Harry found himself genuinely excited for his third school year sure his classes where boring and tedious no it was being able to access the Chamber and the portrait of Slytherin, for his extra electives he had chosen Runes and Arithmancy.
Runes especially where important they had many practical applications many pureblood's homes used runes to power lights, create rooms for food storage and even be used in bathrooms and showers.
Arithmancy was used to create spells from a simple Lumos spell to the killing curse that ripped a soul from the victim's body, The class was based heavily on mathematics especially the two most powerful numbers seven and three, he was grateful that he was such a good student in muggle school.
It was almost criminal the advantage he had over every other student but thanks to this advantage the teachers had taken a liking to him, and so with much reluctance from the headmaster he was placed on a more advanced curriculum.
The portrait of Slytherin was a fountain of knowledge after going through many of the spells he knew the portrait pointed out that sometimes using flashy spells looked good but could be easily identified and countered, yet some simple spells could be used to great effect and with practice spells he could make spells colourless which would add a further advantage.
The Portrait who preferred to be called grandfather was oddly fascinated by his scar and his theory on how on that faithful Halloween night after Tom's body had been destroyed and his spirit fled, he had absorbed a tiny portion of Tom's soul that had broken away from Tom's spirit.
The man was disgusted by Tom's actions in creating Horcrux's soul magic was a very dark area of magic and to split the soul seven times was unthinkable, the portrait was shocked that Tom was sent back to an orphanage during a war he described the fear Tom had felt in detail and realised that he too shared Tom's fear.
Slytherin was disgusted that magical folk still hadn't completely separated from the muggle world and that the ministry of magic still allowed scared and abused children to return to their hateful parents, it was the very reason why he was now known as an evil dark wizard he wanted to take children away from that abuse and raise them in their world with people that understood how scary accidental magic could be.
The Potter family Tome was a real treasure trove of information he knew from the many books hidden in the potter family vault that his family gathered any knowledge on magic but to read that his great grandfather practiced many rituals that were considered dark was still shocking, thankfully the Tome seemed to be linked to the vast amounts of books in the family vault and so the contents could be changed with a tap of his wand.
He was finally making progress on the many books that were kept within his trunk the history of the potter family was intriguing they had never openly supported any dark lord but once provoked proved to be deadly to their enemies James Potter was proof enough the man had battled Voldemort personally on three separate occasions surprising the dark lord with his skills with a wand and use of spells that even Tom didn't know.
The ability to speak parseltongue was more than a simple language it had an entire branch of powerful magic associated with it. Tom knew some of the spells from his time spent in India and from what little time he spent within the chamber but to have access to hundreds of books handwritten by Slytherin himself was thrilling.
His status within the house had risen he had seemed to become the unofficial lord of the house, a comfy high-backed serpent like chair was placed before the large common room fire and the many serpents on the furniture and décor would hiss at him telling him secrets, Draco for example had an unusual, shaped birth mark shaped like a small heart on one of his butt cheeks.
The portrait was helpful with his dual wand wielding as well sure the man had never used two wands preferring his custom-made basilisk wand, he did point out a few books in his personal collection that might hold important information, a thousand years ago it was common for a witch or wizard to use not only a wand or staff but also a weapon of their choice.
Most famous of this was Godric Gryffindor who was able to wield a wand but also his famous sword and during battle he could set the blade alight with fiery red flames or slam the sword into the ground and create huge cracks in the earth to swallow his enemies.
He was gratified to see that even the short amount of time he spent under the tutelage of Slytherin his skills had greatly improved and like a muscle his magic was slowly become more powerful the more he used it, he also started to practice silent apparition Tom could travel anywhere without making a sound.
Normally a wizard would picture a destination in their mind and then spin on the spot using their magic to force them to the location hence why they made a cracking sound, powerful witches and wizards could apparate silently if they let their magic guide them instead of forcing it.
He had described the rituals he had undergone before he had ever set foot in the wizarding world and the portrait had greatly approved and even suggested he complete a set of seven rituals. Seven was a powerful number but he was reluctant he knew that Tom had pushed his body more than should be possible making it sickly and diseased, the founder assured him that he knew rituals that would be nothing but a benefit to him.
One of the many things the founder taught him to do was to sit crossed legged on the floor and using a wandless levitation spell to keep two blocks of wood floating above his raised hands for as long as possible which proved extremely difficult.
