"Ah! Miss McDougal, Misters Potter, Zabini! Are you ready for your tour?" Flitwick asked cheerfully as we walked into the entrance hall.
"Yessir!" I said with a grin.
"What he said," Blaise said quietly while Mora' just nodded excitedly.
"Excellent, excellent! We will start in the dungeons and work our way up! Please, follow me!" he said excitedly and thus began the most boring three hours of my life.
For a magic school, it certainly isn't a magical school. This place reeks of dreary Scottish Castle without even a hint of the magic that's supposed to flood through the corridors, then again maybe I'm biased since I've already lived through high school once in my life. They may have both sucked but at least I didn't have to climb eight flights of stairs to get to class every day.
We somehow managed to hit all the teacher's offices, the gargoyle for the Headmaster's, and the classrooms for every professor in the school (literally, even the damned third year and above classrooms). Eventually, though, we made it to the seventh floor and the place I had been foaming at the mouth to find: the Room. The Come and Go Room, the Room of Requirement, the Magical Holodeck, the most magical place on… wait, that's Disney… I shake my head slightly as I feel my lips curve up a bit.
Next thing I know, Blaise is digging his elbow into my side with his eyes wide. Over the past two hours, we managed to entertain ourselves by doing the magical equivalent of Walkie Talkies, he can project thoughts with ease and I've let him tune in to my surface thoughts occasionally. I guess he cottoned onto the particular train of thought with the room.
"Down this hall are a few abandoned classrooms and Divination," Flitwick said with a hint of annoyance obvious in his tone as Morag yawned broadly, I couldn't help but agree, "and so, our tour concludes! You have the option to go down to lunch or return to the common room until dinner, I do not recommend missing meals but since you just finished lunch a couple of hours ago I will make an exception here," he said with sparkling eyes as he started walking down the hall, "I will see you at dinner, tonight! Up Ravenclaw!"
"Up Ravenclaw!" The three of us called back, Blaise and I slightly less enthusiastically than Mora' who looked at us questioningly but more than a little relieved.
"Back to the common room then?" I asked with a small smirk, "or the great hall?"
"Lunch," Mora' moaned as she turned tail back toward the stairs and Gryffindor tower, I glanced over at Blaise and laughed as the girl hurried away. Blaise chuckled too but he got himself under control rather quickly.
"Harry? What's the Room of Requirement and why were you thinking about it?" he asked quietly. I shook my head slightly as I walked to face the tapestry of who's obviously Barnabus the…
"Barmy, innit he?" Blaise asked with a chuckle, "I mean, who tries to teach trolls to dance ballet?"
"Barnabus," I said nodding at the tapestry, "the Barmy. The Lord of the cadet branch of my family found this room on his own during his time here," I say not feeling too bad about the fudged truth, "I'm sure you can guess his name?"
Blaise nods slowly as I start pacing the hall, no portraits, the magic in the hall doesn't seem too strange, I don't think we're being watched unless the twins are watching the map and us at this very moment. I finish my pacing and watch as a door pops into existence on the blank stretch of the wall behind us. I grin and push the door open to reveal a comfortable sitting room not too unlike our den area in our dorm.
"We can speak freely here," I say to the boy, "no eyes to see and no ears to listen in on us, the only other people who know about this little room are the house-elves."
"Really?" Blaise asked hesitantly.
"Really," I say with a nod as I fall into an armchair.
"So how does it work?" he asks with a glance around.
"If it's not in use, you pace outside the stretch of wall three times while focusing on an idea you want. This," I say with a small wave, "was the first thing that popped into my mind. But it can become apparently anything."
"Anything?" Blaise asked curiously, his fingers templed under his chin, "so we can use this as a hideaway?"
"Exactly," I said, "I might start using it to train actually…"
"We're first years," Blaise deadpanned with an arched eyebrow, "what do you know?"
"I'm pretty good with offensive spells," I said with a shrug, focusing on adding a shooting range to the room, it appears in seconds and I can't help but grin when a full-sized thousand-yard rifle range cropped up with targets set up every hundred yards - much to Blaise's surprise.
