osite2-audiotest Chapter 1: wizardingworks1, a x-overs fanfic

Oct 3, 2019

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Melton-Mowbray, England. Sometime in June 1991

Have you ever gone from taking a nice, relaxing afternoon nap to falling face-first into the wet pavement?

I have, it sucks ass, and leave little explanation as to why it happened.

"What the heck..?" I pushed myself up off of the… cobblestone floor, sidewalk, it was a sidewalk. "How did I get here?"

The thought occurred that I might be dreaming, lucid dreaming perhaps, but pinching my arm did nothing, and… 'these aren't my clothes.'

I was dressed up in a long-sleeve dress shirt, where before it had been a tee, and as I checked my pants I realized something else was seriously wrong.

Especially comparing myself to the curb, and to the streetlights, and the doors.

'Oh, God, I just body jacked some poor kid spontaneously…' I looked around, checking my pants pockets, but no luck, there wasn't a wallet or an ID or anything, nor was there a backpack. I was just alone, out in a light rain, in what might be a different timezone.

'Did I get freaky Friday ed across the world?' I wondered, crossing my tiny little arms awkwardly. 'Is some kid now in my body? I hope he doesn't find my porn.'

The town itself was odd, full of a mix of old and new architecture, and the signage was in English at least.

The traffic light a block away was on the wrong side of the road though, and that gave me a pretty good idea where I was.

'England then? Cripes…'

And here I was complaining about the rain like a little wanker. It could be so much worse than England. At least I knew the language.

As I moved for shelter, I felt something shifting below my foot in my right boot. It felt like a sheet of paper.

I didn't want to pull out my only lead to get ruined by the rain, so I waited until I was safely under a bus stop to withdraw it. Though it only read three words.

Cromwell Orphanage, Rupert.

Well, I could guess what that meant pretty easy, it probably meant I should go to the Cromwell Orphanage, and that my name was Rupert.

I peeped my head past the advertisement on the bus stop, looking up and down the street, and wouldn't you know it, one of the buildings was clearly labeled the Thomas Cromwell home for Orphaned Children.

Convenient.

A little too convenient. There was bullshit here, I was sure of it, but, I was a lone child with no ID whatsoever, and it was dark, and I was not particularly confident in my odds surviving alone, even in England.

So, like a good little victim of circumstance, I made my way to the orphanage door, rapping on it with my Itty-bitty child hand.

The woman who came to the door had a stern look to her, with long blond hair done up in a bun.

She glowed down at me, though I think that was just her natural state of being.

"Are you Rupert?"

"Ye-yes, I am."

"We were expecting you hours ago. Come in."

The waiting area was bland and grey, with opaque windows facing the clouds outside. "Well, it looks like you'll be up in the attic room, the rain will be a little loud, but you'll get used to it." She said, reading a sheet of paper off the front desk. "Breakfast will be at 6 am sharp, but you may sleep through it if you wish, seeing as it is near midnight now. Climb the ladder by the back door, and you'll be in your room. We can go over your schedule in the morning."

I nodded, shyly, trying not to give myself away, who knew what the hell was happening, it was best to play along for now.

The attic room was lit by a single hanging glass bulb and was a tight space pressed up just below the roof at the back of the building. I could barely stand up in it without hurting my head, and the rain was loud, but it was dry at least.

I stripped off my damp clothing and boots and climbed into the twin-sized bed pressed against the back wall of the building, drawing the blankets over me like a shield. I was still unsure of just what was going on.

When I put my head down on the pillow though, I heard a crinkling of paper beneath it, curious, I reached around, and drew out a sealed envelope.

The seal came off like nothing, and I very quickly came to realize just what and where I was. Indeed, I had to rub my eyes a little bit to make sure that they did not deceive me.

"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry..." the very idea of it was utterly preposterous, and yet here I was, reading a fantasy acceptance letter, a letter directed towards one, Rupert Irving.

In short, me.

"Hoo boy," I mumbled, trying to wrap my head around all that entailed, and around the fact that some cosmic force had decided to dump me here in the body of a kid no less.

Still, it was the body of a tired kid, and I wasn't able to think that long.

'Whatever, I'll deal with this nonsense in the morning.'

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Threadmarks Chapter 2. The Possibilities are endless, but the reality is small.

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Charlezany

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Oct 3, 2019

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Waking up in a strange bed five hours ahead of your normal timezone is traditionally reserved for members of the Mile-High club in my estimation, but it only took me a moment and a glance at the letter which I had left on the dresser at the head of my bed (the only other furniture in the room), for me to confirm that no, it had not in fact been a dream.

I really had been shoved into Harry Potter, and if the date on the postage was anything to go by, I would be just in time for all the wonderful child-murdering shenanigans to kick off.

Woohoo?

Well, it wasn't all bad, there were a lot of opportunities there too, things I could use to my advantage, people I could save and plots I could stop dead, just by sharing some knowledge about them in advance.

Well, maybe not, explaining that knowledge would be a big task.

Eh, I'd find an excuse when I got to Hogwarts. Still, this was exciting, I was in a world where I could do anything, be anything. Hell, it was entirely possible to achieve literal immortality here with the right mindset, via the philosophers stone or other methods, and even without that, you could still do most anything at all through magic.

In short, the possibilities were limitless, and I was in a position to grasp them.

Well, actually I wasn't, not yet, but I would be, and that was pretty awesome.

Of course, the wait was a killer, and orphanage life miserable. Well, miserable might be too strong a word for it, perhaps lacking in entertainment.

Melton Mowbray wasn't a particularly large down, despite, to my knowledge, predating the Norman Conquest, and it produced few orphans. I was one of nine, and we were overseen by two women, Gran Olivia, and Mrs. Helen. They were pleasant enough to my more mature sensibilities, but the other kids fussed that they were too strict.

I couldn't blame them, nine children were a hassle, and despite welfare, or rather doll money, they were not exactly living it up themselves.

Yeah sue me, I'm not gonna tell you that the two ladies taking care of our lot were bitter old unloving hags, because they weren't, and anybody seeing then that way was probably a child. Mostly they just seemed to want to keep us alive.

I didn't bond all that well with other children, on that, and on other issues. I just had almost nothing in common with these other orphans, the other boys were more interested in the upcoming Conker fights than anything else, and the three girls were all enraptured by some period pop artist I didn't know existed.

In short, there was something of a lack of common ground between us, in addition to me being a weird new kid.

I can't even really remember their names, I talked to them so little in the week I was there before my… well, before the professor arrived.

It was around 10 am, I think, when Gran shouted up that there was someone there to see me. I had been up in my room, reading over my list of essential supplies once again at the time, and I think I nearly broke my shins wire the fall, rushing as I was towards the front room.

I had been given a week to grow in excitement you understand, a very boring week of waiting until what I presumed must be my eleventh birthday.

I may have been running a bit too fast, however, as I slammed face-first into the man in the hall door, falling down on my bum to stare up at a wall of flowing black robes.

"You are Rupert, then. I take it?"

You know, he didn't really look all that much like his actor, but despite that Professor Snape was still instantly recognizable. From his long hooked nose, the greasy hair, and the fact that nobody else to my knowledge dressed the way he did. His voice also had a certain draw to it, as if he was at all times speaking down a metal pipe.

"Yes, that's me." I nodded. "Are you here to take me to Hogwarts?"

"Not presently no, but muggle-borns cannot be expected to shop for themselves." His eyes turned up towards Gran, who was standing in the front hall. "I will return him in several hours, once we have visited the necessary stores to purchase his school supplies."

At Gran's nod, I was led from the building, though I struggled to keep pace with the bat-like man's long steps as if he was trying to escape me. He led me swiftly into an alleyway adjacent to the orphanage.

"This will be disorienting, please face your head away from me." He reached down and turned me about before I could realize what he was doing.

Then the world cracked and warped, and it felt like I was being tied up into a rope, head to toe, twisted all over in a manner that should be utterly impossible without breaking my skeleton or removing it entirely.

I was glad that I hadn't eaten lunch yet when we got there, as my stomach was doing somersaults when I staggered out onto the cool black bricks of London.

"Hmm, you are a metamorphomagus then? I should have been told."

I turned back towards him, a bit of confusion in my eyes.

"I'm what?"

He withdrew from a bag at his side a tiny hand mirror that seemed to be held together by spider-chitin. In the center, however, I could see that my flesh was indeed as twisted as it felt, half sat up on the side of my face like some sort of deranged mutant, with a bad case of scoliosis, and one shoulder much higher than the other.

"You do not appear to be splinched, so I would suggest you revert back to a more standard appearance before you inevitably embarrass yourself further."

"I…" I reached up to my face, trying to pry at it with my hands, to little effect.

"I don't quite know how."

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Threadmarks Chapter 3: A professor finds cheap teaching equipment offensive.

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Charlezany

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Oct 3, 2019

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Severus pressed his lips together tightly as he glanced down at the boy desperately trying to reshape his face in front of him as if it were putty.

He did not previously think it was possible for a metamorphomagus to lack such control, but then, the boy was a muggle-born and an orphan at that. He supposed it was mildly possible that the boy had never even realized his capabilities.

Unfortunately, there wasn't altogether much he could do for the boy as he tried to realign his face to little success. Metamorphomagi generally were quite rare as deviant Wizarding bloodlines went, and as such, it was not exactly common knowledge in regards to how they molded themselves.

Most seemed to just get used to the process over time.

'Ah well.' He flicked his wand in a silent casting of the Homorphus charm. He knew that it forced Animagi back into their natural state, and some theorized that the same would be true of other shapeshifters.

The boy cried in shock as his shape immediately began to reform into a far more standard one, similar to the appearance he had held in the orphanage, save that his hair was blonde for a moment, before quickly changing to brown.

'Not a conscious decision then.' Snape returned his want to his holster. "There, now I believe the first thing that should be dealt with is your robes. Hogwarts will be covering your basic school supplies under the orphan's act of nineteen-forty-seven, however, there will be no frippery, no excessive focus on quality, and no pets. Do I make myself clear?"

The boy nodded, seeming to have gotten his wits back about him quickly. Good, that would take him farther than most muggle-borns who couldn't stop gaping at anything with a trace of magic to it.