The portrait was extremely interested in his invisibility even more so when he told the portrait it had been in his family for generations and he promised the portrait he would spend time researching its origins, they had tested it and found that when wearing the cloak Rex had a difficult time locating him.
His group of friends continued to complete their homework together and would help each other out with said homework, sure there was a certain amount of tension between his pureblood friends and his muggleborn ones but if they were embracing their magical heritage then his purebloods left them alone.
The room they had claimed as their own had been cleaned by the school elves it had a large round table with comfy chairs placed around the table, bookshelves lined one wall that housed a few books ranging from Transfiguration to potions, the room also had a nice large fireplace that warmed the room and thanks to the large windows the room had plenty of natural light.
He and his friends practiced magic in the room or would set up their school cauldrons and practice making potions that were in their school's potions texts, the restricted section pass from Professor Snape was helpful as it allowed Harry to find different advanced texts that he would read and then pass on the knowledge to the group.
Professor Snape continued to turn up randomly while he was searching the library and would simply offer him a book or point him towards a book before stalking away with his cloak bellowing behind him.
Today was the day that the third years and above were allowed to Hogsmeade and so after a long wait for the girls in his group the group made their way to the three broomsticks for lunch, he was sitting next Daphne and Tracy clutching a butterbeer in his hand as he watched the pubs owner Madam Rosmerta clean away the empty plates and bottles from the table, directly opposite him Draco, Theodore and Blaise were talking about Quidditch and brooms.
He turned to Daphne "Did you enjoy DADA? For once it seems like we finally have a decent defence teacher." He cursed the blood curse that Tom had placed on the position, The founder had explained that it was likely due to Tom having Slytherin blood that the Curse continued which meant that for years students had suffered having incompetent teachers.
The new teacher was a Remus Lupin a ragged man that had a few scars marring his face, his light brown hair was flecked with grey and he had amber coloured eyes. The man was certainly a decent teacher and knew a lot about the subject, the class had spent most of the lessons doing practical work instead of theory.
With his skill in legilimency was improving he knew the man was afflicted with lycanthropy it had taken only the slightest brush against the man's thoughts during the Boggart lesson, when one of the student's boggarts became a werewolf for him to find out but he didn't tell anyone not until he could benefit from sharing the man's furry problem.
"I honestly can't believe that my fear was that clown." Daphne said as she shuddered slightly.
He nodded he too had been surprised when the boggart Daphne had faced had turned into pennywise the clown, Daphne had to explain that she had once stayed at Tracy's house and the girls had read a book about the clown written by some muggle author that had ended up in the Davis family library by some miracle.
Draco chose this chance to turn his attention to them as Theo and Blaise seemed to be arguing "I didn't understand your fear though Harry." He said after taking a sip of his butter beer.
Harry sighed and clenched his glass his fear was simple the boggart had taken two forms although you wouldn't have known given how quickly he had banished the creature.
The creature had filled the DADA classroom with darkness before sounds of planes and explosions filled the air, the darkness seemed to grow more darker as a slender tall figure appeared with snake like features and ruby red snake like eyes filled with malice and madness.
He shuddered at the memory "I'd rather not talk about it." He could see the confusion on Draco's face by the small frown that flickered across his face.
"I don't understand though I swore I saw a figure standing before you." The boy raised a pale hand and ran it over his slicked back hair.
He turned his attention to his butter beer and glared at it "Can we not talk about this." He flicked his hand and caught his wand as it was pushed out the holster strapped to his arm and ran his fingers over the smooth polished wood enjoying the feeling of power it gave him.
"I never noticed how beautiful your wand is." Daphne said as she leaned closer to get a better look changing the subject thankfully.
Harry glanced at her before looking back at his wand, the wand had changed since he had first bought it from Ollivander's the wood wasn't as thick as it once was, it was thinner somehow and looked more elegant.
He briefly thought of his yew wand that was strapped to his leg and hidden beneath hundreds of tiny runes, it had taken on an appearance similar to Tom's yew wand but with subtle differences his yew wands handle was shaped like a snake with the rest of its wand coming out its open mouth.
He caught sight of Daphne's wand which was a light brown colour and had small flower shaped runes etched on its handle it matched her perfectly "Come on, I promised Astoria I would get her something from honeydukes." With a muttered spell she cast a warming charm on herself before wrapping a simmering black robe around her delicate shoulders before gesturing to the door.
