FFN Reader Responses:
TheInfiniteweeaboo - snitches get stitches… or whatever wizards do for stab wounds…
Guest chapter 29 - Non-magical animal. Magical animal animagi tend to ruin stories by creating Mary Sues.
Lyra woke up early in the morning, outside the window of her hobbit hole looked like it was minutes before dawn. The sky was getting brighter but the sun had not yet breached the horizon. The other three girls in her room were still fast asleep as she got up and headed out to the common room. The dirt floor felt warm and familiar, and as she walked past the fire pit, she let the dying light from the feather dance in her eyes a little bit before turning around and gazing at the wall where her room was. There, past the ocean that could be seen in the wall, the sun was peeking above the horizon inside their new common room.
Whispers swung down from a tree with two bananas and passed one to her as they watched the sunrise. Both of them missed the island, but this was a good approximation. It wasn't hot like the island, but it was pleasantly warm. There was a light breeze somehow blowing through the room, not enough to cause chills, but enough to make them feel as if they were outside.
When the sun had fully risen, Colin Creevey came out of his room and yawned as he walked over to Lyra, "What are you doing up so early?"
"I just woke up and came to watch the sunrise."
Colin stared at the sun in the wall for a minute before exclaiming, "Wow, it's really rising, and there will be a sunset tonight?" He looked at the opposite wall where the last darkness was fading away by the mountains on that side. "This room is so cool, I'm going to need more cameras."
The third-year, Patricia had come out, "You should get a magical camera, it will hold a lot more film. Though it is a bit bigger than those tiny ones you've got."
"That's so cool, a magical camera. Do you know where I can learn about the developing potion?"
"There is a potions club run by some of the older Slytherins, though if you want them to teach you anything specific, you'll need something to buy them off."
Colin looked a bit put off by that, but nodded, trying to think of something he could offer.
The other students started to slowly come out, no one wanted to leave just yet. The older boy, Cedric, saw that everyone was waiting for someone to say something, so he took charge.
"Let's head to breakfast, for all the first-years, you'll get your class schedule from our head of house when we get there. Since our common room is close to the Great Hall, we'll have plenty of time to come back and take our books before class, so don't worry about bringing any right now."
Everyone nodded and the group of Scamanders headed to breakfast. As the group entered the great hall, everyone already there turned to watch them. The Hufflepuffs stood up and gave them a round of applause. A few people from the other tables joined in on the clapping. Lee Jordan waved to everyone and gave dramatic bows to the different tables as they walked to theirs.
When they were all seated, Tina came down from the staff table with a stack of parchment. "These are all your schedules." She tapped the stack with her wand and they all floated out to the designated recipient. "Before this year, most classes would have two houses in each. So because of short notice, we are putting you in to share the same schedule as Hufflepuff. In the spring term, that will change. Also, please be in the common room at 5 p.m. tonight, we're going to have a short meeting."
Harry and Lyra looked down at their schedules. Today they had Charms, Herbology, double Transfiguration, and double Defense against the Dark Arts. Professor McGonagall had shown them quite a bit of magic on the island but wasn't able to properly teach any without their wands. They were both very excited to start learning magic officially.
As they were heading back to the common room to get their books, Harry quickly found Hannah as she was heading out as well.
"Hey Hannah!" he called to get her attention.
"Good morning, Harry!" she smiled back at him, though kind of shifted a bit with nervous energy.
"I remembered what Cynthia said about showing me the castle and I was hoping you could help me with something."
"Cynthia? Sorry, I just always think of her as 'mum.' What do you need?"
"I need somewhere to have a private meeting with one other person."
"That sounds ominous."
"What does ominous mean?" Harry asked.
"Oh, um, it means that you're giving the impression of something bad or unpleasant."
"Yeah, I guess that's exactly what the meeting is going to be like."
"Can I get back to you at lunch? There are a lot of empty or secret rooms in the castle, and quite a few that might be good for whatever covert meeting you have planned on the very first day of school." She smiled a bit at that.
"Sure, I'll see you at lunch!" Harry turned around to see Lyra speaking with the girl from last night who had the prosthetic arm, though it was covered under her cloak again. Just as he started to walk over, they finished their conversation and the other girl ran off.
Lyra turned around and saw Harry, "Can we go to the Ravenclaw common room tomorrow evening?"
"Why what's going on?"
"That girl, Hermione, I helped her with a library project by using owl feathers to guide students to their books. She's going to have a friend help analyze my magic to figure out how to do it without a staff. She asked me to come tonight, but we have the house meeting. I wanted you to come with me."
"Sounds like fun, I've heard that the Ravenclaws have a lot of books in their common room."
"That's the thing though, Hermione said she can't let us in, that we have to get in on our own. She wouldn't tell me any more, just that I'd understand when I got there."
"That sounds… ominous." Seeing Lyra's confused look, "Hannah just told me that word, it means something bad or unpleasant."
"I hope not," Lyra said fearfully.
When they arrived in Charms, they had a small celebration, over half of the other children from their year were there. After a couple of minutes, Professor Flitwick who had been sitting quietly at a small desk in the corner walked out to the center of the room. There was a podium at the front that looked like a mountain of books that the Professor stood on the floor in front of it before he walked up and down the room, waiting for everyone to quiet down.
He was a little shorter than Lyra and had very sharp features. His nose came to a point like a beak, his ears looked like miniature wings, not capable of flapping, but triangular and flat on the top; the underside of one of them was cut in a few places and had a small gold ring on the lobe. His eyes looked normal, but they moved very quickly like a predator. The only other difference they could see is that his fingers looked slightly too long for his hands.
When he reached the front of the room again, as the students hushed themselves, he climbed to the top of the mountain of books, so he was standing above the assembled students.
"Thank you for your silence, sometimes it takes much longer for students to calm down on the first day. I also wanted to give you some time to catch up as you were split up at the sorting last night. My name is Professor Filius Flitwick; the Charms professor for Hogwarts. I have been teaching as a Charms Master for thirty-three years. Prior to that, I worked as a competitive duelist and bodyguard in the off-season. I was in Ravenclaw when I attended Hogwarts, and have been the head of house for twelve years." Someone started whispering about his dueling record but was shushed by their neighbor.
"For your first year, you will learn the following basic spells: Wand lighting and extinguishing, color-changing, basic levitation, locking and unlocking, fire and freezing, severing and mending, the knockback jinx, the tickling jinx, and basic animation charms. You will also learn basic casting movements and magical theory relating to charms and other spells. Now, who can tell me what a charm is?" he asked the class. Several hands went up, Flitwick called on Luna, "Miss Lovegood?"
"A charm is a type of spell that affects the qualities of an object. Also included are spells that affect the position of objects."
"Excellent summation Miss Lovegood. Take three points to Scamander house. Does anyone have any questions about that?"
A girl from Hufflepuff raised her hand and was called on. "I can kind of understand how a knockback jinx would be a charm in that it pushes an object, but how is a tickling spell considered a charm?"
