CH 11
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
There are days that Harry knew he should never wake up to, but it was a week after the second task and now, the sleazy reporter of the Daily Prophet had put out some kind of story about him and Luna. The girl was unfazed by the whole deal and she at least got the pictures she'd wanted for her memories. She gave copies to him. He added them to the photo book that contained images of his parents.
The two of them spoke about the article. In the end Luna had requested statements from him about him impressions of the Yule Ball. She did the same with all the Champions and submitted her own article in her father's magazine, The Quibbler and she had permitted the Underground Courier to run her story with accompanying images of the Ball too.
The article she turned into that paper had image of all the Champions dancing with their partners, with various quotes from neutral students and Professors that were in attendance at the Ball. Her article was startlingly different from the Prophet's in that she wrote in the form of a story about a magical night. In no way did she infer romantic attachments between the Champions and their dance partners.
She was clear in her opinion that the chosen partners of the visiting schools were very generous with the time in making the foreign students feel Welcomed to their part of the world. She slyly applauded the Department of International Magical Cooperation for their excellent idea of resurrecting the Triwizard Tournament.
When Harry finally read that article, he laughed. He stood up from his place at the Gryffindor table, walked over to where Luna was sitting reading her copy of the Quibbler up-side down. "My fair lady," he said. "That was bloody genius."
"But of course," she quipped. "I'm in Ravenclaw House for a reason."
Harry bowed to her and said, "I never did give you a flower for the Ball, did I? How backward of me! Let me remedy that now." He pulled out his wand, swished and swirled it into a particular pattern and (...i...) hissed (...Orchidaceae Epidendrum fulgen puteulanus, gemma, similis scutulatus...)
Out of the magical light pattern appeared an orchid on a pale jade stem with a few long grass like leaves that looked like green crystal and the flower was a blue colour more purple than blue. The whole of it looked like crystal too. This was known as the False Diamond Orchid, a rare magical flower found in the Amazon basin.
"Oh, it's beautiful!" Luna said with a gasp. "How long will it last?"
"How long do you want it to last," Harry said, holding onto it, waiting to see if he needed to add a condition of permanence to it.
"A hundred years and a day," she said. The students looked at her, as though she was crazy. Who'd want to keep something conjured for that long, although some of the students and Professor Snape wondered if the conjured flower could be used in potions ingredients?
"As you wish," Harry said. The students were all riveted in their seats to see what he'd do. He hissed again, causing many to shudder, some in revulsion and some with another emotion. (...Reservo, Una centum atque una diei...) (...ii...) "Here you go my friend," he told her. "It should last one hundred years and one day."
"Thank you," she took it from his hand with a smile. She conjured a clear vase and placed the flower in it.
Harry bowed and returned to his seat at the Gryffindor table.
"Harry, what's wrong with you," Hermione asked. "Why are you drawing attention to her, the newspapers and yourself so much?"
"It's not intentional." Harry said with a huff, as he filled his plate with breakfast. "One, it was a bloody better article than the Prophet had ever written. Not only that, but at least the Quibbler has honest fact-checkers in their employ and they permitted a copy print to the Underground Courier, who stated that the article was to be applauded. I guess I was just following the suggestion. I wasn't doing anything on purpose..." He paused at his friend's pointed glare. "All right maybe that last bit with the flower, was on purpose, but so what." He shrugged. "It made her happy and she is one of my friends."
"But we're your best friends, mate," Ron said.
"Doesn't mean that you're my only friends, you git," he replied, not unkindly. "I can hang out with other people too, you know!"
"Yeah, yeah, likewise I'm sure," Ron said and returned to eating with his mouth full.
"Nice bit of conjuring, Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall said. "Do you mind telling me what spell you used?" She had been followed by Professor Snape, who'd been curious about it too.
Harry swallowed what food he had in his mouth, wiped his lips and then said, "It wasn't really a spell per se...It was more of directed magic using another language to enforce the intent of the creation of the object in question."
Hermione's jaw dropped when he said that. She thought he'd stutter and mutter some nonsense, but what he said made it seem like a magical concept that existed. Not only that, but it sounded like an intelligent concept too. She looked to her Professors expressions and she knew that he'd done something that even the adults had never heard.
"Can someone learn that spell," Professor Snape asked, convinced that it was a spell and not whatever other nonsense that the boy spouted in order to sound intelligent, when he knew the boy wasn't.
