Chapter 8
Harry awoke the next morning. The rest of his dorm mates were still asleep and for once Harry was glad that his body clock was set to wake him up earlier than a normal eleven year old. Harry decided to test out one of the spells that he had read in one of the books he had bought to see what the time was. Now that he had his wand, there was no way he was going to give-up the chance to try out a new spell. Harry took his wand from under his pillow, he made the wand movements the book had said and thought the word tempus as he did so. Nothing happened and so Harry tried again. He put all his energy into wishing for the time to be displayed in front of him. He made the wand movements again and this time in bright white lights appeared in front of him writing out the time '5.30 am'. Harry gave a small smile at his achievement. He was immensely pleased with the small feat of magic.
Harry then got out of the bed that he had been given last night. When he had entered the dorm room he had found his trunk situated at the end of the bed and therefore, logically assumed that the bed was his. Harry entered the bathroom but not before grabbing his toiletries and his uniform from his trunk. Harry entered the showers and stripped his pyjamas off as he did so. The cuts and bruises that had adorned Harry's body not a week before were slowly beginning to heal. Scabs from whip marks covered his back and his chest was turning a yellow colour as the bruises faded. Harry entered the shower and the water rushed over him, hot and relaxing. He spent around half an hour in the shower with Balthazar still wrapped around his arm. The snake was enjoying the heat and relaxation of the shower as much as Harry was. Harry finally decided that he had spent enough time in the shower and even with Balthazar's protests he dried off and put on his uniform.
Harry made his way back into the dorms. All the members there were still sleeping by the looks of their closed curtains. Last night Harry had been led to the Slytherin dormitories by a Prefect by the name of Marcus Flint. The boy had been gruff and ridiculously tall at around 6'5, which, for the first years, had made him seem like a giant. He had seemed nice enough though, leading the group of newly sorted Slytherins to their new home for the year.
There had then been a talk from their head of house, a man by the name of Severus Snape, he was tall and wore all black. His demeanour spoke of power and authority. Harry could tell that the man was not one to be crossed, at least not directly. If he ever wanted to get one up on the man then it would have to be done in a way that ensured the man had no way to prove that it was him. Any evidence and the man would destroy him, Harry was sure of it. He would have to be careful.
Harry made his way down from his dorm room. Last night he had noticed several book cases that lined the walls of the common room. Harry made his way towards one of the book cases and browsed the numerous books that filled it. The titles he read were things such as 'Pure-Blood Directory', 'A Vampire's Monologue', 'Unforgivable Curses and their Legal Implications', 'Mudbloods and How to Spot Them' and many such similar titles. Harry continued to scan the shelves for a few more minutes until he noticed a book titled 'Rune Dictionary', he picked it up and retreated to one of the high-backed chairs in the corner of the room.
Harry spent the next hour or so reading through the dictionary, his wand on his lap and trying to decipher the runes carved into it. In that time Harry managed to translate several more of the runes on his wand. He also found out more details about the runes that he had already translated. The rune Harry had initially translated as Death was in fact much more complex. It symbolised the unavoidable end of all things, for without life there is no death. A newly translated rune was one for strength, it represented the channeling of the power and of the the growth of strength from small beginnings to powerful endings. Another rune Harry managed to discover was that of Knowledge. It represented insight, learning, knowledge, wisdom and enlightenment but also symbolised the thin border between madness and genius.
As time ran on more and more people made their way into the common room. Some stopping and sitting for a chat with their friends, others simply passing through on their way to breakfast. As the numbers increased Harry found himself becoming more and more agitated at the number of people surrounding him. He could not study the intricacies of all the runes with all these people and all their noise. Harry sighed internally and stood up. He placed the book back on its shelf and then made his way out of the Slytherin Common room.
Balthazar was currently sleeping, the lazy snake that he was, but Harry knew that if the snake wake and if he was still cooped up in the cold dungeons then there would be hell to pay for the rest of the day as there was no way that the snake would shut up about the unfairness of it all. Harry decided the best thing to do would be to take the snake outside and let him hunt. He would take him out before he ate and then pick him up when he was done. Balthazar's hunting skills were good enough that he would get a sufficient meal by the time that Harry returned. Harry exited the castle and shook Balthazar awake. The snake hissed in annoyance, but after he poked his head out from Harry's collar to ascertain as to why he had been so rudely awakened the hisses of annoyance turned to ones of delight. The snake slithered down Harry's body and into the grass. Before he went to hunt he turned to Harry hissing
"You'll be back soon?" Harry nodded in response. "Before you have to go to those, what did you call them, oh, lessons?" Another nod from Harry in response. "OK, see you soon Master" the snake hissed and slithered off in the hope of finding some prey.