He began making his way towards Madame Malkins, confident that the boy would follow if nothing else to avoid being alone in a strange new place. Children were triflingly predictable after his years of teaching, and the pitter-patter of footsteps running to catch up with him let him know that the boy was continuing to be sensible, for now at least.

Madame Malkin looked up as he entered. "Oh, my, Severus, I haven't seen you in years, still wearing that drab old thing, have you finally come to replace it?"

"No, I will not be replacing my Robes today. I am here escorting a new student."

"Ah, I see, I take it that would be you then." Her eyes moved over to the boy that had followed him in. Who nodded deferentially.

"Yes, I'm Rupert, it's nice to meet you."

"And you as well, come here, and let me get a look at you…"

Severs ignored the ongoing conversation, turning his eyes to the street instead, watching as he always did, for the general mood of the place, and if any of the former death-eaters were up and about.

'None today, seems Lucius might have more to do than strut around. Perhaps he's at the Ministry.'

He stepped back out onto the street, the fitting for uniform robes and clothing would take an hour as Minerva told it, and it would be sensible to go retrieve the boy's equipment and reading materials before he took him to Ollivanders to finish the trip. He had six different cauldrons boiling in his laboratory, and he needed to ensure that he did not have to waste even more time rebrewing Felix Felicis.

He entered the Madame Potage's shop warily, he was willing to buy second hand for the boy, but not substandard, and his students had been melting their cauldrons a tad too easily in recent years, likely because of the thinner rim on American Import Cauldrons, even those which claimed to be the standard size 2 Pewter.

Ignoring the greeting from Clerk at the counter, he immediately set to checking the Brands.

'Smiths… Smiths… ah, yes, this is the American Brand, I'll have to bring it up to Albus.' He turned towards the clerk. "Do you have any Harding made Cauldrons?"

"You hear shopping for a student, professor? Normally it's Mrs. McGonagall who does that, and yeah I think we have some in the back, not as pretty as the Smiths though. Want I should go get them?" Snape belatedly realized that the clerk at the counter had been a former student, a Hufflepuff whose name he couldn't quite place.

"Indeed."

"I'll have at it then. One moment."

The young man flicked his wand, pulling several of the uglier grey cauldrons out of the back. Still, despite appearances, the Harding company made sturdy beginner cauldrons, suitable for first years. He studied them carefully, ensuring that there were no cracks or obvious damages.

"This third one here will be suitable. I presume you have the rest of the first year measuring supplies around as well?"

"Reckon we do."

"Good, I will want to check their quality as well."

He grimaced as the young man drew out several pairs of dinged up bronze scales.

'First years are bad enough without tools of inferior quality. Perhaps Albus could write a strongly worded note to the minister.'

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Threadmarks Chapter 4: Robes may be bought, but Wands pick their wielders.

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Charlezany

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Oct 3, 2019

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#10

'I never want to see another tape measure again.'

There was just something fairly traumatizing of being wrapped up in magical measuring belts as if they were slithering boa-constrictors trying to encircle your torso. It felt unnatural in a way I felt hard to describe, though if Madame Malkin noticed my twitchiness, she didn't seem to notice.

Well, that or she was more focused on my changing hair color.

"Oh, foo, a Metamorphomagus and you didn't even tell me, dear. Why, that changes everything, oh that Severus, buying second-hand robes for a shapeshifter." She patted my head. "Well, humbug. I've already got this set measured out for you, and he probably won't want to pay more. How about this, next summer come back and I'll get you a set that'll change shape and size with you. At a discount too I should think. After Severus has you in those confining things for a year. Phah, an insult to the craft. Thinks he can walk in here with that carpet, I'll give him a piece of my mind."

Despite the man's coarseness, I thought it might be a little unfair to voice such things about him. "I… um, I don't think I can blame him, he probably doesn't meet many metamorphomagi."

The middle-aged woman turned a kind eye down towards me, shaking her head. "That's very mature for your age, especially with how constriction normal robes must be for you. Oh, but fine, I won't chew your professor's ear off."

"Thank you," I nodded, which prompted a smile from her.

"There now, you are a sweet boy, let's get you finished up here and ready to go, I'm sure you'll enjoy meeting old Ollivander across the street, why, I knew I was absolutely thrilled to get my first wand."

"I am looking forward to it."

"As you well should be," Snape spoke, entering the back room where Madame Malkin was finishing her adjustments. "Despite some Wizards placing perhaps undue focus upon it, the Wand still remains the foremost tool of the modern wizard. Though it will do you well to remember that there are other avenues of magic available to you."

"Professor, I was just finishing up." The shopkeeper said, glancing towards me and holding her tongue regarding how appropriate she thought my robes were. I smiled and that seemed to reassure her, I really didn't need her harassing someone who would be my future Professor on my behalf, and I appreciated her understanding. "I'll have the full set ready to go in just a moment."

"Good." The dark man said, though his lips did not smile at the word. He turned towards me, his eyes narrowing. "You will find that your potion supplies and books are in acceptable condition, which is more than may necessarily be the case for your classmates. You will endeavor to ensure that they remain as such to prove worthy of the investment Hogwarts is making in you, am I understood?"

"Yes, professor." I nodded. "Do you have any other suggestions as to how to be an ideal student?"

It wasn't even sarcastic, I honestly wanted to know, and I was literally playing with magic here, any tip could help.

Snape, if anything, seemed slightly taken aback by my foresight. Pausing for a moment to stare at me. "Yes. You should study your textbooks in the month before the semester begins, this will provide you with an acceptable foundation from which to begin learning, I would further advise you to work in the textbooks of the second year once you have access to the school library. This will allow you to have a functional head-start as a student."

That was about what I expected honestly, but I nodded all the same. "Thank you, professor, I'll try to do that."

"See that you do."

As we settled into a comfortable Silence, Madame Malkin returned carrying a package wrapped in thick brown paper. "This'll be your clothes then dear. Everything should be here what's on your list."

"Good." Snape tapped them with his wand, causing the package to levitate into the air. "Now, I do not have a great deal of time to spare, and wand selection can take quite a while. Follow me please."

"Thank you Madame Malkin" I waved, as I followed the black-clad professor out, earning a smile from the shopkeep. As we left I noticed several other packages had been hovering behind him. "Erm, professor, where am I supposed to keep all of that."

Snape turned back to me, before pointing to one of the floating items. "The suitcase is larger on the inside then it is without, it will hold your required items and have some small room to spare for additional storage. I suggest that you do not overpack, however."

I nodded, and he led on across the center of the alley, into a large multi-story store, under the sign of Ollivander's. Of all the places I had visited, it was the closest to the movies, full of thousands of little wand-boxes, covering every shelf and flat space. The old man himself sat behind a short counter.

"Ah, Severus, and a new student as well I see, I take it Minerva was busy?"

"Yes."

"Ah, and who are you… a metamorphomagus, oh my, don't see too many of those, not these days anyway. You'll be here for a first wand then."

I nodded, and he waved me forward to the counter. "Now put your Palm up here so I can see it boy, and while you're at that tell me your name."

"Rupert sir," I said, doing as he instructed. He took my hand and traced the line on my Palm with long fingers.

"Hmm, Rupert, Rupert, ah, like the bear for muggle children, I see I see, yes, and thirteen inches too. I suspect Laurel or Yew would personally, yes, and tell me, is your back a little stiff?"

"Um, no, not particularly."

"Interesting, slightly springy then, most Metamorphomagus are very springy, well want something to balance that then." The man moved away from me with surprising dexterity. "Twelve to fourteen inches, Laurel Wood, Slightly Springy, and with a Unicorn Hair core, I'd wager. Does that sound sensible to you?"

I looked up at the man oddly. "I wouldn't know what to look for yet."

"Ah, yes, a thirteen and a half then, I know just the wand." The wandmaker smiled, drawing a box out of the middle of a pile, which somehow failed to collapse. "I should warn you now, Laurel Wands may be noble and powerful, but they tolerate no laziness from their wielder, and while Unicorn hair means that it's a tad mellower than the average laurel, the wood still holds true for this beauty." The wandmaker smiled, popping the lid off the box.

The wand in question was a deep red-brown, with a rippling pattern ascending towards the distended tip, the handle was cut with a pattern of overlapping leaves, and the back of it bore a pattern of a laurel wreath. "Laurel is the wand of Glory, and it can be a tad impulsive, but at its core is Unicorn Hair and this wand will be the most loyal and faithful of companions. Go ahead, hold it."

I nodded, grabbing the handle of the wand gently and picking it up, I held it in front of me for a moment.

There was no magical epiphany, no store shaking blowout and no sparks flying about.

And yet, all the same, it felt right. The wand felt as if it belonged in my hand as if it had always been there even if I didn't know it.

"This is the one," I said, nodding sharply. There was no doubt in my mind that the wand agreed with me.

The old wand master smiled proudly. "These old instincts haven't failed me yet. I should warn you though not to try to share that beauty with your friends. Laurel only ever takes to one master, and it tends to throw lightning bolts at any other who seeks to wild it without dire and pressing need."

I nodded sharply, glancing over the wonderful, mystical thing as Snape went to pay the man.

'The Wood of glory huh?'

And it had picked me?

That…

That was interesting.

Last edited: Oct 4, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 5: Waiting for my Train

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Oct 4, 2019

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#15

It turned out boredom was an excellent study aid, that and I was better suited I think to serious study than most Wizarding children, owing to having earned a master's degree already, my ability to process huge amounts of largely worthless text, and identify the key points and concepts that I needed to know was actually quite good.

Of course, I wasn't writing research papers here, and a couple of the texts still did give me some trouble, particularly potions, which while surprisingly simple in concept, required a truly large amount of rote memorization, something which I fell back to the old standard of flashcards to help with.

It was easier than I remember it being before at least, probably because I didn't exactly have a personal computer to fall back on up in the attic, reading over potion ingredients, their inclinations and uses. It was all intensely basic stuff, closer to "If you drop mentos into soda it erupts," levels of chemistry than what I had expected, there was very little explanation of why things worked the way they did, with more of a focus on how to do it without killing yourself. Past that it was almost all memorization of recipes and ingredients, which was fine by me for now.

