Chapter 10 – Old School new.
Harry was glad when his friends returned from their holidays. He was excited to tell them what he had found in his extensive stay in the library. They had been too tired after the train journey back to Hogwarts to talk to him about anything other than sleep.
The first week back didn't afford them much time for talk either. There had been several changes in the classes. It started with McGonagall's class, when they arrived they were treated to a speech from the professor.
"Right class as I'm sure you are aware there have been several changes to the curriculum across the board. I will be explaining this to you and professor Flitwick is explaining it to the other half of the year." The professor began.
"first we this term we will be increasing the amount of magic you are going to be using, so you will lightly go to bed every school night tired. This is so that the amount of magic available to you is increased, previously we would have let your progress though the first year curriculum one spell at a time and then become proficient in using it each lesson. Now what we will be doing is once you have learned the lessons spell you are to practice using the spells previously learned."
"The idea is that instead of building up your reserves slowly over the year is that we will build them heavily now that you have a better grasp of your magic. The reason for the change in the curriculum is that some second and third years are having been having trouble with the amount of magic required for some spells at the start of their respective years."
"For transfiguration things are slightly different given the nature of the subject. Instead of repeating your old work I want you each to try and improve the detail on your finished products. For example in your first lesson we transfigured a match to a basic sowing needle. What I want from you now is something a bit more fancy like this." She said demonstrating by flicking her wand at a match she had pulled out of her draw.
The result was certainty different from before, this time the needle was covered in ornate etchings and instead of being a dull grey indicative of steel, it was a shiny silver colour. What caught Harry's attention though was the way the light bounced off it as she moved it; it was one of the shiniest objects he had ever seen.
"the idea behind this is to build up your focus you may find that you have to spend a few minutes before each casting to get a clear enough picture in your mind to cast properly. Very little of transfiguration is about power, well at least when dealing with objects smaller than a horse. It is much more about having a clear picture in your mind, you'll find the more you picture finer details the less time it takes to summon up an image of what you want in your head. I'm quite fond of using a tartan pattern on most of my cloth transfigurations."
"Right now for this lesson we will be changing ball into a bean bag, this is different to what we have done before for two reasons. First being that the bean bag is made up of lots of little balls and second we are changing a hard solid object, the rubber ball, into a soft malleable object, the bean bag. Now the trick to this is to get a clear image in your mind of the whole object inside and out. You need to picture the little balls inside the bean bag as well as the material of the outer sack. It is also helpful to try and imagine how the material feels in your hands." The professor said as she started handing out said rubber balls.
When she had finished handing out the balls she returned to the front of the class and demonstrated the spell on the ball, transfiguring it into a tartan been bag. "This is what I expect from you this lesson now this being a bit more complex I don't expect all of you to get it this lesson as such your homework will be to work on it for next week. The spell is the same as usual "aboe" I'll let you know when fifteen minutes has passed so you can start working on improving the detail of your old work." The professor said.
Unlike most of the class Harry didn't jump right in with attempting the spell this being a fair bit more complex he sat wand in hand and thought. First he started with the image of the little hollow plastic balls, he started with one imagining it to be White, and from there he imagined lots of them. Next he thought of the material, Dudley's bean bag chair had been made from corduroy and always made him shiver when he had touched it during his cleaning, still it was a very tactile sensation and Harry could remember it clearly.
Finally he felt he was ready to attempt the spell, with his first wave of his wand the spell didn't worked only he had forgotten to in vision the balls inside the bag. Fortunately McGonagall had prepared for that eventuality and the desks had each a small lip around the edge to stop the balls rolling on the floor. A quick "finite" and he was ready to try again.
This attempt was much better now he had a clear picture of the individual components he just pictured the finished product. This produced the results he was hoping for he was only one who managed the spell in the first part of the lesson before McGonagall told them to practice their detail work.
Harry started with the match to needle though he was at a loss as to how he could get the needle to be as reflective as the professors, so he started with attempting an etched pattern in the metal. This wasn't as successful as he had expected. Apparently he hadn't thought about the depth of the etching and it had barely shown up, until he inspected it with his fingers he couldn't even tell it was there. His next attempt was much better.
He continued on with the rest of the lesson, finding that the more detail he imagined into each object the easier it was to add more for the next. Building upon the patterns he had from the previous transfigurations. Applying the pattern he had used at the start of the lesson was almost second nature by the end of it.
