Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Beta'd by: WriterShwin
Villa dell Zabini - 3. August 1992
This was the last day they were staying in Rome. The Zabini's were going to spend the rest of their summer in Paris with Catarina's current husband who was working in the French Ministry.
Harry had managed to use as much time as he could to practice magic with his wand while he was away from the British Ministry's laws for underage wizardry. Britain's extremely strict laws regarding underage magic were constantly on his mind when he was back at the Dursley's. He was worried that his wandless magic practice would set it off or that he would get into trouble when brewing potions.
But here in Italy, as soon as a witch or wizard got their wand they were allowed to practice magic whenever they wanted as long as it didn't risk breaking the statue of secrecy. Muggle-borns had it a bit tougher and were only allowed to use magic in the privacy of their own home, but it was better than having his wand within reach and not being able to use it. His mediocre skill in wandless magic didn't satiate his need to use magic.
Tonight, he was going to test a theory he'd been working on about Hedwig's feathers, since tonight was a full moon he was going to run some tests on her feathers while they were under the effects of the full moon. He wanted to see the possible potion applications of a Lunistia's feathers into potions that require a lunar cycle or any moon influence to complete.
The first that came to mind was the Wolfsbane potion, which required a full lunar cycle to complete, aconite had to be added every midnight for a whole month starting and ending on a full moon. Hopefully the powdered feathers would be enough to cut the brew time down or even increase the potency of the potion making a single brew last longer.
However, the Wolfsbane potion was far beyond his skill at this point, so he had to find another potion.
He had his cauldron out and most of the potion he decided on was complete. He had chosen to go with the Haze potion, created by his grandfather in the early 1900s. As the name suggested, the Haze potion was used to put the subject in a state of drunken stupor for twelve hours, dulling all motor functions and heavily lowering inhibitions.
His grandfather, Charlus Potter, had created it at the early stages of the Grindelwald war. It was used by Aurors and Hit wizards to handicap targets before capturing them, seeing as it was hard to fight when you couldn't think straight.
The brewing process was moderately difficult. The entire brewing process needed to be done from ten at night to two in the morning. The potioneer had to add the lavender at midnight for it to mix with the fire powder and jazzen berry seeds properly.
Instead of doing all that, Harry had added the lavender with a pinch of ground Lunistia feathers. It was night time but hopefully using the powdered Lunistia feathers in conjunction with the lavender would eliminate all the pesky guidelines that normally went into the Haze potion's brewing process.
Harry took out his ladle, stirred counterclockwise three times, and muttered the incantation for the Jelly-Legs Jinx before stirring the potion two more times clockwise. He sat on his bed then and took out his personal journal; he had been neglecting to write his thoughts and findings in his journal these past few weeks, so he'd make sure to write everything that happened down. The process, from what he understood, was only supposed to take about ten minutes after the two clockwise stirs.
Forty-five minutes later Harry fell back onto his bed with a sigh. His first attempt to alter a potion turned out to be a dud. It could be several factors: the feathers not having any significance in potion-making, the feathers not being utilized in the proper way, the potion not responding to the altered ingredients, or not working in conditions outside of the ones in the recipe. Or he could have messed up the potion along the way and turned the liquid in his cauldron into a congealed blob of grey failure.
Harry stood and went to clean his cauldron, as he raised his wand he felt a spark of magic emit from the cauldron. The grey mass of failure started to churn and bubble; the mass started to glow and changed from grey to a vibrant silver before the congealed blob thinned into a silky silver liquid.
Robotically, Harry took out his quill and began to furiously write down his thoughts and findings from tonight. If he even moved his wand around his cauldron even in the slightest, he wrote it down and added it to the altered instructions for the Haze potion.
His grandfather had made most of his family's current fortune as an Potions entrepreneur when he wasn't fighting against Grindelwald. His grandmother, Dorea Potter née Black, was the typical high class pureblood witch. She supported her husband and made connections in the highest of social circles that allowed his grandfather to sell his potions on an international market.
According to Catarina, his grandfather was recognized by the Potions Guild as a Master of Potions. It was something that required most witches and wizards a decade of studying to achieve, but he did it by simply improving already existing potions and creating many useful potions.
Harry wondered what he would achieve by innovating his grandfather's potions. Looking at his napping familiar, he acknowledged that his grandfather likely would have tried to add Lunistia feathers to potions but never had access to the incredibly rare bird.
An equivalent scenario would be having a steady stream of phoenix tears for study. It would no doubt have tremendous effects on potions, but they were so rare that no one really had a chance to experiment with them. After all, other than Dumbledore, who had ready access to a phoenix that would listen and cooperate with a wizard's wishes?
Opening his trunk, Harry took out a medium sized crystal phial and began to pour his new potion into it. He would find a way to test its potency and whether it was a successful when he was back with the Dursley's.
Privet Drive - 14. August 1992
His Haze potion was a complete success. His cousin had gotten absolutely plastered, and a well-placed empty bottle of scotch under Dudley's bed quickly led his Aunt and Uncle to a false source for Dudley's inebriation.
Harry felt bad for poisoning his cousin at first, but then Dudley started screaming about how his birthday present pile was smaller than his eleventh birthday last year. After hearing that, he added two extra drops of the potion to his breakfast for good measure.
Being back in London meant that he couldn't use his wand for magic. With two and a half weeks until school started back up, Harry focused on practicing his Occlumency during his free time. Last year, he managed to sift through many of his earliest memories and strengthened his mind's defenses. He had gone over his memories up to age ten. There was nothing to write home about in terms of magic other than moving things accidentally or spending too much time in his cupboard.