"Ai, Madonna!" Blaise said as he stared at the range that just appeared in the side of the office. I just grinned as I stood up to demonstrate what I could do. For the second time in my life, I let my element loose to do what it wanted - but this time I directed it downrange. A heartbeat later and a torrent of fire flooded the range even as I raised my hands with my claws extended. I let my claws act as lightning rods and all I could think was dear God.
The torrent of lightning was almost the size of what Thor let loose in Avengers when he crispy fried the Chitauri and he was a literal god of Thunder. I could only stare as the torrent of lightning ripped up the spell created dirt and vaporized the targets as far as at the end of the range, all of them. That attack was powerful but the Lightning Arrow spell is a much more concentrated lightning attack in comparison. I could only stare before I realized I wasn't quite done yet. I glanced back at a shell shocked Blaise and thought 'what the hell?'
"Bombarda Maxima Duos," I said in at a conversational volume but the red light pulsing between my claws was just as immense as when I rained hell on the Acromantulas. The two bolts of light sped through the air like bullets as they slammed into the glowing metal targets.
"Che cazzo!? Voi figlio di'n maiala," Blaise actually stopped for a second, blinked, growled, and restarted his rant in English, "was that?! No one has that much power! Even Dumbledore wouldn't be able to stack up and you're eleven!"
"Now do you see why we talked about mutants, Blaise? Because believe it or not, that's only a drop in the bucket compared to what some Omega's can do," I say as I wave my hand toward where the rifle range was sitting less than two seconds ago. Blaise's eyes widened in horror at that revelation as he collapsed back into his seat.
"So… You said that Davis, Malfoy, and Greengrass were all mutants - but who else? You said the numbers but not the people." He asked quietly after he had a few seconds to collect himself.
"In Hufflepuff, there's Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, and Longbottom. Us and Patil are the Claws, the only three Slytherins are the three you already mentioned, while Gryffindor has the other Patil and Katie Bell. We have to be discreet in getting to them, I already talked to Longbottom but didn't mention his mutation. Shouldn't be hard to gain his friendship though," I say tapping my chin as he nods.
"Leave Parvarti and Pad' to me," Blaise said quietly, "we practically grew up together, outsiders ya know?"
"I know," I said heavily.
"We all went to the same day program," Blaise chuckled, "learned all the things you'd learn at muggle primary but without any of the good things like maths or sciences, mum made sure I knew those though," he said with a small smile.
"Sounds like a good woman," I said with a matching smile.
"More than you know," he said with a slight sag to his shoulders.
"Do you have an owl?" I asked suddenly, leaning forward in my chair.
"No," he said, shaking his head, "I didn't want a pet to take care of."
"You can use my hawk to message her then," I offer easily. The swarthy boy's eyes immediately lit up with excitement.
"Really!?"
"Really. C'mon, I'll introduce you," I say with a small motion toward the door but pause for a second, "can you see out of this wall?"
"Yes, there's no one there," he said as he bolted out of the door and toward the owlery. I just chuckled and walked behind him at a more sedate pace.
A few minutes later found us at the large, incredibly clean Owlery. Honestly, I thought the place was too quiet - again - except for one joyful hawk that dive-bombed me as soon as he saw I was there.
"Mars! Hey buddy!" I chuckle as I scratch underneath his beak and ruffle his feathers as Blaise stands there looking absolutely stunned.
"Oh," he said, "I'll, uh… I'll be over here," he scampered over to a table loaded with owl parchments, quills, and ink wells as I sat on a window seal with Mars still perched on my shoulder. He chirped slightly as I smooth his feathers down even as he tries to smooth my hair, we were both fighting losing battles.
"I'm done!" Blaise said as he got to his feet and walked toward us.
"You mind taking a letter for Blaise, bud?" I asked quietly even as a shockingly familiar owl swooped down from the rafters.
"Oh!" A familiar voice said from the door, "hi, Harry," Daphne Greengrass said with a snowy owl perched next to her with a sheet of parchment in her hand.