The difference in the quality of work from all students from the start of the lesson to the end was clear for them to see almost everyone had moved on from basic shape changes and had used colours and patterns by the end of the lesson. It was only Hermione however that had made objects made from more than one material with a single transfiguration. She had applied this week's lesson to the problem and had created a black and white button with a marble effect pattern; it had even earned Gryffindor five points.
Much of the rest of the week's lessons where of a similar vain. Potions being the biggest surprise the class room had changed. Instead of being in the dungeon it was now on the first floor and it was also along the outer wall. Harry and the rest of the class hadn't appreciated this until professor Snape's lecture.
"As I am sure you have been told many classes have changed however very little of the actual teaching of mine will change. I'm sure even the most oblivious of you have noticed we have changed class room." Professor Snape said receiving sniggers from several of the class.
"As the more observant of you may have noticed we now have windows that open. I'm not pointing this out so that you may observe the weather; I am however pointing it out because it was a key factor in my decision in the placement of the new classroom."
"For those of you who don't know while we had 'windows' in the dungeons they were magical and though they gave off light enough to read and see by. They could not provide ventilation nor would the light produced be conducive to growing plants. This is why we are now in a classroom along the outer wall these windows are real and provide proper ventilation as well as natural light."
"Again I'm pointing this out for a very important reason. Where possible you should always attempt to use a well-ventilated room when brewing potions. Some of the more advanced potions can have disastrous reactions with fumes in the air. Frequently the potion its self is useless and it is the vapours we want. So as with other things mentioned at the start of term this is a lab safety issues. The professor lectured.
Harry and Hermione had been fascinated to learn that the windows in the old classroom hadn't been real. Neville had however already known that but hadn't thought anything of it saying "well yea we have some like that at home like in the bathroom where you just want something nice to look at while you relax."
Harry had also been quietly disturbed by Snape's appearance this had been the first time he had seen him close up under natural light. His skin was oily and pale and his hair though it wasn't as noticeable in the dark dungeons was slick with grease. Harry privately hope this was from the lack of ventilation in the old class room and that he wouldn't end up like that now they had moved.
Moody defence class too had been interesting for Harry at least it began like most of the other classes this week with a lecture from the professor.
"class I am pleased that you all managed to survive the dodging test I gave you before the holidays and while I would prefer you be able to keep dodging much longer than that I have been informed that we are going to start you on magical shielding this term in order to build your reserves. Now I'm not adverse to this I am however against that you abandon dodging altogether. As such I may decide to test you on your dodging later this year too."
"What we have planned for this term is to teach you a basic shield charm and then have it bombarded by nearly harmless spells until you cannot hold it up any longer and it collapses. This much like your dodging I expect to be very tiring at first."
"However before we start with that there is something you much all understand about magic. I cannot emphasize this enough, every single spell you do, all of em, translate to an effect. Now that may seem obvious but consider this for a moment what is a shield charm?" Moody said leaving the class for a few moments before a few people raised their hands.
"You" he said pointing at a Slytherin girl.
"It's a charm to stop spells getting to you sir?" she asked.
"Well that's the thing ain't it girl that's what happens with a properly applied shield charm but what is it, I'll tell you because it's hard to understand. The effect of a shield charm, of which there are many different types, is to put something the spell directed at you can affect instead of you."
"To help you understand this I want you to picture this if someone threw a spear at you would a wall of stone stop it, obviously yes. However if someone attacked that same wall of stone a ball of lava would you still be so confident to stand behind it, I very much doubt it. Now if you translate those to spells an Aegis shield may protect from a piercing spell but it wouldn't protect you from elemental spells."
"Similarly with protego, which gives the spell a new magical target to act upon, wouldn't even affect the piercing spell, it would carry on right until it hit something tangible." Moody finished to a few still confused faces and a few understanding ones and amazingly to a hand in the air.
"Sir?" the boy asked when noticed. "What about the unforgivable then aren't they supposed to be unblock able, whys that surely you can just transfigure something to stop it"
"Well lad that's a bit of a complex question, you see all spells have a target as well as an effect. Just as a jelly legs spell targets the magic in your legs to make them act like jelly a piercing spell targets solid matter. They don't target anything else; again there are obviously exceptions such as mithril and gold and in some cases silver. The target of each of the unforgivable is not in fact your magic or your body it's your soul." Moody said to the stunned and silent class.
Again though the boy had his hand up.
"What's your name lad?" Moody asked.
"Blasé Zabini sir" the boy answered before asking his new question "then why can't you just transfigure a gold object I mean if it's just temporary to defend against these spells why not?"
