think that the headmaster of Hogwarts would put his students in such danger?" Diana said. "And didn't you want to go on adventures and be sorted into Gryffindor? Perhaps that's why you were sorted into Slytherin."
Harry glared at her. "Okay, okay. Lead the way to our painful death."
His best friend just smirked at him and did just that. After going up another stair they found themselves in a dark corridor with multiple doors. Harry went to open a door, but Diana stopped him and instead led them to the last door in the corridor. It was locked, but thankfully Harry remembered the unlocking charm he had read about that morning. The girl before him opened the door and stepped into the room. Harry got in after her.
Harry started to look around and look if the room would be good for practicing magic when his eyes connected with six big yellow ones, Harrys eyes adjusted to the dark and once they had he was able to see the giant three headed dog that stood before him and baring its teeth at him and the girl beside him. Beside him Diana squealed loudly, Harry grabbed her arm and pulled her out of the room with him.
He slammed the door shut behind him and leaned himself against the wall out of relief. His best friend was seemingly in shock, she still stood outside the door where he had let her arm go and stared at the door.
Diana still hadn't moved so Harry went over to her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. When she still didn't react, he shook her shoulder a few times. Finally, she reacted by turning to face him and pulling him into a hug.
"I'm sorry Harry" She apologized
"It's okay Diana you couldn't have known". He comforted
She nodded and pulled out of his arms.
"Now why don't we try one of the classrooms that I wanted to open?" Harry suggested
The girl nodded again and smiled at him half-heartedly.
The next classroom they opened wasn't even locked and thankfully the only organisms in it were some insects. It was a pretty small room with only a teacher table and eight desks for students. And everything was covered in a layer of dust. It was exactly what they needed.
Diana closed the door behind them and they both took out their wands while they lit a ball in the palm of their wandless hand. Harry started to go around and just started firing simple cleaning charms around. The charm didn't cover a lot of area, but they had time and Harry was casting them pretty fast. While he was doing that Diana was rearranging the desks and chairs so they would have one wall completely free of any obstructions.
When the classroom wasn't as dusty anymore and the wand was cleared, they transfigured two desks into two rubber targets that looked more like stick figures than anything human. Now the fun could begin!
Harry took the book Dark Arts how to begin out of his bag and opened it on the site were the first spell he wanted to try was described. Harry really wanted to test the dark version of the Incendio spell but that wouldn't be a good idea in a small classroom with lots of old wooden furniture lying around.
And so, the first spell he tried was the dark cutting curse Dilacerantum. Harry read the note in the book once more and then pointed his wand at the rubber dummy. He let anger flow trough him and then thought about how he wanted to destroy and tear apart the target.
"Dilacerantum!"
Like with every strong spell Harry cast he could feel the magic traveling from his core to his wand. Only this time he didn't have some weak feeling of success, no. He felt pure power flow trough his whole body and once it reached his wand the wand practically sucked the power in and once harry flicked his wrist it shot out a dark violet ray of magic that tore trough the rubber target like butter.
Harry stood there for a few moments panting. It had felt so good to cast that spell he had an extreme desire to simply cast another one and then one more, but first he wanted to see the damage he made. In the 1 feet thick target was a long uneven cut that easily went about halfway through the target.
"Wow that looked amazing! And look how much damage that did. Those dummies are probably around as dense as Human flesh and that spell just tore through half a foot of it!" Meridiana cried out from beside him.
"It didn't just look cool it felt absolutely amazing! I felt powerful, like I could destroy anything that stood in my way. And that feeling didn't seem that wrong, I could've probably killed someone with that spell." Harry exclaimed. "You have to try it Diana!"
He stepped to the side, so he had a good view of Diana's face and watched her as she started casting the spell. She aimed her wand at the second target and then Harry started to understand what she meant with It looked amazing then her eyes started to glow a dark violet and when he concentrated on his magic, he could feel the deliciously dark power gather in the room. Then she whispered "Dilacerantum!" and flicked her wand. From the side the dark violet magic looked even more beautiful and once it hit the target there was once again a deep and long gash in the target.
His best friend turned her head to him, and her grin should have probably disconcerted him, but he just found it pretty and grinned right back. His own grin looked positively devilish since the light was only lighting half of his face properly and his eyes were glowing an eerie green in the dark.
They tried a few more dark spells out of the book Harrys favorites were the spell Laceras Unguibus that ripped off the fingernails of the target and the spell and the spell oculus dolor that sprayed an acid which would irritate the targets eyes and cause pain. The last one felt especially good to cast since the powerful feeling of the dark magic lasted as long as harry sprayed acid with his wand.
Their dark magic practicing had to be cut short though when Harry cast a tempus and noticed that it was half an hour before curfew started. They had spent more than four hours practicing dark magic and had missed dinner because of it, but in Harrys eyes it had been worth it and when he looked at Diana's wide smile, he knew that his best friend was agreeing with him.
Harry and Diana wished each other good night, and both made their way back to their common rooms. Harry received a few raised eyebrows from older students when he opened the entrance to the common room ten minutes before curfew and stepped in with a wide smile. But no one questioned him, and Harry went into his room. He lay down on his bed. He could still feel the pleasant tingling of his magic throughout his body and simply lay there for a few moments enjoying the sensation. But he was pretty tired, he had Afterall just cast powerful magic for three hours and so he fell asleep quickly.
A/N: I hope you've enjoyed this chapter and am glad for any feedback you can give. I know the second half of the chapter was probably a lot more exciting than the first, but I wanted to show at least a few lessons of school in my fic. I had a bit of a difficult time describing all the feelings you got when casting dark magic and I had to rewrite that part a lot and am still not 100% happy with it but I hope you can at least understand my intentions.
Next chapter should be out next weekend!
