AN: Okay, to answer a question I was asked about James Potter. I'm being told off for saying that Snape was bad and James was a saint, well neither of them were. Was James creepy stalkerish behaviour that chased off all of Lily's potential boyfriends totally not weird and a bad thing? No, it totally was creepy and weird! What he needs to do, or needed to do, or something, is grow up. He was the popular boy at school, the one all the girls giggled over, he was rich, good at magic, a member of the Quidditch team, everything. What James needs to learn is that he can't always get his way, and that he needs to tone down some of his behaviour. Right, now on with the story!
Beta'd by: NIX'S WARDEN
Chapter 8 – First Defense Lesson
When Harry, Loki, and Isis arrived at the Defense classroom, they found that most other students had already arrived. This particular lesson was shared with the Gryffindors, and Harry's eyes fell on Hermione who had three empty seats next to her.
Not really being over enthused about Lockhart and his lesson, Harry sat in between Loki and Isis, the raven familiar between himself and Hermione with the unicorn between him and the central aisle of the classroom. Isis, of course, used the opportunity to latch onto Harry's side.
Harry removed the set texts from his bag and stacked them in front of him, the smiling pictures of Lockhart on the cover facing away from himself. He then brought out the sheets of notes he'd compiled from the books, pitifully short though they were.
Of course, he wouldn't be Harry if he'd left things like that. The books that Lockhart had had them purchase dealt with seven specific magical creatures, so Harry had looked in other books and compiled everything he could find about each of them, making notes here and there where books agreed or disagreed on certain points.
Personally, Harry felt that the werewolf profile he had created was the most bland. Apart from the history of how and where the curse originated, which was still an unknown and heavily debated topic, it bore many similarities with common magical ailments with recurring symptoms.
The vampire profile, in Harry's opinion, was the best he'd made. Out of all of them, the vampires had the most complex set of customs, culture, and beliefs, which gave him a lot of things to research. He did find himself agreeing with some parts of the... well, it wasn't a religion, but a series of beliefs common amongst them that tried to explain the world at large.
The banshee profile was also rather interesting. Seeing as most dismissed banshees as sub-human creatures at best, and pests that needed exterminating at worst, they were surprisingly cultured in their own right. Harry supposed that being separate from humans, both magical and mundane, unlike wizards who were forced to mix due to muggleborns and the like, led to them developing on their own. Of course, said separation was due to the fact that their wails would be lethal to humans, but that was a minor detail.
Harry's eyes flickered up to the door, his focus on his little profiles broken, when the door opened and the rest of the class poured in. It was only a few moments later that they were all seated and getting out their textbooks. Harry's eyes and senses flickered around, looking for Lockhart.
Ah, there he was, behind the door at the opposite end of the classroom. Hmm, Harry and Reinforce focused on the door itself, as it seemed to have some sort of spell on it. It was something to do with... transparency? Oh! A one-way transparency charm, so that Lockhart could look out without anyone seeing him.
Well, it looked like the blonde wanted to make an entrance. Deciding to be a little mischievous, and mess up Lockhart's entrance, Harry muttered a spell under his breath, casting a one-use tripping charm just this side of the door. He made sure to put a cushioning charm on the floor in front of it, he didn't want to hurt the professor, just prevent him from making this a 'dazzling' performance.
Hermione looked over to Harry, her brow creasing in confusion at his quiet, muffled laughter. Whatever it was, his two familiars seemed to know what was going on, as Loki had a small grin on his face, and Isis was giggling along with Harry as well.
Her attention was turned to the front of the class when the door opened and out stepped Professor Gilderoy Lockhart. She sighed a little dreamily at the sight, missing the wide-eyed look Harry shot her way. Professor Lockhart was perfect in her opinion, a successful author, multiple heroic deeds to his name, and rather damn attractive too! If only she was older, then she might have seriously considered dating the man, not that he'd ever pay attention to a buck-toothed know-it-all like herself.
