Harry Potter was entering his third year at Hogwarts beginning early in September. This year, Harry hoped, would be slightly more normal than last year, having mostly all external pressures under his control. Harry sighed as he walked quickly through the barrier to Platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross Station.
Upon arriving at the magical station, he was assaulted with a large crowd of parents and their children saying goodbye and sending the youngsters off to another school year. Harry winced as he noticed his emotions get the better of him. He schooled his facial expression and with a discreet flick of his wrist with his wand tucked in his sleeve he shrank his trunk containing his familiars and the rest of his belongings into his pocket. Harry decided to wear his uniform issued pants, shoes, with a black t-shirt and black zip-up hoodie. He was still thirteen after all.
After clearing his thoughts, he quickly hustled around the crowd of students not wanting any awkward conversations. Harry boarded the Hogwarts Express and found a compartment not directly in the designated Gryffindor cabin so Daphne could find him. He did not really want to speak with Ron or Hermione just yet. Harry missed them of course, but last year Daphne became his new number one person to confide with.
Harry found an empty cabin and locked the door with a Potter spell. He knew Daphne would comb the train as soon as she could. He had a feeling she would not be too happy with him since he only wrote once in their diary over the summer. Harry decided that his relationship with Daphne would be one of his top priorities this year. He reached for one of his Advanced Ancient Ruins texts to kill time.
After reading for another few minutes Harry heard some light rapping on his compartment door. He smiled reached for his wand and unlocked the door after seeing his girlfriend, Daphne. She was wearing her Hogwarts uniform, perfectly aligned with her polished shoes and tightly braided golden blonde hair. Daphne smiled back as she hauled her trunk inside with an undignified huff.
Harry stood up reached for her trunk and set it above on the rack. As soon as he put it up, he was assaulted with a giant bear hug by Daphne. "I missed you so much, you tart!" She exclaimed still hugging him. Harry smiled; it was nice to finally meet your other half even if they were not happy with you in the moment. Harry hugged her back fiercely and kissed the top of her braided hair. He just noticed how well they fit together in their arms.
Daphne finally released him, and Harry blushed an apology and gave her a kiss. She returned his kiss and rested her forehead against his. "I'm sorry I didn't write to you more; my family's elf has been working me to the bone all summer".
Daphne Greengrass giggled as she squeezed his arms and replied. "I can tell, it looks like you've grown a few inches and gained some muscle!". She and Harry were almost the same height. Daphne was about 5'4" while she presumed Harry now grew to be around 5'5". He kissed her again with a little more warmth and she could tell he was trying to be better at it. Granted they were both new at this whole betrothed thing, so she still got butterflies in her stomach when they snogged.
Harry sighed and they sat down after he locked and warded the door for good measure so no one could see inside that it was just them. It would raise too many questions and gossip. He waved his wand and her trunk levitated up to the rack above her seat.
Harry sat down and prepared for the onslaught of questions his betrothal will ask him on the ride to Hogwarts. Daphne gave him a look saying he had it coming, and he winced a little fidgeting his hands in his lap.
Daphne adjusted herself into a comfortable position on the cushioned chair and began her queries. "First of all, thank you for writing to me at least once this summer, you could have done better." Harry winced and nodded. She reached her inside of her pocket and pulled out her gold and white planner and started her serious questions.
"What training have you done this summer?" Harry smiled and shuffled around his pocket for a specific book. "Read this first, Daphne, I can't divulge any training regime until you master Occlumency". Daphne raised her eyebrow at him and grabbed it. She flipped through it and smiled.
"Well, I may have been holding back on you, my Father has taught me the basics of Occlumency last summer. So, I may know more than you think, Potter!" Harry smiled and nodded at her appreciating her feistiness.
"Great, would you be prepared for me to test you now?" Harry questioned. Daphne blushed as he reached for his wand. She figured he had the 'Trace' taken off his wand a long time ago. Harry cleared his throat and muttered Legitimens. He entered her mind gently and immediately started shivering. He looked down and noticed he was knee deep in thick snow. Harry looked up and noticed some unique structures ahead of him. Harry tried to walk forward, with great difficulty, his pants/shoes were soaked from the snow, but he made it closer to the structures he noticed they were made of ice. He was impressed. However, he could see the flaws. Harry took out his wand and shot a spell out that lit a fire at the base of the ice structures. After that Daphne appeared in front of him and pushed him out of his mind physically.