Other subjects were generally less strenuous, with transfiguration being the most difficult, and wizarding history the easiest. All of the textbooks were written for eleven-year-olds with unreliable prior education (Indeed to my knowledge Wizards were entirely homeschooled before eleven, making it somewhat remarkable that they could all read at all). This showed itself in numerous ways from the simplicity of the text to the lack of any sort of proper indexes in all the books save for "Magical Drafts and Potions", and "A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration", though "One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi" had something of a primitive equivalent.

So overall, my opinions of Wizarding Academia were poor. The school was a little over a thousand years old, and there seemed to be no universities in Wizarding society, and, God help me, it showed.

Still, it wasn't as if they weren't teaching me anything. "Magical Theory", as well as the Standard Book of Spells for my year were both fonts of information regarding the way that magic worked, and while they were written for children, they did at least communicate Ideas effectively.

It was about a week after i got them that I cast my first spell. I wasn't all too worried about the "Trace" given that to my knowledge it hadn't yet been placed on me, and furthermore, I doubt even the Ministry of Magic could reasonably detain a child over a law he had absolutely no way of knowing about. At worst I might receive a slap on the wrist and a little instruction.

It was a Saturday evening, and quite miserable outside, which is why the lot of us were indoors. I had gone up to my room, ostensibly for the purposes of my continuing studies, but really with the intent of casting the spell.

I took my wand out of its case, for it was far too long to keep in my pants pockets, hell, it was the length of my forearm, so even if I made it a holster it would stick out like a sore thumb.

It was much easier to feel the magic inside of myself with my wand out, I found, the rippling rosy wood seeming to reciprocate with something within myself, and so, carefully, I cast the first spell in the book, drawing upon that power and whispering gently, for the book had warned that if I spoke too loudly without control it might burn my wand.

"Lumos"

And suddenly, there was light.

Just a little thing mind, like a pocket LED flashlight, or a lighter, the tip of my wand glowed with a small but brilliant sparkle of white light.

But even if it was smaller than my pinky, and providing not too much in the way of actual light, it was still magic, and magic cast by me no less, my first spell. A tiny thing but a beautiful one.

And what was more, no auror came to harass me the next day, nor did anyone from the ministry appear in the following weeks, as I attempted to learn the book's repertoire of spells.

Some, such as the levitation charm, were surprisingly easy, perhaps because I had already seen them in the movies. On the other hand, Spongify proved to be particularly difficult, as it involved "conceiving of the object you wanted to make squishy", a phrase which I could personally not figure the meaning of. I certainly managed the locking and unlocking charms to a useable level, but Reparo, the mending charm, gave me a lot more trouble. It was easy enough to use on a slightly water-damaged scrap of note-paper, but beyond that, it became more difficult, as it too contained a "Conceptual" element that I had difficulty grasping.

This was more frustrating still, as I could not really begin work on The Firemaking or Severing charms, Incendio and Diffindo, without having some means to repair their potential damages.

Thus, as July rolled over into August, I stopped spending so much time on charms, as I was no longer making much in the way of uninstructed progress. I also found that I had grown even more distant from the other children, and reclusive in my time there, to the point that Gran had needed to start encouraging me to go outside and play with them. A duty I eventually took up to my chagrin but quickly ended up skipping out on.

I had the world at my fingertips and no magical oversight whatsoever, of course, she wasn't going to be able to stop me trying things. The Outdoors time did at least allow me to kidnap a large number of poor garden snails. The creatures were to be mutilated by my early attempts at turning them into teapots. Though after a while I noticed that there seemed to have developed a number of smaller snails in the garden running about with oddly teapot-shaped shells, and I hoped that I hadn't inadvertently violated some other ministry statute regarding the breeding or creation of magical creatures.

I did dick around with my apparent shapeshifting abilities a bit, but I made little progress other than figuring out how to wiggle my ears and discoloring my eyes and hair. I wasn't exactly going to be copying anyone's appearance anytime soon, but that was fine, I didn't really think I'd need to, not in my first year anyhow.

Still, Time flew by as it always does, and before I knew it Nan was walking me to the train line, which I would be taking to Birmingham and then south to London, which I won't deny seemed very odd in practice. Why on earth would you make the entire Hogwarts student body go south to London instead of just teleporting them to Scotland like a sensible wizard?

It all seemed excessively contrived, but then, perhaps they had built the train right as they were being invented and all been so proud of it they decided everyone should ride it.

I'd have to check out "Hogwarts, a History", when I got the chance if just to see how some of the wackier parts of the school got implemented.

When I hit King's Cross about three hours later, I had to smile. It was the first place I had seen that I really recognized from my old life. Not in a movie, but quite alive, though I won't deny that there weren't quite so many obviously eccentric folk running around it the last time I was here.

Wizards were many things I had no doubts, but Subtle was not one of them. I supposed they mostly remained secret by virtue of having easy to use memory wiping charms and potions, as I could not imagine anybody missing all the robed people in the middle of one of the busiest train Stations outside of Asia.

I was clearly a bit early to the platform at around nine in the morning, though other people were obviously there already, Passing through the wall was a little odd on the surface of it, but once you stuck your hand through the rest just sort of followed naturally.

I managed to flag down a prefect from Ravenclaw, a seventh year named Lenora Deedle, to help me put my suitcase up into the luggage rack near the back of one of the cars, and found myself a nice empty cabin to sit in while I waited for the rest of the students to arrive.

I'd love to lie and say I was totally calm and confident and cool the whole time, but honestly, I was excited and Jittery. two months of boredom trapped in an eleven-year-old's body, but it would all be worth it, every minute of sitting in that attic and trying to learn would be worth it completely.

I was going to Hogwarts after all.

Last edited: Oct 4, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 6, Unfortunately not the City of New Orleans

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Oct 4, 2019

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#16

Twice.

I had to relocate where I was sitting on the train twice over the two hours before it left, as gaggle' of senior year students moved into the compartments I was in. The first group had been sixth-year Gryffindor's and hadn't actually asked me to move, but it was so cramped with the lot of them there that I didn't really want to be in the car with them, and the second group were fourth-year Slytherins who I honestly wanted absolutely nothing to do with.

Hell, one of them hit me with a jinx that tied my shoes together on the way out.

Pricks.

Still, I had a pretty good idea that there was at least one car on the train I wouldn't mind sharing, and as the enormous magical vehicle got moving, I walked the hall looking for it.

Harry Potter was not as immediately recognizable as I had expected. For one thing, he was a bit gaunter then Radcliffe had ever been. I was surprised to see that Ron wasn't with him yet, I had thought they met while it was still in the station.

Oh well, half-remembered movies and books from a decade ago.

I rapped on the side of the door, drawing the Boy's attention away from the countryside. "Would you mind if I sit here? The older students booted me out of the one I was in before."

"Oh no, I wouldn't mind at all." The boy said, nodding cheerfully.

I smiled, stepping in and taking the seat across from him, "You're a first-year too? I'm Rupert."

"Oh, yeah, I'm Harry, Harry Potter."

"Cor, you're Harry Potter?" I turned back to face the hall and found that yes, I had cut in just before Ron got there. "The boy who lived?, ah, and can I sit in here by the way?"

"Sure, the more the merrier" I smiled, waving the boy in. "And what's this about the boy who lived, is he some kind of celebrity?"

"What? You've never heard of Harry Potter?" The boy asked me, "ah, you must be muggle-born then. Everybody knows about Harry Potter." His eyes went back to the celebrity in the room. "So… is it true you've got the scar on your forehead?"

As Harry drew back his hair the awe on the Weasley's face was almost palpable.

Almost.

"Wicked…"

I smiled, interjecting. "So, Harry, what are you famous for then?"

This was evidently not the right thing to say, as the boy's face fell. "Well, from what Hagrid told me-"

"He killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named," Ron said, apparently oblivious to Harry's own conflicted feelings, not that I was much better, it was probably a pretty sore subject for the boy who just found out about it a month back. "Saved the whole bloody world he did."

"That is pretty impressive, looks like I picked the right cart to sit in then." I smiled. "So what ar-

"Anything off the Trolley for you dears?"

I smiled, but shook my head, while Ron refused on the basis of his pre-packed sandwich.

Harry, on the other hand, was more than happy enough to buy out a couple of every kind of candy she had, and while his attempts to share some with Ron were met with disapproval, my own eyes were drawn to the threat which had just emerged, my thought process screeching to a halt.

"Scabbers" was, by all appearances an ordinary brown rat, missing a single toe, and…

Well, he was a death eater, a traitor, and generally an extremely unpleasant person fully capable of murder, and he was in the same car as me, with little at all that could stop him from killing everyone here and running save for the social consequences.

At the moment he was gorging himself on Bertie Botts every flavored beans, which Ron was patiently explaining to us uneducated muggle-raised wizards.

He had a goddamned murderer on his lap, and nobody except me and a crazy man in jail knew it.

I turned away, rubbing at my face. That was a hell of a way to bring the reality of my situation back into things. Can't sit here and enjoy my shitty tasting magical candy because there's a murderer in the next seat.

I rubbed my eyes and replaced my smile, glad my change in demeanor hadn't been picked up by the boys or by the rat whose head was currently shoved into a box.

Harry was busy messing about with his new Dumbledore card, while Ron was busy trying to turn his rat yellow if I wasn't mistaken then Hermione ought to be here any moment now.

Anyyyyy moment.

I spotted a toad hop by in the hallway and grabbed my wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa," I said firmly, as Harry and Ron looked on. I smiled as the toad floated up into the air, hanging like a half-inflated balloon in the middle of the hall before I gently brought him into our cart, leaving him suspended in the air to avoid future getaway attempts.

"I thought we weren't supposed to know that one yet." Ron wondered. "Fred and George said you were supposed to learn it from Professor Flitwick first year."

"I practiced over summer." I smiled, gently poking the levitating toad with the tip of my wand to straighten him out. "Trace didn't seem to be active yet, I bet they put it on us when we boarded the train."

"Aw wicked, do you know the other charms too?"

"Just a couple, I can't do Reparo yet, and I didn't want to do Incendiary and Diffindo without it." I turned towards Harry "those are the mending, fire creation, and cutting charms, by the way, they're all in our textbook."

Ron made a bleaching sound in his throat at that, before the door slid open once again. "Excuse me, have you seen-Oh, there he is, you caught him then?"

