Lily's Journal 4
11/16/14 - 1/31/15: Chapter 4
Year 1; Part 2
Harry woke up a bit late on the morning of Tuesday December 24th, after his long day of snowball fights and studying and practicing magic but was still one of the first of the students to arrive at the Great Hall for breakfast. After his quick meal, he returned to the classroom to practice his magic, endurance, and aim eager to learn and really master the few spells Tonks taught him and his snow fight teammates. By lunch time he had really built up a sweat and a good appetite and ended up eating a bit more than normal as he often did after exhausting himself, and was happy to find Tonks at the meal waving him over to sit with her.
She offered to show him some spells if he wanted, to which he instantly agreed, and followed her after lunch to an abandoned classroom near the Hufflepuff common room that she used for spell practice and dueling. Over the next few hours, the seventh year worked through several helpful spells she thought Harry could learn and benefit from as many were for dueling and Defense which she knew he wasn't learning from Professor Quirrell. She also suggested that if he wanted to be a great duelist, he should really beef up on his Transfiguration, as masters of that field were practically unbeatable especially in real life fights and not just authorized duels.
When she went on to explain all the uses and benefits of Transfiguration in a duel or fight, Harry was blown away and realized that he now had a whole other field of study to concentrate more on. As he had pretty much only been doing the required work in Transfiguration figuring it would all get covered eventually and there were other classes where he needed more instruction to learn properly. He was still among the better first year students, but he really hadn't done much beyond that like he was doing for Charms and Defense especially, and decided that he would follow Tonks' suggestion even more so when she explained some of the other many uses of Transfiguration beyond just dueling.
She explained that as a metamorph, she was already predisposed to Transfiguration magic and it came easier to her and was the reason she would probably be accepted into Auror training. Harry, having read about the bloodline traits of families but not how they worked or were expressed and discovered, asked her if there were levels of metamorph ability and how she discovered her talent. She said from a young age her hair would change colors to match her moods, and that she had one of the most advanced talents as documented by the Ministry of Magic records department, and yes there were levels of ability the most often seen was what was called the Protein Metamorph.
Protein Metamorphs could change only those parts of the body that were protein based like hair, nails, and eyes but couldn't shift their skeletal or muscular systems like she could. Harry then asked about how to know, as he wondered about never needing hair-cuts or having to trim his fingernails which got Tonks excited as it could be he was a protein metamorph. It made them both wonder about Harry's ancestry, and if he had Black blood in his past, and if they could train him up in the metamorph skill.
Harry promised to research his family tree to look for Black ancestry, and Tonks promised to help him practice and see if he could really be a metamorph as well as continuing to aid him in learning new spells and increasing his Transfiguration ability. In return, Harry offered to be Tonks' sparring partner and moving target to help her with aiming and dueling in preparation for her entry into the Auror Academy. They were both happy with the arrangement as it provided for them something they needed and wanted without too many drawbacks other than their time spent helping each other, which in turn would make what they were getting from each other even better.
The Christmas Eve meal was pretty impressive, and Harry returned to his common room stuffed and excited that tomorrow he would wake up to Christmas morning, and hoped his friends liked the gifts he sent them with Hedwig. He also put together a small collection of chocolate that he had bought the other day and decided to give to Tonks, and asked a school owl to deliver it to her along with a note before getting out a book and sitting in the best chair by the fire that was usually occupied by an upper classmen. The rest of the evening was spent enjoying the book and the hot chocolate that the house elf Luddy who took care of their common room dropped off for him.
Harry woke up the following morning excited for his first Christmas in the magical world, and was shocked to see the pile of presents at the foot of his bed. He quickly got a dressing gown on and took all his gifts down to the common room where he again settled into his new favorite chair in front of the fire and began opening all his gifts, absentmindedly thanking Luddy for the hot chocolate that appeared on the side table. He received candy and chocolates from Tonks and Professor Flitwick, books from almost everyone else.
Terry sent him one on Charms, Anthony's was on Transfiguration, Tracy's was on potions, Blaise's was on Ancient Runes, Neville's was on Defense, Hermione's was on history, and Daphne's was a rare volume about wards that was very valuable. Hagrid sent him a carved wooden flute which was pretty and he hoped to learn a bit about it so he could play it, and a final gift was left with only a note that it belonged to his father and should be returned to him and use it well which was unsigned. It contained a beautiful shimmering cloak that when he tried it on his whole body disappeared, causing him to realize it was an invisibility cloak and very well made as he read that their enchantments rarely lasted more than ten to fifteen years and this was used by his father and still looked as good as new.
Knowing that the invisibility cloak was extremely valuable and rare as well belonging to his father, Harry put it up in his room to keep it safe as he went down to the Great Hall for breakfast and then some studying. That day was spent almost exclusively reading over and practicing all his Transfiguration to ensure he had truly mastered all the early spells and had a good foundation to build on going forward. He then pulled out all the supplemental reading he had on the subject and started going through it as well, eager to get better and learn some of the tricks Tonks talked about.
Later that evening, he also went through the customization catalogue from the trunk shop he visited with Professor Flitwick, and decided on getting a five compartment one that was pretty special. One compartment for a wardrobe and school supplies, one potion laboratory and supply closet, one dueling chamber, one enormous library, and one small one bedroom and one bath flat with kitchenette for when he was stuck at the Dursleys over summer. He filled out the forms and authorized a withdrawal from his Gringotts' account in the amount of seven hundred galleons due to the extra security and protection spells he had added and could hardly wait the estimated four weeks for it to be completed.