Harry smiled at Daphne, and she grinned back quite pleased with herself. Harry replied, "That's a good start, Daphne, but I only attacked once, and I didn't see any defenses." Daphne groaned and replied.
"It took me five months to get this far, I'm still building my mindscape." Harry smiled and responded, "Understandable, but focus less on the landscape and more on your defenses and counter attacks. Physically pushing me out of my mind is smart, but I would suggest other clever ways like putting up a shield so I could not walk to the ice sculptures. Interesting choice by the way, I am assuming your memories are located somewhere in the ice sculptures?
Daphne nodded, "I've been told by many students that 'I am an Ice Queen', so I decided to use that as my base." Harry nodded and chuckled a bit at her reference. He knew the rumors but dismissed them immediately once they started to learn more about each other.
"I know I'm a shitty 'boyfriend' for not communicating very much, but in my defense, I've been busy!" Harry exclaimed. "So…what do you want to know first?"
"Everything but start from the beginning!" Daphne said with a grin.
Harry nodded and gave her the short-hand version of his summer training regime along with his mind library which really impressed her and immediately wanted to try it. He left out the prophecy just because he did not want to overwhelm her before he did some more research.
Daphne was mightily impressed with her boyfriend. He described his summer accomplishments nonchalantly. She quietly closed her planner.
"Harry, do you realize that your accomplishments over the summer is what some wizards dream of accomplishing over their lifetime?" She whispered. He just smiled goofily and shrugged.
"Have you checked your power level lately?" Daphne asked suddenly very curious to see how much he has improved since they last met.
"Not recently, I had several small powershifts once since I had the dark spirit removed from soul, second was when I became emancipated/of age, third was when I hit puberty early." Harry winced at that last one. Daphne chuckled.
She pulled out her wand and whispered a spell and a yellow light flashed towards Harry. He felt his magical core tug slightly at the spell as he waited patiently. The number flashed before them, and it read 230. Daphne gaped like a fish at him. "Harry how on Earth…oh never mind you just told me!"
Harry smiled and replied with "I always have room for improvement." Daphne snorted and checked her own power level.
Daphne's read, "100". She frowned and shrugged. Harry grabbed her shoulders and said "Hey, there are some tricks I can teach you to grow your power. That is actually above average for a third year!" Harry said.
Daphne hugged him. Harry said, "I secretly checked Ronald Weasley's power level before bordering the train, his is only "60". Daphne sniggered, thanks for comparing me to that Weasel!".
They discussed their dreams for the upcoming year and hoped they could spend some time on the weekends together. The train pulled into the station and they both headed off hoping not to run into anybody annoying like Draco Malfoy. They were lucky and got in a carriage with some Hufflepuff 3rd years.
After reaching Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they parted ways and Harry grudgingly sat at the Gryffindor table. He didn't pay any attention to Dumbledore's speech; it was usually nonsense anyways. The one thing that interested him was the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor R. J. Lupin. "I wonder what Dumbles is playing at," Harry thought to himself.
The next morning Harry got up before 7:00 o'clock dressed in his uniform and prepped for the day. His year schedule looked like this:
Monday: Herbology, Arithmancy, Potions
Tuesday: Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts
Wednesday: Herbology, Arithmancy, Potions
Thursday: Ancient Runes, Transfiguration, Defense Against the Dark Arts
Friday: Dueling, and Healing
Harry Potter had fun showing off his new skills during the first couple of weeks. Professor Snape passed by his cauldron in silence and then stomped over to Neville's potion and vanished it. He was amused when not only Hermione finished her Transfiguration spell, but he did as well before the majority of their class.
It wasn't until Harry mapped out his class schedule, and homework schedule that he wanted to figure out a good place to practice his advanced training. Harry's trunk did have a dueling room, but he wanted more options. Harry left dinner early and went into an empty classroom on the ground floor. There he called for Dobby, his house elf. He asked if Dobby knew a place where he could train without anyone knowing.