Hermione was about as described, a frizzy-haired English schoolgirl, easier to recognize than Harry, but not as distinctive as the Weasley's. "Yes, indeed I did, I assume he belongs to someone?"

"Yes, a boy named Neville was looking for one, oh, and is that the Levitating charm you have him under, I can do that one too but I can't move things around yet."

"Oh? That's cool, the only one I haven't been able to get down is Reparo" I nodded smiling.

"Yes, well- oh, you've got dirt on your nose by the way" she pointed to Ron. "I can do Reparo just fine, though it did take a bit of practice, here" she pulled her want out. "Oculus Reparo" she fired off at Harry's cracked glasses. "I've read every one of our books over espescially, so I know all the charms and Jinxes, well, mostly, anyway, I expect we'll be arriving soon, so if you give me the toad I'll take it back to Neville."

I nodded, waving the amphibian over to her where she grabbed it out of the air. "Right then, you three best change into your robes soon, you have to be in uniform when we leave the train according to the school rules."

And just like that, she was gone, wandering back down the hallway whence she came.

"Well, she was a bit rude then." Ron shook his head. "Right though, we ought to get our robes on."

I nodded, finding that my luggage had somehow managed to make it from the rack at the back of the train to our cart, and shaking my head at the sight.

'Wizards are odd folk.'

Last edited: Oct 4, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 7: "Red and Gold look good on me I guess?"

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#18

Hagrid was a very large man, I decided, as we left the train behind us, moving down a shady path overhang by several old oak trees, of a sort uncommon in England to my knowledge. I shuffled with the crowd, having managed to lose sight of Harry and Ron in the bustle. I did see what I expected was Draco Malloy just ahead of me, already flanked by his toadies, but I had no intention of approaching him.

The groundskeeper really was very tall, much more so than he was in the movies. I imagined somewhere around eight-and-a-half to nine feet. He truly looked sort of goofy with how massive his frame was, though I wouldn't be entirely surprised if he could wrestle dragons at that scale.

Anyhow, it wasn't long at all before we reached the lake, and across those inky waters, I got my first glimpse of Hogwarts Castle.

It was love at first sight, truly, with towers sitting atop towers, and a great set of walls and suspended bridges, all little up with warm and shining lights that reflected across the calm surface of the loch with a shimmering fanfare.

I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but that was when I decided I wanted my own castle. It just made such a mark on me, though even then I knew it would be a very long time before I could act on that desire.

There was just something about that glowing golden battlement that struck the soul and made for a wondrous impression on me, and I suspect on many of my peers as well.

I barely noticed the boat ride go by as my eyes were fixed on that castle, well, except when a tentacle reached up and poked me in the shoulder, before splashing me with water.

I was rather peeved at that.

Anyhow, it wasn't long at all before we climbed the stairs to the castle gate proper, arriving at the side of the great courtyard before being led into the entrance hall proper, and formed into a line at the front of the hall where we were to wait for the sorting.

The professors were, at a glance, quite cheerful, with the exception of Snape, who was busy glaring at Harry as far as I could tell, and Mcgonnagal, who was running the sorting, and kept a straight face, though I could swear I saw her lips quirk up whenever she looked down at us.

Dumbledore got up to instruct us that the forbidden forest and the philosopher's stone death traps were strictly off-limits, though I was mostly still too awestruck by the spectacular sight of the great-hall ceiling to notice.

Before finally, we got into the sorting proper. Mcgonnagal started calling names, and I felt myself tense up. Even when the sorting hat started singing out of nowhere.

Each time a child went up, I got closer to the moment of truth. Each time someone went to their house, and their table cheered, I imagined that table cheering for me.

Well, except Slytherin.

Eventually, the moment of truth arrived, and I was called up to the podium by that thick Scottish accent.

"Rupert Irving."

I walked up and took my seat, half dreading and half excited by the prospect of the situation. Still, I went, all the same, my future awaited.

The minute that hat fell down on my head, I felt it in my head.

'Hmmph, let's see here… Courage… ambition, oh whole helpings of ambition, but you don't want to be in Slytherin.'

'That's correct.' I thought in reply. 'It's nice to meet you, by the way, Mr. Hat.'

'That's Mr. Sorting Hat thank you very much. Now, as I was saying, you have a great deal of ambition, but you think that blood prejudice in Slytherin is too thick. That type of thinking is very Ravenclaw, though if you wanted to be Slytherin, I'd put you in Gryffindor for thinking you could do it… Hmph, you would be great in Ravenclaw, but not Hufflepuff, so… No no, you want glory. I've got it then.'

I looked up at the brim of the talking hat, as it bellowed out over the hall.

"Gryffindor!"

'Really?' I wondered as the hat was taken off my head, Mcgonnagal smiling as the House table cheered. 'I mean, I guess that works.'

I hopped off the chair and managed to squeeze in with a load of other first years, before turning back up to stare at the continuing sorting. I did see a frown cross Professor Snape's face, probably at my own sorting view he had put so much effort into me, and it made me feel a little guilty, but being a muggle-born in Slytherin sounded like an utterly terrible idea, so I was more than happy to avoid it, even if I felt a bit bad for the professor.

I'd try to make it up to him at some point if I could figure out how.

Anyhow, the rest of the mess continued largely as canon as far as I could remember. Hermione, Ron, and Harry were all Gryffindor as well, though Ron and Harry sat with his brothers about 30 feet to my left, and Hermione was even further away by Neville, who seemed to be wrassling his frog into check. I introduced myself to the third years around me and chatter a bit, but mostly I was just soaking in the atmosphere, and enjoying the ren-fair food which was probably going to become my standard over the next few months.

I wasn't entirely sold on Pumpkin juice as a drink, but I figured it would grow on me eventually, and the meat was all excellent.

Eventually, Dumbledore got up again and led us in the school song, and all of us "ickle firsties" were led up to the Dorms by our prefects, so I managed to work my way back over to Ron and Harry.

"So," I asked, "How did you two like the food?"

"It was great," Harry said excitedly "I don't think I've eaten like that since… well, I don't think I've ever eaten that well!"

"Wicked right? My brothers said it was great, but that was even better than I thought it would be."

"I'm glad we all ended up in Gryffindor though." I smiled. "Hat thought I ought to be in Slytherin, but I convinced it that was a bad idea."

"Cor really, a Muggleborn in Slytherin? Can't see anything going wrong there." Ron Belched to punctuate his sarcastic phrasing, "sorry, er, anyway, glad to have you with us. I wouldn't want to even go near those snakes."

"Actually it said the same to me, maybe it likes to test all the people who aren't sure." Harry interjected, "some kind of test of character or something. Draco was telling me to join Slytherin earlier."

"Oh, that rat. His dad's always bothering mine you know, seems like being tosses runs in the family."

"Well, whatever, you see that even that girl from the train Hermione is in Gryffindor too."

"What are you sweet on her just because she read the books too?"

I rolled my eyes at the eleven-year-old. "No, you git, I'm just saying it seems like everybody I met so far has ended up in Gryffindor."

"Sames true for me actually, well, except for Malfoy."

"Oh, well that just goes to show that you two belong here."

"Maybe you're right Ron…" I smiled at the boy, who had brought his arms around both of our shoulders.

And maybe he was.

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Threadmarks Chapter 8: Settling into Schedule

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#22

When all was said and done, and we finally got out of the common room and up to the first-year boy's dormitory, there were six of us. Ron and Harry of course, and Neville as well, but also the other two I rather faintly remembered, Seamus Finnegan and Dean Thomas, who I knew just about nothing about personally.

"So you're Irish then? Have you been to any of your national Quidditch games?"

"Ayy, I went to a few of em, where one'a the best teams in the world don'tcha'know though it's a shame Doolittle is retiring this year."

I mentally blanked out the conversation as it turned towards Quidditch, especially once Dean and Harry started asking their questions, it was one of the only things at Hogwarts that I had no interest in at all. Instead, I was flagged down by Neville.

"Hermione told me that you helped catch Trevor earlier, so, er, thanks. He was a gift from my Great-Uncle Algie, so I don't want to lose him."

"Eh, I'm sure you would have found him anyway, toads don't hop all that quick." I smiled, patting the nervous boy on the back. "You just need to learn some ways to keep him in check and I'm sure you'll be fine, and if worse comes to worse there's probably a charm you could learn for it."

"I… well, I hadn't thought about that."

"We can ask professor Flitwick or maybe McGonagall, I'm sure they've found more than a few lost pets teaching here."

"Er, alright, I'm not sure if I'll be able to learn it though."

"Won't know if you don't try. I'm sure you'll be able to do it."

"Thanks…" I smiled at the boy, moving over to my own bed and luggage. I had picked it because the view faced the lake. Somehow doing so despite the fact that it should by all reason be on the girl's dormitory side of the tower, and I liked the view there best.

Inside were my associate clothes and all of my potions junk, what amounted to a truly great volume of it, in addition to my class books and all my other required gear. I moved it into the chest while the Quidditch conversation by the stove continued before I changed into my night-clothes.

"I think I'll test out the bed's fellows, see you all in the fresh light of morning." I smiled, waving dramatically, and receiving reciprocal waves from Harry and Neville. That done, I curled into bed, dreaming of what the future might bring, and what I could do to stop it.

All along, I pointedly ignored the rat in the room.

I woke well before my roommates, but that wasn't unusual, they likely weren't setting themselves on a biological timer that included breakfast at six in the morning.

Sharp.

Anyhow, while I knew it wouldn't really be served until a bit later, I still ended up drifting down to the great hall well in advance, making sure to keep awake on the shifting staircases. I had no intention of running into the enormous Cerberus I knew was standing around here somewhere, even if I might be able to whistle him to sleep.

When I got to the hall it was empty, and the ceiling showed just the barest cracks of dawn breaking over the Scottish Highlands in a truly glorious display of natural beauty.

I wasn't the only person there, far from it, though I was the only Gryffindor. Several Ravenclaws across a variety of years had taken seats around their table, and Professor Sprout was also up at the faculty table eating her breakfast, possibly because of how early she needed to be in the greenhouse. I imagined the small gaggle of Hufflepuffs looking chipper were probably her assistants.