"Two points to Hufflepuff for your excellent question!" exclaimed Flitwick. "Can anyone think of a good answer to this?" No one raised their hand, so he continued, "The tickling charm wasn't designed to tickle nor was it called a tickling charm, though that is its primary application these days. It was originally constructed to play the harp, by creating tiny amounts of pressure to pluck the strings and create music. With enough practice and study, it can be used to play other instruments as well. When cast without focus, it creates random pressures that feel like tickling on a person. It is occasionally used in duels, but when used with too much power or in anger, it just feels like a punch and does not cause a person to laugh."
He waited for a moment for people to scribble that down in their notes before continuing. "There are two other spells that are not actually charms in the ones you will be learning this year; the fire and wand lighting spells. There are several spells to conjure elements, and through your studies, you will learn them in the following order: light, fire, air, water, earth, and darkness. Light is the easiest to conjure and is not normally dangerous. Fire is also incredibly easy to conjure but can be incredibly dangerous, so it is taught in your first year to make sure you learn to control it early. The focus you will gain from learning to control fire will be beneficial in your other studies as well. Hogwarts does not teach the conjuring of lightning; you will learn magical lightning spells, but not true conjuring." He let everyone finish copying this information to their notes.
"I have heard that Mr. Gabriel Truman has taken my job and taught all of you the wand lighting and extinguishing charm, correct?" All the students nodded their heads. "I would like to see your progress. Wands out!" A few students had their wands in their bags so it took them a minute to have them ready. "On three, cast your charm. One, Two, Three!"
There were shouts of "Lumos!" and nearly everyone in the class had a lit wand, though a few students had dim or flickering lights. Harry's was still the brightest.
"Remember, you need to put your intent into your spells, try to cast it again now!" Flitwick waved his hands at the windows behind his desk and plunged the room into darkness.
Harry understood what the professor was trying to do, so he held off on lighting his wand as even the students with dim or flickering wands were able to cast the charm correctly. Once Flitwick praised them, Harry cast his own charm which made the room nearly as bright as it was before.
"Impressive Mr. Potter, but try to tone it down a bit. You seem to be relaxed already, so imagine your wand is falling asleep and slowly pull back on the power you are using." Harry really wasn't trying at all, so he took a deep breath and imagined tucking his wand into bed and as the wand rolled over to get comfortable, the light dimmed to the level of the other students.
"Good, good!" Flitwick waved his wand and the windows brightened again causing many students to shield their eyes. "Excellent work everyone, now extinguish your wands." Everyone was successful with the 'Nox' incantation. Flitwick returned the natural light to the room. "Everyone takes two points for their house. That's sixteen points for Scamander, twenty for Hufflepuff, and fourteen for Ravenclaw. Also, an extra point per student for Mr. Truman for his excellent teaching, twenty-five points to Hufflepuff! I'll see how the Slytherins and Gryffindors do later on with their charm."
Flitwick assigned them reading on modifications to the Lumos charm for the next class and let them go at the bell. The Scamanders and Hufflepuffs headed to the greenhouses for Herbology and were joined there by the Slytherins. There was a small cabin next to the greenhouses that acted as a classroom. Their first class was not at all hands-on, they went over their syllabus which involved learning about soil types, fertilizer, and both magical and mundane plants. All of the mundane aspects of the subject Harry knew and had taught to Lyra. They were happy to learn the magical parts.
The major lesson they learned in the first class was that having a magical person tending to mundane plants helped them grow just from having magic in the area. That explained why Harry always got good results when tending to different gardens. Additionally, having decomposing magical material in the soil would help any plants grow faster. The more magical the better, which was why dragon manure was so highly sought after as fertilizer.
Harry made sure to ask if wizard manure could be used as fertilizer which got some disgusted looks from many students, but Professor Sprout answered that because of the diversity in the diets and the many types of magic wizards used, their manure was unreliable and could produce strange results. However, when combining it with other decomposing matter, it could act as part of a larger batch. Lyra also asked about demiguise manure to which Professor Sprout told them that she assumed it would work well, but had never heard of it being used previously.
They were given reading for homework and sent to a short break before needing to head to Transfiguration which was with the Gryffindors. When they entered the room, Harry and Lyra saw McGonagall sitting on the desk in her cat form. They started to head to the desk to say hi, but the cat glared at them and gave a small shake of the head, so they backed off and sat down.
Two minutes after the bell rang, a trio of Gryffindors ran in and took their seats at the back, looking around for the teacher. The cat hopped up off the table and walked over to the students and sat next to their chairs in the aisle. One of the children pulled a sausage out of his bag and broke off a piece, "Hey pud pud, would you like some sausage?"
At that moment, Professor McGonagall resumed her human form, shooting up to tower over the boys and making them scream with fright. She took the larger piece of sausage from them, "The pud pud would like some sausage, thank you." Changing her tone, "Two points each from Gryffindor for tardiness, make sure it doesn't happen again." As she walked back to the front desk she took a bite of the meat.
"Welcome everyone to Transfiguration. I am of the opinion that this is the most dangerous field of magic that you can get into, if you do not follow the rules in my classroom, you will be sent out and will not be coming back." She let that sink while she took another bite of sausage. "The reason for the danger in transfiguration is that transfigurations are not permanent."
Near the front, Ginny Weasley raised her hand and was called on. "What about permanent transfigurations? I've heard my brothers talking about them."
"First of all, don't always listen to your brothers, they each have their failings. They are all incredibly intelligent in their ways, but they are not infallible. Some transfigurations are called 'Permanent,' however a better description for them would be 'Long-term.' Depending on the difference between the original and ending forms, a transfiguration may naturally hold longer. Additionally, the amount of magic you infuse into your spells will help hold their form. There is also a spell you will not learn this year that helps to hold another transfiguration in their form longer than it was originally intended to be." There was a great amount of scribbling to be heard as all of this was noted down.
"There are two basic types of transfiguration, free and controlled. Free transfiguration allows you to use your willpower to change one object into another. By focusing your mind on the process, you can change an object to another without an incantation. Controlled uses a specific spell to transfigure a particular object into another particular object with an incantation. These tend to be quicker and often more powerful than free transfigurations." She paused to see if the information was understood.
"Conjurations without an incantation will create objects based on your knowledge of the object or animal. Unless you are an expert on what you are trying to conjure, use the correct incantation. Conjurations will slowly fade until they disappear as they are also not permanent. Vanishing an object reverses a conjuration or sends a non-living object to the void. This is just as scary as it sounds. I'm sure all of you flushed something down the toilet when you were younger. The wand you hold in your hands has the potential to take something and remove it from existence forever. You will not learn how to do that until much later in your schooling and only if I feel you are able to learn such dangerous magic." Harry and Lyra had seen her serious face before, but this was even more intense.
"The last type of transfiguration you will learn here is human transfiguration which will allow you to change parts of your own body or another's. You will not learn this until your sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts. I am allowing students to start the processes of learning to become an animagus in their fourth year. This is new to this year and will involve a lot of studying and research. It's not as difficult as NEWT-level human transfiguration because it is done through a ritual rather than a single spell. If that is something that interests you, I suggest you study hard as I will not allow any but the most qualified students to undertake the ritual."
A lot of students became very interested in the idea of becoming an animal and doubled their efforts on their note-taking.