"Hey Daph," I said slightly startled at seeing Hedwig perched next to her, 'well, that explains where she was.'
"What are you doing here?" she asked with a nervous glance at Blaise.
"Letting Blaise borrow Mars, he needs to stretch his wings a bit anyway," I say with a small grin as I stare at the owl once again before tearing my eyes back to the slightly confused Slytherin.
"Oh, alright. I'll see you tomorrow, Harry," she said quietly as she attached a letter to the still-unnamed owl's leg as Blaise did the same to Mars and let them fly off after giving the names of the recipients before she scampered away. As soon as she burst out the door Blaise whirled around on me with the harshest glare an eleven-year-old could muster.
"She knows?"
"She knows," I said back quietly, "we can talk about this later but right now I want lunch," I grinned slightly and Blaise just looked out the window, following Mars' flight.
"I didn't think anything other than owls, cats, or toads were allowed?" he asked, his dark eyes meeting mine questioningly.
"Yeah, I didn't think so either but apparently those rules are rather loose," I scratched the back of my head slightly, "I mean, c'mon, you saw Davies' dog just as well as I did and the weasel himself has a pet rat."
Blaise nodded slowly as we walked through the door and out of the owlery, "yeah, but everyone knows that the Gryffindors can get away with pretty much anything in this school."
"The Weasley terrors?"
"The Weasley terrors," Blaise confirmed with a grimace. I sighed and nodded slightly, placing my hand on my coat where my Sig was resting. Blaise noticed what I did with a small smirk but we stayed silent as we made our way back to the Great Hall to find the Ravenclaw table practically deserted and the Gryffindor table packed full.
"Looks like the Lions missed breakfast," Blaise said with a small snort.
"You had the perfect oppurtunity to say the lions had a lie in, and you missed," I said with a grin over at Blaise, catching sight of the Bratty Potter laughing with Hermione and Ron, immediately I caught a flash of the Golden Trio in canon if Harry had been ginger and hazel-eyed. I shuddered slightly even thinking about the term and hurried over to our table.
We sat down together and immediately helped ourselves to the sandwiches, potatoes, chips, and other normal lunch foods. I took what looked like a burger and bit into it, my eyes widening at the taste of the sandwich. The thing tasted just like what dad used to cook… I felt my eyes start to water slightly at the memories but push them away violently, shutting myself off from the emotions. I can't go back there, ever. Even if I wanted to go back I would be stuck in this body with claws and superpowers, it just couldn't work.
I sighed slightly as I asked what seemed to be open air for pickles and mayonnaise, Blaise didn't even check up as he dug into a plate of pasta that I was sure wasn't there a second ago.
"Hi, Harry right?" I looked up from my plate to see a young girl standing in front of me on the other side of the table, "is this seat taken?" A young version of Cho Chang asked quietly.
"Sure, by you," I said with a small smile and negligent wave of my hand, "but just a small warning, we just got back from Flitwick's tour and we're hungry, we may not be the best conversationalists for a hot minute," I said with an apologetic smile before I immediately dug into the burger and potatoes loaded onto my plate.
"Oh," she said hesitantly as she sat down anyway, "that's fine, just wanted to say hi, I guess," she was nervous, obviously, but I had no idea why. "So," she started slowly, "I think you know what quidditch is?"
I nodded as I met her eyes, probing Blaise's defenses with a small poke. He gave the mental equivalent of a sigh and confirmed what I just thought, "and I heard John talking about how good you were on a broom, I spoke with the captain, who spoke with Flitwick, who spoke to Dumbledore, who spoke to the rest of the captains and House Heads, and they said you could try out if you liked."
"Thanks for the offer…?" I said to her my hand extended to shake. She blushed bright red before she gripped my hand a little too tightly for my tastes but at least she said her name, "great to meet you, Cho, but I don't think I'll try out this year. I'm not really interested in quidditch and am not really too comfortable on a broom."
"Oh," she said quietly, obviously already plotting something but slightly relieved all the same, "alright then, have a good day, Harry," was all she said before she stood up to hustle out of the Great Hall.