The rest of the break was spent learning spells and practicing with Tonks whenever she wanted to get together, and otherwise reading up on everything in Transfiguration that he could get his hands on. He joined another snow ball fight with the Weasley twins, and even traded a few spells and prank ideas he read about from his mum's journal that the Marauders had pulled off for some intel on the secret passages and areas of the school as well as future assistance in potions tutoring and help. He had heard them discussing one of their experimental potion to such a degree, that he knew the pair where very talented in the subject and would hopefully give him a boost knowing that despite not acting horribly to him, Professor Snape would probably never truly like him.
The only other thing to happen during the break, was Harry exploring the castle a bit with his invisibility cloak, which was why he decided to enlist the help of the twins after getting lost so many times. He did encounter a pretty ornate mirror in one of the abandoned classrooms that showed his "deepest desires" according to the mirrored inscription, where he got to see his parents standing beside him, but otherwise made him feel a little uneasy. By the time the other students came back, Harry was both excited to see his friends again, and also sad that all his free time and most especially his practicing with Tonks was going to be severely depleted.
Padma and Su were both really happy to see him and learn all the new spells he had been working on, and thanked him profusely for the books he got them from the Rare Books Collection of Flourish & Blotts. They had both coordinated and talked with their families, and invited him to spend two weeks at each of their houses over the summer break, with Su housing him the first half of August and Padma taking them both for the second half of the month, while her sister also had Lavender Brown over. Harry was quick to agree, thinking it great to get out of the Dursley house earlier than expected and surprised both girls and himself when he gave them each a hug, having gotten slightly more used to them from Tonks over the last two weeks.
The second half of the school year though quickly picked up where the other left off, and soon Harry and his friends and study group were back to practicing everything and studying ahead in their spare time. Anthony especially was really excited about the greater focus on Transfiguration during spell practices, and even more excited when Harry explained to them all why it was such a valuable skill in dueling and so many other things. The group continued to dominate the top spots in practically every subject, and were even joined in the library on occasion by the other Ravens in their year as well as a few Hufflepuffs.
Harry continued to meet Tonks about once a week for pretty grueling spell practice and dueling exercises, that he then turned around and tried to teach his friends on their weekend practices to varying degrees of success. Neville and Daphne were actually the two strongest duelists behind Harry, with Padma, Blaise, and Su just a bit behind them, but they all worked hard to learn the spells well and practice them both in controlled settings as well as during the chaos that was a magical duel. Tonks too was really impressed with Harry's continual improvement, and often joked that she wished she had met him earlier or that she had another year with him to really see some competition in their practices.
In the middle of February, Harry received his new custom trunk from the creator, and was beyond thrilled with how well it turned out and quickly began making it into his second home away from Hogwarts for when he was stuck at Privet Drive. The apartment was only furnished with the basics, but Harry was fine with that as it was still loads better than his current bedroom at the Dursley house and he couldn't wait to get some use out of it. He tested out the dueling chamber a few times, and began loading all his books into the library compartment, realizing that he had a real long way to go to filling it and couldn't be happier about it.
He had begged and pleaded with Tonks to help him put up a ward on the trunk to let him perform magic inside without letting any magic escape to set off the underage sensors that were no doubt surrounding the Dursleys' house. She reluctantly agreed after complaining good naturedly for a bit about how unfair it would be for others until he pointed out that she herself had told many tales of magic use during the summer because her parents were magical and she wasn't monitored too closely by them. Since she had exploited one of the loopholes, and had not yet actually joined the Ministry's police force, she relented and walked Harry through the steps of setting up the containment ward on the trunk to not let active magic escape.
The setting of the ward came surprisingly easy to Harry after having the process explained to him, and he realized that his Family's affinity for that type of magic might in fact be very true and only caused him to want to learn even more about Ancient Runes. As they were the major stepping stones for warding of almost every kind, he quickly pulled aside a few texts from the library to read in his spare time, and ordered a few more books from Flourish & Blotts when he found ones highly recommended. He didn't have too much free time though to read ahead on a subject he wouldn't be taking for over another year, but got the very basics so he could follow up with it over the summer when he had nothing else to do but study things that interested him.
It was during Easter Break, that Harry got some time to work with the Weasley twins on potions, and for several days the threesome was holed up in an abandoned classroom the twin redheads had taken over the year previous. They discussed dozens of alternative methods and ingredients they had learned of through experimentation and practice, and completely revolutionized how Harry thought about the art of potion making and the broad spectrum of options and results one could work towards. Harry had kept really good notes from their tutoring lesson and tried to recreate it for his friends a few times towards the end of the year with some successes, mainly Tracy and Su who both got the most out of the lessons and Neville who needed the most help in the subject despite his total mastery of Herbology.
Another interesting thing to happen, was Hagrid landing himself in some trouble when it was discovered he was trying to raise a baby dragon after said dragon burned down his hut on the grounds in early April. Harry who felt bad for his first friend in the Wizarding World, and hadn't spent as much time as he would have liked with the friendly half-giant, decided to cut a few practices short so he could visit the man after such an unfortunate loss as the dragon was shipped away to a reserve. During one such visit, he learned that he also owned a Cerebus that was currently guarding the third floor out of bounds corridor to protect something for Dumbledore and Nicholas Flamel the famous Alchemist.