"I don't think so," Harry said. "Like I was saying, it's not a spell. I spoke in Parseltongue, so I doubt that just anyone can do it."
Professor Snape was getting frustrated. "Does it contain the same properties as a real False Diamond Orchid?"
"I don't know," Harry said.
"Harry," Professor McGonagall said. "Perhaps you should come to my office, so that we can discuss this further?"
"Now," he asked and looked at his plate of food that he'd just started eating.
"Of course not," she said. "You have fifteen minutes left and your next period is free. I'll see you then."
"Yes, ma'am," Harry said tucking into the remainder of his breakfast. His friends watched the two Professors leave the Great Hall.
"Wonder why they want to know about some ruddy flower," Ron asked. "What's so special about it? Anybody can conjure flowers." He said and the proceeded to do just that, conjuring a bundle of white daisies. His didn't appear nearly as real as Harry's and the bundle disappeared quickly.
"Harry's looks different," Hermione said and looked to Luna walking out of the Great Hall with the single flower in her vase. "It still hasn't disappeared either."
"Well, I'm done now." Harry said, as he finished his meal, picked up his bag and stood up to leave them. "I'll find out soon enough what the Professors what from me."
"Maybe you shouldn't have spoken in Parseltongue," Hermione said.
"Yeah, why would you continue to use that Dark Language anyway," Ron asked with a shudder.
"Ron," Harry sighed in exasperation. "It's not a Dark Language," he stated. "It's just a creature language and it's the one that I know. Why shouldn't I use it?"
"Everyone will say that you'll join You-Know-Who if you keep using it," Ron said.
"Don't be stupid," Harry said. "Talking to snakes is the same as being able to talk to other sentient creatures, now if you'll excuse me." He took his things and left the Great Hall.
"Really Ron," Hermione said.
"Well Slytherins are snakes in human form," Ron said. "I don't want to see my best friend turning into a snake."
Hermione huffed, packed up her things, said, "I have some research to do," and left him there to finish breakfast on his own.
Ron shrugged and continued to eat his fill, as though food was going out of style.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
Harry joined his Head of House in her office. He sat at the chair in front of her desk, next to Professor Snape, who was apparently there for a reason and asked, "What's this about Professors?"
"Are you sure you didn't use a spell?" She asked.
"No spell," Harry said. "I just said Latin words in the Parseltongue language. I do that sometimes with different spells. I don't know what would happen if I used a real spell, since the results are never quite the same as using just the plain Latin language."
"What do you mean," McGonagall asked.
"Well," Harry paused and then explained. "Take the regular charm for light, 'Lumos'. It lights up the tip of your wand right?" Professor McGonagall nodded. "Well if I was to say Lumos in Parseltongue, the result is different. It creates a bubble of light that floats, leaving the wand free for some other use."
"That's not possible Mr. Potter," Professor Snape said.
"How do you know...sir," Harry asked.
"Your arrogance..." Snape paused and looked at the boy's stubborn look. He could only read the truth from the boy's mind. "You're just making an assumption."
Harry sighed, bowed his head and shook it. He controlled his breathing and then looked to his Head of House. "Shall I demonstrate?"
"I think that would be a fair way to assess the situation," she said. "What do you think Severus?"
"By all means," the man said sarcastically. "Let's see this supposed proof."
Harry ignored the man, stood up and took a couple of steps away. "Lumos," he said in the regular language. He demonstrated the charm spell that he'd learnt in first year. "We agree that this is the way it's supposed to look?"
"Of course," Snape sneered at the boy.
"Yes, Harry," Professor McGonagall said. "Now the other..."
Harry nodded. He said, "Nox," to cancel the charm. He performed the same motions to activate the Lumos charm, but this time he hissed the word, (...Lumos...).
The two professors eyes widened in surprise as a bubble of light formed from the end of Harry's wand. He prodded it in their direction and watched as they poked it with their own wands. The bubble just moved from one to the other and it never broke or burst. It didn't dim or become brighter either.
"How interesting," Professor McGonagall said. "How long will it last?"
"I've never tested it," Harry said. "The longest I've ever used one was about four hours, when I was studying for our exams before the Yule Holidays."
"It never faded or dimmed in that time," Professor Snape asked, surprised that the obstinate Gryffindor had been telling them the truth.
"No, it didn't," Harry answered the man in an honest tone.