Dobby flopped his big ears and said, "Yes, Lord…Harry, some of the house elves call it the 'come and go room'. I can take you there now." Harry followed Dobby all the way up to the seventh floor He explained how you had to pace three times and ask the room what you desired it to be.
Harry thanked Dobby who left, and he began pacing. He asked the room to become a dueling room with automatic armed dummies. Much to Harry's surprise, a door appeared, and he opened it. The room was much larger than his expandable trunk and had several dummies lined up against the wall with wands. He had it set up so that the training dummies would shoot random non-lethal attack spells at him. The dummies shot out at him at random and Harry started to fire back trying not just to kill them. He had a habit of just decapitating his previous dummies back at Ether Castle so he could win faster. But in real life combat, that would not be so smart. It would be more charismatic if he gave the Death Eaters a trial.
After that Harry decided to call Dobby and ask him what else this room can do. Dobby nodded and eagerly told him that this room also holds unique items, mostly antiques or junk from the decades of previous Hogwarts students who had no need for the items anymore. That peaked Harry's interest and he asked the room to change into that particular room.
The Room of Requirement transformed in a blink of an eye and Harry was astounded by the piles and piles of stuff! It held all sorts of things like furniture, old books, artifacts, and old broomsticks. Harry and Dobby got to work systematically. He decided not to vanish everything, but to see if anything held value. It would take about a day's work, and he was glad it was a Saturday.
After many hours of sorting the entire room, they came up with several piles. One pile for books, one pile for furniture and miscellaneous, one pile for antiques, one pile for trunks, and one pile for junk. Harry decided to look at the furniture and miscellaneous first. Most of it was filled with moth balls and other junk, but he did find some dressers and other storage applications he could use for his own trunk. Next, he checked out the pile of books which Dobby began helping sort them into sections. Any basic beginner texts from Hogwarts curriculum were to be put in a pile to be discarded. Any advanced texts of any subject were to be put in his own trunk library to be sorted later.
Next was the antiques or vintage items. These included broomsticks, uniforms, and other odds and ends. This pile took a while to sort through. But in the end, it was worth it. Harry found a few items that piqued his interest. There are some unique things one could only find on the black-market such as dragon's blood, two dragon-hide cloaks, and some power stones that he could use with Ancient Rune spells.
Harry also found three expandable trunks of different levels that he wanted to add onto his own seven level trunk. Dobby was currently still looking through the unique artefacts pile and called his name suddenly. Harry got up and went to see where Dobby was and met him near his pile.
Dobby picked up a small wood box. "Harry, this is dark magic!" he exclaimed cautioning him before opening it. Harry nodded casted a couple of scanning spells and noticed an old familiar energy emitting from the box. Even though his scar was completely cured and extremely faint now, Harry could never forget how it felt when Voldemort was inside his head.
He put a binding spell on the box and put it in his undetectable extension backpack. Harry went quickly over the other artefacts, finding nothing of interest, he passed by and finished gathering up what he wanted from the furniture, books, and other things that he could use in his trunk.
Harry and Dobby went back to Gryffindor Tower to put away their new found items.
-4 weeks later-
Finally, it was the middle of the semester, and Harry had his counseling appointment with Professor M. Harry knocked on her office door and entered. Professor M. appeared to be grading a stack of essays.
Harry smiled at her, and she said, "Take a seat Mr. Potter, I'll be done in a moment." Harry thanked her and sat down. He chuckled at her red markings and asked if they were First years. "No, unfortunately, these are second years, every year I'm afraid my students retain less and less." She frowned.
"So, throughout your education at Hogwarts, as your Head of House, it is my duty to inform you of your progress and ask you about your career interests."
"I must say, Mr. Potter, your grades this year have been stellar in comparison to your first two years." Professor M. said. Harry just smiled and asked his most pertinent question.
"Professor, I am unaware of anyone attempting this in recent Hogwarts's history, however, I wish to test out of third year and possibly my fourth year." His head of house almost choked on her tea after he stated his wish.