It wasn't a hard jump for Harry to realize that the Philosopher's Stone was currently being held as bait inside a school full of children, and hoped that whatever scheme was being cooked up, that he wouldn't be brought into it. He thought back to his first trip to DIagon Alley with Hagrid, and could barely remember the gentle giant picking up the stone in Gringotts as it was only moments after he retrieved his mum's journal, and also remembered another conversation he had with the man that day about Voldemort still being out there somewhere. He had a few days afterwards of some serious introspection and thinking about what all of this could mean, and why it would happen during his first year of school and didn't like any of the conclusions he came to about the obviously baited trap with the Stone.
Luckily for him, he was not a brash Gryffindor that went charging into a fight completely blind, and began slowly learning a few curse and ward detection spells that he could handle, as well as a few spells of the slightly more physically aggressive nature, in case he ended up against something he would rather not have to face armed with only the most basic of spells. He also made sure he always had on his belt with his dagger and a small supply of healing potions as well a few of the more volatile concoctions the Weasley twins had taught him in case of emergency. He knew that as a first year he really wasn't prepared to fight anyone face to face, but hoped that if the worst came to pass like he thought it would based on his luck and feeling of doom, that he could at least surprise someone who underestimated him enough to possibly escape or survive.
All that preparation though took a back seat when his friends realized that they were quickly approaching exams for the year, and their studying increased dramatically in intensity and frequency. Hermione was the worst culprit of exam anxiety, but luckily she only occasionally joined them in the library and they started seeing even less of her as the exams neared as she was better off studying alone most of the time. The rest were only minorly worried, as they knew they would pass all their classes, and only wanted to ensure that they maintained their top spots they held all year and knew that few of the other first years were as capable as them.
Harry also learned from Hagrid during one of his visits, that several unicorns had been found dead and drained of blood within the Forbidden Forest that he had to find and bury, and was really upset about it. Harry wondered what exactly would attack and harm a unicorn, and had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with the location of the Philosopher's Stone being hidden inside the castle. The only positive news out of the horrible story, was that Hagrid had collected hundreds of unicorn tail hairs that he let Harry go through and select a few as a gift before he took them to Ollivander for wands.
He didn't know what exactly he would do with them, but thought it would be nice to have them to maybe experiment with later as they were very valuable and rare magical items. After mentioning the unicorn deaths to Padma and Su, they were really worried about what was attacking the beautiful creatures and agreed with Harry's understanding that it probably had to do with the Stone they had talked about amongst themselves. They hadn't shared their knowledge though with any of the others, as Harry felt it was almost too dangerous to know about and had only told those two as they were present when he first heard from Hagrid about the protections in the out of bounds corridor and Nicholas Flamel.
Before the friends knew it, they had arrived at the exams for the end of the year with only two weeks left of the semester that would be filled with their individual classes final exams. Over the next several days, Harry cruised along passing all of his exams relatively easily as it was rare he encountered any questions on the written portions or magic on the practical sessions that he didn't know well. By the time of his last exam, History of Magic he was glad to be finishing, and wondering why they kept Professor Binns around as he only ever taught or tested them about Goblin rebellions which represented a very small percentage of their rich and long history.
As Harry was hanging out with some of his fellow Ravenclaws after the final History exam out on the grounds, there was a lot of discussion on the ghost teacher's fascination with the goblins and a lot of speculation on how much better the class would be if they didn't have a teacher at all. Harry did notice, that Professor Dumbledore walked across the grounds and then surprisingly got on a broom and took off heading south once outside of the school's gates. He had a sinking feeling that with the end of year so close, whoever was after the Philosopher's Stone would use the Headmaster's absence as their opportunity to go after it and once again hoped he wouldn't be dragged into the whole mess.
Those wishes were dashed an hour later, when they were joined by Neville and Hermione, who both confronted Harry about someone being after the Stone since Professor Dumbledore was gone and that it was up to them to protect it. Harry argued that a bunch of First Year students, no matter how smart would be no match for the professors' many protections, and if someone did manage to get through them all, he trusted Dumbledore enough to be aware of any attempt and capable of getting back to the school quickly if needed. When he couldn't convince the pair to leave it alone, and they outright refused to back down he resigned himself to going along to help prevent the pair from getting seriously hurt.
While he knew he could no longer prevent Hermione and Neville for going after the stone, bloody Gryffindor rashness, he was able to convince Padma and Su to stay behind and get help, preferably from Tonks before they went to Professor Flitwick or the other teachers. He thought about going straight to Tonks, but knew that she still had one more NEWT exam to sit the next day and didn't want to hurt her chances at getting into the Auror Academy as Potions was a required and very difficult class for her. By dinner time, his nerves were getting the better of him, and with the anxious expressions on Neville's and Hermione's faces he almost thought they were going to get caught before they even went as they already looked suspicious and guilty.
After his meal, he returned to his dorm room, and made sure he had all his emergency potions, dagger, and invisibility cloak secured on him in preparation before heading towards the third floor corridor to meet up with Hermione and Neville. Both Padma and Su gave him slightly tearful and scared hugs, wishing him a safe return while simultaneously berating him for being so Gryffindorish and demanding he return to them in one piece. They also promised to cover for him as long as he promised to be careful and not do anything too stupid.