Personally I was still fairly tired from the evening before, and in a display of smaller some house-elf somewhere teleported a lovely cup of Yorkshire tea onto the table in front of me, along with a spoon, several cubes of sugar, and a tiny pitcher of milk.

It brought a smile to my face as I prepared it, exactly as I liked, and I was half sure that the Elf would know it in the future. As I took a first sip of the lovely rich liquid, I smiled.

'God bless the British…'

So I sat there for quite a while, just sipping and watching the goings-on in the hall, before a quartet of owls flew in, dive-bombing our tables with small cards. I picked mine up and found that it revealed my schedule for the term.

Like so many things, it, of course, made no sense, with three hour-and-a-half class-blocks a day, and four on Wednesdays, it seemed to lack rhyme and reason even more so than similar nonsense I had experienced in college, as if it was designed by just pouring the classes on to a sheet of paper and assigning them accordingly.

Actually, that might be basically what it was, if likely with more magical and entirely pointless steps involved.

Either way, Herbology was the first thing in the morning for me, with Charms following up, and History of Magic after that. It seemed afternoons were mostly free, which suited me just fine since I could spend that exploring my options, or finding new abilities in the library.

I waved as, after almost an hour, the rest of the Gryffindor first years made there way down, in a pack headed up by a prefect. I hadn't known that was the intent, but I suppose it made sense in hindsight. Still, he held off scolding me because I hadn't been told, and it seemed I'd found my way well enough as it was.

I did manage to sit next to Harry and Ron this time, talking about our schedule as we waited for the food to arrive.

I had certainly had worse beginnings to school-years before.

Last edited: Oct 5, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 9: Class Underway

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Charlezany

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#25

The Greenhouses behind Hogwarts held a wide variety of plants, allocated by year across several greenhouses, likely for our own protection from the extremely deadly ones.

For the first day, we were out in the largest of them, which supposedly contained nonlethal or immobile plants.

Not that that was keeping me from eyeing up the rows of leafy green twirl things to my right as they wiggled back and forth, considering my options for a quick escape.

"Alright dears. Now as you can already see I'm sure, magical herbology is likely quite different when compared to your mother's garden. There are a great number of species we cultivate here at Hogwarts, and in this room, you'll find just a few of the more sensible, tamer ones." The Professor cleared her throat, pressing her wand to it when she saw that the back rows weren't paying attention. "Ahem, please do pay attention in these classes, while these plants are tame, some of them can still seriously injure you if you aren't careful, and I would like to avoid an unnecessary repeat of the last semester."

That got everybody to pay attention immediately.

"Good, now, as I was saying, we are going to just be going over some basic gardening techniques, such as estimating the correct amount of water or food that the plants need or repotting large enough seedlings into appropriate pots. So I hope everyone brought the dragon hide gloves detailed on their materials sheets, as we should all get started as soon as possible to familiarize yourself with the plants."

Professor Sprout was true to her word and soon broke us up into pairs based on where we had been standing. I ended up paired with Parvati Patil is a result, and I worked with the Indian Girl as we were instructed on how to replant the twisting tubers which had been moving about earlier.

"Wow, you're quite a bit better at this than me, Parvati, and I've done Gardening before."I smiled as the girl was able to wrestle the tubers into the dirt by grabbing the right part of their stems, something that was trickier than it seemed as they deliberately avoided your hands.

The girl smiled at that. "My mother keeps a lot of magical plants in the sunroom, so I've had a little experience moving them."

We continued to work amicably, moving the overgrown plants into the larger pots while I quizzed her on the types of plants her mother kept. Having read up on the book I noted that most, but not all of them were listed in the herbology textbook. Parvati, and unsurprisingly Neville as well ended up earning us a score of points for Gryffindor. Something I was sure our seniors would appreciate.

Finally, after about an hour of repotting, Professor Sprout called an end to it to ask us what we learned, and with Parvati having shown me the tick to it, I was fairly confident in explaining my understanding.

Shortly thereafter the bells in the tower played a little ditty, which was the signal for a ten-minute break intended to get us to charms.

The Charms classroom featured long desks set row on row, though honestly, we first-year Gryffindors only filled up the first two rows of seating, we were all pretty close together as it started, and I ended up with Ron to my Right, and Parvati to my left, as we had kept chatting on the way from herbology.

Professor Flitwick arrived about two minutes before class started and bid that everyone introduce themselves. Though this was soon interrupted by a rush of Hufflepuffs, who had all apparently come from an overlong History of Magic lecture, and only got in just before the bells rang.

Soon, the diminutive wizard took up the podium, quieting the class down.

"As I am sure you all know or have heard, Charms is the direct application of magic through the use of a wand. A catch-all term if you will that describes magic which does not easily fit into a more specialized framework, such as transfiguration."

There was general nodding and affirmation around the class.

"Good, in this class you will be learning some of the most useful, and often powerful spells available to the normal wizard, and as such there will be no use of these spells on your fellow classmates within this hall, do you understand?"

"Yes, professor."

"Good, now, today we will be learning the very simplest of the charms in your textbook. Lumos," the man's wand lit up immediately, sending brilliant light across the room. "As you can see, this particular charm requires very little wand movement, and mostly involves the focus of magic to the tip of your wands, do be careful not to use too much though, as it can burn the tip and such damage can be permanent." Flick wick smiled "Now go ahead all of you try it."

"Lumos" most of the room immediately incanted, to varying effect. Hermione and I, of course, ended up casting the spell properly, our wands softly glowing, but much of the rest of the class ended up getting little to no effect, and Neville somehow mispronounced it in a way that conjured a miniature moon hovering above his desk, about the size of a paperweight. It quickly disappeared.

"I see that some of you have been practicing your spells in advance. Ten points to Gryffindor for thinking ahead. Well, you may all repeat the spell, and remember that you are drawing forth magic to do so. Charms are not simply waving wands about and speaking. Focus and control over your own magic are also necessary. I will move about and help you, and perhaps your forward-thinking classmates can as well."

I nodded at that, and soon I was working with my bench of Gryffindors. Harry got it his third try, as he apparently hadn't grasped quite how to draw on magic at first, and Parvati and Ron needed to correct their pronunciation. In my experience, you wanted to speak spells sharply, and annunciation the syllables carefully in order to get the best effect.

Ron got it rather quickly as well, demonstrating his chops, though Parvati was quite frustrated, maybe by her slight accent stymying her casting. Still, I managed to work her through it, and with a short visit from professor Flitwick, our entire row was casting properly.

By the end of the lesson, Hermione and I had earned another eight points for Gryffindor by helping our peers, even including the Hufflepuffs, and only a couple students were still having trouble.

At the end of it all, we were just tasked with a short assignment of reading the chapter on Lumos in our spellbooks, and writing down a few situations we might use the spell in.

So all in all the first two classes went great, and we all went down to the great hall for lunch, where Parvati, Ron, Harry and I all shared our impressions of the professors, and Hermione scolded us for it, provoking Ron to call her a snotty know-it-all.

I was sure they'd be in love someday. Definitely.

Despite an admitted enjoyment of the textbook, however, I was not so convinced that I was going to fall in love with History of magic.

Something about the Hufflepuff's faces just warned me off.

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Threadmarks Chapter 10: Beginning of the Battle of the Books.

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#28

You know, for a literal ghost, Professor Binns wasn't too bad.

That wasn't to say he was a good teacher by any means, his lecturing style was extremely dry, and his explanation of magical history lacked the type of extensive sourcing I'd like to see, that was understandable when wizards tended to live to around two-hundred. Sources were less necessary given that their history had only started about five lifetimes ago, but I still would have liked them.

Still, while I wasn't really interested in taking notes, he did at least seem to know what he was talking about.

Well, I thought so anyhow. The book agreed with him, but I think he was older than it was.

Of particular interest to me was Emeric the Evil and his feat of domesticating a Welsh-Green Dragon to serve as his mount. There were a few recorded similar cases, all unitary and likely requiring a great number of enchantments, but still, that was badass, even if his rival did knock him off eventually.

Still, it seemed that his long droning voice was capable of putting most of the class to sleep, even on and their first day and when they were bustling with energy in charms just before lunch.

Still, what I was really looking forward to would come after class, as I waved goodbye to my sleepy compatriots, rushing towards the first floor, I made for the side-corridor with that blessed word.

"Library."

It was beautiful, utterly wonderfully beautiful, larger than even the university libraries of my previous life. I imagined that only perhaps national libraries would be so large.

Tens of thousands of books rested on thousands of shelves, some flying back and forth on tiny wings or by some levitation charm. Hundreds of rows of shelving rose up like the pillars of some holy temple of learning.

It was likely one of if not the single greatest deposits of wizarding learning in the world, and here I was at the gateway, free to peruse the vast majority of that knowledge. There must have been nearly every book ever written by a wizard here. wasn't that many of them to begin with after all, even if they were somehow universally literate.

"Ahem."

I turned to the side, where an older woman with glasses sat upright as a board behind a short wooden desk.

"Do not block the doorway. A point from Gryffindor for your discourtesy."

I sighed at the penalty, moving forward, to read the rather large sign labeled library rules, though to be honest most of them were quite ordinary, though the ban on scurrying was interesting, I had no idea what that even was.

Still, I did have a rough plan in mind. I had three hours until dinner, and in that time I wanted to get a basic layout of the library into my head. It would do me no good to just start devouring one section of knowledge to the exclusion of the rest after all. I needed to know where things were, and how I could find information on any given subject.

To that end, my trek began, as I took out a piece of parchment and began to map the place occasionally on tables and the like, labeling sections on things as wildly divergent as Romance Novels and Dark Creatures. All set to rows in a map that the library had been conspicuously lacking at the front.

It was about an hour in and sixty rows back when I found the Holy Grail.

About eight shelves thick, and with a small reading area in the middle, I found the Reference section. Why, I had never seen anything so beautiful.

Well, except the Castle, the Great Hall Ceiling, or the Tea that had materialized in front of me at breakfast. Nonetheless, I could barely contain my excitement, though I tempered my nerve shortly.

No reason to let things get out of hand now, I still had more than half a map to finish.

And boy was it a fucking map. The Library had a footprint easily twice the size of the Great Hall, and yet had no outdoor footprint whatsoever, leading me to believe that spatial enlargement charms were heavily involved in its construction. It took me another hour to just reach the border of the restricted section, with nearly 150 meters of shelving between myself and the front desk.