Then again, as he shot the class a brilliant smile, he just might. Her fantasizing was cut short when the professor took a step forward... and promptly smacked face first into the floor.
Hermione, horrified, jumped to her feet, as did several other girls in the class, though a few, like Fay Dunbar, merely blinked at it, shook their heads, and then went back to whatever it was they'd been doing before. A few of the guys in the classroom snickered, and Isis hugged Harry a little tighter whilst shaking slightly with laughter.
Lockhart got to his feet easily enough, assisted by several worried girls, and he brushed himself down. His hair didn't quite look so perfect any longer, but his wide smile was still easily visible. "And let that be a lesson to all of you, even the best of us can fall to a small mistake, or simple bad luck."
Huh, he managed to play it off rather easily. Well, he wouldn't be such an international celebrity if he didn't know how to cover up mistakes or make himself look good, now, would he? Harry was faintly impressed by how he managed to get the class settled back into their seats.
Instead of his formerly flashy entrance, he settled for a few – honestly, rather lame – jokes, and listing off what titles he possessed. The fact that said titles weren't actually all that impressive kind of went over most of the students' heads. An Order of Merlin was amazing, if it was first class and not third. He was also a member of the Dark Force Defense League, or at least an honourary member. As for being the winner of a beautiful smile contest five times? Wow, he must be pretty good at cosmetic charms if nothing else.
Catching the tone of his thoughts, Reinforce chided Harry for letting his cynical side out to play again, especially since he'd kept it rather supressed recently. Harry paid attention to the professor, wondering when they were going to actually get on with the lesson.
When he said that they were going to start with a quiz, Harry thought there might be hope for the lesson yet... until he read it that was. It was only Isis' grip on his side, and the fact she had him in a fairly tight hug, that prevented Harry from braining himself on the table.
Reading through the test and seeing that every question was about Lockhart, not one of them actually asking about anything Defense related, Harry gave the test up as a bad job. Instead of filling it in, he set it aside, took a crystal out of his bag and a small notebook.
In the notebook were Harry's ideas for connecting his Tome of Shadows to his Device. The issue, the largest one of them at least, was converting the data to a form that each could understand. The Tome of Shadows used a raw memory that was organised by the way Harry thought about it, while the Device used a more standard form of storage.
Reinforce's help was invaluable at times like these, as Harry was no computer programming expert. It was slow going though, as they had to essentially construct a two-way translator between a purely magical medium of storing information and a purely technological one, albiet one backed up by magic.
Runes weren't quite appropriate for the task, but it was the only way that they could think of doing it. What the initial design called for was using Arithmancy to convert everything on a page in the book into binary, then feed it into the Device which would be able to decode the binary, and then act upon the information it had been given.
Unfortunately, binary, while it was a simple language, couldn't be converted quickly enough by the Arithmancy. Instead, Harry had begun to look into more complex programming languages, and was thinking that he might try and simply duplicate what most computers used.
Reinforce was trying to convert her own programming, or at least parts of it, into Terran wizardry, but it was slow going. Harry thought that her idea was probably best, and helped as much as he could, but there was only so much he could do, so it was mainly just her work.
The thirty minutes alloted for the quiz soon passed. Loki had decided to amuse himself and see how many of the answers he could remember, so the 'quiz' that Harry handed in wasn't actually blank. Harry sighed and put the crystal and notebook away as Lockhart flicked through the tests.
"Tut, tut!" Lockhart chided the class as he looked through the questionnaires. "Hardly any of you remembered that my favourite colour is lilac, I say it is so quite clearly in Year with a Yeti. A few of you should read Wanderings with Werewolves a little more carefully as well, you'll find that I mention my ideal birthday gift quite clearly in chapter twelve. For those of you that missed it, that would be peace between all magic and non-magic peoples, though I wouldn't say no to a large bottle of Ogden's Old Firewhisky of course!"