"Mr. Potter, that is quite a tall order you are putting on yourself. Are you absolutely sure about this? You just started taking Arithmancy and Ancient Runes."
"Yes Professor, I am sure, I studied hard this summer, and I also checked out with the Hogwarts' Academic Decree, I only need two Professors to allow me to test out. Here I've received Professor Flitwick's acceptance last week." Harry handed her his signed scroll.
The Deputy Headmistress was surprised to say the least, this boy, no young man, was not only looking out for his education but has a plan! Hmm…he is more like his mother than he'll ever know. She thought.
"Well, I dare say this is a surprise! However, as an academic myself, I can't stop you from at least trying. If you fail, you'll just continue on with this year as a regular student. I'll have you know that we are a couple months into this year already, so you'll still need to sit the final exams for your subjects listed on your timetable. Those will include practical's in potions, herbology, defense, and ancient runes. Even though you have my complete approval and Professor Flitwick's, I'm afraid I will have to call a faculty meeting so they can devise a written and practical exam schedule. It may take a couple weeks; I'll send a missive via owl when we're ready." His Head of House explained.
Harry breathed a sigh of relief as he left her office. He went off to the kitchens for a late snack as he missed lunch.
- 3 weeks later -
Snow made its first appearance on Hogwarts grounds. Harry always loved Hogwarts during winter. During dinner he received a missive from a beautiful brown hawk owl and eagerly opened it. "Yes" he whispered. He looked up at the Professor's table and Minerva smiled and gave him a quick nod. Harry quickly fed her owl a piece of chicken and she flew off. He missed, however, the frown on Dumbledore's face and the twinkle was gone from his eyes. Along with the usual scowl on Professor Snape.
Harry was allowed to test out of third year the week of December 5th. And pending those test results he would be cleared to test out of fourth year two weeks after right before holiday break.
It was finally Exam Day. Daphne met with him for a private breakfast in the kitchens before he went the fourth level where Hogwarts' finest faculty set up the exam. He entered the last door on the right. The classroom was a fairly large un-used room. At the front stood Headmistress M. and Professor Flitwick, they had a few stacks of parchment with them on the desk. Today he would take half of the written tests and half practical and tomorrow he would take the last half of the tests.
"Welcome, Mr. Potter, are you prepared to sit your exams?" Minerva asked with her usual stern candor.
"Yes, thank you both for taking extra time to do this for me." Harry replied humbly. Minerva and Filius smiled.
Harry left the exam room feeling like a huge weight lifted off of him. His head of house said he would be notified in two weeks of his results. He left to go to get some food for dinner in the kitchens since it was quite late.
Now he can just enjoy going to class and read advanced material on his own. Testing out was important for him, not only to prove that he was more like his mother than his father, but also to speed up his timeline here at Hogwarts. There was just so much that Harry wanted to do outside of Hogwarts. He used to enjoy coming to Hogwarts, it was like his real home, however, now with Dumbledore constantly trying to control him he wanted to be anywhere but here.
It was the second weekend in December. And it was a Hogsmeade weekend. Harry got Elfridge to write his permission slip so he could go to the village. Harry waited in the hallway near the Great Hall for his date, Daphne Greengrass. Harry was a bit nervous, he dressed in khaki pants, black-long sleeve shirt, and a green sweater. He may have over done it.
Harry Potter heard her before he saw her. She cleared her throat, "Hey handsome, are you going to stare at the wall or take me on a date?" Harry smiled and turned around. Daphne looked beautiful. She wore her hair down and straight on her shoulders while wearing dark green casual-dress robes with a black cloak for their date.
"Wow Daph!" Daphne blushed and he kissed her on the cheek. They joined the rest of the third years in the court yard to walk to the train station for Hogsmeade.
"So where do you want to go today in Hogsmeade?" Harry started out, he was still getting used to going on dates with Daphne, even though she never judged him for his nervousness.
"I was thinking the Scrivenshaft's Quill shop and Tomes and Scrolls book shop if we have time" Harry grinned, Daphne always planned everything out very well.