Growing up only two instances of accidental magic stood out to him. The first was hearing a snake hiss curses at a couple of his classmates when a herpetologist was brought to speak to his third-grade class. The second was when he was being hunted by Dudley and his little gang and he apparated to the top of his school building.
He reviewed that memory over a dozen times as apparition was a dangerous and complex bit of magic that wasn't even taught until NEWT level and only by a Ministry approved instructor. However, Harry had somehow accidentally done it perfectly as a nine-year-old. He was getting close to pinpointing the feeling of using the spell on purpose, but he was still a bit too scared to try it. He had heard about splinching from an older student in the common room who said that her older sister arrived to her destination without her leg. Thankfully it was mended on the spot, but Harry didn't have the skill or healer on site to try it just yet.
He planned to give it a go in the coming days as Apparition would be impossible when he returned to Hogwarts due to the wards put in place by the founders on the school grounds. He had the house to himself as the Dursleys had rushed Dudley to the hospital, since they were worried that he might have liver damage for drinking an entire bottle of scotch at such a young age.
He was alerted by Hedwig that a bird was coming towards him. Looking out of his window he saw a grey owl land at his window with a letter in its mouth.
Taking the letter, he saw that it was the same perfect cursive of his immortal friend.
Harry,
Wonderful to hear from you so soon, your beautiful Lunistia is quite brilliant! She was able find us so quickly! I apologize as many of my properties are warded in a way that makes receiving post quite arduous.
To your address your first inquiry: I would recommend following young Albus's curriculum and supplementing your theoretical knowledge with Theoretical Theories towards Transfigurations, Transmutations and Transformations by Thomas Throwack. This text goes into the relationship between all the magics that induce change between one thing and another. It is an excellent book written by a master of Transfiguration during his time as a professor at Beauxbatons Academy for Magic.
I would also highly recommend broadening your knowledge of languages. German and French would be my first recommendations to start because there are many books exclusive to those languages that don't have serviceable translations. You'll find that as your knowledge of magic grows the pools in which you draw your skills from aren't exclusive to English any longer.
Britain is a bit archaic in their acceptance of other cultures of which they do not approve, so it will be hard to learn everything about foreign magic.
Now onto Vasari the Wall. I remember him quite well. He rose to power in my ninety-seventh year. It was only a decade or two after my discovery and creation of the Philosophers Stone.
He was a powerful mage; no other way to say it than that my boy. He attended Hogwarts and was sorted into Hufflepuff., Looking at his beliefs regarding equality and camaraderie it was quite fitting. He had top marks in his schooling and he was later recruited into the Warmage Guild.
I remember that he was one of the few that utilized a Book of Shadows. It is a magical focus that was out of date even in those times. The Book required the entire spell to be written out arithmetically and runically on a page to be casted. The drawbacks were the intense work that went into preparing a single spell and the slow cast time between spells as one would have to find the page with the spell to cast it. The one and only advantage was that the power that a witch or wizard could draw from the Book for a spell was roughly three times greater on average.
However, Ollivander and Gregorovich quickly forced Book of Shadows into disuse with their consistently capable wands that skilled mages could use to easily battle and overwhelm a Book user.
That being said, Vasari was still so powerful, particularly when augmented by his Book, that he could cast weather altering spells on a whim. I saw in his battle against Beric the Black that he called down a bolt of lightning that obliterated an entire hill top destroying Beric and his followers in an instant.
With his tremendous strength and skill in the arcane arts he was hailed as the strongest mage in Italy's history, and is still honored to this day. He is the reason for Italy's modern view on Muggle-borns and magical blood. It is by no means perfect, but it is still leagues beyond Britain even to this day.
Enjoy your coming year,
Nicholas
Harry set down his letter and made a note to look into buying a copy of the book Nicholas recommended. He frowned when he thought about learning more languages. He was a smart guy but learning two languages on his own would be impossible without spending years of time. He would see if there were magical ways to learn languages or at least speed up the process.
It made sense he supposed. Realistically, other cultures had to have some exclusive knowledge. At the very least, there was some exclusivity introduced by a language barrier. Gellert Grindelwald rose to be a the most reviled and feared Dark Lord in history and he started his rise at Durmstrang, a place that Harry was sure was almost exclusively German speaking with instructors that also spoke Bulgarian and Russian. The information pamphlets about Durmstrang blatantly spelled out that it wasn't English speaking at all and that they didn't cater to nonnative speakers.
He would research language enhancing spells or potions at Hogwarts. For now, he would buy an English-to-German dictionary.
Harry took out his quill to write his response to Nicholas. Instead of history questions he asked about Guilds, the Warmages and Potions as he hoped for more information on all of them.
He had been interested in the Potion's Guild since discovering his grandfather Charlus was a member. He suspected a man like Nicholas to have extensive knowledge about some, if not all, Guilds.
He finished the letter with an explanation of his experiments with the Haze potion and Lunistia feathers. He placed a phial of his altered potion and two feathers into the envelope with his letter. He gave Hedwig a treat, then asked her to deliver the letter to Nicholas.
Platform Nine and Three Quarters - 1. September 1992
This may not have been the first time that he'd seen the Hogwarts Express, but it still filled him with the same rush of excitement as the first. Seeing the large red steam engine made the feeling real; he was finally going back to Hogwarts!