I couldn't enter, obviously, not right now at least, but I could read the section labels off of the shelving units and still add them to my maps without crossing the velvet rope.

That took about another ten minutes and left me with just enough time to wander back to references, as I had seen a book there earlier that caught my eye. "Form and function of summoning charms and their variations."

Strangely, however, I couldn't find it on the shelf where it had been only moments before, prompting me to gaze back and forth in consternation.

There couldn't be more than a dozen people in this whole place and they had just had to grab that one book.

Fine then. There were plenty of titles here of interest. I was particularly focused on those regarding magical charms and other fields of immediate import, such as Transfiguration. I collected a small pile from the section, including a particularly heavy and we'll sourced tome on permanency and reactivity in charms and enchantments, when I spotted the culprit who seemed to have absconded with most of the beginner level books.

Hermione Granger was leaving the front desk checking out a genuinely ludicrous pile of books, perhaps thirty-five in all, and I cringed as I realized that she had already managed to secure a monopoly on most of what I wanted to read before I had finished mapping the place.

I moved to stop her, but the librarian raised her voice again.

"Young man, you will not leave this library without checking those books out." She said plainly, causing me to narrow my eyes.

Fine then, I'd catch the witch at dinner, or in the common room. I had no need to rush, and it might just be a misunderstanding.

Still, I had a feeling in my gut that Hermione had taken my similar abilities and study potential as a challenge.

Turning back, I glanced across the library and cast a levitation spell on my own stack of books, I would need it. I headed back to the Reference section, though I planned to tour a couple of others as well in assembling my own doom-stack of knowledge. I intended to check out no less than she had to serve my own development.

If Hermione wanted to parley and share knowledge rather than hogging the books, that would, of course, be fine. She might have just been doing all of that out of her normal quest for knowledge I knew to expect.

But there was no way in hell I was going to let her get a leg up on me if she wasn't.

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#30

"Hey, mate, are you ever planning to actually, you know, sleep?"

"Maybe. I haven't decided yet."

"Well, I don't know, turn down your spell or something."

I smiled at Dean, weakening the magic of my Lumos charm, and correspondingly dimming the Dorm Room. I had been unable to catch Hermione, but Lavender had confirmed that she was up studying away even during dinner.

It meant she had a head start on me, by at least an hour.

I flipped another page with the tip of my glowing wand, continuing to read through "A Beginners Guide to Spatial Charmcraft." A book that I could safely say was not made for actual beginners, given that the reading level was much higher than any of my first-year books expected, and deciphering the author's cursive was another hassle altogether.

Still, all of that was manageable, and despite the supposition of the author that I knew a few more basic charms than I did, there was very little that might actively prevent me from using any spells I learned in the book, presuming I managed to get their concepts down properly.

They were complex things, it was true, and making them permanent would likely prove more than a little difficult, but they were an advanced variety of charm and all of that was expected. They would still be intensely useful though, especially once I figured out conjuration properly.

Still, the book's real treasure lay in what it had to offer me in regards to the way Charm's in general worked, because, unlike my class textbook, it detailed the actual mechanics of that phrase of "conception" or, as might be more accurate, "the construction of a false memory."

This was evidently key to spatial expansion charms, but more importantly, I could apply it backwards to include Reparo, as well as transfiguration spells of the same variety. It had been my big hold-up over the summer, and I was incredibly lucky to find a solution to it so easily. I had feared I would need to ask a professor, or even worse wait half the term to learn Reparo at the normal pace.

In short, in order to cast the spells which were not directly emitted from one's wand, you needed to conceive of a sort of three-dimensional replica of the desired effect. I had tried this before to little success, but at that point, I had not known the actual trick.

You see, as the spatial charms book explained it, the magic needed to be brought through the conceptual intended result before exiting the wand, drawn through your body, almost like an electric current, into the "pseudo memory" which would then become reality if the spell was successful. Or at least that was what I got from it. Actual spatial charms were even more difficult, as they required not just an artificial memory of what you wanted to happen, but one in motion. So while Reparo or a basic transfiguration spell required only a conception of what you wanted the outcome to look like, Spatial charms required you to conceive of the process itself. In the case of spatial-expansion charms, this meant the air literally pulling back as reality was stretched open and the magic shoved more of it in. Like filling a balloon with air except for the fact that the air literally didn't exist before you put it into the balloon.

Wizards used this for fucking tents. They literally created new existence and fucked spacetime up the ass just to sleep more comfortably.

I was going to do the same when I went camping, probably. It was just handy.

Anyhow, the more important thing for the short term was that I learned what I had been missing, I had assumed that Reparo was similar to other spells, with the magic going straight into the wand, whereas now I knew better. I was reasonably sure I could cast it now, and with it ready perhaps move on to Incindio and Diffindo, and round out my first-year charm-book within the first month of classes.

That would certainly raise some eyebrows and win the house some points. Maybe it would even open up the door for me to get started on second or third-year charms, or give me time to start learning some of the more esoteric disciplines of magic.

God, it was all so exciting, every path was paved with possibilities, and I hardly even had time in the day for it. Hell, if I dodged the Basilisk instadeath and made it to year-three, maybe I could get ahold of a time turner and eat through the rest of my education over only a year.

Hell, I had even forgotten about my metamorphmagus abilities, if I got a handle on them even more possibilities would open up. I could go anywhere with them and do nearly anything.

I smiled as I shut the book on my chest, setting it on top of the veritable pile of them next to my bed. I heard somebody muffle some sort of thanks as I flicked out my wand-light, leaving the room in pitch darkness save for the moonlight that drifted in the windows.

The Hat, and Ollivander too, they had called me a glory-seeker hadn't they?

Well, maybe I was or should be at least.

Why, who was to say I couldn't be the next Dumbledore, with my foreknowledge and drive. I could even surpass him. Sure it would take a while, but I was eleven, I had time, and it wasn't like trying to do so in a sensible manner would turn me into a villain or something stupid like that. Just don't be an insensible murdering monster right? Nothing too hard.

My wand seemed to crackle with energy at the thought. Yes, there was an opportunity there. I could be the best wizard of my generation, hell, the best wizard in the whole goddamned world given enough time.

When I cast Lumos again, it elicited a curse from poor Dean, who evidently couldn't sleep with it on.

Well tough beans for him.

You didn't become the best wizard in the world by stopping after only one book in an evening.

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Threadmarks Chapter 12: The Dark Lord's host is a boring teacher.

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Charlezany

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Oct 7, 2019

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#50

Needless to say, I did not make it to breakfast ahead of my roommates in the morning, though I did feel a small twinge of guilt towards poor Dean. Now that I wasn't so caught up in the moment I felt rather bad about keeping him up so late, and I'd study down in the common room or elsewhere in the future.

On the plus side, I was already feeling more confident about magic. The first thing I did in the morning was rip eight sheets of parchment in half and cast Reparo on them just to prove that I could, then try my luck with Incendio and Diffindo.

One slightly scorched hand a few cuts into the carpet hastily repaired later, I decided that those charms would take quite a bit more effort, as they had their own quirks to work out entirely departed from the "conceptual" problem I had now solved.

Armed with this knowledge, I made it to the bathroom just as most of the other boys were leaving, and hastily cleaned myself off. Soon I was down in the Great Hall, drinking a lovely cup of Yorkshire tea, and mentally reviewing my schedule for the day.

"Oy, Irving, did you really have to keep the light on all night?"

"Sorry Dean, I got a bit carried away. I'll try to make it up to you sometime, and I'll avoid the dorm if I ever feel the need to study late into the night again."

Dean dropped his anger a bit at my apology. "Ah, yeah, you do that."

"Blimey, you really went crazy with the books didn't you, I saw that stack this morning."

I turned to the Weasley, smiling.

"I kind of did, I'll admit. It just solved a problem I've been working on for a while in terms of magic, think of it like learning a new quidditch maneuver and wanting to practice it over and over again."

Ron looked thoughtful for a moment, before shaking his head. "In a stack of books. Really mate?"

"I like the magic more than the learning I have to admit, but imagine having nothing magical your whole life than finding out you could do it. I want to learn everything I can as fast as I can."

"Harry and Dean didn't check out their weight in library books." Seamus pointed out. "And they're in the same situation."

"They're also not me." I smiled. "What's our first class today?"

"Defense against the dark arts. It's supposed to be exciting, but the professors change every year because He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named put a curse on it."

"A curse?" Harry raised his eyebrow across the table. Prompting Ron to explain further, though I tuned it out since I already knew what was going on there mostly, and I had bigger things to think about.

Quirrel. That was a problem I had mostly ignored.

Or rather I suppose the man under his turban. As far as I knew he was unlikely to actually hurt anyone this year, but still, just leaving a monster like that roaming the school seemed wrong to me.

Well, it wasn't like I could do much about it just yet without revealing my foreknowledge. Maybe later in the year, I could claim I'd seen him take off the turban in some back room and seen the face talking to him.

Though perhaps that would be better saved for Scabbers next year.

Either way, my own magical foundation took priority, and of the DADA professors, Quirrell was supposedly one of the marginally more competent ones, whether that was part of Voldermort's influence or not.

His Classroom was certainly better dusted than the one used for History of Magic, though that was admittedly not high-praise. In fact, between him and Professor Binns, I found him the worse lecturer, at least at first impression. His subject matter also was in some ways of less interest to me than the History of Magic. Sure, knowing some offensive hexes and Jinxed would no doubt prove beneficial, and moreover knowing how to block, dodge, or counter enemy spells would be helpful, but I had already started practicing a spell that had several recorded cases of its use decapitating people earlier in the morning, and the Knockback Jinx we were going to be learning in DADA just seemed ludicrously tame in comparison.

It didn't help that I had already read the textbook, and Quirrell seemed interested mostly in following it chapter by chapter. Binns went more in-depth comparatively.

Still, I expected it would improve over time as the subject became more advanced.

After that was charms again, continuing to work on Lumos and get everybody through it before we started on the next charm, probably Reparo. I got into a short spat of question answering with Hermione in a bid to win more house points than her after she had beaten me easily in DADA, though once again I wasn't entirely sure if she was actually intending to compete or not.