"Sounds like a perfect date to me!" Harry laughed, Daphne smirked at his quirky humor, and they chatted about what they hoped to accomplish for the rest of the year. Daphne wanted him to tutor her in Defense Against the Dark Arts because she needed practice in dueling. She also clued him in on how her younger sister, Astoria, has been sick ever since she was 7 with an unknown illness and her family poured a lot of time and galleons into finding a cure.
Harry was saddened to hear about her sister's unusual illness and told him that he would put some time into researching it too.
The pair decided to go to the book shop first since it was the closest one and perused the old shop. Harry found some interesting books on more obscure magics, warding, ancient runes, history, and potions for a bit of light reading.
Daphne picked up some potions books as well since that was her favorite subject 'much to Harry's surprise', Charms, Dueling, and Herbology. She went to the cash register where Harry already had his books lined up, Daphne began reaching for her money pouch, but Harry told her he made up his mind about paying for her books.
Daphne blushed and kissed him on the cheek and said thank you. Harry grinned, and knew he did the right thing.
They left the book shop walking with their purchases and headed to the Three Broomsticks for something to eat. It was quite busy, and they saw Madam Rosmerta bustling around making sure everyone was happy with their orders. They finally sat down at a table next to some Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws. Daphne was thankful that Draco and his goons were nowhere in sight. They ordered two butterbeers and fish and chips.
Harry and Daphne left the Three Broomsticks and headed to the quill shop. They had just enough time to buy some new quills and parchment before heading back on the earlier train. The train left at 6:00 PM for the third years and 8:00 PM for the older students.
Back at the castle Harry and Daphne walked as far as they could together with their purchases and said goodbye for the night. Harry walked with the rest of the Gryffindors to their dormitory. However, he didn't get very far because most all of the older Gryffindors were lined up looking around anxiously, he started to ask around until someone stated what was now obvious.
"The fat lady, she's gone!" Harry's eyes shot up and was about to take out his wand until he heard Filch and Dumbledore make their way through the crowd of students.
"Come on, make way for the headmaster, come on move, I'm Head Boy!" Percy began shouting incessantly at the crowd.
The headmaster told Filch to search every portrait in the castle to find her after noticing the claw marks on her portrait.
Filch responded with, "There's no need, the Fat Lady's there." He pointed to a neighboring portrait.
The crowd of Gryffindors gasped as they tried to move toward her after the Dumbledore.
"My dear Lady, who did this to you?" He asked gently.
"Eyes like the devil he's got! With a soul as dark as his name, Sirius Black!"
"It's him headmaster, he was in the castle" The fat lady responded in a terrified whisper and then went back to hiding behind an animal in the portrait.
Harry Potter frowned after he heard her statement. Wondering if Sirius Black was here to kill him or not.
Dumbledore then had everyone go back to the Great Hall and locked the outside gates and front door for extra security. On there way back to the Great Hall, Harry waited until the prefects were distracted with the younger students and walked quickly to a near empty corridor.
"Dobby!" Harry called for his house elf.
"Master Harry, what can I do for you?" Dobby said. Harry had tried to get him to not say the word 'Master' several times, but Dobby wouldn't settle for anything less than 'Master Harry'.
"Hey, I have a very important task for you, which might be a bit dangerous. I need you to find Sirius Black, yes, the fugitive. He might be in the castle or on the castle grounds. I would also check the Shrieking Shack as well. Once you find him…oh he's also an animagus too. After you find him, take him to Potter Castle and have him quarantined in a room. I will get back with you as soon as I can."
Dobby nodded his head flopping his big ears and snapped his fingers and apparated away.
Harry joined back in the crowd hoping to find Daphne but got sectioned back in with the Gryffindors. He finally found an empty sleeping bag on the floor and crawled in trying not to listen to Ron's complaints.
He prayed to Merlin that Dobby would be able to find him before Dumbledore or Snape. Harry had a lot of questions for him.
Author's Note:
I'm sorry for the very long wait to update this story. I was focused on school and work and then Covid happened. I do want to finish this story so I will be posting more regularly from now on. Thank you for following it. Enjoy!