"This ain't a transfiguration class but let me give you a quick explanation of gamps first law. You cannot conjure mithril gold or silver on a permanent basis because of the magical properties each contains. It's technically possible to do it but the power required is not something a single wizard could do. For example to conjure silver you would have power the spell for the whole lunar month while it absorbed the power from the moon. Gold and mithril have much more ludicrous requirements."
"Even so without the power each absorbs from their respective sources they would be useless against the spells. It is the very power of the time they spend in their respective environments that give them the power to defend against these spells." Moody finished this time Blaze didn't ask anything else.
"Now as I was saying we will be moving on to shields we will be starting with a very basic protego shield. The aim is to have you all able to hold up a shield for at least ten minutes by the end of the year but I don't expect anywhere near that long right now. I would actually be surprised if any of you got the spell to last past the first spell." Moody finished.
"Now the idea behind this spell is as I said earlier to throw out a magical target for the spell to hit instead of you. In order to do this you must not only push as much magic out of your wand as you can but you must also envisage the area that the magic is going to cover. Let me show you a few examples so you understand."
Moody prodded his wand forward the effect of it was that there was a large semi-transparent blue segment of a sphere in front of him. "That's one variety but that's an awful lot of magic to cover such a large area for this spell."
When he prodded his wand this time there was a small ball of a much denser looking semi-transparent blue shield spell. " this uses much less magic and can take many more spells, the problem with this is its quite small so you are going to have to move it into the path of the spell rather than relying upon the spell hitting its area of its own accord." Moody lectured
"Now I want you each to try it and when you are comfortable that you have a working shield come to the front of the class and I will test it. Well get on with it then I've talked at you enough for one lesson."
The spell was no problem for any of the three it was very much how they manipulated their wandless magic only with a wand most of the rest of the class got it soon after. The interesting thing that happened is when Moody tested Harry's shield.
"right up ya' come lad put your shield up and ill test it."
Harry cast his shield he had gone with the ball of magic type that Moody had shown the class second. When Moody cast his first spell it wasn't followed up with anything as he obviously expected the shield to fail. When it didn't and the spell was harmlessly absorbed by it he cast another. After three more he told Harry to see him after class before moving on to test others.
When the class came to a close and the others had filtered out Harry approached Moody.
"Sir, you wanted to speak to me?" he said quietly thinking he must have done something to get himself in trouble.
"Aye lad, don't worry ya ain't in trouble." Moody said and Harry relaxed letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding.
"what I wanna' talk to ya' about is your power. The first spell I shot at everyone was a harmless jelly legs spell. It's a week spell and its target is the magic in your legs. The second and third spells were also jelly legs but the third spell I shot at you was a stunner. It's much more powerful and I fully expected it to break your shield. That it didn't is what I want to talk to you about."
"You obviously have a lot more power than the rest of the class and while that's great for you it does bring up a few things. First that now you know the spell and it clearly didn't tax you nearly as much as is necessary to increase your reserves we need to find something else for you to do for the rest of the year. It also brings up the question of where you got that power, so are you going to tell me." Moody asked.
At first Harry didn't answer as the possibilities of what might happen if he told moody. Maybe they wouldn't let him do magic at home any more Hermione had told him she hadn't been allowed to use her wand over Christmas. But then again maybe Moody would help him learn some new spells and shields. Finally he decided he would have to tell him he didn't want his professors thinking he did something evil to increase his power or something.
"Sir, I've been practicing magic regularly since I was seven." Harry finally said.
"Come again lad did you say seven. Who's wand did you use, where did you find it." Moody demanded a little more forcefully than he intended.
"I didn't use one sir. I had a few incidents of accidental magic really close to each other and it left me stranded on the school roof so I had to use magic to get back down and well after that I practiced so I could use it when I liked." Harry said all in one breath hoping to avoid punishment he thought Moody wanted to impose.
"Pheeew" Moody sighed out "well if that isn't interesting I don't know what is. Wandless magic at your age. There aint' many who can do it at all even Dumbledore can only do bits and pieces." Moody mused aloud.
"Show me" he asked when he had finished thinking aloud.
"Er, ok" Harry responded before gathering his magic and gesturing to one of the desks in the room to make it float for a few seconds. Moody's eyes real and magical where fixed on Harry's extended arm as the table ascended.
"So tell me, what else can you do with it?" Moody asked much kinder this time.
"Well I used to get the pots and pans to wash themselves back at the Dursley's and I could make everyone ignore me too, but that doesn't seem to work on wizards. Oh and I could teleport too but Neville tells me you can't do that in Hogwarts." Harry said making sure to leave out that he could make his pens and quills do his homework. It wouldn't do to have a teacher tell him off for it, especially now Neville and Hermione where getting the hang of it.