When Harry reached the third floor corridor, he found Neville and Hermione waiting on him, both looking terrified but also stubbornly resigned to follow through with their intentions of going down to protect the stone from Professor Snape who they were convinced was the thief. Harry thought that Snape was just too obvious to be the culprit, as he had read about his Potion Professor's history, and knew that he was Dumbledore's man through and through regardless of how much of an arse he usually was to all the students not in his House. But trying to get Hermione to change her mind on anything was next to impossible, so he left it alone and just agreed that they should keep an open mind.
He tried one more time to convince them that they didn't need to go after the stone, as Dumbledore was more than likely capable of protecting it even if he was spending the entire night at the Ministry in London as Neville believed, but they were adamant. So it was that the three first year students approached the door they all now knew led to Fluffy's chamber, and Harry casted his detection charms at the door. Finding an alert ward tied into the castle's wards that he assumed let Dumbledore know the moment anyone crossed the threshold of the door was unsurprising, and he tried unsuccessfully to use that as another reason the stone was safe.
After Hermione's quick alohamora, the door was open and the three first years went through the door with a slight pulse of magic that Harry knew meant that Dumbledore was now aware of their arrival due to the alert ward, and found Fluffy snoring loudly on the floor in the middle of the room. An enchanted harp was playing a soft lullaby, and had apparently put the ferocious dog to sleep allowing them to quickly move his paw off the trap door in the floor and for them to jump into the darkness blindly. They only fell about two stories before landing in something relatively soft and forgiving, but that quickly turned a little tense as they felt it moving and closing in around their limbs.
Neville quickly identified it as Devil's Snare, and the trio were almost immediately all casting lighting or fire spells in Harry's case as it forced the aggressive plant to retreat from around them and allowed them to fall through another two meters or so onto a stone floor with only a long unlit dark tunnel spread out before them. Neville was a little in awe of the huge expanse of Devil's Snare, having got a real good look at the sizable plant when the room was lit up momentarily and instantly began thinking about getting a few cuttings to take back to his greenhouse at home. Harry and Hermione had to remind the boy that if they made it out of this safely, that they would help him take all the cuttings he wanted as they waited down here for someone to rescue them as they currently had no way to get back up to Fluffy's room.
As the trio walked down the dark and narrow stone hallway, Harry felt another alert ward trigger just before they saw some light emerge from ahead of them and wondered what obstacle it would bring. It ended up being a tall room full of flying keys and a pair of broomsticks that were to be used to catch the right one for the locked door ahead of them that wouldn't open under any of the unlocking spells they knew. As both Neville and Hermione were both terrified of heights or brooms in general, it was up to Harry to catch the large bronze key with the broken wing and he briefly entertained not catching it and stopping their pursuit of the thief but by this point he too was starting to get into it.
"So we've dealt with Hagrid's Cerebus, Professor Sprout's Devil's Snare, Professor Flitwick's charmed keys, how many more teachers do you think provided some of the protections?" asked Hermione after Harry had tracked down the already somewhat disabled key relatively easily and the group moved through the door into a large dark room.
"This chess set is definitely McGonagall's," answered Harry as the room was lit with torch brackets and the large oversized chess pieces and board loomed in front of them. "I've heard she is a big fan from Professor Flitwick, as he sometimes complains about always losing to her in their weekly games."
"She and Professor Flitwick play chess every week?" asked a wide eyed Hermione, seemingly a little uncomfortable to think about her Head of House and idol playing what she considered a frivolous game.
"The professors are real people and do have lives Hermione," retorted Harry with a bit of a smirk at her affronted expression.
"I know that," she snapped slightly embarrassed, as Harry and Neville both smiled at each other despite the still tense nature of where they were. "Do either of you smart alec's play chess?"
"I do," answered Neville somewhat sheepishly, "my Gran always makes me play."
"Good," answered Harry, "because while I know the game, I haven't actually played too much and am not too sure if I'm any good."
Neville then directed Hermione to act as the King, as that piece would be the most protected and he didn't know if she would be capable of attacking the other pieces in a game of Wizarding Chess. He took over for the King side Knight, and had Harry take over the Queen as she was the most aggressive and active of all the pieces and he knew Harry would fit the part well. For the next twenty minutes, Neville had Harry and himself mainly going around the board taking out as many pieces as they could, and it was quickly apparent that Neville knew what he was doing.
There were a few close calls where Neville almost didn't see a critical move in time, but as the game wore to a close the three friends were still standing and had the black pieces on the ropes. After another few minutes, Harry was directed to checkmate the opposing King, and after the Black King threw down his crown in defeat, the trio celebrated their victory and Hermione even gave Neville a big hug and kiss on the cheek that had him blushing such a deep red Harry could only laugh. Hermione too had quite the blush on her cheeks after realizing what she did, but was quick to hold her head up and ignore Harry's laughter.
The next room they entered had them all gagging at the smell of a pair of dead mountain trolls, and sobered the three of them immediately as they all remembered that they were chasing a thief and a killer. By the looks of it a very dangerous one at that if it could successfully take out a pair of four meter tall trolls without even really showing the signs of a fight. For the first time since this journey down the third floor corridor began, both Hermione and Neville were having doubts and reconsidering the many warnings that Harry tried to get them to see.