For the rest of the class, they read through all the rules for the class and on transfiguration in general. For homework, they were assigned the first chapter of their transfiguration book. They were told to read it three times as it contained all the warnings along with pictures of how transfiguration could seriously harm you or another if done improperly.
In the second half of the class, they were allowed to start attempting a free transfiguration. They were given matchsticks and told they needed to turn them into needles. Each student was given one match and one needle. Having the needle was supposed to help with the visualization of changing the match into the silvery and pointy object.
Harry focused all he could on the transformation, but nothing happened. Lyra on the other hand had her match burst into flame and burn up. She was given another, it too caught fire. Professor McGonagall told her she needed to pull her magic back in and try to use as little as possible, but nothing she tried kept the match from catching fire.
"Sweet Merlin, I've got another Finnegan," mumbled Professor McGonagall and sighed loudly. "Lyra, I'm going to ask one of my Gryffindors to meet with you to help you, he also has a proclivity for fire and making things explode. He's been able to tone it down a bit, but you both seem to have the same issue. In the meantime, please just practice with a toothpick." She passed several to Lyra.
By the end of class, Luna had made a toothpick with a hole in the end, and Harry had made a silver match. A few others had done similarly, but most just had the exact same match. Lyra had turned all her toothpicks to ash.
Lyra approached McGonagall at the end with Harry hanging back. "The animagus ritual you spoke about, The Giver was going to help us perform it the summer after next year. He said Harry could do it this summer but he decided to wait for me to be old enough to do it together."
"We will need to talk about that later, I'm not sure who is allowed to make decisions for you because of your unique home situation." She did not know what to say to these children in that regard due to their lack of human guardians.
Lunch went well, but they overheard Ginny's brother, Ron, speaking to some friends as they were going into the great hall.
"What the bloody hell was going on with Snape?" said the redhead boy.
"Maybe someone's impersonating him with polyjuice," said another boy with a thick Irish accent.
"Must not be a bad batch," said a third. "He's not as pasty and pale as he was last year."
An Indian girl joined them, "I kind of liked it. Who cares if he's under polyjuice or not? He actually gave points to Gryffindor, I nearly died when he did that."
"I still don't like it, he's a snake, they're always up to something," Ron concluded. "This has to be some kind of plot."
Any further conversation got drowned out by other people talking.
Their Defense Against the Dark Arts went strangely.
Their teacher didn't look like he had ever been in a fight or had to defend against anything. Like Professor Flitwick, he did start by introducing himself and giving his qualifications.
"Gilderoy Lockhart, Order of Merlin, Third Class, Honorary Member of the Dark Force Defense League, and five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most Charming Smile Award. But I won't talk about that; I didn't get rid of the Wagawaga Werewolf by smiling at him." He gave a charming smile and Lyra raised her hand. "Yes, Miss?"
"You didn't smile at the Wagawaga Werewolf?"
"No, why would I? I was in a fight."
"Showing your teeth while fighting can scare an animal off. I'm sure the werewolf did it to you. I've scared off smaller animals by showing my teeth."
He gave what he must have thought was a charming laugh as he responded, "Well, they must have been pretty small then, I guess. I'll try to remember to do that the next time I'm fighting a werewolf." Now, he gave a weak smile, "Onto other things, a pop quiz! I'm going to hand out general questions to see if you've read and retained the information in any of my books."
They finished the quiz and Professor Lockhard went over all the questions giving long stories about every question. A lot of the students looked confused, they were supposed to be learning about defending themselves, but all of the questions were about his personal habits and other more inane details of Lockhart's life. The closest thing to teaching how to defend themselves was Lyra's question.
Harry and Lyra went back to the common room after class wondering what they were going to be doing the whole year in that class. They had an hour to kill before the house meeting, so Harry pulled out his new copy of The Hobbit and climbed into one of the trees with Lyra and Whispers and asked her to read it to him. She opened it and started reading, when she got through the first paragraph about the hobbit hole, she leaned over and hugged Harry. Then she continued to read until they saw Newt and Tina enter the room.
They gathered up all the students to start the meeting. "We hope you are all enjoying your first day of classes," Tina began. "It's going to take a lot of work to get this house moving with as much forward momentum as the original four houses already have. The common room is still under development, so if there's anything you want to have added, let us know."
Colin raised his hand, "Can we have a dark room for developing photos?"
"I'll put a table and paper by the door," Newt conjured a table near the door and took a paper and a quill from his bag to put on it. "Write any requests you have here and we will figure out if we can add them."
"What about a tire swing on the trees?" Megan Jones spoke up.
"Add it to the list and we will look into it, but that sounds very reasonable," Newt responded. "The next thing we wanted to address is cleaning the common room. We weren't able to get a house-elf, due to the outdoor motif and dirt everywhere. We do however have an Urisk, I will ask him to come out now. Astray!"
Like before, no popping was heard, but stepping out from behind one of the pineapple trees came the urisk. A couple of the younger students jumped away from him, the older ones just looked inquisitive.
"Yes, Mr. Scamander?" Astray responded in a dull voice.
"Astray, these are the students of this house. We wanted them to see you in case they ran into you during your duties," Newt informed the small creature.
Astray surveyed the students with an exceptionally slow turn of his head. "I don't believe they will see me." Then he walked back to the pineapple tree he came from and vanished behind it.
"That was Astray, he is an Urisk," Newt explained. "He is not a house-elf, he will not follow your commands, if he doesn't want to. Other elves will work gathering your laundry and cleaning your dormitories. Over by the tea station in the corner, there is a yellow tray," he pointed to the corner. "Urisks like dairy products, similar to brownies. Please make sure there is always a piece of cheese, a teacup of milk or cream, and chocolate or some other kind of milk-based sweet on the plate. This is what we provide Astray for his service. Do not ever give him anything directly, he will take it as an insult and possibly quit. Again, he is not a house-elf, so he can just quit."
Tina saw that one of the students was eyeing the plate of chocolate, and decided to intervene. "Mr. Goyle. Do not eat from that plate there, if you see it empty add to it, but do not take the food from that plate. Do you understand?"
It looked like Gregory was processing what he heard and then nodded as he understood it.
"Does anyone have any other questions?" asked Newt.
"I do," said Cedric, "Can we find out the syllabus for the DADA course? Lockhart was the only teacher not to inform us on what our classes were going to include this year."
"We will find out. He should have made a lesson plan before starting the position," said Newt.
Some of the students went to write their suggestions on the request seat, Cedric also requested a private room.
Before they went to dinner, Tina brought up one final point, "One of the things that I know will become an issue later in the year is the lack of a large house. We want you all to make friends from other houses, so on Saturday night, please invite anyone you would like to have an evening with us in our common room. The dormitories will be locked to guests and the forest maze will be disabled so people can come straight in on Saturday evening. After this weekend, we will see how well it goes and if we will do it again."
This sounded like a great idea to all of the students, as long as their dormitory was locked there shouldn't be any problem having people over to join in on the campfire and have some food with friends.