Lockhart gave the class a rougish wink, one that had the most females 'squee-ing', while most of the boys looked faintly ill at it all. Harry's own eyes were narrowed, more because Lockhart's eyes had lingered on Isis than any other reason, and Isis was a little surprised when Harry returned her hug, a little tighter than she thought he ever would have hugged her.
She wasn't complaining though, she rather enjoyed her master's attention being lavished on her. If the cause of it was jealousy induced by Lockhart, then that was fine by her. In return, she snuggled a little closer to harry herself, pretty much moulding herself to his side. Neither her nor Harry paid much attention as Lockhart praised Hermione for her perfect score and awarded points.
They both, however, paid attention when Lockhart's entire demeanour changed. Harry marveled slightly at the ease with which he shifted from a bright, cheery, smiling man, to a more serious, dramatic sort. The rattling cage that he lifted also drew their attention.
From what Harry and his familiars could feel, there were a number of small, but surprisingly strong, 'clumps' of magic in the cage. At a guess, Harry would say that there was a group of small magical creatures in the cage, Doxies or something perhaps.
"Now, be warned! It is my job to arm you against the foulest creatures known to wizardkind! You may find yourselves facing your worst fears in this room!" Harry wondered if Lockhart was going to bring a boggart to lesson. "Know only that no harm can befall you whilst I am here. All I ask is that you remain calm."
With that, he whipped the cover off the cage, and Harry slumped in disappointment. Cornish Pixies weren't exactly his idea of something incredibly dangerous. Granted, their pranks could be a nuisance, but they never caused injuries worse than a few scrapes or bruises.
Someone near the front, Harry wasn't looking that way so never saw who exactly it was, let out a loud snort of laughter that not even Lockhart could mistake as a scream of terror.
"Yes?" He smiled at Seamus Finnegan, showing Harry who it was that had laughed.
"Well they're not very dangerous, are they?" He asked, chuckling.
Suddenly, Harry had a very bad feeling. He looked down at his hands, making sure that he had his Device on him, even if it was in standby mode. "Panzerhindernis." He muttered, summoning up a weak dome-shaped barrier around himself, Isis, and Loki.
He'd kept it low powered for two reasons. One, the more powerful it was, the more visible it was, and he didn't want people to see it. Right now, it was barely a slight discoloured distortion in the air. Two, Cornish Pixies weren't really a major threat, so something weak like this should be able to keep them out without difficulty.
Harry's concerns were proven to be accurate, as Lockhart, without taking any measures to seal the classroom, opened the cage and released all of the Pixies into the room. Aside from Harry, Loki, and Isis, who remained calm inside of Harry's barrier, the classroom was reduced to chaos.
Only three students seemed to have any inkling of what to do in this situation. Hermione began to freeze the pixies in mid-air, then hurriedly stuffed them back into their cage. Su Li was knocking them out of th air, and boy was that girl nimble and flexible. Terry Boot seemed to be really damn accurate, knocking pixies out of the air with a few well-placed hexes.
Lockhart had simply asked them 'What was the problem? They're only pixies!', then he had cast something, or at least attempted to cast something. Whatever 'Peskipiksi Pesternomi' was supposed to do, it failed. Lockhart had then left them to deal with the pixies themselves, fleeing into what Harry guessed to be his own rooms. Oh, he also had his wand stolen and thrown out of the window by a pixie while he was at it.
"Harry! Help!" Hermione called at him. She had noticed how pixies seemed to be bouncing off of some sort of shield he had in place around himself, and she was very curious as to what spell it was, but she'd ask him that later, right then they needed every person who could cast a spell to stop these pixies.
Harry, Loki, and Isis looked at each other, shrugged, then called up a shooting spell each. """Photon Lancer/ Feather Shot, Shoot Barret.""" Each of them intoned, Loki using his own spell, Harry relying on Fate's, and Isis using the most basic of basic Mid-Childan shooting spells. """Shoot.""" The spoke together.
Balls of energy flew all around the room, hunting down the pixies and knocking them out. Once that was over with, all they had to do was collect them up and drop them back into the cage. Seeing how there was still twenty minutes left of the lesson, and Lockhart had buggered off, Harry decided to bite the bullet so to speak.