"Can it be dispelled with the counter charm spoken by someone else," he asked.
"I never tried it," Harry said with a shrug, as though it was unimportant to have tested it. "Go ahead, sir."
"Nox," Snape said. The bubble of light dimmed to half strength. "Nox," the man repeated and the bubble dimmed again by half. "Nox," he said for a third time and the bubble popped out of existence. "Interesting," he said. "What about the flower you gave to the Lovegood girl in the Great Hall?"
Harry frowned and asked, "What about it?"
"Does it carry the same properties as the real version or is it just a light show," Snape asked. His tone wasn't condescending in any way. To the Gryffindor, it sounded like the man was actually curious about it.
"I don't know," Harry replied, honestly. "I mean it's not something I've ever been curious to find out. Conjuring some things in another language can make them real and at other times the conjuration just won't work, from a Transfiguration perspective. At least that's what we've been taught, right, Professor," he turned to his Head of House when he asked that.
"That's correct," she said. "However I believe that Professor Snape is more interested in the Orchid from a potions perspective. If you conjured another one would it act like a real version of the plant if it was used in potions?"
"I don't know that," Harry said. "It's not like potions are the first thing I think about when conjuring a flower that I know would please someone. It's not like I know a whole lot about the properties that that particular flower should have in potions either."
"Then why did you conjure that one," Professor Snape growled out.
"Neville had a book on native Amazon flowers that I looked through one day," Harry explained. "I saw that one in the book and read about it. I thought that it was pretty and that Luna would like it, that's all."
Professor Snape huffed and muttered something about, "Imbecilic Gryffindors," which the two Gryffindors in the room chose to ignore. "All right then," he turned to Harry with an evil looking gleam in his eye. "You'll just have to research a potion that uses that particular Orchid for an ingredient. You must conjure another one and make the potion you've researched in my presence during a schedule of my choice." He rolled his eyes and stipulated, "Without interfering with your exalted presence in this farce of a tournament. This will be the requirement for your final exam in potions for the year, which will count as sixty percent of your passing grade. Do you understand me?"
Harry paused and looked to his Head of House with a shake of his head. "Sixty percent of my passing grade, that's taking your hatred against my father a little too far don't you think?"
"Sixty-five percent and you'd better be in attendance to all Potions Classes for the rest of the year Mr. Potter," Snape said. "Minerva you're my witness to this."
The woman then realized that the Head of Slytherin House was too far into his hatred to understand what the man had just agreed to. It looked to her that her young Gryffindor knew just what the man had done as well. "If that is what you wish," she asked and received a stiff nod from the Potions Master. "Very well, I witness the condition that Harry Potter's passing grade for the final exam be based on his successful completion of the research and task that has been assigned to him by Professor Snape."
The man smirked evilly, as he left the room.
Harry looked to his Head of House and she looked back at him. Together they laughed. "Oh dear," she said. "He's going to be so upset when he realizes that all Champions are exempted from taking final exams and that you already passed with an Acceptable."
"It's an automatic pass for fourth year potions for me because of the exemption and the fact that it's worth more than my attendance marks for the class," Harry nodded in agreement. He sighed and then said. "I think I'll still do the research for it though. I'm curious to see if a conjured plant will work just as well as a real one in a potion. But what kind of potion requires that kind of plant? Do you have an idea of where I can begin to look up that information?"
"Start in the Herbology section of the library," Professor McGonagall said. "It's probably best to begin with the plant itself. You can go now."
"Yes ma'am," Harry said and left his Professor's office with a grin on his face. The Gryffindor felt that he should get points for this, but he knew that once the man had calmed down he'd realize that he'd just guaranteed Harry's presence for the fifth year of potions class.
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
Sometime in the middle of January, Harry was in his tent staring at the Golden Egg that he'd successfully 'stolen' from a nesting Hungarian Horntail dragon.
"What's that," Godric asked, as his curiosity pushed at him to find out.
"It's a Golden Egg," Harry replied with grin.
"I can see that," Godric huffed. "What's it for or what's in it?"
"That was what I had to do in my first task," Harry explained. "I had to steal it from a nesting dragon."
"Really," the red-bearded man said. "I say that must have been exciting."
Harry thought about that and smiled wider. "It was kind of terrifying actually. I had found out about part of the task before hand and let me tell you I was pretty scared wondering what we'd have to do with dragons."