At dinner that evening, most of Scamander house moved around to other tables to tell them about the party on Saturday night and everyone was buzzing about it. A lot of people were very curious to see the new Scamander house common room. Most people knew or had heard rumors about what the other common rooms were like, but for there to be an open invitation to one was unheard of. Occasionally Hufflepuff would invite people but not many would end up showing, not that this would stop them from having a good time on their own. Gryffindor would have parties after quidditch wins but they were much more selective about invitations plus their common room was on the seventh floor, which was a trek to get to. No one even thought that Ravenclaw or Slytherin would ever have a party. This was due to the introverted nature of most of the former's members and house secrecy in the case of the latter.
Harry made sure to talk to Hannah, Daphne, and Tracey. Lyra, with Harry backing her up, went to Ravenclaw to talk to Hermione though she wasn't sure if she would come. Lee was speaking with Fred and George, Arthur with his sister, and Cedric with all of Hufflepuff. Luna was speaking to several ghosts. When Harry got back to eating, he saw Greg speaking with Lyra's brother Draco. Hannah hadn't found a good room for the meeting yet.
When everyone got back to the common room, Harry took out the gramophone to put on some Mozart, which he found good for reading, and started going through his transfiguration assignment. He was only a few pages in when Lee came over.
"Oh, nice! You've got a record player? We are definitely going to have music at the party then."
Harry remembered the music from his birthday party and nodded, "I'll bring out my collection, do you have any?"
"No, but I know a few people who do, there are a few Ravens that have a music club as well, I have only heard about it and don't know them, but you can ask around."
"I'll do that."
Music was amazing, it could always stir your emotions in ways that Harry couldn't put into words. Lyra always said that when she first held a hoohoo feather and when she saw the hoohoo patriarch for the first time, she could hear music and bird song in her head. More music could only lead to good things.
He continued listening to Mozart as he read the first chapter in the transfiguration book. There were some animated pictures of people who had eaten transfigured food or breathed in transfigured gasses. They were disturbing in many ways. This was not something he wanted to try to do. It's a good thing they put the warnings at the beginning of the book. Who knows what would have happened otherwise?
The next morning at breakfast, Lyra received two letters, the first was from Jameson who wanted to know when the best time this weekend would be to visit so they could practice reading and writing. The second was from Brandt, who wrote that he was going to be visiting Hogwarts on Sunday to start Harry and Lyra on their education of wizarding heritage. Harry pulled out a piece of paper and Lyra scribbled a note to Jameson that Saturday morning would be great and their new house was having a party in the evening if he wanted to attend that. They attached the note to the owl that had been eating their sausage as he waited and flew back to his home. Brandt's note seemed to just be a notification as the owl had left as soon as the message had been delivered.
"Lyra, as soon as we get free time, we need to send a long letter to Nestor."
"I want to write to Charlie and Teacher too but how can we tell them we are ok?" Lyra frowned.
"Can we send them food?" Harry pondered, "Maybe a mango along with some of the other things we have here; apples, grapes, and oranges."
"Whispers loves grapes, I bet everyone else will too."
From breakfast, they proceeded down to the dungeons, looking for their first potions class with Sev… Professor Snape. As they neared the classroom, Harry could hear the snakes off in the Slytherin common room talking to each other. He wondered whether the snakes could hear him if he spoke loud enough but didn't attempt it now.
They arrived at the classroom and found a few other students from Hufflepuff and Slytherin waiting outside. They all chatted a bit as the door was locked. Harry saw Greg waiting there who grumbled about needing to retake first-year Potions and Transfiguration. As soon as the bell rang, the door clicked and swung open of its own accord allowing the students entrance. Everyone filtered in slowly, some students immediately chose the back row. Harry and Lyra got desks in the front.
Once everyone was seated, the door at the back of the classroom opened and Professor Snape entered the classroom, his robes were dramatically billowing behind him, though his hair didn't move with the same wind that moved his robes. Stopping at the front of the room, he gave a deathly glare at the students, a few in the back even whimpered slightly. Lyra put her hand over her mouth to suppress a giggle. Their professor began what must have been a prepared speech for dramatic purposes.
"There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class. As such, I don't expect many of you to appreciate the subtle science and exact art that is potion-making. However, I am prepared to educate even those without the predisposition to find the poetry inherent in potion-making. I can teach you how to bewitch the mind and ensnare the senses. I can tell you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even put a stopper in death."
A few students gasped when he spoke of death. The other students might not be able to see it, but Harry could see that he was enjoying their reactions to his performance. He surveyed the room before continuing.
"Mr. Potter!" Harry sat up straight in his chair. "Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Harry knew this one, "It is one of the steps to making the sleeping potion known as the Draught of Living Death, depending on the concentration of wormwood, the person drinking it may or may not have dreams while asleep, Professor"
"And where would you look if I asked you to find a bezoar?"
Harry didn't know this one, crestfallen he responded, "I don't know, Professor."
Raising his head to look at the rest of the room, "Clearly, fame isn't everything. Does anyone else know the answer?" A few hands were raised, "Mr. Adamson!"
Ryan said with hesitation, "I would look for it in a first-aid kit, but I think it comes from the stomach of a sheep?"
"A goat, Mr. Adamson, a goat. Finally, who knows the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" Even fewer hands were raised now. He called on a Slytherin girl.
"They are the same plant, which also goes by the names; mousebane, women's bane, and devil's helmet. It contains the poison known as aconite. It can be used to ward off werewolves."
"Half correct," Snape growled. "It cannot be used to ward off werewolves. I suppose if you fashioned yourself an amulet with enough aconite, a werewolf might die from it… after it ate you." Many students shuddered at the thought.
"Two points to each house for your answers. Also, if you look around the classroom, you will see small signs with a goat on them. There is a box under them that contains bezoars. If you think you have been poisoned, shove one down your throat. If you think another student has been poisoned and can't do it themselves, shove one down their throat. Safety comes first, you can always be tasked with procuring more for me if it turns out that you weren't being poisoned."
A few children were a little disgusted at the idea of having to remove a stone from the stomach of a goat, but everyone nodded their heads.
Professor Snape continued, "How many of you have older siblings or friends at Hogwarts?" A few students raised their hands, "I assume all of them warned you about me?" Pretty much all of the students who had raised their hands adopted a guilty look on their faces. "I can assure you now, that I am not a vampire. I will not creep into your dorms at night and harvest your spleens for potion ingredients. I do not care in the least bit about your pets and will not cut off your rat's tail for a ritualistic sacrifice. There are dozens of rumors I hear every year, and almost all of them aren't true or even remotely realistic. I am strict and I will send you to detention for the smallest infractions. Potions are dangerous. The first Gryffindor class last year had two students end up in the infirmary." Harry was enjoying the speech, especially when he said 'almost all' of the rumors weren't true.
"I recently had an experience that has made me examine my teaching methods, and I am attempting to modify them to make sure less of you end up in the infirmary this year. Here is today's assignment, a boil curing potion." He tapped the board behind him with his wand and a detailed list of ingredients showed up. "We are going to go over every step to make sure any dunderheads in the room fully understand the process before we start. The entire potion should take less than ten minutes to brew, so we will have plenty of time."
On the board the ingredients were listed as:
• 6 Snake Fangs
• 4 Horned Slugs
• 2 Porcupine Quills
"These are the primary ingredients for the potion, can anyone tell me what all of these ingredients have in common?"