As they left the troll room, Harry once again felt another alert ward go off, and began to wonder if they were truly alerting the Headmaster or if the Headmaster was simply not responding because he wanted to test them. It was not a nice thought, but Harry had long suspected Professor Dumbledore of being a little off his rocker, and if his Slytherin friends were to be believed also a master manipulator. As they made their way through the obstacles meant to protect a Philosopher's Stone that could not even really trouble three first year students his worries continued and grew.
Why would the protections be this easy? Why even announce the floor as off limits painting a big target on it? Why have Hagrid collect the stone while taking Harry around Diagon Alley? Why go through such an elaborate obstacle course rather than keep the stone on your person and truly safe? Why let three first years get this far without coming to the rescue unless you were trying to test one of them?
Harry's questions had him take a hard look at the Headmaster's actions, or lack of action in regard to the defense of the stone. He wanted to believe that the man was good, and that his stellar reputation was warranted, but all these questions and doubts made it difficult to reconcile the two sides of the powerful old wizard. Maybe he was a master manipulator pulling all the strings to set Harry up in some elaborate scheme to test The-Boy-Who-Lived, his actions tonight seemed to lend more credence to that train of thought.
It was not a comforting feeling, being tested simply because of who he was to the Wizarding World, and wondered what else the powerful Headmaster had in store for him in the future. He also wondered about what the real test was here in this instance, was it just to get through these obstacles, or stop a thief, or protect the stone and school, or show loyalty to the wizarding world, school, or Headmaster. It was all a bit convoluted to Harry and made him wonder what exactly was going on.
Who truly was the thief that would risk going up against Professor Dumbledore, even if the old legend himself didn't show up but sent first years in his stead, it couldn't be anyone truly dangerous could it? The thief though was at least dangerous enough to attack and kill several unicorns according to Hagrid, and risk the curse of drinking their blood in order to stay alive long enough to get the stone, and that didn't sound like someone who was not a threat to Harry or his friends. He remembered Hagrid mentioning about some people believed that Voldemort was still out there somewhere and in some form, and the stone seemed like a perfect target for a megalomaniac looking for world domination but would the Headmaster really set up a confrontation with one of the most feared Dark Lords in history. Harry was only a first year, and no match for Voldemort regardless of what truly happened the night he came after his family on Halloween, was the Headmaster just setting him up to die or setting him up for something else like a training exercise against one of his followers.
Either way, Harry knew they were getting to the end of the obstacles, and the confrontation that the Headmaster was obviously at least willing to let happen was close at hand. He thought about what had really happened the night his parents died, and wondered if it was something he actually did or was it his parents. He wondered too why Voldemort himself had come after his family on such an important magical holiday, and why he even attacked a defenseless baby other than simply wanting to end the Potter line. He wondered if there was not some other reason Voldemort came after his family that night, and what really happened that stopped the powerful Dark Lord as he knew his mum wasn't the only mother to sacrifice herself for her child.
While all these thoughts were going through his mind in the blink of an eye, Neville and Hermione had followed him into the next room beyond the dead trolls to see a table with several different size potion vials in it and another door in front of them. The moment the door behind them closed, flames burst to life around both doors in the room, with purple flames on the door continuing forward and green flames on the door behind them they just came through. On the table before the line of several potion vials was a piece of parchment with a silly logic puzzle written out on it for the reader to figure out which potion sent you forward and which sent you back the way you came.
Harry was somewhat incredulous that all of the potion vials weren't simply poison to kill any potential thief, why even have the anecdote to go through the flames at all when you could have simply trapped a person in between the two magical fires and if Dumbledore needed to get through simply carry the anecdote on himself. Harry was more and more feeling like this was all a training exercise intended to test him in some way, and he was starting to get pretty pissed off at the old Headmaster who was obviously pulling the strings. Practically ignoring the silly poem, Harry picked up the smallest bottle, knowing that with it being the only potion with enough for one person that it would be the one needed to go on.
He told Neville and Hermione that if the potion refilled itself after emptying, they should take turns and follow him through the door going forward, but if not to take the potion to go back and try to use the brooms to escape back through the trap door and find Tonks or Professor Flitwick, as they were the two he trusted the most. He promised that he would be very careful, and asked them to make sure Padma and Su knew he was going to do everything in his power to not be stupid or take unnecessary risks. He gave them both quick pats on the back before throwing back the small potion vial and feeling a cold tingly feeling settle throughout his body that somewhat resembled the feel of the flame freezing charm Tonks had taught him earlier in the year when they were practicing fire spells.
Stepping through the door going forward, the fire only tickled much like when using the charm, and Harry's vision got very dark for a moment as he passed through a dark doorway that had yet another alert charm attached to it. When he reached the other side, and the room before him lit up he wasn't too surprised to find Professor Quirrell examining the Mirror of Erised that he had discovered in an unused classroom during the winter break. Harry immediately realized that his getting the invisibility cloak and "finding" the mirror was no coincidence, and once again had to silently curse at the old headmaster and his many intricate manipulations and the serious ridiculousness of the test before him.
The room itself was pretty basic, with a round shape and sunken floor in the center for lectures to be given towards the bleacher seats around the edges, and Harry wondered if this wasn't an actual classroom at one time that was somehow only accessed through the trapdoor in the third floor and several successive rooms. It seemed kind of hard to believe that this wasn't just another classroom that the Headmaster messed with to create his little test. With the idiotic turban wearing DADA professor with the fake stutter examining the mirror intently, he almost didn't recognize Harry's arrival inside the room and was slow to react to another's presence which gave Harry the opportunity to see that there were no other exits out of the room except for the door he came through.