"That's some pretty advanced magic. Though thinking about it each of them falls in the category of being advanced because of the force of will needed to make them happen. Have you tried any charms or transfiguration since you got here lad?" Moody asked.
"Yea, but I can't do any transfiguration at all and I can only do a few charms and none of them have bolts, like lumos and stuff." Harry said.
"hrmm, I'm not an expert in transfiguration myself, rarely used it after I passed my N.E.W.T.s. but I am very good at charms and what I can tell you about the spells that have a bolt component to them is they are compressed. It's not something you normally learn until your sixth or seventh year, but it's useful for duelling the more you compress your magic in the bolt the faster it moves through the air and the thinner and harder to see it is." Moody said.
"Well that's what we are going to during your defence lessons I'm going to teach you to control the compression of your spells using your wand. Hopefully you will be able to transfer that skill over to wandless magic. Ok?" Moody asked.
"Yes sir, thank you." Harry replied.
"One more thing Potter I'm gonna let your other teachers know but I also want to let Albus know too do you mind?" Moody asked.
"Ok sir. Er sir, I taught Neville and Hermione to do it too" Harry said now he was sure moody wasn't going to punish him.
"Really. Well I think I'll have words with them too when I see them next." Moody responded finally letting Harry leave.
When it finally came around to Sunday and the three could get together again, for what had mostly dissolved into Neville and Hermione practicing writing with their floating quills. Harry had decided to use this time to let them know about his letter from Dumbledore.
"Stop for a minute please, I wanna talk about this letter I got from Dumbledore about occlumency." Harry said.
Hermione's attention was now squarely on Harry in an almost creepy way as Neville let his quill float down to the desk. Harry passed he letter round letting the two of them read it before he continued.
"So what do you think? It sounds like as long as we are careful it is a useful thing to know" Harry asked.
"Oh yes definitely I think we should go see Snape as soon as possible." Hermione said.
"Oh yea, useful no doubt but it means spending more time with Snape everyone's idea of fun I'm sure." Neville said voice thick with sarcasm getting a snicker from Harry.
"I know it's probably not going to be fun but I got the impression Dumbledore uses it and that it's useful." Harry said.
"Useful, useful Harry just think how much near perfect recall could help with exams or how useful it would be to remember those obscure facts you might need for winning arguments. Harry this is positively the holy grail of learning aids." Hermione desperately pleaded.
"Ok, ok I get it Hermione you want to learn it and truthfully so do I, so I guess we should go see Snape. I say that you should practice your control over your quills in your own time and that next week we should go see him during this time." Harry suggested.
"That seems reasonable; it's always good to have time to work yourself up to spending time in Snape's company." Neville said getting a little smile from the group.
"Something else I wanted to talk about, we'll let you know about." Harry said evasively.
"Why do I not like the sound of that?" Neville said.
"Well you know when moody kept me back after defence." Harry said.
"Yea, what about it." Neville said.
"Well professor moody wanted to talk about why my shield didn't collapse when he thought it should have. Well any way long story short I had to tell him I could do wandless magic and that you could to, sorry." Harry said.
"Will we get extra credit for it then? Do you think he will help us learn more, I mean it has kinda plateaued?" Hermione asked.
"I dunno but he did give me an idea for getting into those charms that we haven't managed so far. So maybe but I get the impression he can't do it." Harry said.
"What idea did he give you; do you think it will help?" Hermione asked.
"He was saying how in N.E.W.T. level charms you learn to compress your spells in your wand to make them move faster. I think that's probably what's missing, I think you've gotta compress the magic for bolt spells and a wand does that a little on its own." Harry said.
"mmmm sounds hard, I mean if they don't teach it till after O.W.L.s it will probably take some time to learn I hope we can learn it but I still think occlumency is more useful sounding." Hermione said.
"Probably, let's not worry about it moody said he is going to teach me to do it in the defence lessons so he will probably teach you too." Harry said.
Harry finished up giving Archimedes an owl treat before they left the room for the library.
In the study area behind the first row of stacks in the library where they had previously gone over profiles they now sat ready to listen to Harry's new work.
"Ok so I know you guys didn't do any of them this time but you still have to sit and listen to mine. So listen you know I looked into these Peverell brothers well here is why I started to look in the first place. They each had two dates of death."