Harry rolled his eyes at the snake's antics. He only ever called Harry Master when he wanted something or he was happy with him. Harry was never sure which was a more worrying state of affairs. In both cases the snake would end up talking incessantly either begging or thanking. Either way the snake would not shut up unless there were people around. The snake was surprisingly shy around other people and this suited Harry just fine as he didn't want people knowing about Balthazar just yet. Harry was just relived he would be surrounded by people for most of the day and so Balthazar's talking time would be severely reduced.
Harry made his way to the great hall and walked down to the end of the Slytherin table before sitting. The great hall was mostly empty with the greatest number of people at the Ravenclaw table. The Slytherin table had around the same number as that of the Hufflepuff but the Gryffindor table had no more than ten people at it. Harry picked up two pieces of toast and spread them with butter and then jam before cutting them into halves and then eating them one after another. He also poured himself a cup of tea and took sips of it between bites.
As Harry was about half way through his breakfast his head of house made his way towards him. The man had been talking to some of the other Slytherins at the other end of the table since Harry had arrived, third years by the look of it. The man stalked down the table, his cloak billowing out behind him as he did so.
"Potter" the man snapped. Harry's eyes turned towards him. The man thrust a sheet of paper into Harry's hands and said "This is your timetable for the year. Classes start at nine. Do not be late." he sneered, enunciating each syllable and then he made his way back down the table to the group of first year Slytherins who had just entered the Hall.
Harry finished his breakfast and then made his way back outside to pick up Balthazar, stuffing his timetable in his pocket. As he stood in front of the school waiting for the snake to come back he cast another tempus. The bright numbers read '8.00 am' in front of him. Just after he finished the spell and put his wand back in his pocket Balthazar slithered up to Harry. He was hissing the praises of his 'master' at giving him such a good place to hunt. He told Harry about how he had caught two fat frogs and that they had been delicious. Harry rolled his eyes again at Balthazar's antics. He knelt down in the grass and stuck out his left arm for Balthazar to slither up. Balthazar did so, still hissing the praises of his Master. Harry stood for a while longer, looking out over the grounds and then he heard a voice call out from behind him.
"Hey you there." The voice called out, but Harry just pretended he couldn't hear it. "Don't ignore me" the voice said again and yet Harry did just that. That was until Harry felt a hand on his shoulder and he whipped around to face the perceived attacker. Ginger hair greeted him and for a moment he thought that it was one of the twins he had seen his brother with on the platform.
"What are you doing out here?" the ginger boy questioned. Harry just stared blankly at the space behind the head of the young man. "I am a prefect and you will tell me why you are outside and such an hour and on the first day of school no less."
Harry shrugged his shoulders deciding that it wasn't worth the trouble that ignoring the boy would cause. This boy seemed to have some sort of authority that could be used against him and so Harry decided the best option was to play it safe and respond.
"Well that's not a very good answer" the boy said and Harry shrugged his shoulders agin. "Are you a first year?" the boy said, Harry nodded. Harry still didn't look at the boy directly, just at the space behind his head. "Well I was on my way to Breakfast when I saw you come out here. I saw you cast a tempus and then you knelt down in the grass. What on earth were you doing?" Harry's only response was to shrug his shoulders again, relieved at the fact the boy hadn't seen Balthazar. He could tell that the other boy was getting frustrated with his unresponsiveness. The ginger boy sighed and said
"Come now, what were you doing out here?" Again a shrug of the shoulders. "Well you obviously are not going to tell me and seeing as I cant prove that you have broken any school rules I suppose you better go and get ready for your lessons." The boy said sounding dejected at the prospect at not discovering what Harry had been doing. The boy made to walk away and then seemed to realise something.
"Oh, I didn't catch your name" he said. Harry began to panic slightly at that. He had no idea how to respond to that, he wanted the ginger boy to leave and that would most likely not happen without giving him his name. The ginger was staring at Harry waiting for an answer and so Harry did the only thing that he could think of, he wasn't sure it would work but he had to give it a go.
He took his wand from his pocket and held it in the air. The boy looked mildly shocked and Harry saw him put his hand in his pocket to grasp his own wand. He didn't remove it though, waiting to see what Harry would do. Harry concentrated, willing his magic to make viable the patterns in the air that followed the movements of his wand. He had read that intention had a lot to do with the magic that people could cast and so hoped that be having the strong intent to spell his name out it would happen. He moved his wand and it spelled out his name in the air in front of him.