"Potter," sneered the turban wearing man showing no sign of his usual fake stutter, "I'm surprised to find you here ...you don't seem the Gryffindor sort."
"And you don't seem to be the p-p-p-pathetic p-p-professor you pretend to be," retorted Harry with a healthy bit of sarcasm that had the Professor narrowing his eyes and turning away from the mirror to truly confront Harry. "That fake stutter must be hell to keep up with?"
"Incarcerous," incanted the older wizard sending ropes towards Harry who had to think fast and spin out of the way, while waving his own wand and mumbling out a short chain of spells back at his surprised professor who had to put up a shield at the last moment to stop them.
Before Harry could send out another spell, his Professor who he had only seen cast very few spells all year, was casting silently and quickly. He was left dodging and blocking as best he could, but was soon overwhelmed and unable to keep up his defense and took a cut to his shoulder that had him spin a bit and fall to the ground on the now torn up floor. He was then tressed up in ropes and dragged to the center of the room in front of the mirror, when the professor turned back to examining the ornate mirror and mumbling to himself barely loud enough for Harry to hear what he was saying.
"I see myself presenting the stone to my master," he mumbled, "but how do I get it?"
"Use the boy," came a voice that had Harry instantly alert and caused him to stop struggling with the magical ropes as he looked for the source, and had a very bad feeling about.
Before he could so much as ask who was speaking, Harry was raised off the ground, the ropes vanishing and he was set in front of the large ornate mirror he had only looked into once and was wary about how it learned of your desire even with his Occlumency now strong enough that it should block anything trying to get into his mind. When he looked this time though, it wasn't his parents standing next to him and trying to comfort him, though he wouldn't have minded the comfort at that moment. Rather, it was just himself and he almost thought his Occlumency had rendered the mirror into just a plain mirror now before his reflection all of a sudden reached into his pocket and pulled out a fist size gleaming red stone, winking theatrically, and placing it back in his reflection's pocket.
Instantly, Harry felt the weight of what could only be the Philosopher's Stone of Nicholas Flamel settle into his own pocket, and had to stifle the gasp of surprise he wanted to make and pretend that nothing happened. What in the hell was the Headmaster thinking hiding the Stone here when it would be much safer in the old bat's pocket than left here practically unprotected by the flimsiest of obstacles. Realizing, that with the Stone now in his pocket he was in an even more dangerous position with his obviously unbalanced DADA professor, he tried to act like nothing had happened and was seemingly looking into the mirror searching for something.
"What am I supposed to be looking for?" asked Harry after a long pregnant pause, trying to act confused and throw off his DADA professor until he could find a way to escape or defeat the older wizard.
"Don't be a smartass Potter, you're looking for my master's Stone," growled the turban wearing professor, taking a step closer to Harry and causing the young wizard to slightly back away from the obviously angry wizard.
"Let me speak with him," came the raspy voice from earlier that Harry couldn't understand where it was coming from, and instantly had him on edge.
"Master, you are not strong enough," came Professor Quirrell's reply.
"I have strength enough for this," came the raspy and somewhat irritated voice from seemingly all around them.
With that declaration, Professor Quirrell began unwrapping the purple turban he had worn all year round, and Harry had a brief moment of indecision on whether he should use the older man's distraction as a chance to attack or escape. The decision however was ultimately taken out of his hands when the turban was completely removed because something in the disembodied voice he heard had frozen his feet to the ground. The face that emerged was easily the creepiest thing Harry had ever seen, with a pale chalk white complexion and burning red eyes and thin little slits for nostrils that resembled more snake than man.
"Voldemort," half growled Harry, instantly knowing that this could be nobody else.
"Harry Potter," he began. "See what I have become? Mere shadow and vapor ...I have form only when I can share another's body ...but there have always been those willing to let me into their hearts and minds ...Unicorn blood has strengthened me, these past few months ...and once I have the Elixir of Life, I will be able to create a body of my own. Now ...why don't you give me that Stone in your pocket and I wont kill you immediately?"
"Yeah ...I'll believe that!" snorted Harry sarcastically, while slowly tilting his body sideways to provide a smaller target for when Quirrellmort inevitably attacks.
Just as he thought, a yell from Voldemort to "kill the boy" quickly followed, and preceded a series of spells being shot at the young first year wizard that he was able to dodge relatively easily as he had anticipated them coming. Harry returned with a few spells of his own, but knew instantly that he was severely overmatched again by the grown wizard who had one of the most feared Dark Wizard's ever to live sharing his body. The only hope he had was to land a lucky spell due to the conflicting thoughts and actions of Quirrell and Voldemort, and continued sending mostly overpowered bone breaking and cutting spells hoping to slip one by the older wizard's defences.
Due to his constant practicing dueling throughout the year, he was better prepared to avoid the many spells coming towards him which was greatly frustrating Voldemort who was yelling more and more to his host to do something. That something turned out to be getting closer to Harry to make his dodging even harder, and even though Quirrell took several cutters and broke a few bones, the professor continued coming after the younger wizard. Harry was growing desperate to stop the older wizard as he continued to get closer to him, and it was getting harder to dodge the incoming spells many of which looked pretty harmful and even fatal.