That girl was surprisingly hard to read for an eleven-year-old.

Well, it was obviously she got mad at me when I got my hand up before her to answer the question, but beyond that, I had no real idea what she was thinking. She ate lunch with the other girls, and despite my best efforts to listen in on their conversation, I was foiled by Neville's newly arrived Rememberall.

As far as magical toys went, I certainly couldn't deny that it was a seemingly useful one.

Well, by a certain margin. If I could get it a philosopher's stone would be an awful lot more useful still.

And speaking of such things, Transfiguration was next up, and we all filed into the classroom conspicuously missing its teacher, where a small grey cat sat in a dignified manner atop the desk at the front of the room.

Unlike my classmates, I was in on the joke, and when professor McGonagall revealed her Animagus status to the assembled students I clapped politely instead of gasping in shock. It might make me stick out a little, but it was very Cathartic.

If somebody called me out on it I would just say that I had read a passage on animagi and guessed it would happen. It was a magic school after all.

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Threadmarks Chapter 13: Transfiguration and Escalation.

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Charlezany

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#51

McGonagall had started into her class with a fervor, quickly bringing even the chatter girls into line with a wave of her hand and a harsh glare. Now she stood in front of the large blackboard at the rear of the classroom while a small piece of chalk etched the word "Transfiguration" onto the board in a flowing and elaborate cursive.

"You are all here to learn the delicate art of transfiguration as it is considered one of the primary tools of any aspiring witch or wizard." Her thick Scottish accent filled the room. "Now, can anyone tell me what Transfiguration is."

My hand raced up along with Hermione's, and it elicited a rather amused chuckle from Ron and a giggle from over where Lavender and Parvati were sitting.

"Miss Granger?" I grumbled, lowering my hand.

"Well, According to The Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration, Page Three. Transfiguration is defined as the use of magic to render an object into the shape and function of another object. Though some magical creatures and elements are extremely difficult or impossible to effectively transfiguration other objects into."

McGonagall nodded. "A sensible and standard answer, Miss Granger, however, there are some additional qualifiers I would like everyone to understand before we begin class."

The witch flicked her wand and the chalk began writing again.

"First and foremost, while under my care you will absolutely not be allowed to use transfiguration spells on humans without explicit permission and professorial supervision. Such spells are extremely dangerous, and not always reversible, and I do not wish to see any of you permanently transfiguration into part-newts."

Her eyes scanned the classroom, ensuring that every student was paying attention.

"Furthermore, some attempts to transmute certain metals will fail and have backfires which may damage your wand. Heavily metallic transmutation requires a great deal of effort and is not possible without the assistance of alchemy, which you may take from your sixth year on given outstanding performances in my own specialty as well as your potions OWL's. Thus it would be best if you avoided trying to transfiguration metals into other metals to avoid catastrophic backfires."

The class nodded at the limitations placed on us before the old woman smiled, bringing out a copy of our textbook.

"Excellent. Now, Transfiguration is not a form of magic that we can begin learning as quickly as professor Flitwick has likely started you on charms. There is a great deal of mental preparedness required even for the most basic of spells in this class, and as such, we will begin by reading through the first two chapters of the textbook and going over their ideas, concepts, and principles. Your first homework assignment will be to concisely explain these on a foot of parchment, to be turned in next Tuesday at the latest."

As the first of our official homework assignments elicited groans from my classmates, I opened the textbook once again, to refresh my memory of it at least.

When McGonagall started asking questions. I wanted to be prepared, and ask questions she did, giving Hermione and I more than enough opportunities to score points over on each other in our competition to win Gryffindor more academic points than Ravenclaw.

McGonagall seemed to notice the nature of our competition once it was underway, annoyingly seeming to give both of us the opportunity to answer the same number of questions as if she were stating her own neutrality in the matter. She also did give other people a few opportunities to answer, which was nice of her, but still fell onto that neutral axis.

If there was a class I could use to pull ahead of the book-smart girl, this definitely wasn't it.

Still, I was at least keeping up for the moment, and I expected to continue doing so in the future. Indeed, I caught a glare coming my way from the girl.

I headed up to my room to get more of my books pretty much immediately after class, while Ron and Harry ended up staying after to explain themselves to Professor McGonagall for their escapades getting lost yesterday, for which Mr. Filch had penalized them.

Personally, I wasn't much interested in their adventures as of yet, and I decided that since the weather was nice and it was still fairly warm out I might as well get my studying and my new homework done down by the lake.

Evidently, I was not the only person to think this way, and the area near the water was chock-full of students out picnicking, studying or simply hanging about with their friends. Most were much older than me so I moved a bit further out past the crowd and plopped myself down at the foot of a mid-sized oak tree. It was as good a spot as any to begin trying to unravel the cosmic mysteries of how to cleanly use a quill pen.

'I swear I'm going to lobby the headmaster to allow ballpoints…'

Still, despite the mechanical challenge involved, I was able to fill out the parchment I had brought with me, listing down all the notable components of the first two chapters of our textbook in a sensible degree of detail. That took about an hour, though it likely would have taken fifteen with a ballpoint, and the rest of my free time before dinner was spent intermittently studying and practicing my newly learned charms.

Who knew that cutting sticks in half, lightning them on fire, and then restoring them to pristine condition could be so entertaining when you were doing it with a magic wand that seemed to thrill with energy every time I used it.

Ok, I did get a few weird looks, especially from the older years, but sue me, it was fun.

The books were fun as well. One I had pulled from the reference section, "Habits of the Magical Creatures of Great Britain and Ireland", was extremely entertaining, going into great detail on a whole variety of magical creatures, and I had to admit it piqued my interest. I did want to check its accuracy, which meant I might want to start visiting Hagrid.

Anyhow, by the time dinner rolled around, I was all but exhausted from a constant mix of charm work and reading, and perhaps my own insufficient sleep the night before. I dragged myself back into the castle as the cool September sun started to set over the forbidden forest below.

Not that my exhaustion was going to end my study, far from it.

'Just a cup of tea and a bit of meat, and a few more hours of reading to go.'

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Threadmarks Chapter 14: Playing with himself in the bathroom before class.

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Charlezany

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Oct 8, 2019

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#71

Wednesday morning came with the dawning of the sun shining straight into my face, and waking me up from my sleep. The book I had been reading before bed on the nature of conjuration and various appropriate uses for it was still splayed on my chest, and I quickly shut it, shoving it to the side and onto the top of my "read" stack, currently four books, though it was more heavy skimming than deep reading for the most part, with a focus on specific areas of interest.

Looking around the room, I saw that my roommates were still asleep. That was good, it meant I had some time to myself to run to the bathroom. It was a useful thing, being a metamorphomagus in secret, and while I knew it would surely get out someday, I wasn't exactly going to practice it in front of everybody. I moved to the mirror wall after checking that no-one else was in the bathroom. I cautiously poked at my face, feeling the magic running under my skin.

'Let's see here…'

I had some idea that this shapes hitting could be conceptual as much as my other magic was and that I might have accidentally been able to change eyes and hair color because both were so close to my brain.

Experimentally I lengthened my hair, feeling it fall down my back in long strands.

Yep, theory confirmed. It was far easier now, it seemed a great deal of magic needed sort of "orders" from a false memory or conceptual level of understanding to fire off.

Armed with this knowledge, I sought to alter my form again, taking on the appearance of Dean.

This was not quite as successful, my skin looked a bit too plasticky with the darker color, and my features didn't quite mesh right.

Quickly I forced a return to my normal appearance as I heard the doorknob turn behind me. Marching myself over to one of the shower stalls and ducking inside. I didn't really want to be caught out this early. I smirked as I noted the skin tone over most of my body hadn't even changed, to begin with, an interesting fading pattern returning to my normal pale English variety as I watched it.

Actually, that was a good idea too, nobody was going to be able to see me changing shapes in the shower if I just kept my feet the same shape and color.

I started trying more things out once the water was properly going, and quickly discovered that yes, I could give myself still functional noodle arms if I tried. Though actually controlling the essentially boneless appendages was a different question altogether, as I could mostly just kind of flail and slap them about. Still, it made me question just how far I could take it. I remembered that Tonks had done a pig nose one time, but could I do an entire animal? Cheat myself into being a pseudo animagus? And what of height?

Well, I could answer the height one now, it was a sort of. I could make myself taller, my legs and torso stretching out, but they were doing just that, stretching out, I wasn't adding any new mass to them, and after a few inches they started to look almost anemic.

Carefully, I shrunk back down, restoring my arm to normal proving an even greater challenge as I had to almost manually rearrange the newly formed bones, and I almost failed to grab my towel when I realized that in trying to directly copy my other hand I had put my thumb on backward.

Still, it was interesting, and in some ways a better disguise than any invisibility-cloak. Certainly an awful lot better than Poly juice potion.

Squeaky clean I left the shower a new man, under my skin at least, and chuckled as I realized that I actively needed to stop watching what I eat if I understood my abilities correctly. I could always pack muscles more densely like fat deposits around my stomach if I understood the ways I could fuck with my anatomy correctly, and I wanted to put on as many pounds as I could for future size-changing potential.

Though, I did get a few unfortunate looks as I ripped into my third plate of pancakes at breakfast. I couldn't help but go for it when I could double the size of my stomach to accommodate and process them.

Well, that was what I thought at the time anyway. It turned out about half an hour later that the doubled stomach did not in fact double the size of my intestines, and the pressure on them was intensely uncomfortable as they tried to process an unhealthy volume of food.

'So noted…' I sighed as I threw up a controlled amount of the disgusting pancake slop into a toilet. At least I could literally turn off my tongue and nose to ease the experience. Not that it wasn't still disgusting. Especially since the taste lingered when I grew my tongue back and repaired my nose.

Yeah, I was definitely a freaky fucking mutant.

But I was a freaky fucking mutant who was late for charms, and I grumbled as I managed to lose Griffindor a couple of points, earning glares from my compatriots.

'Oh sure Ron, glare at me, not like you lost us more points on the first goddammit night of classes.'

I was of course, far and away ahead on our wrap up session regarding Lumos, which essentially the entire class could perform without effort now. I understood why we had a week on it, since it was basically the Wizarding equivalent of a flashlight, in a world without electric lights, but even still I wasn't very impressed with it.