Unlike the first time, he had friends to meet up with and he wasn't nervous about being a famous wizard in an entirely new environment that he knew next to nothing about. He was close friends with Blaise, and good friends with Daphne and Tracey, all of whom were genuinely interested in being his friend.
He'd come a long way from the cupboard.
"Harry!" He heard Daphne shout from a train compartment a bit ahead of him, "Come on, we found a compartment!"
Daphne was waving from the doorway of a train car several compartments up, she hadn't changed much since he saw her over a month ago. Long blond hair that had a slight curl to it and blue eyes that tracked him as he approached. He levitated his trunk with a wave of his hand and entered the compartment.
Blaise looked to be napping in the window seat with Tracey talking to him without care that Blaise was either ignoring her or wasn't even awake. She only ever needed a target for her conversations, never someone to respond, or so Daphne tells him.
"Then Daph and I went to Paris with my parents to go shopping for our birthdays. You've been to Paris, right? Isn't it beautiful? The food was amazing! Did you try the snails? At first, I thought they would have been gross, but they were actually quite tasty! I—Harry!"
'Same old Tracey.' "Hello Tracey, good summer?" He asked even though he had already heard enough to guess.
"Oh yes! I-"
"She did," interrupted Blaise while expertly ignoring the glare she sent him for interrupting her.
Harry took his seat with Daphne sliding in next to him. Harry barely noticed the black ball of fur she was stroking in her lap. He had almost forgotten that she had a pet cat.
He reached out to give it a stroke behind the ears, "Hi Stella." The bundle of fur purred in response.
Daphne closed the compartment door and locked it with her wand. "I've been looking into locking magic and ways to Charm rooms from being found. I figured that we could make that room you were using last year more our own this year."
Harry hummed at that. He hadn't thought about using the same room. He figured he would just find a room in a secluded part of the castle and use it. But maybe having a room of their own to do what they wanted would be a good idea. It would make practicing magic together quite smoother if they had a set practice room.
"A good idea, that way we can practice magic in private," agreed Blaise, looking at Harry. "We can practice dueling. I worked on the shield spell with my mother over the summer. Only took me a week to perfect it with her help."
'Try learning to create and animate a training dummy just to learn the spell, then get back to me,' thought Harry with only slight annoyance at his refusal to ask for help last year in learning the spell. He could have saved weeks of time if he just had Blaise or the others fire hexes at him once he could cast it and work up to curses. Months would have been days, but he made a connection to Tonks during that time and furthered his skill in Transfiguration thanks to that, so it wasn't all a loss.
"You both know the shield spell?!" shouted a shocked Tracey. "The same one you used against Nott last year, Harry? You have to show me!" She exclaimed while waving her arms into the air.
Daphne laughed at her friend's antics, "Calm down Tracey, we'll have plenty of time to learn more spells. I personally want to work on my Charms skills this year."
"Muffliato."
Everyone turned to Blaise who had cast the Charm that kept people from eavesdropping on their conversation. Harry hadn't learned the spell but had heard of it; apparently it was known mostly by Slytherins as it was created by a former student in the house about twenty or so years ago.
"Now that we don't have to worry about people listening in we can speak more freely. I have been speaking with some other Slytherins these past few weeks and have learned some interesting things," Blaise said while putting his wand back into his jacket pocket.
"As of now, second year is leaded by you Harry. Third year is headed by Victoria Valentine, a pure-blood witch with a family that has traditionally worked as healers. Fourth year is led by Andrew Hearthfell, a Half-blood with both his mother and father in the Hunter Guild. I know this as my mother is quite cordial with Melina Hearthfell. Lastly, I know that Ella Wilkins has likely been made a prefect as her family has a few notable witches and wizards in it. Several generations back her grandmother was Headmistress of Hogwarts," Blaise said giving his rundown of the updated hierarchy in the den of snakes.
"Hunter Guild?" asked Tracey with a tilted head. "I've never heard of that one."
'Not surprising,' thought Harry. Guilds weren't mentioned that much by witches and wizards that weren't in them, either out of jealousy for not being admitted or because most just didn't know anything. Harry was forced to ask his pen-pal about them and he hoped to receive a response in the next couple of days.
It was Daphne that answered Tracey's question.
"They're a guild that hunt magical beasts both for sport or to keep beast populations controlled. My family has regular meetings with a few members, so we can buy rare potion ingredients from the beasts they slay."
"Quite impressive," said Blaise quickly moving on. "Now, I have had a few thoughts on how we're going to take down Flint. Either getting him kicked off the team for aggressive actions toward another student or to have him caught with dark contraband."
"What do you have in mind?" Asked Harry not sure where they would get any dark contraband, he could pillage the Black Vault, but he wouldn't want to waste anything in there on something like this.
He liked Blaise, but not that much.
"I know that he has a taste for firewhisky, which is prohibited on school grounds and he has been trying very hard to charm Maria Opel who is now a Seventh year." Blaise explained while staring at the roof of the train car in thought.
"We could get him drunk and maybe he'd publicly do something to Maria?" proposed Tracey obviously not sure what to say. "I don't know what else we could do."
"I have a new potion I want to try," started Harry while rubbing his chin. "We'll have to put it into his drink at dinner and make sure that his room has empty firewhisky bottles. He will be heavily inebriated after the potion takes effect. If Maria is in front of him, he may act aggressively. Best to make sure that they sit closely for the next few dinners."
Blaise smirked, "That'll work, we'll do it on the fourth day of school. I want to make sure of a few things and get everything in position before we do it."