He then told the portraits about the worries he had and in his frustration to try and figure out the hints that everyone'd given him at the time. "...in the end, I suppose I could just have tried summoning it from the nest in the first place," he said. "But since we were told over and over again that some dragons, nullified magic, all the Champions didn't bother to try."
The Founders laughed at that. "So what's in it," Helga asked and watched as the boy winced. "What is it? What's wrong?"
"After the task was done and we were allowed to return to our dorms," Harry explained is reaction. "The students in the dorm had decided to throw a party in the common room. I opened the Egg then, and a lot of squeaking and screeching sounds came out of it. I know it's a language of some kind, but I've honestly never heard of such a thing before."
"Well, open it for us," Rowena said. "We'll able to tell you what it is since all of us know at least four human languages and three magical creature tongues or dialects."
"All right," Harry hesitated. He winced at the thought of opening it again, but the Founders were curious and so he said, "Here goes."
The Golden Egg was opened and the sound that came out of it was pretty much the same that it had been when Harry had previously opened it in the Gryffindor common room. It was loud, high-pitched and altogether very disturbing to him. He closed it up again and then waited for the ringing in his ears to subside.
"Well I can see how it would be difficult to understand or even find a place to begin," Rowena said kindly. "It's a Mermish dialect." She paused and then said to the confused boy. "I recommend that you go take a bath to find out what they're saying."
"A bath," Harry repeated, confused until his mind opened to the section where he stored information on underwater dwelling magical creatures. "Oh," he said with a smile, indicating that he was grateful for having learnt to sort his thoughts and the information he learned on a daily basis. "You're quite right. I should take one, if you'll excuse me." He took the Egg with him and headed into the bathing room in his personal tent.
He undressed and put a ring on his thumb that had a carving of a small non-descript fish on it. He'd made the ring recently because he'd bought an Alteration spell from Gringotts not too long ago. It was called the Buoyancy Spell. He had been surprised to learn that it was an apprentice level spell for the school of Alteration, but that he gained the knowledge of not one, but three different spells with it.
From that one spell, he learned another form of the Wizarding World's charm, 'feather-light', although the Alteration spell name was just 'Feather'. The spell also included the knowledge of Feather's counter spell, which was 'Burden', and final spell, which was the main reason he purchased it in the first place, was the 'Water-Breathing' spell ability.
It was because of those spells that Harry created and enchanted ring, specifically made for underwater exploring. He'd sent it away to be graded and he'd just received it back a couple of days ago. The ring had the water-breathing feature, with an additional 'light' spell that projected light for a fifteen foot radius and the 'feather' spell for an added five stone carrying capacity, all of which is active as a 'constant effect' whenever he was wearing the ring.
His professors at the Canyon School had given him a passing grade of S (Superior), plus a bonus grade of FL (Flawless) for coming up with something that could be marketed to the general public. They did mention that he should patent it first and gave him sixty days to get his act together on that matter, which he immediately set about doing with the help of the Gringotts representative in Hogsmeade.
Sixty days was what they always said to students that created something new, as on the sixty-first day, it was within the Canyon School's charter and regulations to patent interesting items under the school name, in order to add more funds to the school. Students were encouraged to donate one or two items created to help fund the school, if they were new and unique. That's why it was still one of the more prominent schools teaching many of the old ways.
However, at this point in time the ring was perfect to use in the tub in order to stay submerged for an extended period without fear of dying. It certainly worked long enough for him to get the message that had been recorded in the Golden Egg.
...Come seek us where our voices sound,
We cannot sing above the ground,
And while you're searching, ponder this:
We've taken what you'll sorely miss,
An hour long you'll have to look,
And to recover what we took,
But past an hour - the prospect's black
Too late, it's gone, it won't come back...
He memorized it on the first try and then he listened to the message a second time to make sure that he'd heard it right. He popped his head up out of the water and whispered, "Bloody hell!"
Harry - James - Potter - Harry - James - Potter
TBC…
(...i...) Orchid, "particular looking one" type, blue, gem, like a diamond - used www dot latinwordtranslation dot com/ default dot asp (remove the spaces and change the dots to look up the dictionary) – note on the "particular looking one", if you google "fulgen puteulanus images", you'll see quite a large variety, pick your favourite.
(...ii...) Preserve, one hundred and one day - used www dot latinwordtranslation dot com/ default dot asp (remove the spaces and change the dots to look up the dictionary)