Harry barely dodged a bright yellow spell that he knew would have been severely damaging if not deadly, and then heard one of the first vocal spells his professor sent at him that sent chills down his spine. With the yell of "crucio" Harry had the barest moment of shock before he had to leap away from the pale yellow unforgivable curse, that Tonks had told him would be the worst pain imaginable. His desperation to get away from the unforgivable torture curse left him in a bad position, and was unable to completely get out of the way of the bone breaker curse that followed and clipped him on the right shoulder.
The loud crack that was his clavicle snapping, seemingly echoed throughout the room and made it so his right arm hung loosely at his side practically unusable which was devastating for his ability to perform magic. The pain however with the break, was somewhat focusing and didn't affect Harry as much as it would other students as he had already broken several bones in his short life and it wasn't too much for him. The real problem was the lack of dexterity with his wand, and knew that he was not going to be able to win the duel with magic and realized he was going to have to take this fight muggle.
He had fought enough with Dudley and his gang, that he was pretty comfortable in a street fight and before Quirrellmort could capitalize on Harry's injury, the young wizard dashed forward dodging an almost point blank stunner at the last moment and swinging with all his might to land a left hook right into the jaw of his Professor. The impact of the punch snapped the older wizard's head to the side and caused him to stumble back almost falling down and even before he could regain his footing, Harry followed it up with another straight punch directly on his nose there was a red blistering mark on his cheek from where the first punch landed. The crunching sound of Quirrell's nose breaking on the second punch was a satisfying one to Harry, who then followed it up with a hard kick into the side of his opponent's left knee that dropped him to the ground instantly.
With the older man now crumpled on the ground clutching his bleeding and broken nose, Harry jumped down and brought his knee down hard onto the older man's thigh just above the now injured knee getting a muffled scream. He then threw a few more punches into the man's face some hitting his hands trying to cover his broken nose, and each one leaving behind very red blistering skin that Harry couldn't explain but wasn't going to stop to figure out. It was after several punches on the man's jaw in the same place, that the raw blistering skin seemingly turned to ash and began decomposing and his professor's scream became even more frantic and pronounced.
"Kill the boy ...fool!" came the panicked shout of Voldemort over his host's painful screams as Harry continued raining punches down on the older man whose entire face was seemingly turning to ash.
"Cruci-," Quirrell made one last attempt to bring his wand to bear on Harry above him, but the young wizard simply grabbed the struggling man's wrist before an incantation could be said in order to keep the wand pointed away from him and causing his professor to cut off his spell and cause his screams to increase in volume and intensity. "W-what is happening?"
Harry was shocked when the wrist he was grabbing instantly turned bright blistering red and even began smoking and turning to ash almost instantly, and he realized it was due to the skin to skin contact which is why the punches did so little skin damage compared to him simply grabbing his opponent's wrist. Knowing this, he let go of the wrist and before his professor could respond, had wrapped his left hand around the man's neck intending to survive this fight to the death any way he could. It was only moments later that the pained screams of his professor were dying out as his neck and throat turned to ash and decomposed right in his hand, his body collapsing into ash and falling suit just after.
Harry barely had a moment to catch his breath or think about what he had just done, when a swirling black substance slowly came out of the now decomposed pile of ash that was his DADA professor and began forming together. Before his startled eyes, the smoke formed into a black shade of his parents' killer who looked at Harry with a malevolent glare filled with hate before shooting right at Harry who only just managed to turn so as not to get run through in his chest. The shade instead slammed into and through his injured shoulder, spinning him to the ground and causing an intense wave of pain to go through the place the evil shade made contact with him.
The pain and exhaustion from the fight was incredible, and Harry was barely able to remain conscious as he lay on the floor panting heavily and looking around the room trying to gather himself and see the damage the fight left behind. The elaborate mirror had been thrown and shattered, gouges of stone were ripped from the floor and walls and the rubble littered the area with dust and pebbles, and nearby was the pile of clothes and ash remains of his DADA professor that had tried to kill him by teaming up with Voldemort, and lost his own life instead. Harry didn't know what to feel at the moment after basically taking the life of his professor, even if he wasn't completely sure how his touch had affected the man so much, he consciously knew what he was doing at the end and had chosen to kill the man who was trying to kill him.
While it was self defense in theory, the practical act of taking his teacher's life was hard for him to understand and come to terms with in so short of a time, and tried to put it out of his mind to think of a way to get out of the room and find his friends and get some medical attention. Rolling over to use his good arm to help him stand, he felt the hard stone in his pocket that was the cause of this entire mess, and couldn't believe that he had Nicholas Flamel's famous and priceless Sorcerer's Stone in his possession. Taking the priceless magical artifact out of his pocket to look at for a moment in wonder, Harry decided to protect it better by placing it into his Gringotts coin purse that only he could open and wondered again about the idiocy of hiding it here in the first place when there were many better ways to hide something.
No sooner had he tucked his coin purse back inside his belt, that he heard a loud commotion on the other side of the flaming door, and seconds later the door was blasted open and silhouetted in the frame stood the aged Headmaster, whose sharp blue eyes quickly surveyed and took in the details of the room. Harry saw the slight widening of the old wizard's eyes as they landed on the shattered mirror, and felt the pulse of magic the man sent out moments later that left Harry, his wand, and Quirrell's wand still on the floor to glow a soft blue color causing the old Headmaster's shoulders to slump instantly as he looked for any other signs of magic in the room.