Colin raised his hand and was called on. "They all sound sharp? Though a slug's horn isn't."
"Two points for Scamander. This is exactly right, including what you said about the slug. Boils need to be drained, and in potions, there is often more to an ingredient than its biological properties. You have to look at the symbolism in the potion and what ingredients symbolize the process. The slug is the middle ingredient as the texture of the slugs and the horn symbolize the boil and the puncturing. Does anyone have anything else they want to add?"
Harry raised his hand and was called on, "Do the type of snakes matter?"
Professor Snape almost smiled, "They do, what kind of snakes do you think would work best?"
Harry thought for a moment before responding, "Non-venomous snakes."
"Why would that be?"
"Any residual venom in the fangs and the... um... symbolism, of the teeth themselves would be for poisoning, not puncturing."
There was a half-second where Snape might have had a tiny smile on one side of his face, "Correct, Mr. Potter, take five points for Scamander." There was a gasp from a student at the back of the room, but Snape continued as if he hadn't heard it. "More often than not it will be the non-magical ingredients in a potion that their symbolism will be part of the effect while the magical ingredients will be used for their physical properties. I won't get into why at the moment."
He pointed towards the different instructions on the board, "Who can guess why we need to crush the snake fangs?" Harry was about to answer, but he saw a glare from Snape that said, "Wait." Another student answered incorrectly, so Snape explained. "Snakes are hostile to people, the act of crushing them asserts your dominance over them. Again, this is mostly symbolism but experienced potioneers will tell you that if your actions of crushing the fangs are powerful, you will get a better potion in the end." The assembled students were frantically scribbling down everything as Professor Snape paused for three seconds before jumping back in.
"Now, before you add the porcupine quills, you will need to dismiss the flame from the cauldron." There was a big red warning written on this line of the instructions to do just that. "A mistake at this step is what caused the Gryffindors last year to need to go to the infirmary. The same warning you see here was there then, so it was their own foolish mistake that ended with their cauldron exploding and having them covered with boils." Everyone in the room grimaced at the thought. "Who knows what a porcupine is?"
There were a few hesitant hands around the room, Snape called on a Hufflepuff girl. "It's like a badger, but it's covered with spikes?"
"Close enough, one point to Hufflepuff. Porcupines do not attack if not provoked, and when they do, they will cover their attacker in sharp quills which are difficult and painful to remove. In the field of potions, a property of porcupine quills is that, if they are added to a hostile potion - acids, venoms, or even those that are over an open flame; they will react violently. In this case, the contents will explode. The nature of the quills will have the nearest people magically targeted by the potion, so even hiding under a desk will not necessarily prevent you from being injured. Make sure to turn off the flame before adding the quills." He paused to make sure everyone understood the seriousness of the situation.
"Now the stirring, temperature, and number of ingredients in each step could be explained using arithmancy. Your homework for next week will be to look up the process for this potion and write an essay on all steps and as well as how you interpret the numerology in the potion. No minimum length to this assignment, but I do not want more than two sheets of parchment.
"Now, let's get started on your potion. Wash your hands, set up your tables, gather your ingredients, and prepare the snake fangs. I have marked the drawers in the cabinet for today's lesson."
Students started moving to prepare for the potion. Some students divided the responsibilities. However, Harry and Lyra did everything together, they didn't want to split up the duties because they wanted to learn everything and not miss a single detail. Crushing the snake fangs turned out to be slightly difficult but they found grinding with vigor created a finer powder. Harry made some notes about alternative ingredients and methods to ask Professor Snape later. Harry saw in Lyra's notes questions about using hoohoo flames as well.
Lyra did the wand-waving for their potion and then let the potion stew. Following the slugs being added to the potion, they dismissed the flame underneath and waited for the bubbles to stop before adding the porcupine quills, leaning back just in case there was a reaction. They stirred the potion five times clockwise which seemed odd because five was a number relating to instability. Lyra waved her wand again, the potion changed from a pink color to deep violet and Lyra raised her hand to show they were done.
Professor Snape came by and examined the color, the smell, and dipped a rat tail in for some reason before nodding and giving them five blue vials to fill with their potion. He moved on as they filled the vials and put stoppers in them. Five minutes later, the rest of their class had finished.
"All of your work was very good. For those of you I gave five vials to, you will get five points to your house. They were of the quality necessary to be used in the infirmary. Everyone who had a high-quality potion, please pair up with someone who didn't and re-do the potion."
Harry and Lyra reluctantly split up, Lyra went to work with a Slytherin girl, Harry partnered up with Gregory Goyle. Greg started by casually grinding up the fangs and Harry stopped him.
"You need to want to hurt them as if they insulted you," Harry told the boy.
"They're just snake fangs, they can't talk," Greg grunted.
"Yes, but it's your attitude that makes the better potion, get angry while you grind them."
Greg started grinding again, but Harry didn't think he was following the advice, so he punched the boy in the shoulder. Greg turned to him and was about to punch Harry back, but he stopped Greg and pointed at the fangs. Understanding what Harry did, he focused on pulverizing the fangs until they were a fine powder.
Greg followed the rest of the recipe with nudges from Harry to modify the way he was working until they finished. The potion was nearly the same color as it was with Lyra and Snape handed them five blue vials.
"Good job Greg," Harry said with encouragement. The stocky boy gave Harry a calculated look and nodded his head.
Nearly all of the new groups achieved the medical-grade potions and received five points to the brewer and two points to the student who had assisted.
Snape ended the class with a reminder. "Remember, homework is on the arithmancy of this potion as well as any symbolism you think is relevant, we will review your assignments in Thursday's class. Mr. Potter, Miss Black, please remain here after class."
Everyone filed out as Harry and Lyra remained behind, when they were alone, Lyra smiled and said, "That was fun! I like potions!"
Snape chuckled, "I wanted to see how both of you were doing, and to have Harry yell at my snake a bit more to keep him in line."
"Things are great! Though I miss the Hidden," Lyra said. "We were going to write a letter to Nestor and try to include fruit from here as a present for them since they can't read."
"Take your letter to Professor McGonagall when you finish it," Snape advised. "Owls won't fly that far so letters need to go by portkey to a local post office in the Philippines first. Also, ask her to put a preservation charm on the fruit before you send it."
"Have you milked your snake yet today?" Harry asked.
"Not yet, I wanted you to speak to him first."
They walked into Snape's office and the snake in his terrarium perked up.
§Speaker, you have returned§
Harry picked up a stirring rod on Snape's desk and walked over to the tank.
§The man here is going to take your venom, he will reward you with a snack when he is done.§
§Do you understand?§
The snake just hissed indignantly.
Harry repeated himself.
§Do you understand?§
The snake responded,
§Yes§
Harry smacked the snake on the head with the stirring rod.
§I am a commander, you will address me as such§
The snake peered back at him but responded
§Yes, commander§
Harry dug out a bit of snakeskin from his bag, and turned to Snape, "This one is going to take a while to break out of his habits. When you go to milk him, keep this skin in your pocket, but put it somewhere safe the rest of the time. It belongs to the Usurper and he won't dare to attack or show attitude when it is near. Try it now."