Astoria Greengrass was the younger sister of Daphne and was almost a carbon copy of her but instead of having Daphne's long blonde hair Astoria's hair was as black as night, she had a cute button nose and warm blue eyes, she was the exact opposite of her sister while Daphne was the unofficial ice queen of Slytherin Astoria was warm, friendly and always seemed to be smiling.
He along with Draco and the still arguing Theo and Blaise finished off their drinks and followed Daphne out of the busy pub and out into the streets of Hogsmeade, outside the weather was bright and sunny although a cold wind whipped at their cloaks causing the group to shiver.
Harry was grateful that his invisibility cloak could look like any other cloak as the shimmering liquidlike material seemed to wrap itself more securely around him protecting him from the elements, he had taken to wearing the cloak over his school uniform as it was quicker to turn invisible than it was to cast the invisibility spell.
He offered Daphne his arm and once she placed her cool hand in the crook of his elbow, he set off in the direction of the sweet store behind him he could still hear Theo and Blaise argue only this time about the latest broom that had recently been released the firebolt.
"It's the fastest broom to ever be made. The Nimbus series can't even come close." Theo said as he waved his hands around.
"What good is speed if it can't handle the twists and turns." Blaise said as he put his hands in his pockets "Besides you saw the memory of the test flight."
Harry glanced over his shoulder at the pair "That was only the prototype though surely the firebolt has been improved upon since its release." The memory in question was viewed from a pensive that projected the memory above the watery surface a better improvement than putting one's entire face into the pensive.
The memory was of a man on the new firebolt and a woman on the latest nimbus 2001 being put through an intense flying course and while the firebolt was faster than the nimbus it struggled on the twists and turns while the nimbus was more agile but lacked the speed of the firebolt.
"I have personally flown both the Nimbus and firebolt and while the firebolt is definitely faster it struggles on preforming any hard turns but between the two I would take the firebolt it's scary how fast it can go." Draco said the young man had made it onto the Slytherin Quidditch team and was now the seeker "My Father knows someone who helped create the Firebolt."
The boy had helped the team win its first match which helped the boys own standing within the house of the snakes, it seemed the boy was slowly starting to make a name for himself instead of relying on his father's name and money.
The group stepped into Honeydukes which was filled with other kids carrying handfuls of sweets or stuffing the sweets into their mouths, with a disgusted look at a young boy with chocolate stains around his mouth the group moved off to collect a selection of sweets.
One of the things he noticed early one was that he had quite the sweet tooth so after grabbing a pink and white paper bag he moved around the shop collecting his share of sweets before going to the counter where Daphne was waiting chewing on what looked like liquorish wand.
After a few minutes wait he stepped up to the counter and paid for his sweets while also getting a box filled with small chocolates with hundreds of different flavours for Astoria, once out the shop he shrunk his items with a small flick of his wand and put them inside his pockets.
"You know it's scary how you can use magic without saying a word."
He turned to look at Daphne who was staring at him with slightly wide eyes "Pardon?" he asked as he placed his wand back in its holster.
"You preformed the shrinking spell without uttering the incantation. It takes most people years to be able to cast silently and most don't bother."
He offered the young woman a smile "Is that envy I hear in your voice." He was pleased to notice the very slight blush that dusted her cheeks although most would assume it was from stepping out of the warm shop into the cold Scottish air.
She gave him her best icy stare "Of course not." With a swipe of her golden blonde hair she turned slightly to glance around the streets.
He smiled at her "Oh so you wouldn't like to learn how to do it?" asked as he moved out the way of the shop door as Draco, Theo, Blaise and Tracy stepped out the shop each carrying a bag filled with sweets.
A flash caught his attention before he felt the weight of Hedwig appear on his arm and he turned to look at the beautiful young phoenix, she and Fawkes had been spending a large amount of time together "Hey beautiful where is Fawkes?" he was awarded with a small huff and she extended a leg which held a shrunken scroll.
He chuckled and carefully took the scroll before with a flick of his wand he opened the scroll to find it was a statement from Gringotts, he looked over at Draco who was walking towards a small clothing shop in the village "Draco I will wait outside for you." He looked over at Theo and Blaise who were discussing Italian fashion.
Hogsmeade village was close to the railway line that the express used and it relied heavily on students from the castle and the small population that lived near the school to keep the shops profitable, the village had a post office and from where he was standing, he could see hundreds of owls either resting of flying to and from the building.
There was a shop that sold wands and although not as big as Ollivanders shop he could still see hundreds of boxes stacked inside, there was also a tea shop which was extremely pink in colour and seemed to be a popular place for couples to go on dates.