Harry nodded to his friend. Taking Flint down like this would normally be something that he would be against, but his dozens of broken bones during the weeks of his punishment last year told him to go through with it.
"Now that your plans to remove the troll are out of the way, we can talk about what we're going to do as a group," said Daphne while looking at Harry curiously.
Harry groaned mentally. He really only wanted to study more magic and find ways to help Sirius get an actual trial. Only Blaise had the familial connections to really help with that in this group, but he didn't want to make a deal with the Widow unless he was completely sure of her intentions toward him.
He looked around the room silently. Did he really want to bring them into his personal problems? As much as he liked them and thought of them as friends, he was still unsure of their personal agendas. He had learned the hard way with Nott.
"I want to work on dueling mostly."
So, he'd leave them out of it for now.
Daphne nodded. "I want to see about getting connections with some upper years. Showing merit is a good way to start. Tracey?"
The girl jumped at being the center of attention so suddenly after being quiet for so long.
"I want to get a higher standing this year. I was ranked twenty-fourth last year. Also, I want to get closer to Pansy and Millicent, since they're the only other Slytherin girls in our year. It would be good to at least be cordial with them."
'An excellent idea,' thought Harry.
He knew that Tracey and Pansy would have a rocky start seeing as how Tracey was a half-blood and Pansy wasn't the most open minded individual. But Millicent was close to Nott and Harry wanted to know every action made by the mousy little fool, so knowing someone that was close to him would be highly beneficial.
"Well it will be hard if it seems like our group wants to get close to Millicent seeing as how Nott and I aren't even close to being cordial with each other," warned Harry.
"Pansy will be easy," snorted Blaise. "She follows Draco like a lost puppy and Draco wants to be a part of our group. All you have to do is start talking to her and I'm sure she'll either come around or Draco will tell her to."
Harry nodded in agreement. The Malfoy heir wasn't a very subtle Slytherin and clearly voiced what he wanted. Likely a product of his upbringing: he probably only had to ask for something and would get it right then and there. If he were honest, he didn't want to be around Draco more than was necessary, but he didn't want the blond ferret to have too much time to himself to scheme ways to rise above him in Slytherin.
"We should slowly start speaking with Draco more," said Harry getting annoyed looks from Daphne and Blaise. "If we're at least friendly with him, we can make sure that we don't have someone working against us. Rather a neutral party than an additional enemy."
Tracey, ever the socialite, didn't hesitate to agree with a happy nod. Blaise looked like he was being asked to poison himself, while Daphne agreed after a few moments with a groan.
"As long as I don't have to spend any extra time with him. Not a second more than necessary."
Harry could agree with that. He didn't like Draco nor did he like having to be around him more than necessary. But the Malfoy's had millions to throw at their problems and the ears of many high-ranking people in the Ministry. That was a kind of power you couldn't learn in school. It could only be gained through connections and money.
The four of them settled into their seats as the countryside they saw through windows began to morph into the Scottish Highlands.
The welcoming feast was underway, and all the new students had been sorted. Harry saw several of the new Slytherins were looking at him in wonder, while the new Gryffindors were staring at him with shocked expressions. All of them except for a red-haired girl who had been avoiding his eyes.
Harry had thought such things were behind him. He was sorted into Slytherin; it wasn't a big deal. Sure, no Potter before him had been sorted outside of Gryffindor, but they married outside of it. His grandmother was both a Black and a Slytherin.
While they were eating, Harry got a good look over at Nott. The mousy-looking boy was sitting with his usual group of fools: Wallace Wallenworth and his gang of now fifth-years. Harry happily noted that Wallace, despite proclaiming to be a rival to Ella Wilkins, wasn't made a prefect. However, he was eyeing Alexander Maroon, the newest fifth-year prefect, with anger and jealousy.
Harry suspected that there would be a challenge for the fifth-year prefect position in the coming days. If Wallace had retained his reckless, head-first mentality, then there may well be a challenge tonight.
"Have a good summer?"
Harry looked up when he heard the question. Sitting across from him and one seat over was Andrew Hearthfell, the fourth-year leader.
Harry nodded and replied, "I did, spent some time in Rome."
"Been there quite a few times myself," said Andrew with a grin. "Have you been practicing your Quidditch moves? I heard that some of the other teams got new brooms. Diggory's father bought him the Nimbus Two Thousand and One after his loss last year."
'Great,' thought Harry. Another year where the Quidditch Cup was going to be a difficult fight. He was confident in his skills, but now he was at a disadvantage. Cedric was good enough with a regular broom and would have beaten him last year if he wasn't holding back, but now it would be a whole different game than last year.
Harry refused to believe that Cedric went out there to win. He even said that he noticed Harry's frantic expression during the game. It was a Hufflepuff thing to do to look out for a friend, and Cedric was said to be the perfect Hufflepuff. He would make sure that Cedric received a nice gift for Christmas this year, now that he thought about it.
"Well, I'll make sure to do my best."
Andrew chuckled at that. "Of course, just make sure that you don't give Professor Snape a reason to take you off the team again."
"I can promise that I will do everything in my power to make sure that that doesn't happen again," assured Harry seriously. Using his cloak, he would make sure that if he was ever anywhere he wasn't supposed to be that he would be invisible.
"Good, I don't want to watch the rest of the team flounder on the pitch again. Pucey's got the skill to be a Chaser, but not a Seeker and Flint just has size on his side, not actual skill for Quidditch."