Snape took the skin and used a sticking charm to put it on the back of his hand. As he reached into the tank to pick up the snake, it recoiled from his hand and backed into the corner.
It was screaming.
§He is the kingsbane, he will kill me, keep him away!§
As Snape grabbed the snake, Harry said to him,
§He is not the kingsbane, I am an emissary of the kingsbane, but you do not need to fear us because you are a lesser snake. You are not a king.§
The snake couldn't respond as his mouth was on a milking jar pouring venom into the cup. Snape put the snake back in the tank when he was done and dropped a couple of small mice in as well, the snake immediately grabbing one and the other went to hide ineffectually in the corner of the terrarium.
"That was much easier than usual," Snape commented. He peeled off the skin and placed it in a small ingredient drawer on the wall.
"Can I try something else while I'm here?" asked Harry. "I want to see if the snakes in the Slytherin common room can hear me when I yell."
Snape nodded and Harry spoke in a more resonating tone of parseltongue.
§Snakes of Slytherin, can you hear me?§
It took a moment before he heard a few responses.
§A speaker?§
§Where are you?§
§We can hear you.§
Harry smiled.
§I am nearby, I am a lordling, an emissary of the Usurper, the kingsbane§
Harry heard the snake panicking,
§He comes to kill us! We must flee!§
Harry called back,
§You do not need to flee, lesser snakes§
§The kingsbane has not ordered your deaths§
§I may have uses for you in the future, remember my voice§
§I may send others to you bearing the scent of the kingsbane§
§They will not speak, but you are to submit to them§
Turning back to Snape, "Yes, they can hear me, I just wanted to let them know I was here."
He was still cautious around the parselmouth child, but he had done nothing yet to warrant suspicion of his actions or his magic. They said goodbye and headed to lunch.
They had double Herbology after lunch. Lyra looked at her timetable, she didn't know why they were called 'doubles.' All of their potions classes were doubles, and they had more like that each week than weren't. If anything their morning classes were just half periods.
For Herbology, they went to a warehouse near the greenhouses which had many large bins the size of dumpsters filled with dirt. Every so often they could see a worm about six inches long and an inch thick breach the surface of the soil before going back under.
"This warehouse is where we process our fertilizer," Professor Sprout began. "All organic waste from the school's kitchens and the animals that Hagrid looks after end up here. Different soil compositions are good for different plants, so we keep many mixes here. Some soils and fertilizers will kill a plant if used, while others might make the plant overly aggressive or too passive. Your homework for tonight will be reading about different fertilizers and soil types that work best with different plants."
"Right now, you're going to learn about the most important thing in this room - flobberworms." She then reached into one of the giant bins up to her elbow and pulled out a long worm. Both ends looked identical and it flailed around like a lazy snake in her hand. "Flobberworms are a Class X magical creature. Some might call it boring, but it just means they are not dangerous, they have no teeth or any way to harm you. They can even be cooked into fritters, and they will occasionally be served in the great hall."
There was some retching from the students, though Harry, Lyra, and Luna looked interested at the prospect of eating one. Lyra even asked, "Do they need to be cooked or can they be eaten raw?"
Another round of retching came from the other students, as Sprout replied, "I can't imagine anyone who would want to eat one raw, but I know some magical creatures do."
Luna asked, "Can we try one?"
Sprout looked very confused but was also intrigued, "I have never seen students interested in them, but I do not think it would be dangerous. If you would like to try one, only take one from the two bins closest to the entrance and hold it out of the dirt until it stops expelling dirt from its back end before eating it." She passed the one in her hand to Luna.
Harry was very curious about this girl who had engaged in a staring contest with Whispers and was also interested in eating a bug. He watched closely as she stared at the bug in her hand before biting into it without hesitation. Most of the class made noises of disgust as she chewed and swallowed it.
"It's not very tasty, but I wouldn't say no to eating one if I had to," Luna remarked casually.
Harry gave a boost to Lyra by another bin and she snagged two out of the dirt, passing one to Harry. They held theirs vertically as it processed all of the soil it had in itself out and then bit into them. Harry thought it tasted about the same as the bugs on the island, but with something else he couldn't put his finger or tongue on. With a look towards Lyra, he was pretty sure she was thinking the same thing. He shrugged and took another bite.
Now some of the other students were curious but when the first Hufflepuff took a bite they threw up on the floor. No one else tried it.
After an impromptu lesson on cleaning up vomit, Professor Sprout continued the lesson, "Flobberworms are very important for processing magical and non-magical organic materials and mixing them together. Each flobberworm keeps some of the material it has consumed in its body making it usable in specific potions depending on its diet. A flobberworm that has a diet of non-magical material or very basic magical material will often be used as part of a thickening solution or directly in a potion to make it more viscous. That being said, you will need to get used to extracting the mucus from them."
Another round of retching and disgusted noises came from most of the class. Professor Sprout pulled a table and rolling pin out from behind one of the dumpsters. The class fearfully looked on, knowing what was coming next. She took a flobberworm from a bin and placed it on the table. "Everyone watch, you will lose house points for looking away." Everyone stared, some of them through their fingers as their professor used the rolling pin to squeeze green mucus from the worm, even going back over it a second time to get every last drop out.
Professor Sprout then made each of them squish a flobber worm with a rolling pin and squeeze every last drop of mucus out of them. Most of the class was thoroughly disgusted by the end. Harry thought it was kind of fun. As they were leaving, he saw Professor Sprout throwing the skins back into the bins and he had an idea.
"Professor Sprout? Can I take a few of the skins? I wanted to try something with them."
She looked at the boy who killed a Dark Lord funny as he took a second bite of a live flobberworm. She handed him five skins of the worms, "Let me know how it turns out."
Before he headed to lunch, he went back to the common room and climbed the tree that Whispers was hanging out in. He tossed one of the skins to the little hidden. He ate it quickly and reached to take another.
"No, I want to try something with these," he told Whispers. Taking some string from his pocket, he hung them from the top branches to dry out. "Don't touch these, I'll bring you some juicy ones later."
Whispers licked his lips but turned back to Harry and brushed off his hair, tilting his head he growled to Harry, "Neeeed haat." Then he signed [Hot, Water, Clean].
Harry led him to the bathroom and showed him the taps on the bathroom, and filled him up a warm tub, leaving him to soak. He thought, "maybe if we can't get a hot spring for us, we can get it for Whispers. Dougal might also like it."
After lunch, all of the first-years from every house ran down to the quidditch pitch for their first flying lesson. They were all excited for a chance to fly. Lyra even seemed to glide down the hill towards the stadium as she bounded between steps. They were met by a woman who looked like she could be Ollivander's younger sister; she had the same wiry hair as he did, before the hair potion, and the same yellow eyes that seemed to glow. She was surrounded by brooms which everyone immediately lined up next to.
Harry stared around at the seating above them. In one of the middle sections, five students were sitting and watching. Harry recognized Oliver Wood, Marcus Flint, and Cedric. There were also two students from Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw as well. He waved to them and Cedric and Oliver waved back.