"I'm going to do this a bit different to our other profiles because all three grew up together and lived close etc. so from what I can gather they collectively invented portkeys. But the interesting part is as I said they have two dates of death, the first were all the same, I think they were working on some portkey experiment and it went wrong. A year later they all turned up in the village square saying that they had been transported to a faraway land and that it took so long to get back."
"So obviously they didn't die, now here comes the interesting part. When they returned they each had an enchanted item. The first brother, Antioch, had what he claimed to be an unbeatable wand and was soon murdered in his sleep the wand was never found."
"The second brother, Cadmus, is another interesting one now I couldn't find anything concrete other than his wife had died while they were away and shortly after returning hung himself. I did however find a story I think relates to this witch I will tell you after. I do know his son survived him and was raised by the third brother. Ignotus."
"So Ignotus was the only brother that lived to be old having raised both his own children his brothers and finishing the portkey research. Apparently portkeys are huge in travel because they can cross huge distances whereas apparition can only go about two, three hundred miles. Which is admittedly is a lot but not as much as portkeys."
"Side note on portkeys, cos I wondered what they were so I'm sure Hermione does too. A portkey is a portal inside an object that drags those touching it together to a destination. Before portkeys people used to use portals, ether inside of a frame like a door or free floating. But they both had their own problems. Framed portals had the problem of those who entered it would land separated in a five mile radius of the destination of the portal. The free floating ones where used to send objects large distances and while much more accurate they needed too much power for the normal wizard to use."
"Now here is the story, you have to know it because while I couldn't find any evidence of artefacts left behind by ether of the other two brothers I do believe they left them and I'll show you why when I've finished telling you this story. Now I found it in a book called The Tales of Beedle the Bard, who died without children and was a second child of one of the third brother's decedents. So I believe this story may actually be something of a family story that was passed down over the years." Harry said.
"Oh yea I've heard them gran used to read them to me when I was younger." Neville interrupted before Harry began telling the story.
"There were once three brothers who were traveling along a lonely, winding road at twilight. In time, the brothers reached a river too deep to wade through and too dangerous to swim across. However, these brothers were learned in the magical arts, and so they simply waved their wands and made a bridge appear across the treacherous water. They were halfway across it when they found their path blocked by a hooded figure."
"And Death spoke to them. He was angry that he had been cheated out of three new victims, for travellers usually drowned in the river. But Death was cunning. He pretended to congratulate the three brothers upon their magic, and said that each had earned a prize for having been clever enough to evade him."
"So the oldest brother, who was a combative man, asked for a wand more powerful than any in existence: a wand that must always win duels for its owner, a wand worthy of a wizard who had conquered Death! So Death crossed to an elder tree on the banks of the river, fashioned a wand from a branch that hung there, and gave it to the oldest brother."
"Then the second brother, who was an arrogant man, decided that he wanted to humiliate Death still further, and asked for the power to recall others from Death. So Death picked up a stone from the riverbank and gave it to the second brother, and told him that the stone would have the power to bring back the dead."
"And then Death asked the third and youngest brother what he would like. The youngest brother was the humblest and also the wisest of the brothers, and he did not trust he asked for something that would enable him to go forth from that place without being followed by Death. And Death, most unwillingly, handed over his own Cloak of Invisibility."
"Then death stood aside and allowed the three brothers to continue on their way and they did so, talking with wonder of the adventure they had had, and admiring Death's gifts."
"In due course the brothers separated, each for his own destination."
"The first brother travelled on for a week or more reaching a distant village, he sought out a fellow wizard with whom he had a quarrel. Naturally, with the Elder Wand as his weapon, he could not fail to win the dual that followed. Leaving his enemy dead upon the floor, the oldest brother proceeded to an inn, where he boasted loudly of the powerful wand he had snatched from Death himself, and how it made him invincible."
"That very night, another wizard crept upon the oldest brother as he lay, wine-sodden, upon his bed. The thief took the wand and, for good measure, slit the oldest brother's throat."
"And so Death took the first brother for his own."
"Meanwhile, the second brother journeyed to his own home, where he lived alone. Here he took out the stone that had the power to recall the dead, and turned it thrice in his hand. To his amazement and his delight, the figure of the girl he had once hoped to marry before her untimely death appeared at once before him."
"Yet she was silent and cold, separated from him as though by a veil. Though she had returned to the mortal world, she did not truly belong there and suffered. Finally, the second brother, driven mad with hopeless longing, killed himself so as truly to join her."
"And so Death took the second brother for his own."