Harry knew then that the old Headmaster was looking for the Sorcerer's Stone, and glad he had the foresight to place it into his Gringott's coin purse as they prevented any magical means of scanning the contents, and again realized the old man had most likely manipulated this sequence of events in an effort to trap whoever he thought was the thief. With the belief that the stone no longer existed, the Headmaster's whole body seemed to deflate, and any of the pleasant or humorous demeanor he tried to portray himself as disappeared with it. He turned to Harry with the same hard blue eyes he used to scan the room and practically demanded to know what happened.
Harry quickly complied, telling the Headmaster about confronting Professor Quirrell, who had Voldemort riding on the back of his head, and how they instantly began dueling. He skipped the part about him getting the stone, not wanting the Headmaster to know he had it and used every ounce of skill in his growing Occlumency to convincingly portray his anxiety and fear during the fight both magical and muggle that occurred explaining the damage some of the erant spells must have caused by the looks of things. When he explained the blistering of his former professor's skin on contact and how he then used that to basically kill the man, the Headmaster seemed to deflate a little more and actually softened up his glare and demands for any further explanation.
"Do you know why my touching him affected him so?" Harry asked hoping to keep the Headmaster's demanding intensity off of him for a moment, and also genuinely curious about why that had happened.
"Alas, my boy," sighed the old wizard as he seemed to try and gather his composure and also accept that there was nothing he could do to save what he now believed to be a destroyed Sorcerer's Stone and turned to the young man with a caring and a sympathetic gaze, "I believe your mother left you with a protection of love so strong, that your very blood and skin still possesses it ...and to someone as evil as Voldemort, it would be very damaging indeed."
"Is that how I survived Voldemort as a baby ...my mum's blood magic?" asked a curious Harry, thinking this might actually explain why Voldemort's killing curse failed to kill him and wondering what blood magic really was capable of.
"I can see your Ravenclaw mind is very sharp, my boy," answered the old wizard with a soft smile and slight twinkling of his eyes. "I prefer to think it was your mother's love that protected and saved you that night, and it was her sacrifice of her own life that gave you yours ...whether that was through blood magic, I cannot say ...as I have not studied it due to it being banned by our Ministry in everything except for wards on Ancient Family Estates."
Harry just nodded his head, accepting the Headmaster's explanation even if he thought the older wizard wasn't telling him the complete truth ...he wasn't either and didn't want to get into a debate with the man now. He would look it up himself when he could at another time, and instead gave off a yawn in exhaustion which he quickly realized that he didn't need to fake. He truly was exhausted beyond normal, the short but intense magical duel took a lot out of him as he spent most of it trying to overpower spells so they could take out his opponent permanently, and then breaking his collarbone and fighting physically took what little strength he had left leaving him truly tired and in pain now that the adrenaline had worn off.
The Headmaster seemed to realize that Harry was both tired and in pain if how his right arm hung awkwardly, and quickly conjured a strap that kept his arm tight to his body so it wouldn't put any more undue pressure on the broken shoulder. He then asked Harry if he could walk and led him back through the maze of obstacles, all of which had been completely removed or nullified so as not to slow them down at all. They met up with Hermione and Neville who were waiting in the first room they entered with the Devil's Snare that had been contained to the edges of the room so the trap door twenty meters above them could be seen.
The Headmaster promised that Fluffy was contained and then took turns floating all three of the first year students up into the room above them before seemingly floating himself up as well and getting looks of awe from all three of the younger students at his display wondering how he accomplished broomless flight. He just chuckled at their looks and led them to the Hospital Wing where they were immediately pounced on by Madam Pompfrey to get into beds and have scans done to check them all for injuries. Professor Dumbledore promised he would be back in the morning to talk with them all again, but had pressing matters to attend to first.
Hermione and Neville were both still looking at Harry hoping to find out what happened in the end, but the moment Madam Pompfrey realized that he had broken his clavicle, had pulled curtains around his bed to get him into a hospital gown and prepare for plenty of delicate spellwork and potions to fix it. His friends were left having to wonder for the rest of the night what happened, while Harry had to put up with several lectures about reckless behavior, magical exhaustion, muggle fighting, and breaking curfew and being out of bounds.
Harry took all the lectures with half an ear as his thoughts were still stuck on the ease of challenges, the alert wards to the Headmaster and his strategically showing up at the end, the presence of Voldemort, having the Sorcerer's Stone, his dueling and fighting skills, and mainly on killing a man. It was with a heavy heart and confused thoughts that Harry finally fell asleep several hours later as his body was finishing the healing Madam Pompfrey began, and he wondered if this was how every year of schooling was going to be for him.
*Ravenclaw First Years Schedule:
Monday 9-10:30 Herbology (R&S), 10:30-12 History of Magic (R&H), 1-4 Charms (double R&S)
Tuesday 9-10:30 DADA (R&G), 10:30-12 Potions (R&H), 1-2:30 Transfiguration (R&S), 9-12 Astronomy (All 1st Years)
Wednesday 9-12 FREE, 1-4 Herbology (double R&S)
Thursday 9-10:30 History of Magic (R&H), 10:30-12 Charms (R&S), 1-4 Potions (double R&H)
Friday 9-12 Transfiguration (double R&S), 1-4 DADA (double R&G)