Based on his tone, Andrew didn't seem to like the Quidditch Captain that much. Flint seemed to be quite unpopular for some reason. First, Blaise wanted kick Flint off the team to open a spot rather than just try out, and Andrew seemed to flat out hate the seventeen-year-old sixth-year. Apparently, Flint had failed his third year and had to completely retake it.
"Any particular reason you don't like him?" asked Harry quietly, taking care to minimize the chance of being overheard.
Andrew narrowed his eyes at his plate. "He and I have had our disagreements."
"Okay," Harry said unsure. It seemed to be a private issue, so he wouldn't pry.
Andrew sighed, "Sorry, anyway, I managed to fail in deciphering my UL like I said at the end of the year." He held up the letter to show him.
Harry asked to hold it and ran his fingers over the envelope. He could feel the magic running through the parchment. On the back where a seal would go was a small rune. His knowledge of runes was still in its early stages, but he could tell that it wasn't just a simple rune. If he was to guess, it may be several runes combined into one.
He handed the letter back to Andrew. "I'll try my best if I ever get one. But it's beyond my understanding at the moment."
"No kidding." Andrew said in agreement.
At the faculty table Dumbledore stood and made his way to the podium. Harry was one of the only Slytherins to hold back judgment at the Headmaster's choice in clothing: vibrant purple robes with silver stars littering the fabric causing it to give off a sparkle in the light with a matching pointy hat.
Not something he would ever wear.
Dumbledore raised a hand and the great hall quieted. "Welcome! Welcome to another year at Hogwarts!
"We have a wonderful year in store! As a note, our caretaker Mr. Filch has asked that everyone take note of the additions to the prohibited items added to the list in his office." Many groans could be heard from the Gryffindor table.
"Mr. Gilderoy Lockhart has agreed to come aboard as our new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher, we wish him luck!"
There was a sudden outbreak of cheering from the female population of the hall. Harry noticed that far more than a few Slytherins - and many he'd never expect - were showing their support of the new Defense Professor.
"Yes, now as is custom I must warn all students away from the forests surrounding the grounds. They are, of course, forbidden." The Headmaster's glanced at a pair of redheads at the house of red and gold.
"I was asked to remind you all that magic is not to be used in the corridors between classes."
"Quidditch trials, for those interested, will be held the second week of term. Anyone interested in playing for their house team should contact Madam Hooch."
"And now, before we're off to bed, let us finish the night with the school song!" cried Dumbledore. The professors took a deep breath in unison and Harry prepared himself for the cacophony of sound that was about to come.
Once the ringing in his eyes calmed from the song, he got up to follow the rest of his house to the dungeons. He barely heard Ella Wilkins giving the same Prefect speech that he got last year on the way to the common room for the first time.
He didn't do anything other than enter a room, change into his sleep wear and pass out.
Hogwarts - 2. September 1992
Not being an "ickle firsty" was a nice change. Looking around the Slytherin common room, he saw the nervous and anxious first-years waiting for their new friends to join them before heading to the great hall for breakfast.
Harry noted that on the other end of the common room was Theodore Nott, the one person in his house he actually hated.
"Staring at him like that isn't going to make him go away," said Blaise as he sat down next to him.
"I'm not staring at him," muttered Harry, "I'm observing the room and everyone in it."
"Sure, let's go get some breakfast, so we can get our timetables."
The Great Hall was slowly beginning to fill with students, and the tables were loaded with a variety of foods. Harry and Blaise sat at the Slytherin table and made sure to put a solid distance from anyone else, but made sure that it wasn't so blatant that it looked like they were avoiding everyone else.
The faculty table was mostly occupied with only the Headmaster and some of the elective professors absent.
On the far right of the faculty table was a pale man with a crooked nose and black greasy hair glaring at each and every student that entered the hall. Professor Severus Snape was giving off his usual expression of loathing.
"Professor Snape looks happy to be here," chuckled Harry as he piled more eggs onto his plate.
A commotion on the other side of the hall got their attention. Professor Lockhart had entered the hall and began sweeping through the students with his picture-perfect smile. He wore robes similar to Dumbledore as they were bright colors with odd designs and a pointed hat.
"He's more of a celebrity than a wizard I'd trust to teach us Defense Against the Dark Arts," muttered Blaise.
Harry nodded. "I read a couple chapters of his book and if even half of the things in those books are true I'd be shocked."
"I'm glad," said a smooth voice from behind them, "that you weren't fooled by that idiotic man."
Harry and Blaise turned and saw that Professor Snape had approached them. He was glaring at Lockhart with the same intensity that he aimed toward the Gryffindors.
"If either of you need assistance with your Defense assignments the upper years will be able to help. Harry, I expect that you will offer assistance to the first-years being that you are second-year leader."
Harry nodded seriously. He wouldn't mind helping out with the first-year's assignments if they asked.
"Your time tables. I'll be seeing you both on Wednesday," he said handing them their time tables before billowing away to the next group of Slytherins at the table.
"Potter! Zabini."
Draco and his little group, or large in Crabbe and Goyle's cases, were approaching from the entrance of the Great Hall and sat down next to them.
"Draco," said Harry with a polite nod.
Blaise just looked up at him until he caught the look Harry was sending him.
"Malfoy."
Harry nodded as that was about the best he could hope for.
"We have double Transfiguration with the Ravenclaws this morning. I hope that we can work together this year as it will benefit the both of us if we combine our strengths."
"I'm sure we'll work something out," assured Harry.