The teacher addressed them, "Today all of you will start your flying lessons. We are holding your classes in the quidditch stadium after an accident last year that injured a student. We can enchant the ground here to be softer to lessen any injuries from students that fall from the sky when they don't follow instructions."
All of the assembled first-years paid frightful attention to the teacher. "My name is Madam Rolanda Hooch. I am not a professor at Hogwarts, I was hired by the Department of Magical Games and Sports at the Ministry to instruct new students on how to fly broomsticks. With everyone at their brooms, I want you to pick them up and space yourselves out so you cannot touch another student or their broomsticks with yours. If you wave your broom around and hit another student, you will sit on the bench for the rest of the lesson."
Despite that warning, two students from Gryffindor were placed on the bench when their brooms touched and they started sword fighting with them.
"Now that we have enough space, place your brooms back on the ground. All brooms have a standard enchantment on them to come to your hand when called. Like all magic, your intent is a big part of how it works. You will need to stand to the side of your broom, place your wand hand above it and command the broom with the word, 'Up.' Once you do so it should come to your hand. When it does, swing your leg over and sit. Do not move or fly up when that happens. Ready? Go!"
A chorus of 'UP!' was heard as brooms jumped up, or didn't. About half the class had to repeat their command a few times. Lyra's broom flew straight into her hand as did Ginny's. Harry came to his hand as well but moved slightly slower than his sister's. As Harry sat down on his broom, he felt a magical cushion on the broom supporting him so he wasn't sitting directly on the wood. Once everyone had mounted their brooms, Madam Hooch told them to put the brooms back down by simply dismounting and dropping the broom from their hand.
Everyone repeated the process four more times until they could all mount their brooms with ease. Next, they were told to push off the ground but keep the nose of their broom flat and their arms straight. Some people moved back and forth and one person shot forward uncontrollably to be stopped by a spell from the teacher till he could stay still on his own. Eventually, everyone hovered in one place. Harry was able to stay perfectly still and could see the desire on Lyra's face to speed off like the boy who had to be stopped. Ginny, on the other hand, looked bored.
Slowly they were allowed to take one lap around the stadium about five feet off the ground. Three more students got benched for flying higher or faster than the teacher leading the group. All the benched students were given Saturday detention to practice more. Flying was a half-period, so it was over quickly, though everyone was filled with energy.
Following flying, all of the students from the class had to report to History of Magic. Harry and Lyra were excited to learn about all the things that had been done and all the great witches and wizards of the past. They didn't get that.
After ten minutes of listening to their ghostly teacher, Professor Binns, talk about their class and summarizing the history of goblin wars they would be covering in the class, Arthur remarked that maybe they just put this class after flying to calm everyone down. Two students seemed to have already fallen asleep. Luckily it was another half-period, so it was over just as Lyra's eyelids started to get heavy.
Before dinner, Harry and Lyra made the trek to find the Ravenclaw common room. There weren't many things on the fifth floor, and they eventually found a corridor with a door at the end that had a door knocker in the shape of an eagle. Harry reached up and knocked.
The head of the eagle turned to look at them and spoke, "I have lakes with no water, mountains with no stone, and cities with no buildings. What am I?"
"It's a riddle," Harry said. "Like when Bilbo and Gollum exchanged in the cave."
They thought for a few minutes before Lyra called out, "It's a map!"
Harry smiled and gave her a piece of candy as the eagle said, "It is indeed," and the door opened. They walked into the room cautiously. The common room was four stories tall with one large window that stretched all the way to the ceiling and looked out over the grounds. There was a small balcony that curved around the room and ended at the tall window at each level above them. The ceiling at the very top showed a starlit sky like their room, but this one had stars in the daytime. The room was adorned in deep royal blue, bronze finishing, and deep brown woods. There wasn't a speck of bare wall anywhere. Every wall had a bookcase, a map, a globe, a tapestry, or something else providing information on it, though it was mostly bookshelves.
A couple of people stared at them as they walked in, but they saw a couple of Slytherin students in there as well and a solitary Hufflepuff, so others must be welcome here. Harry and Lyra walked across the room and looked out the window at the grounds below.
"Hi there Harry," Harry turned around to see Robert Hillard speaking to him. "I see you got through the door, are you and Lyra just exploring the castle?"
Lyra spoke up quietly, "We came to see Hermione."
"Thank you for giving us the chance to snag her from Gryffindor, she put us to shame last year by snagging the top spot for her year. Ravenclaw has always held that for every class year, so now she won't interrupt our streak again. I'll go get her for you."
After Robert left, they turned to look at the bookshelves near the window. Each shelf had a brass plate on it with a student's name. Soon they found a shelf for 'Hermione Granger.' Harry looked through the titles and found several books that looked like muggle fantasy books. Towards one end, Lyra found The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit.
Harry walked past the Tolkien books and found Redwall, but he didn't just find that book, he found Mossflower, Mattimeo, Mariel of Redwall, and Salamandastron. Harry's eyes went wide as he picked up Mossflower.
"They made more!" he exclaimed, showing it to Lyra who looked a bit confused. "Remember on the ship," he started and then shook the bad memory off, "remember when I finished The Hobbit and started trying to recite the other book from memory?"
Lyra tried to recall it but had trouble remembering the details. "I remember you spoke about some animals and a sword."
"That was it!" Harry picked up the copy of Redwall to show Lyra. This book looked a bit fragile. The front cover was torn and seemed to be sewn back together and had a few bandaids on the spine. Harry looked at it funny like something was tickling his brain.
"Be careful with that," came a voice from behind him. He turned around to see Hermione there, and it all clicked into place. The holiday party at Grunnings, the girl with bushy hair reading Redwall, the ripped book, and Dudley getting wrapped up in the chair.
Harry's eyes widened, "It was you!" he approached Hermione with his eyes wide, and she jumped back. "You were the girl with the book!" Hermione looked at him strangely. Harry held up the copy of Redwall, "I was at the party before my cousin tore your book!"
Recognition crossed Hermione's face and her eyes went wide, "That was you? Your cousin is that horrible Dursley boy? Why weren't you at any of the other parties?" She was quiet for a moment, "Oh my God, I met Harry Potter when I was a little kid." Her eyes grew even wider as she exclaimed in a loud whisper, "Harry Potter likes Redwall."
Harry tried to figure out what was going on, "Yes my cousin is Dudley Dursley. What other parties? My relatives, um, sent me away later that year and I wasn't around. I didn't know they made any other books. Can I read them?"
Lyra had snuck up behind Harry and was watching them talk. Hermione looked down and saw her. "Lyra! Thanks for coming, I'm just incredibly confused right now. I met your… brother a long time ago."
"Remember when I told you about when my cousin got wrapped up in the chair?" Harry asked Lyra. "That girl was Hermione."
"You hurt Harry's cousin?" Lyra asked.
"I guess so? I'm sorry."
"Don't be, I'm sure he deserved it." Lyra's hair let off a few sparks causing Hermione to jump back a bit.
"He did, I have to see him every year at that party. My parents still do business with Grunnings through Uncle Joey, so we still go. Last year, when I found out I had magic, I threatened to tie him up in a chair again and he left me alone for the first time so I could just read in peace. Every year before that he would always bother me at some point in the evening."