The village also had a bank similar in appearance to Gringotts in Diagon alley but on a much smaller scale, he knew that the banks were connected through tunnels hundreds of feet below the ground, the village had two pubs one was the three broomstick's and the other was the hogs head which was a dirty pub with stray littering the ground.
The owner of the pub was a large man with a beard nearly as impressive as Dumbledore's if you looked past the dirt mixed in, the man also had a pet goat that never left the pub, it made many people wonder what a man was doing with the animal behind closed doors.
There was also a shop that sold school equipment like quills, ink and parchment not that he needed a quill thanks to Hedwig giving him a surprisingly unbreakable feather, after etching few runes onto the feather charmed into onto the quill with him having to dip the quill into ink, after stocking up on normal parchment he also stocked up on some higher quality parchment for his duties as Heir.
The village also had a joke shop run by a very excitable bald man wearing blue and yellow robes his shop was filled with screaming yoyos, fanged frisbees and was very popular with the students especially the Weasley twins, seeing the twins enter the shop he remembered he needed to arrange a meeting between them the twins were incredibly creative, he funded reached out to the twins last year and agreed to fund some of their research there dream was to open a joke shop once they finished school.
There was also a bookstore that sold not only the school curriculum books but also a wide array of books, it was of modest size with two floors it was owned by an old lady who's passion in history would make even Professor Binns envious.
Finally, the village had the most haunted house in Britain the shrieking shack, the shack was an abounded building that creaked and groaned in the wind and had stories of people hearing agonizing screams heard from the building.
He was forced to turn his attention to Daphne who was petting Hedwig with a smile and making soft noises to his familiar, he raised an eyebrow "Having fun?" he teased at the normally cool young woman.
The young heiress glared at him for a moment before she spoke softly "I am envious of you Harry. Hedwig is a unique creature born an owl but reborn as a phoenix. A unique phoenix."
He had wondered about this himself sure there was different species of phoenix but none of them were like Hedwig while Fawkes used flames to travel Hedwig used a similar travel but instead of red heated flames hers were white and cool and while her tears could be used to heal, they were not as nearly as powerful as Fawkes tears.
He only knew this thanks to Gringotts who had wanted to buy a vial of tears on behalf of a powerful family not before the Goblins had tested the tears extensively, he turned back to Daphne and smiled "Yeah she is certainly unique." He reached out and stroked her silky white feathers before turning his attention to his statement.
The statement showed a quick overview of his current spending this year Raggok was certainly sparing no expense on repairing the family manor, the Manor's wards had to be slowly and carefully dismantled as they were beyond saving before the new wards could be cast, after asking Narcissa to oversee the development the cost had nearly doubled but he trusted the beautiful woman to furnish his home in a way that showed off how powerful his family could become.
He would never have to worry about money thanks to many investments that Raggok made over the years making his family one of the richest families in the magical world, still it was frightening to see the number of galleons being spent.
Not to mention the other vaults he had access too and the stone hidden within his family vault from what little time he had with the stone turning anything into gold was easy enough all it required was the stone simply touching another piece of metal and it would turn into gold but getting the stone to create its legendary Elixir was proving extremely difficult.
He knew Dumbledore was looking for the stone and had been tasked by the dying Flamel to find the stone, so he had to be careful with his experiments, he had debated telling Raggok about the stone sure the Goblins loved gold and money, but he didn't trust the Goblin with such sensitive information yet.
He folded the statement and placed it inside a small satchel he had on his hip before turning to Hedwig "Thanks girl." He placed a small kiss in his phoenix's head before with a trill Hedwig jumped off his arm and disappeared in a flash of white.
Lish was currently with Rex inside the Chamber the young snake seemed to view Rex as older brother and so had taken to following the large Basilisk around learning new ways to hunt, Lish was welcomed by his fellow Slytherin's she enjoyed stretching out before the large fire in the common room enjoying the heat.
He felt a hand gently grab his elbow and he turned to see Daphne smiling at him as she motioned to his friends walking towards the many Thestral drawn carriages that would take them back to Hogwarts.
"Come on Harry, we're heading back."
With a smile he nodded and allowed Daphne to guide him back to the carriages while he stared at the Thestrals who watched him with large inquisitive eyes.
sorry for taking so long to update things have been tough lately ive lost my job moved back into my parents house and struggled to pay for my child and their needs. on a happier not enjoy the chapter and let me know what you think. stay safe and i will see you next time.