"Mail's here!" shouted someone at the Ravenclaw table making everyone look up at the flock of owls swooping into the great hall.
Harry spotted Hedwig with a familiar bit of parchment hovering by her beak by use of her magical ability. Several of the students around him looked at her strangely. Harry guessed that it was because some didn't know what kind of bird she was. Lunistia weren't that well-known, so it was understandable.
"What do you have for me, Hed?" Harry asked while giving her feathers a stroke.
She dropped the letter and immediately went for his breakfast and started chomping on his bacon. Harry didn't bother telling her to stop as last time she tried to hit him with a book. He decided to just let her eat what she wanted.
Deciding not to open the letter around other people, he put it into his robes for later.
Soon it was time for class and Harry made his way to Transfiguration. He was not worried about how his year was going to go. He had already made his way into his third-year spells. Half of the spells that would be taught this year he was already able to do with minimal wand movements.
As everyone took their seats, Hermione gave him an enthusiastic wave from her place near the front of the class with an Asian girl happily speaking with her. Blaise was on his left and both were waiting for class to start in comfortable silence.
"Potter!" Someone whispered.
Terry Boot, a Ravenclaw at the table next to him, was looking at him like he held some sort of secret.
"I remember that you got excused from all assignments last year by Professor McGonagall. How'd you do it?" He looked like the fate of the world depended on his answer.
He didn't think a Ravenclaw would shy away from homework.
"I just showed that I was capable of the end of year spells and beyond," Harry replied, shrugging. It wasn't uncommon in muggle schools.
Except in those cases, Harry would have been moved up to the next level. But no homework wasn't that bad of an alternative, it gave him plenty of time to work on his projects.
"So that's what he did!"
"I thought he talked his way out of it."
"We need to study more."
Harry tried to ignore all the muttering around him. It was odd being the center of attention and he wasn't sure how he felt about it. Blaise laughed at his discomfort while flipping through his textbook.
"Settle down!" The stern voice of Minerva McGonagall, the Head of Gryffindor House and Transfiguration Professor, immediately silenced the class. "We have much to go over. I will begin by saying that this year will be far more difficult than the last as less theory and more practical work is required. Transfiguration will require many hours of focused practice."
She raised her wand and pointed it at her desk lamp. With a wave of her wand and a yellow stream of magic, she changed the lamp into a bird.
"That is not what you all will be doing"-she pointed her wand at the bird-"Reparifarge." The bird was sent into an incredibly fast spin before reverting into a Lamp. "That is a spell we will be working on toward the end of the year. It is known as the Untransfiguration spell commonly used on lower level Transfigurations."
Harry wrote down that the spell was for lower lever Transfiguration, making it less useful in duels. He had already learned the spell, so he wasn't worried about the increased workload that this year would entail. In all his wand-based classes he was already in his third-year curriculum.
"By your unimpressed stare I take it you already know that spell."
Harry looked over at Blaise and gave a small shrug.
"I got it down when I was visiting you, I practiced spells at night while I was allowed to use my wand. Just reading about magic was driving me crazy, so I had to practice when I had the chance."
Blaise rolled his eyes, "Of course you did, then you'll be helping me when it comes time for us to learn it." It wasn't a question, so Harry just nodded.
"Potter! Zabini! I do hope you both are paying attention!" The cold, whip-like comment came from Professor McGonagall making both of them apologize.
"Now onto the process of organic to inorganic Transfiguration. We will be starting with a beetle to button transformation. The incantation is Bestiolafors."
Professor McGonagall levitated two beetles onto every desk all the while going over the theory behind the spell.
Harry didn't even bother looking at the beetle. He may not have done this exact spell, since beetles were not available at the Zabini household, but he was capable of far more complex spells along the same lines. His spell to turn an object into a training dummy was still the most complex spell he's mastered.
"Bestiolafors." said Harry softly.
The beetle started to morph and take the form of a large metal button, like those seen on large winter coats. The color was the same dark blue of the beetle and the size was similar.
"Excellent Mr. Potter!" McGonagall cheered with a small nearly unnoticeable smile on her face.
Several of the Ravenclaws around him stared in shock. Terry looked at him with awe, likely thinking that he was capable of using a spell instantly without practice.
On the other end of the class with the Slytherins, other than Daphne and Tracey, the rest of the Slytherin's showed no outward reaction except Nott who showed great contempt. Harry wouldn't ever voice how much joy he felt from Nott's disdain being directed at him.
"Mr. Potter, please explain how you managed the spell for your classmates." Professor McGonagall looked more upbeat than he'd ever seen her.
He was slightly embarrassed by having all of the eyes in class on him. He noticed that Hermione was looking at him with rapt attention with a quill in hand to take notes.
He cleared his throat, "Visualization and intent are important for any Transfiguration. When going from organic to inorganic I try to not only see the end result, but the change itself occurring as I cast the spell."
He felt a little more confident in himself, so he pointed his wand at the button, and like Professor McGonagall did earlier, he used the Untransfiguration spell and changed it back into a beetle.
"I visualized the change happening in reverse and"-he gestured to the beetle-"the button was returned to its original form."
Most of the class looked at him with surprised expressions, but the Slytherin's weren't as surprised as they were proud of his success. He didn't get why they were so proud of him until he spotted Malfoy sneering at the more studious Ravenclaws.
'House rivalry.' It seemed that his success was Slytherin's success.
"Excellent Mr. Potter! Take twenty points to Slytherin for excellent wand work." Professor McGonagall now had an actual smile on her face after his explanation.