"You too," I shot back as she walked away before adding to Blaise, "do they really think playing favorites is a good idea?"
"Yes," Blaise said as if it was the most natural thing in the world, "despite being the house of the introverts and studious, Ravenclaw's dirty little secret is that they'll do anything to defend the Status Quo. Ironic that the house of intellect would be the most stagnant," I actually growled at that bit.
"So, say, if I tried to break the Status Quo?"
"Then they would try to break you," he said quietly. I just snorted in return.
"Try."
XXX
The next few days passed in a bit of a haze with the cycle of wake up, eat, go to class, eat, go to class, eat again, study, sleep, and do it all over again. The schedule they had us on was a bit strange though, all the first years were given a day to go to herbology but we were spread out in different places in the greenhouse. Some weeks Ravenclaw would pair with Slytherin, others with Hufflepuff, and other times with Gryffindor. The house combinations were always mixed and matched but it allowed for inter-house communication in a rather low-stress environment because let's be honest, Herbology is ridiculously easy.
Although when Ravenclaw was paired off with Hufflepuff I always made sure to buddy up with Neville or be a trio with Neville and Susan, it worked out well like that for some reason.
Defense with Snape was actually a relief, he wasn't the hardass the books made him out to be. In fact, he was an excellent teacher. Granted we weren't learning about many things more dangerous than a ghost at the moment but he gave a wonderful breakdown on the topics at hand. My guess is that it has something to do with the Dark Lord's tragic demise (not).
Of course, professor Slughorn was over the moon for my idiot brother who practically lapped up the praise like a fish to water but he would have been a remarkable potions instructor if I hadn't felt like I was sitting in a hyped-up home ec class.
Astronomy was a pain in the ass, not because I was bad at Astronomy - star gazing used to be a bit of a pastime for me - but because the stars were in the wrong places compared to where I was used to them being. Professor Sinistra was not having a good time with me but the owl of a woman was having the same problems with everyone else so no big deal. But that was only the first lesson, a 'tell me what you know and see it up close,' lesson and boy did we. Apparently magicals had known about the different star classifications and that the earth was round for centuries before Galilieo even looked through his telescope.
The telescopes were basically portable Hubble telescopes with a magnification feature that boggled even my mind. I was able to pick out sunspots on stars (such as Arcturus) with the combination of my Thunderbird vision and the super telescope in my hands, to say I was shocked would be a major understatement.
But the shock didn't last, soon enough professor Sinistra had us looking at certain stars while lecturing us about what they were and what their significance was. We started with the planets and astrological bodies and why they were important but if the word drool fest couldn't describe the lecture I don't know what could.
It was so bad I nearly fell asleep over my telescope.
Not that Binns was any better.
We had the unfortunate luxury of having that particular class with the Gryffindors who took the class as Somnelence 101, in other words? Naptime.
The Claws, on the other hand, used it more as a study hall while I just used it to read in peace. I always had my grimoire with me when I knew I was headed to the class. Other times I just straight up skipped the lecture and got the notes from Blaise, Binns didn't take attendance so much as called names off a sheet of paper and listened for 'present!'
Blaise, bless him, said my name for me as I followed my brother who was likewise skipping class about a month and a half into classes. Turns out, brother dearest was sneaking around the Ravenclaw common room, he didn't even notice the tracking charm I nailed him with. Not that I really needed it, the kid smelled like he didn't know what a bath was. Another thing I hated about the school, the damned stench of puberty. I would have gagged if I hadn't already figured out a way to jury rig a bubblehead charm around my nose. Anyway, Johnny boy thought he was stealthy with the Potter Invisibility cloak (God help James if I ever got my hands on him) but was still as easy to follow as ever and he had no idea he had a tail.
I followed him under disillusionment charms, silencing wards, and notice me nots. John made his way in a familiar path, I couldn't help but frown as he made a beeline for Ravenclaw tower. He obviously had made a visit before if he was able to find it this easily. I ducked into one of the few alcoves within earshot (my earshot that is) of Ravenclaw tower and couldn't help but grin when John got the single hardest riddle I think I've heard the knocker spew.