He stood at the front of the class, and Loki surreptitiously cast a locking charm on Lockhart's door. He saw that, surprisingly, he had the full class's attention on him. He let his eyes flicker over all of them, idly noting that there seemed to be a divide right down the middle of the room, Ravenclaw on one side, Gryffindor on the other.
"Right," Harry said. "Seeing how our professor has decided to... vacate the room, and we have twenty minutes left of a lesson, I'm going to try and teach you something. I hope none of you mind, but anything is better than nothing, right?"
Hermione raised her hand in the air.
"Yes?" Harry said.
"What spells were those that you just used?" She asked. "I know you used a shield spell of some sort to keep the pixies off you, and then there were those odd balls of light. What are they called and where did you learn them?" She asked.
Harry sighed. "As you heard when we cast them, the shooting spells are called Photon Lancer, Shoot Barret, and Feather Shot. The last one is something that Loki created himself. As for the shield I used, it is called Panzerhindernis, which is actually German for Armour Barrier."
He turned around, found some chalk for the blackboard and hurriedly, with Reinforcing whispering the right things into his mind, wrote out the spell formula for the barrier spell. "Now, a lot of what I'm talking about is based in Arithmancy, which I've read up on a lot, so I'm not expecting anyone to just be able to copy this." He told them, before copying out a much simpler formula, the one for Shoot Barrret.
"This is a basic shooting spell, and I think that we might be able to learn this relatively quickly." With that, Harry began to try and teach a class of Terran wizards and witches a Mid-Childan spell. He thought he did things rather well, even if only two people managed to get it by the end of the lesson, even if they only got one orb in the air. After all, they only had twenty minutes to practise it, so that was a damn good achievement.
~Seriously, Rein, would you take this class if we could get rid of Lockhart?~ Harry asked as they left the room after the lesson was over, leaving Lockhart locked in his own office. Harry wondered how long it would take the man to get out, the locking charm Loki had cast was rather weak, and would wear off in the next ten minutes or so.
~I think you're just looking for an excuse for me to walk around in my own form.~ Reinforce mentally chuckled. ~That's sweet of you, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a teacher. Anyway, where are you going now? That was the last lesson of the day, so your time is your own now.~
Harry shrugged his shoulders and headed off to the Head Boy suite he was staying in. After a sweep for anything that might be recording the goings on in there, Reinforce made her appearance and they all sat down on the beds in the bedroom. Harry got right on with the homework he'd gotten that day, getting it out of the way as soon as possible, while Isis, Loki, and Reinforce did their own thing.
xxxxx
It was the next morning when Harry encountered... someone a little strange. He had been heading down to breakfast, Loki and Isis at his sides like usual, when he had rounded a corner, saw a first year Gryffindor, and was then nearly blinded by the flash from his camera.
Blinking spots out of his eyes, Harry made a mental note to watch out for things like that in future, a sudden bright flash, from something as simple as a camera, had rendered him, Loki, and Isis vulnerable for a few seconds. Feeling vulnerable was not something that Harry liked, and he knew it could easily be fatal in the future.
Since he was planning to join the TSAB when he was older, though being a child wasn't an obstacle to joining that group, Harry wanted to prove himself, to apply himself, to be the best he could be. Knowing that combat was inevitable, he'd just learned a valuable lesson about how something as 'innocent' as a flash of light could be used in a less than friendly manner.
Anyway, once Harry's sight was cleared, he could see the Gryffindor boy bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, a wide grin on his face and a mad sparkle in his eyes. Then his mouth opened and Harry had trouble keeping up with him due to how fast the boy was talking.
He held up a hand for silence, and the boy instantly shut up. "Okay, slow down. Now, I haven't a clue who you are, nor why you're here, and I don't know what you want from me. Hello, small, Gryffindor boy, I am Harry Potter. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?" It can be noted that, on occasion, Harry could be rather sarcastic and irritable.