"Are you showing off or are you just trying to get out of homework again?" whispered Blaise in amusement.
Classes continued in this way for the rest of the day. Harry would listen and take notes in history since it was the one class he never worked ahead in.
Back in the Slytherin common room he grabbed his notebooks, journal, and textbooks that weren't for his classes and made his way to the first floor. He was hoping to get his old room back., He knew that once Blaise, Daphne and Tracey noticed that he wasn't in the common room they would check there, so he wanted to put up the ward while he was alone.
The runes would be the most difficult part of the process. Thankfully it was only fifteen runes and they were relatively simple ones compared to the Nordic rune clusters he'd seen or the Sanskrit in the later chapters of his Ancient Runes textbook. They were mostly basic, which is why he suspected that Adrian put it in the front of his book.
The room hadn't changed at all. It still had tables pushed to one side and several chairs littered about the room. The one window was small enough that the wall was still mostly stone, but enough natural light came into the room making lamps unnecessary during the daytime.
He put his things onto the nearest desk. He opened his journal to the ward: Sint Vera Quidem Moneo and ran through the motions to practice the shape of the runes.
Carving the runes wasn't the hard part. The real challenge was making sure they were written correctly in the right order. A simple spell that made the tip of his wand glow red allowed him to carve runes into the stone walls around the room.
The fifteen runes were all spaced half a meter apart covering the walls. Once he finished, Harry observed his work and checked for accuracy. The last part of the process was standing at the center and performing the wand motions and speaking the incantation.
The wand motions were half-moon circles, a diagonal slash, a clockwise circle, a counterclockwise circle, a swish, and finally another half-moon wand motion. The incantation was the name of the ward which he spoke clearly and strongly to invoke the spell.
The fifteen runes glowed brightly, and the wall beneath the runes hissed as if the runes were being burned into the stone. Harry found that he felt aware of the surrounding area, more aware than he'd ever had been.
He could also feel the area in the surrounding hallway. He grinned and threw up his hands with a cheer; he'd successfully erected his first ward.
Now he could read his letter in peace. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't want anyone to know that he was pen-pals with Nicholas.
Harry pulled out the letter and sat in the chair nearest to him.
Harry,
I must say that your gift of Lunistia feathers was a welcome surprise. I'm studying them in my spare time. It isn't often that I find my curiosity peaked after all this time! I've worked with them a long time ago, but never this closely, so thank you very much! Lunistia feathers have a very strange magical footprint. They exhibit seven lunar properties when added to a potion under the effects of moonlight. When added without moonlight, they show thirteen lunar properties. Do not mistake the bigger number as being more powerful. Seven is the strongest number magically which you'll learn in Arithmancy, while thirteen is a distant second.
This means, in theory, that any potion that requires lunar properties, such as moonlight or a lunar cycle, could be reduced by a significant amount with the addition of feathers. I have yet to determine how many feathers is the standard amount for the more lunar heavy potions.
I haven't even begun to experiment with their Alchemic properties!
I looked at your Haze potion with the changes brought upon by using the Lunistia feathers. I must say that while the effects weren't drastic, the quality and half-life of the potion has increased by a fair margin.
I would estimate that the potion is about two or three times more potent, meaning that it will stay in the body longer and that the potion will keep for much longer. I believe that it could have a five to six-month shelf life rather than the typical two to three.
Now onto your questions regarding Guilds.
They're like clubs, only admitting members through a selective vetting process usually requiring an existing member to recommend a new one. If you are recognized as a master by a Guild, then the world accepts the title.
There are many Guilds, but the more prominent ones are as follow.
Transfiguration: I and your headmaster are members of this Guild and are recognized masters. It is as the name suggests. They are pioneers in the field of Transfiguration and all sub-categories that fall under. Notable discovery: the arithmetical equation to basic Transfiguration, discovered twenty years ago. I believe it is taught in schools now.
Charms: The largest guild with over sixty recognized masters and double that number of regular members. This Guild is responsible for many Charms, Enchantments and Wards that are used today. I myself am a recognized master of this Guild, as is Albus.
Potions: As the name suggests, they create as well as modify existing potions. High Master Avogadro is currently working on a way to cure Lycanthropy. A difficult Guild to enter let alone be recognized as a master. Your Head of House, Severus Snape, is a recognized master and from my understanding he was one of the youngest upon induction. Myself and Albus are recognized masters, as well.
Alchemy: This is a guild I was inducted into in my early thirties. We work on ways to create Elixirs that benefit the wizarding world. As well as research Alchemic reactions between different rare materials and the end-product of Transmutations. Albus is also a recognized master.
Hunter: This has become a controversial Guild after that Scamander fellow published his book Fantastic Beasts. They hunt deadly beasts for the sake of sport and are commissioned by governments to handle beast populations that grow out of control. An example is the African Nundu who's population grew into the triple digits. If you know anything about them, then you know how worrisome that is.
I hope this has been enlightening.
Have a good time back in school.
Nicholas
Harry set down the letter with a satisfied smile. Finally, he knew about the Guilds out there.
Harry felt shocked that the Headmaster was a recognized master of so many branches of magic. He knew that Albus Dumbledore was recognized as the most powerful wizard alive, but it was different when his accolades were laid out in front of him. Flamel was a master of many different fields of magic, but he had centuries to master magic while Dumbledore only had one…maybe less, he wasn't sure how old Dumbledore was.