Harry was getting a bit angry that his cousin had been celebrating and enjoying himself the entire time when he had been shipped away. He hadn't changed a bit after Harry had gone. Lyra felt him tensing up and tugged on his robes to snap him out of it. He shook his head to clear himself up.
"So the Redwall books, there have been four more?" He said to clear his head, more than to continue the conversation.
"Yes!" Hermione exclaimed happily, "and Jacques says that next year he's finally going to release the full story of Martin the Warrior!"
That had been Harry's biggest wish after reading the book. Now he just needed to catch up. "May I borrow your books? I need to catch up."
"Of course!" She said, but in a more subdued tone added, "though you can't take them out of the Ravenclaw Tower. I always had trouble in Gryffindor with people taking my books, so I had a prefect here put anti-theft spells on all of them."
"That's cool, I hope I don't have a problem with that. I can just come back here though and answer a riddle?"
"Definitely, but back to why you're here, I need to have another student look at how Lyra does the tracking spell with the feathers. I'll be right back," and Hermione ran off.
Looking down to Lyra, "When you're done with The Hobbit, you need to come up here and read the Redwall books. Or wait, if you want, you could probably read Hermione's copy of The Hobbit up here."
Lyra smiled, and quietly said, "I'll keep reading in the tree with you and Whispers."
Hermione came back quickly with the tall girl that had helped them check out their book about the golden snidget, "My name is Penelope Clearwater, I am assisting the librarian on her catalog project. From what Hermione has told me, you have a very innovative solution to the project."
Harry nudged Lyra forward a bit, "I guess? It wasn't very hard."
"Sometimes the simplest solution is the one that works best," Penelope said. "Let's move to the project room and see how this works." With that, she walked away towards a staircase and the others followed.
They reached the second floor of the common room and approached a large metal door. On the side of the door was a large sliding handle that pointed to five brass plaques. The plaques read; Dueling Practice, Potions Lab, Steven's Project, Library Catalogue, and Boggart. Penelope reached up and slid the handle down until it was pointing at the plaque that said 'Library Catalogue.' Once it was in place she opened the metal door.
Inside there was a small model library with one of the card desks in the middle. There were bookcases on all the walls, but the ceiling was standard height. Hermione ran over to the center of the room and tapped the desk with her wand and it glowed slightly. She scribbled on the desk, "Harry Potter," and a card came out.
"There's a book about me?" Harry asked.
Penelope gave him a strange look, "Of course there are, aside from historical books on the fall of You-Know-Who, there's a whole adventure series about your childhood."
"What? Who wrote them?" asked Harry.
"I don't remember the name right now, but there's a set in the school library. The first in the series is called Harry Potter and the Immortal Warlocks. You can look them up if you like."
Harry wasn't sure what to say, he surely hadn't had any experiences with immortal warlocks as a child, so he just nodded to Penelope. Harry picked up the card on the table, the book that it pulled up was "The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts." He passed the card to Lyra who pulled out her staff and a feather from her pouch. Pressing the feather to the card, she tapped it with the top of her staff making it glow for a second before it zipped off to a stick into a book on the shelves. Penelope walked over to it and checked that it had gone to the correct book.
Pulling it out, she remarked, "Impressive."
"Percy cast a spell on it to leave a trail as it flew," Lyra mentioned.
Hermione started digging in her bag as Penelope responded with a dreamy look in her eyes, "Yeah, he's pretty smart."
"No, it was Wood who cast the feather trail spell, not Percy," Harry corrected.
"It was Ollie?" Penelope asked with surprise. "Hmmm, ok," she smiled a bit.
Hermione pulled out a metal box and put it on the table. "I had this made by Fred and George after I met you Lyra. They probably had the same idea." She opened the box to show ten inkwells, all in different colors. "They made these potions that they said would do the same thing as the spell Oliver did. Let's try it again."
Penelope cast the same golden dome spell that Madam Pince had done in the library. The three girls went to work with Penelope monitoring the diagnostic spell while Lyra would dip feathers in the ink and send them to different books. Each color ink would create a different color trail for the feather. Hermione furiously scribbled down notes as she watched. Harry watched the first two, but then sat down to read The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts to look for where it mentioned him.
He found it in the section about 'You-Know-Who.' Luckily they also explained why people called him by that name too. There was a taboo spell placed on the country that alerted his followers to anyone who said his name aloud, then they would kill that person. Harry remembered some kids in primary school used to tell him if he said the name of a ghost three times in a mirror she would reveal herself and kill him. It sounded stupid, but he still didn't dare to say the name. Though it didn't explain why people were afraid of writing it too.
Harry was mentioned in the section about the fall of the Dark Lord that he attacked their home and Harry used some unknown power to reflect the killing curse and destroy the Dark Lord, blowing him up and the entire roof of the house they were in as well. The author of the book speculated that he was able to do this because of some hidden magical power in his blood and that the Potter family had always been powerful wizards. The only mention of his mother referred to her as "James Potter's muggleborn wife."
When it was almost dinner, Penelope announced, "I think I've got it." She placed a feather on the card and wove her wand in an intricate pattern over the top while muttering, "invenire venari occiditis!"
The feather jumped up off the card and sped into the book at a greater speed than Lyra's attempts, causing the feather to catch fire as it flew and it exploded on contact. Hermione quickly cast a spell that extinguished the fire and then pulled the burnt books from the shelves.
"That was amazing!" Harry exclaimed excitedly but then added in a quieter tone, "But probably not what you were trying to do."
Penelope nodded, "That might make a good dueling spell, but not a library spell."
"It's getting close to dinner now, I think Penelope can finish the spell on her own now, right?" Hermione mentioned.
Penelope nodded and Harry, Hermione, and Lyra headed down to the great hall.
Hermione pondered out loud, "I can't believe you're Dudley's cousin! He's a horrible boy, how could Harry Potter be related to him?"
"I wish I wasn't," Harry said grimly, "I really don't want to talk about him."
"I'm sorry, it's just so weird."
They continued walking in silence until they got to the great hall. Hannah saw them enter and ran up to him.
"I found a room for your meeting!" she exclaimed.
Author's Note: I know Lockhart's original quote about smiling was about the Bandon Banshee, I'm just guessing he switched off to different monsters each class so his routine didn't get stale.
Author's Note 2: McGonagall's pud pud moment was inspired by the webcomic "My Life as a Background Slytherin" by emilyscartoons. If you haven't had a good laugh recently, I highly recommend it, and if you have had a good laugh recently I also highly recommend it. If you've already read everything she has, read it again and check out her graphic novel too.
Author's Note 3: Yeah, I know Greg is in his second year, just keep reading.
Casting Options -
Lockhart: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau - The guy who played Jamie Lannister in Game of Thrones.
Madam Hooch: Meryl Streep, I'm assuming she would accept the role for the film adaptation of my fic because it doesn't actually exist and because if it did, it wouldn't take her too much time as it is just a side character and she could continue to focus on better parts and other elements of her most likely amazing life. I assume her life is almost as legendary as Prince's.
The Ravenclaw Door Knocker: Tress MacNeille, she does so many voices, but I think how she does Martha Stewart's head on Futurama would be best.