"Hey, Harry, I'm Colin Creevey!" The boy said excitedly. "When I get the picture developed, do you think you could sign it? You see, my dad's a milkman, and neither he or my mum can really believe everything that's going on, so I'm taking pictures of everything to show them!"
Creevey then caught sight of Isis' tail and his eyes widened immensely. He went to reach out and touch it, but Isis took a step back. "You know, in the Wizarding World, it's considered extremely rude to touch another's familiar without permission, and I am my Master Harry's familiar."
Isis draped herself across Harry's shoulders, giving Creevey the evil eye. Only Harry was allowed to touch her, especially there of all places! Not that Harry really did anything like that, but she would tempt and entice him until he finally did it, she'd make sure of that!
Harry just huffed a sigh at Isis' actions and rolled his eyes. "I'm not signing any pictures, and I would appreciate it if you would ask permission in the future." He then gave the obviously muggle camera in Colin's hands a look. "Do you know that there's a potion that causes images soaked in it to become capable of moving?" He asked.
"Really!?" Colin squeaked.
"Yes," Harry said. "They can even be spelled to not move if a muggle looks at them. Hmm, but you're a muggleborn yourself, so... I think there might be a way to add your parents as exceptions to that rule, providing you can get a few drops of blood from each of them before brewing the potion." Harry mused, more to himself than Colin now.
"What potion is it?" He asked Harry.
"What? Oh, the potion? It's in Potions for Pictures in the library. The modification necessary is simple blood magic, just add three drops of blood before the final step and stir seven times counter-clockwise." Harry told the boy. That blood thing was common with almost all potions, the last ingredient was always the one that made the potion 'complete', so adding anything after that would only mess it up.
Of course, considering the fact that the book Harry learned this from he had found in an out of the way corner in the Restricted Section... well, he wasn't going to admit to that anytime soon. He wondered what interesting little titbits he'd find there this year, as the majority of the library, or even just the Restricted Section, had yet to be read by him.
Harry watched Colin charge off at full speed with a slightly amused smile on his face. Really, that kid was going to cause an accident running about the place like that. Anyway, continuing on, Harry headed on down to breakfast, Loki at his side and Isis still draped all over him.
When they'd sat down at the Ravenclaw table, Isis tried to feed Harry by hand, but he just gave her a flat look. She pouted, making Harry roll his eyes. "Alright, but only a little bit. I am perfectly capable of feeding myself, you know, and I don't need assistance with it."
Isis did a little seated happy dance, before feeding Harry some toast, and giving him a drink as well. Loki just shook his head and laughed at them, his eyes twinkling slightly with amusement. Of course, there were others that saw what was going on, and their reactions were split between chuckling, rolling eyes, jealousy, and contempt.
"What lessons do you have today?" Loki asked at one point, eating a bowl of cereal.
"Herbology is first, and it's a double. Second is Runes. After that is lunch, and this afternoon I have Transfiguration, another double, then there's Astronomy at midnight." Harry shook his head, what sort of school had classes at midnight!? If his class last year was anything to go by, no one would be awake for the damn lesson.
"Well, if you're done being hand fed, shall we be off to the greenhouses?" Loki asked, smirking slightly as Isis pouted, having another slice of toast ready in her hand. Harry, catching sight of it, sighed, accepted the slice of toast, and then got ready to head out onto the grounds.
xxxxx
"That is one weird tree." Loki muttered, looking at the Whomping Willow.
Harry scrunched his brow at the sight of it. "Yeah, it is. The Whomping Willow is a tree that straddles the line between flora and fauna, like several other plants and animals. Those trees have been known to actually move if they don't receive sufficient nutrients, albeit slowly, because they are, after all, trees."
"It's a cool-looking plant though." Isis added her opinion to the mix. "How many people can say that they have a tree at their school capable of boxing?"
Harry snorted for a moment, imagining boxing gloves on the Whomping Willow's branches, before stopping and frowning for a moment. "It's a curiosity, you're right, but I wonder why it's here? The tree, though healthy, only looks a couple of decades old at most, and they are supposed to be very expensive, as well as difficult to get hold of."