Now that his curiosity about guilds was satiated, he moved on to his next project. He was going to move onto the next stage of the Mind Arts. Both of his books on the mental magic said that once he went through all his memories and filed them away based on importance he could start building defenses.
He decided to go with a simple maze-like formation as a base. From there he planned to make the maze alter its' paths making it similar to the Hogwarts staircases. At the center he would have a large metal wall, then behind that a chest.
Most went with a safe or a chest with a lock hidden in a room or a forest, but Harry wanted it to be a bit more elaborate. He didn't have any secrets that were important other than the fact that Voldemort was alive somewhere and that he was pen-pals with Nicholas Flamel.
But that wouldn't be true forever. He read that younger witches and wizards have an easier time creating mental defenses, so he was going to invest a lot of time making his defenses strong so that when he had real secrets they would be safe.
Thankfully the hardest part was already behind him: getting into his mind and going through all of his memories. While on paper the process of creating defenses was quite complicated, the mind would subconsciously fill the gaps during creation as long as his intent was clear. In that sense it was much like a dream: the how's were never a problem when trying to do something - it just happened.
But like with anything involving the Mind Arts, it would take time to accomplish. He would need to first make the chest for his memories and then the room to hold them with more defenses layer by layer moving outward.
Late into the night Harry sat back into a chair triumphantly. He had managed to get his three chests made and his memories sorted. Back in the real world he felt like his mind was clearer, as if someone had cleaned the smudges off a piece of glass.
He didn't have any homework yet to work on, so he took out his notebook and began flipping through pages to see some of the things he had been working on that needed magic to progress.
The last thing he did while at Privet Drive was to try and recreate the feeling of Apparating. He had managed to move from one end of his bedroom to the other after a few days of experimenting and was confident in his ability to use the spell. He only needed to read up on the spell before trying bigger jumps.
He would go to the library and look up some information on the spell tomorrow.
He had been looking into Hedwig's feathers and managed the Haze potion with her feathers, but he was going to wait for Nicholas to proceed since he wasn't familiar enough with Arithmancy to really document the many uses of her feathers.
Further in his journal were theoretical notes on spell creation. He wanted to make an offensive spell that pushed objects away. Not banishment which was one object at a time, but a force that blasted everything in the desired direction back.
He would need to start looking up if there were any spell like that in the first place, so he didn't waste any time. If there weren't then he would research the Arithmancy behind spell creation to try and work towards it.
It was a well-known fact that creating a spell was a nasty business for anyone that wasn't competent with the branch of magic that the spell fell under and lacked the knowledge of Arithmancy to really understand how the spell should work on paper. It was recommended that a spell should work on paper perfectly before trying it with a wand for the best results. Many had been injured because their math was shoddy, and they rushed the process which caused magical backlashes.
Runes were another big topic he was interested in. They just had too many uses for him not to at least know the basics. He had already delved into the basics with his new ward, and he planned to go deeper and add to the room's wards before eventually getting into enchantments. Harry felt that his skill in Charms were enough to constitute trying his hand at enchanting items. He had a few ideas from the Muggle world that could mix well with magic if enchanted correctly.
Daphne said that she wanted to try enchanting things this year, so it could be something that they worked on together.
Tomorrow he was supposed to meet with the rest of them to talk about how they wanted to handle Marcus so that Blaise could get him kicked off the Quidditch team. His Haze potion was ready. All that they needed to do was have Marcus take it while in a public place.
Harry wasn't sure why they were bothering with something like this. He knew that Blaise didn't like Marcus, Harry didn't like the half-troll himself, but this seemed to be a lot of effort for someone who was barely good enough to play on the team in the first place. Marcus was only captain because he had been on the team the longest.
If he were to be honest he would rather just work with Blaise so that when try outs came around he would have a good shot to take a spot.
But he already promised Blaise that he would help him with his task, so it was too late to back out now.
Other than spell creation he wanted to read up on more battle oriented magics. He got an interesting book from the Zabini's for his birthday that he had already read through. While several of the spells in the book were relatively low-level charms that would be useful in a duel, only two were truly interesting.
The first was Sagitta which conjured an arrow from the tip of the casters wand that shot at the desired target. There were different variations on the spell to conjure multiple arrows or even multiple flaming arrows. Harry has already managed to get the spell to work consistently and he was trying to increase the speed and quality of the arrows.
The next spell was Aquapulsum which was similar to the Aquamenti in that it summoned water, but instead of a stream of water it was a compact orb of water that hit with the force of a punch. Harry could already see the applications of the spell. It was simple to cast, and he was getting very quick at snapping out an orb of water. He could picture it in combination with the Glacius spell to freeze the parts impacted by the water or the Fulmen spell to shocking them.
He may need to look into some smaller lightning spells seeing as how Fulmen was too powerful for low level dueling. Snape also forbade him from using it in challenges.
He needed to investigate another avenue for his next personal project. Perhaps he would look into the castle itself, there were many secrets held in the ancient stone wall that were just waiting to be uncovered.
He would start with the Slytherin common room. He didn't doubt that there was more to it than what he knew. Salazar Slytherin had to have some place hidden away that only he knew about.
Chapter End.
There we have it chapter 10, as you know doubt saw I have a beta now, thanks to him for helping me clean up the writing. He's also been going through the process of cleaning up the chapters that were already post, chapters 1 and 2 are revised quite nicely.
Now Harry's back in Hogwarts and things are going to kick off. More Slytherin fun and Harry going deeper and deeper into magic.
I'll respond to any review I see that are questions, thanks for reading!