"But though Death searched for the third brother for many years, he was never able to find him. It was only when he had attained a great age that the youngest brother finally took off the Cloak of Invisibility and gave it to his son. And then he greeted Death as an old friend, and went with him gladly, and, equals, they departed this life."
"Now I know it's a fairy tale" Harry said making air quotes with his fingers as he said fairy tale.
"But, "he said extended the u in but. "I also got a gift from Dumbledore for Christmas and here is where it gets interesting." He continued as he pulled out his Cloak of Invisibility to show the others.
"Wow that's a pretty damn good quality invisibility cloak I saw my dad's when I was younger before it faded. Why'd Dumbledore send you invisibility cloak this one must be brand new" Neville said having tried it on.
"See that's the thing Neville I did my own research on invisibility cloaks too, and I found most fade in five to ten years. But here is the thing I'm sure you noticed in Dumbledore's letter that it belonged to my father. Now even if he acquired it just before his death it should be almost completely useless now." Harry said.
"So now if you put together the few facts such as I am a direct descendent of the youngest of three brothers and the oldest of those brothers was murdered for having a powerful wand, and Beedle's story who is also an ancestor of mine. It could well be that several parts of that story are true, as such I did a bit more research on wands several wizards in history have since claimed to have extra powerful wands and the like. But the stone has never popped up. Could you just imagine how much we could learn with that stone though" Harry said with a far off look in his eyes.
"I dunno Harry that seems pretty sketchy to me, I mean it's not as if you have any proof that any of these powerful wands are even the same wand or that the stone ever existed in the first place." Hermione said trying to get Harry to see sense.
"Look I know it's farfetched but hear me out. Imagine you have this Cloak of Invisibility that is perfect and you want to make sure your family doesn't just get rid of it. How would you do that, you make it legendry obviously to do that there must be a story about it. So you tell your son or daughter the tale and give them the Cloak. Eventually a member of your family thinks it would be a good idea to sell the story to make some money and puts it together with others in a book." Harry argued earnestly.
"I agree with Hermione Harry, even if they are real and you have one what makes you think you could find the stone, I assume it's the stone you want with the way you said it. If it even exists it's been lost since almost as soon as it was created." Neville said.
"You don't understand just think of the things that we could learn if we could talk to the dead, we could ask Merlin about his life or Morgana about hers or any of the greatest witches and wizards about how they did what they did. It's potentially the best learning aid imaginable far better than occlumency." Harry said with the kind of gusto that only the truly enraptured can muster.
"Look let's just agree to disagree and move on to our next study project" Hermione said trying to get Harry to another subject of conversation.
"Ok fine if you don't want to help me with the project fine" Harry said dejected.
"I was told some stories as a child by my parents like the tale of Babba Yaga and Handsel and Gretel, I'd like to see how much truth there are in them" Hermione said.
"Ooou that's a good idea I wish I'd thought of that" Harry said completely distracted from his earlier thought trying to think of fairy tales he might be able to research.
"Ah that's it, I'm going to see if there is any truth to Dracula and lord of the rings, what about you Nev?" Harry said as the inspiration hit him.
"Dunno mate I think I'm going to research Grindelwald and the statute of secrecy grans always going on about it." Neville said.
"Well I'm going to try and get a bit more research on invisibility cloaks done I'll cya back at the dorms." Harry said walking into the stacks leaving the others to their deliberation on his sanity.
A.N. I've also decided the potter family money comes from the tales of Beedle the bard sales
A.N. I am giving Harry an obsession with the hallows because all the really great witches and wizards had obsessions in my world or at least I imagine them to like Morgana wanting the throne back from her brother or Dumbledore with the hallows or Voldemort with immortality etc.
A.N. I am trying to make it clear that no teacher knows everything just as moody knows nothing about wandless magic (for clarification the only ones that will appear in my story are Voldemort, the Flamel's and Harry I may or may not make Grindelwald capable I'm thinking not though having spent the last 50 years in prison and had a keen wand obsession before that)
A.N. I also want to point out that before wands bolt charms where unthought-of of and transfiguration didn't exist. Which is also why alchemy is something of a dying art as transfiguration has mostly replaced it?
A.N. I have just noticed I have turned my professor Snape into my secondary school chemistry teacher Mr Parlin
A.N. one thing I really hate about posting here is my nice formatting for letters and stuff just goes completely out of the window when it's posted and lines that previously had indents and underlining just don't translate.
A.N. I don't intend to take the history into 2nd year but there needs to be some consistency to what they are doing first year. Most of the rest of the history is irrelevant now any way or at least minor in importance