"Ha…rr…y…P…ot…te…r" The boy read out, trying to decipher the words written in front of him. "Harry Potter" he said with clarity this time. "Well, nice to meet you Harry" the boy said, he was impressed at the display of magic that Harry had just done. Although he wasn't sure why the boy hadn't just told him his name. But he was in too much of a rush to probe any deeper.
"I'm Percy, Percy Weasley" the newly dubbed Percy said. "Anyway, I better go and get my breakfast before lessons start. Try not to do anything else suspicious looking for the rest of the day." Percy said in exasperation and then made his way back into the school, leaving Harry standing in the grass.
Harry made his way back inside and to the dorms. He decided he needed a more reliable way to speak to people. He was pretty sure that the people in charge here would not be pleased if they received no answers to the questions that they would inevitably ask him. He did not want to be prevented from learning simply because he was unable to respond. Harry decided that the best way would be to take a quill and a piece of parchment with him wherever he went. That way he could respond to questions by writing until he came up with a better system.
Harry had arrived at the classroom fifteen minutes earlier than need be but he felt that it was worth it. He did not want to have to deal with all the inevitable questions that he would be bombarded with about being a Potter and what the Boy Who Lived was really like. He entered the classroom and took a seat at the back of the room. He took out his parchment, quill and charms text book, ready for the lesson to start. Balthazar emerged from his collar and started to praise Harry's glory again. Harry stroked the Snake's scales knowing that this would shut him up. So for a time Harry flicked through his charms book while stroking Balthazar's scales. After about five minutes a short man with a long beard entered the room. He walked up to his desk at the front of the class and began to sort through his papers. After about a minute he looked up at the classroom and a look of shock adorned his face.
"Oh…" the man stammered in a squeaky voice. "I didn't see you there. Mr Potter is it?" the man questioned. Harry just nodded. "Oh well then nice to meet you Mr Potter. I'm Professor Flitwick and I'll be teaching you charms this year. Well not until the other students arrive of course, but soon enough." he said laughing a little as he did so.
As the minutes passed by people began to enter the room, more coming the more time passed by. Harry ignored them all until he noticed that someone was standing in front of him.
"you're Harry right" the girl questioned. Harry recognised her as the girl from the train, the annoying one who just wouldn't shut up, Harry looked up at her. Harry was, however, glad that at least she hadn't ended up in Gryffindor that would be even worse.
"Hey do you remember me?" the girl questioned "I'm Hermione, we met on the train. Anyway do you mind if I sit with you?" Harry only shrugged but Hermione took that as her cue to sit down. She sat next to Harry and took out all of her stuff from her bag.
"You know that charms is all about personal creativity, we'll be learning about ten charms this year and from what I've read they're all essential to the future of the wizarding world. It's all so exciting."
Harry guessed that the girl would've continued her speech on the joy of charms had she not been interrupted by Professor Flitwick starting the class. The next hour was spent being taught a charm that could levitate objects. Flitwick said that the words were Wingardium Leviosa for the charm to be preformed.
After the hour had passed they were told to practice preforming the spells. Hermione started straight away trying to get the spell right and her feather was already happily floating in the air after a few attempts, giving her 10 points for Ravenclaw. Harry, meanwhile, spent a few minutes just thinking about the spell. He thought about the intention he needed and said the words of the spell over and over in his head. Harry made the wand movement while keeping the chant in his head.
The feather rose slightly from the desk, about an inch or so. Harry was not satisfied so he tried again. He got the intention clear in his head. He wanted the feather to rise higher. After a few minutes of thinking about it he ended up forgoing the chanting of the charm for solely focused all of his attention on simply wishing the feather to rise to the ceiling. While wishing this he made the wand movements and the feather shot upwards. It rose up faster than Harry was expecting and the rapid movement caught the eye of the Professor and Hermione. Hermione gaped at him and the Professor made his way across the room proclaiming
"Well done Mr Potter. Well done indeed. Your spell is overpowered but other than that the execution was perfect. Keep practicing your control Mr Potter"
The practice of the spells continued for the rest of the class and by the time the lesson ended most of them had managed the spell. Everyone except the two thugs that the kid with the bright blonde hair, Harry thinks he remembers him being called Malfoy, lugged around with him for some sort of protection. He learned their names at the end of the class when Flitwick commented that Mr Crabbe and Mr Goyle should continue to work on their spells in their own time. The bell rang and then they all made their way to their next class. In Harry's case it was Transfiguration.