"Time for life, Night in Light, Dragons of Flame, Phoenix of Sky, Kings adore me. The Lords of Sky cast me out, But thou shalt make me seven."
"What does that even bloody mean!?" He whispered furiously at the door. He glares at it angrily before turning and stalking away right passed me. I watched him go and cast a small bubble of silence around me, praying that I could get to Binn's class fast enough to not be around the place this went off.
With a crack of thunder, I landed in the middle of the Seventh-floor corridor and was already hauling ass toward Binns' classroom. I made it there and never knew that Dumbledore himself had shown up at the massive surge of magical energy. I sat back down in my seat next to Blaise and listened to the old ghost drone on, and on, and on. I just laid my forehead on the desk and slowly tapped my head against the wood until the end of class.
XXX
But as bad as Binns, Slughorn, Snape, Sinistra, or Sprout were they had nothing on the incompetence that was James Potter. Thank God that we weren't actually doing anything too strenuous or he might have actually killed us and himself.
"Welcome to transfiguration one!" James said to the class of Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, shocker that they would put both of James' kids in one class, not, "today will be a day to go over the syllabus and what is expected of you in this class as well as a practical demonstration of what Transfiguration can do!" He said as he clapped his hands, "but first I believe it is traditional to call roll?" he said with a lifted eyebrow and a grin as he looked around the audience hall as he twirled his wand, absently summoning a piece of parchment from the desk behind him, "Boot, Terry?"
For a few minutes this went on until he looked up and checked the parchment twice, right after Patil. I rolled my eyes slightly, of course he wasn't going to call his own sons, he knew exactly who we were after all. A few minutes later and Blaise answered present to Jim's call.
"Please put your parchments and quills away," James said cheerfully, "this will not be a long lecture as it will be a simple demonstration. As many of you know, I was an Auror since the last war. For the muggleborns, an Auror is a lawman," he said with a cheerful smile, completely unaware that 'cop,' or even 'Police officer,' would have been much better known by eleven-year-old Brits and not made him out to be like something out of the American wild west.
"Transfiguration," James said as he waved his wand toward the board showing the word, "the art of making one thing into another to better suit your needs or…" he swished his wand toward a cup on the desk to transform it into a crow, "your amusement. Transfiguration is only restricted by two factors: your imagination and size. For instance, I could conjure a boar from nothing but I could not transfigure a boar from the cup I turned into a crow. It is theoretically possible to do so but only the strongest wizards can accomplish this. I myself prefer the branch of battle transfiguration, it's an art designed to turn the battlefield or dueling zone into a death trap for your opponent. Perhaps a demonstration is in order?" He said with a crooked grin but little did he or the rest of the class know that I had been casting a few shielding charms, defensive wards, and a ward that disintegrated any nonhuman biological material that crossed the threshold. The Blacks were a vicious bunch after all.
Soon enough, James had seven giant mastiffs surrounding him, eyeing him like he was a hunk of beef. With a grin that most people would call terrifying, I loose a bit of my claw between my first and middle fingers and thought the incantation of a particularly nasty curse from the family library: the lust curse. Can't use my wand because Priori Incantatem is a thing and a bitch, no need to take a chance on Dumbledore finding the second wand either.
I thought up the modifier for an animal effect and watched as the invisible spell took hold on the mastiffs.
What followed would be the embarrassment of Jim Potter's career.
The seven mastiffs jumped James immediately, one took his wand before he could react and - this being a first-year class - no one could (or in my case was inclined to) help the (not so) poor professor from the dogs pinning him down. All he could do was ball up as the class watched on in horror. Eventually, one of the more proactive students bolted out of the classroom to get help as I just stared on impassively.
Sort of…
I wasn't exactly in control of my actions at that moment, Sol was.
We had found a way for me to disappear into the depths of my mind so I could study some of my memories and Harry's to see what I really knew and in that time the body was 'vacant,' so to In other words? I was pretty much asleep as Sol held us upright and what looked like paying attention. Thankfully he's able to transfer memories to me so I'm able to answer questions if I get called on while staring off into space.