"You can look it up later, book lover, but you have Herbology now." Isis said.
"Book lover?" Harry raised an eyebrow at Isis.
"Well," A lewd grin appeared on Isis' face. "I'm sure that Rein could do with some love- Oof! Hey!" She was cut off by Loki whacking her over the back of the head, making her call him a meanie and request Harry to kiss it better, which he did, much to Loki's amusement.
When they arrived at the lesson, which they shared with the Slytherins, they found that they would be learning about mandrakes. Harry thought that a bit odd, especially considering how expensive mandrakes were, and the fact that there were only a few potions that used mandrakes in them, primarily restoratives and a few rather dark potions as well, such as one that would force a female to become pregnant with someone's child if they added some blood or hair to it.
~Harry, focus on the lesson.~ Reinforce admonished him, making him do just that, but not before sending Reinforce a mental image of himself sighing and a message of ~If I must.~ back to her. She mentally clicked her tongue at him, and made sure he was paying attention to the lesson. Let it not be said that Harry would disobey Reinforce, because he most definitely wouldn't.
The re-potting of the mandrakes went rather smoothly. Harry, Loki, and Isis, all worked together, and they all wore pink and fluffy earmuffs at Isis insistence, while they wrestled the young mandrakes into the pot. Harry had a good method of getting them in, he just struck them on the head to make them dizzy for a moment and then stuffed them into their pots before piling dragon dung compost on top of the little buggers.
Once that lesson was over, Harry and his familiars headed inside, before going off to Runes. This was another class that Harry was having with third years, like Arithmancy, and it seemed word had spread about that as no one gave him a second glance when he walked into the room.
Like with Septima, Beth was a lot more strict in class than he'd seen her before, but he did catch her winking and grinning at him whenever the rest of the class weren't looking, and they started to make a little game of it. Due to looking into runes for a year, Harry was ahead of the class, so he began trying to draw runes on things from a distance, and seeing if Beth could notice and counteract them without the class being any the wiser.
Harry pouted a little at the end of the lesson when Beth got the last rune that he'd managed to draw with his wand, a small one on the window that would have caused it to fall open, nothing special, and the two of them waited in the classroom for Septima to turn up for lunch.
Over food, they discussed Lockhart, and whether he would make a good teacher or not. While Beth and Septima both mentioned that he was rather attractive, in a somewhat foppish kind of way, he wasn't a fantasy of either of them. Septima did recall Lockhart being a Ravenclaw student when he was at Hogwarts, but that was pretty much all she could tell him, having been in a different year to Lockhart.
After Lunch, Harry had double Transfiguration. In this lesson, they mainly did review work, going over everything they'd learned the previous year, and proving that they hadn't forgotten it. Harry did get some points with his rather wide variety of transfigured creatures. He might not be a natural at Transfiguration, but he put so much effort into it that it was his highest scoring subject.
Seeing as Harry's next lesson was in the middle of the night, he settled down to have a little nap. He felt when something laid down next to him, and knew that he'd awake wrapped in Isis' arms. What surprised him was the small spike of emotion he felt from Reinforce at that, and then found that there was a weight on the bed on his other side.
Deciding to leave discovering the subtleties of the female mind for later, Harry simply tried to get some shut eye, and soon drifted off to a light sleep, being used as a teddy-bear by both Isis and Reinforce. He awoke in plenty of time for Astronomy of course, and due to Reinforce's influence, he ended up with a far more detailed star chart than he really should have.
Once that lesson was over, and seeing that he had a chance to get some sleep before dawn, Harry headed back to his rooms. When he got to the bedroom, he idly wondered if Isis' bed was going to be slept in at all this year, as she seemed perfectly happy sharing his.
Not that he minded, as he kind of liked sleeping between her and Reinforce, but if that was the case then maybe they could move her bed out of there, it would make things less squashed after all.