But today I put up what Sol saw on a movie screen and sat back to watch the fireworks begin.
After a few minutes of watching the dogs go after James with the rest of the class watching in abject horror or interest, McGonagall finally came in and dispelled the dogs with a single wave of her wand.
"Professor Potter," she said sharply while boring holes into James, "what is tha' meanin' this?" her Scottish accent prominent in the throes of her temper.
"I, I don't know, Professor," James said, obviously disturbed and more than a little bewildered, "they just turned on me almost as soon as I transfigured them!"
"And why," she glared him down while he stood up shakily, "did ye' feel it necessary to transfigure seven of those beasts when you obviously cannot handle one?!"
"That was one of my staples though!" he tried to protest as she glared at him.
"Ye're lucky I do na' currently have a class at this time, Professor Potter. I will take tha' class while ye' get cleaned up and preferably shower'd," she said with a wrinkled nose and I just burst out laughing in my head once again even as Hermione Granger gasped slightly. Sol cast our eyes over to her to see the girl practically thrumming in excitement.
The rest of the class was anything but, I should have known it would have been boring as soon as Minerva said, "please take out yer quills and parchment," so, unless you liked to write, it was just another boring class but at least it was on magic. James actually managed to return about an hour into the lecture but Minerva pointed him to a seat in the audience hall while she gave the basics of Transfiguration.
"Mr. Potter!" She snapped out while glaring holes toward me, not that it stopped James and John from both jumping as well, "are ye' recording the lecture, or are ye' jus' plannin' ta watch me for tha' rest'a class?"
"Pardon, Madam," I said quietly, "but notes are quite unnecessary," and it's true with Occlumency I can pretty much drag up any memory pertaining to a subject, especially since I added a pseudo library like thing to my 'mental castle.' Not that I actually have a mental castle, my mind just sort of reflects what I want it to be. Want to fly with Sol? Wide open desert it is! Studying for a test? Open note open book everything with this library! Want to screw with intruders? Lightning storm to end all lightning storms to fry their mental probes!
"Oh?" she asked heatedly, "and why do ye' think that notes are quite unnecessary!?" she spat at me.
"Are you aware of the term 'eidetic memory,' professor? Or Hyperthymesia?" I asked calmly, firmly back in control of my actions as I pulled out the book I had on eidetic memories since it was pretty much the closest thing I can compare Occlumency to.
"Er, no, Mr. Potter," she said slightly confused and more than a little caught off guard.
"Another term for an eidetic memory is, loosely, photographic," and immediately her eyes lit up.
"Aye! Yes, I had another student with tha' gift!" she said with a slight bit of excitement, "though he still liked to take his own notes to remember his thought process, Mr. Potter."
"I'm slightly different, professor," I said quietly enough for her to hear me but not loud enough to draw more attention, "I can remember the notes on the board and the accompanying lecture with perfect clarity. I have no need for notes when I can remember a lesson with that amount of clarity but I thank you for your concern."
Her eyes softened as she nodded slowly, "alri' then, but if yer' course work starts flaggin' ye shall have detention with me to teach ye' propa' study 'abits," she said imperiously and I just bowed to the formidable woman's resolve.
"Yes ma'am," I said, getting a nod from her, an envious, angry look from Hermione, a glare from John (and James), a smirk from Blaise, and blank stares from a class full of bored eleven-year-olds.
"If there's nothing else?" She asked from her place at the front of the class, "no? Very good, Professor Potter will be taking the assigned parchments no later than next week. Good day," she said as she strode out of the classroom while glaring at James.
"Oh," he said when he realized he had the class's attention now, "that's-" he was cut off by the hourly bell and the chime from his desk signaling the end of class, "-time. Have a good day and I expect the parchments by when professor McGonagall said for them to be in by," he said a bit nervously as he waved us to leave, which we all promptly did. Thankfully that was my last class of the day, leaving me a few hours of free time to try out a new hobby in the Room.