Did they not expect their students to not read the texts at all?

Oh, who was I kidding, Ron was supposed to be able to pass things with relative confidence, and he spent all his free time playing the local equivalent of computer-chess. Only seemingly cursed students like Neville seemed to ever actually fail anything.

Well, it was a magic school, I guess some students being cursed made sense.

Anyhow, Hermione managed to beat me on house points considerably over the course of the lesson, due to my own lateness and a general sense of disinterest I had towards it given my newfound shape-shifting abilities.

Answering questions I had read the answers for two months ago wasn't very appealing in comparison to seeing how many places I could put my heart before it started hurting. I even considered trying to move my brain around before thinking better of it.

I didn't want to get into a situation where I cut off my senses by miscalculating how nerves worked.

still, Hermione did apparently feel the need to comment to me when we actually got out of class.

"Make sure you're studying properly, Rupert."

I glanced at the girl, who seemed to be staring at me earnestly, wondering if I had actually misjudged her intent. "Ah, no, don't mind me, I just ate a bit too much at breakfast today."

"Well." She said, turning her nose up slightly and smiling. "Don't do it again, it's less fun if I don't earn the lead."

I blinked. That sounded distinctly Un-Hermione-like but the frizzy-haired girl was wandering away before I got a chance to respond.

Did having an actual competitor drive her that far off of what I knew in canon?

I mean, it made sense in a way, but still, I had expected her to be at least a little more nervous.

Then again, I had been a bit of a know-it-all in my old life too, and it had always been more fun when there was more than one of us around. Maybe I had just been correctly placed to bring her out of her shell.

"Blimey mate, a bit much? You had like sixteen pancakes, the table looked like a bloody Romanian Quidditch match."

I rolled my eyes at Ron. "You know we have herbology to get too right?"

"Oh, yeah."

Herbology was more uneventful, though it required a lot more of my focus. I was paired up with Parvati again, though this time she expressed a little distaste at not being paired with Lavender, who was off with Seamus. We were relocating more plants, this time into the open-air beds in the fields around the greenhouses. Rather than the Twisting Tubers, we were moving a sort of shrunken fern that wanted to curl around our hands with its leaves. Apparently it was called a Pennville Fern and was an American expatriate. They were useful as an anchor in potions because of their ability to remain firm and stiff even in boiling water.

Parvati abandoned me to return to her friend at lunch, and I joined Harry, Ron, and Seamus at the end of the first-year past of the table. There Ron was setting up a game of exploding snap.

At first, I thought against joining, after all, I could spend the time practicing, but I decided that a bit of bonding time wouldn't hurt, and I had always liked card games.

Exploding Snap was FUN!

The explosions were small things, like those little Firesnappers I used to throw into the road as a kid. They barely scorched you at all, and they made the game absolutely hilarious, as they always seemed to find the worst times to go off, just as you wanted to play a hand with that card in it, that sort of thing. The deck was magically refilling as they popped and shuffled itself, and even with a bunch of kids, a good card game was always a good time.

I was almost sad when we had to pack it up and head to transfiguration.

I turned in my essay, and earned two additional points to Gryffindor for my promptness, before class even started, though the actual material, much like charms, was mostly a review of already discussed subjects or those covered in the book. McGonagall to her credit made sure that everyone understood it, but that effort meant that I mostly sat around bored out of my skull watching Hermione struggle to write using a quill pen.

I mean, sure, it was challenging and all, but that didn't mean she needed to scrap the page entirely every time she…

Ah, she had forgotten that she was a witch.

"Reparo" I casually flicked my wrist, erasing the ink splatters that had gotten outside of her writing area on the page she was about to throw away. Her gaze turned to me, and I tapped my temple with my wand twice.

Her eyes seemed to widen, before she slipped into a frown, quickly issuing the spell out over the rest of her work on her own.

It felt good to be helpful, especially in a way that showed her up a little bit doing it, but ultimately that was the highlight of transfiguration. I had a few hours to burn before dinner, and then, with the greatest excitement, Astronomy.

What, sue me. My books kept referencing back to it a lot, and while I got the feeling that it was at least partially bullshit, I doubted it was quite as much a waste of time as Divination was supposed to be.

It was also an excuse to be out after curfew, and that was kind of exciting on its own merits.

We climbed the astronomy tower in a big group. We had to go all the way up its enormous twisting stairway while Pavarotti and Lavender chatted away and complained about how tall it was.

Personally I was having a great time. I had taken astronomy at the college level before, though that was an awful lot further advanced than what I expected we would be doing here. Indeed, I half suspected that wizards used the classical Firmament of the Heavens model or something along those lines.

Still, once professor Sinistra got into it I found that I was having a good time with it. Mostly we were just going to be learning the names of stars and their significance to magic, as well as what alignments required for certain rituals or potions meant.

To be frank it was a pretty decent way to spend a chilly night in September atop the tower with the rest of the first-year class.

Shame Draco had to go and be an asshole though.

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Threadmarks Chapter 15: Learning to Tumble and Float.

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Oct 8, 2019

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#84

I couldn't tell you what spell exactly it was that Draco cast at Hermione, it was dark and I was too busy on my telescope at the time.

Nonetheless, he missed, but the flash of his wand was obvious to everyone present, including professor Sinistra, who rose from her seat.

"There will be no casting on the Astronomy tower Mr. Malfoy. Eight points from Slytherin for your poor behavior."

Unfortunately, just because the spell had missed Hermione, did not mean it stopped bouncing around, and I felt a kick in my leg as my telescope went crashing to the ground.

I managed to restrain myself from cursing as I picked it up to survey the damage, finding it shattered completely.

"Professor Sinistra, may I have permission to cast Reparo on my telescope?"

The woman looked up again, before nodding her head gently, and I took to repairing the thing.

The glass looked fine, restored to its pristine condition, but it was quite obvious when I actually tried to look through it that the lenses were off, and I hadn't really restored it to functionality.

I stood up, wandering across the class to the professor. "Excuse me, but it seems my Repairing charm was insufficient to restore the lenses properly."

The woman looked up and nodded, taking a short look through my now nonfunctional telescope.

"There's a set of spares in a closet on the first floor." She frowned, drawing an iron key out of her bag. "You may go down and replace this one. It will take more precise work to remove the warping from its lenses."

I nodded, walking over to the trapdoor which led down the tower, and that ludicrous staircase.

The walk down was largely uneventful, giving me a bit of time to think. It wasn't like I was missing much in Astronomy as it was.

The closet was for once actually marked, a sign labeled astronomy supplies visible even in the dim moonlight drifting through the windows. Though I activated Lumos anyway once I got it open.

Inside there were hundreds of little models of the solar system, Heliocentric and largely disproving my notion of wizards being foolish at that level, though there were enough inaccuracies to place them even behind the muggle science of the day.

Then again, hadn't the Hubble Space telescope been launched just last year?

Weird thing to think about.

Anyhow, the telescopes were on a large rack at the back, and I grabbed one of the same style we had been using in class, pulling it out and hanging it off my back. They were heavy sure, but not outrageously so.

I was just locking the door behind me when I heard a laugh that sent a shiver down my back, a cackling, kooky thing.

'Aw hell.'

I gathered my wits and quickly made for the stairs. He normally didn't interrupt classes but if I got caught in the wall way then…

I felt something rotten splatter against my heel.

"A poor little Gryffindor out by his lonesome self in the halls. Perhaps out for a snack?"

I didn't even turn back to see the poltergeist, instead huffing it up the stairs as quickly as I could.

"Running away? Now that's not very courageous, is it? Why it's almost FOWL bwahaha" the ethereal jester appeared in front of me, clutching a live and squaring chicken by the neck.

'Where the hell did he get a chicken?'

He threw it at me and it exploded into feathers, filling the whole of the stairway.

'Scratch that, those were in the toy store I saw I think. Probably dug it out of Filch's desk.'

I tried to keep running through the avian blizzard that he seemed to have conjured up around me, but I could barely see in the feathery haze, and pushing up the stairway only went from bad to worse when he started dropping rotten tomatoes and stale bread on my head, making the feathers stick to my hair in some bizarre imitation of tarring and feathering.

It was in my desperate efforts to escape his wrath, and the swirl of chicken feathers, that I slipped off a step, the heavy telescope on my back making my balance just a little too skewed to recover.

As I fell through the feathery air, knowing that I was probably about to roll down about half of the astronomy tower staircase, the only thing I can remember thinking about was that at least my landing was going to be softened a bit.

The Poltergeist's laughter followed me down.

I can't really remember the tumble much other than that it hurt a lot, and I passed out shortly afterward.

When I came too, I tried to get up but was immediately told off for it.

"Don't go moving now Mr. Irving, your ribs are still soft from the mending." I turned to see an older woman I had seen on the staff before, but thus far not had to meet too much. Madame Pomfrey almost certainly. This was only further confirmed by glancing around and discovering that I was indeed in the hospital wing. "It'll be bad for you if they get bent out of shape."

I nodded my head a little, leaning back. My whole body was aching anyway, and now that I thought about it, I had something on my head that was probably a bandage.

"How long was I out?" I asked, shocked a bit at how groggy my own voice sounded.

"Oh, just a few hours dear, it's only four in the morning now. You should try to get some more rest if you can at least. If you've healed up proper you might even be able to make your classes in the morning."

"Who…"

"Oh, Mr. Filch brought you in, said he found you twisted up and covered in feathers at the bottom of the astronomy tower stairs. I take it Peeves got you?"

"Yeah."

"Oh that troublemaker, half the people in here are his fault. Not like anyone can get rid of him though. Now get some sleep darling, you'll be better off in the morning."

"Ok…" I nodded, letting the aches fade back a bit as I shut my eyes.

"I'll try."

I was up again around nine to nine-thirty, and true to her word Madame Pomfrey let me out of there by ten. We thankfully had no class in the morning today, since Flying was only going to start next week.

I made my way back to the Gryffindor common room after taking a quick shower to get the bandage grime and sweat off of me, before heading up to my room to go find the book I had grabbed on advanced levitation charms.

"Leviosa-Maxima, and other Soaring Spells" was a fairly thin thing. Probably about ninety pages thick and not particularly well made, but it did have pictures, which was surprisingly helpful for a spellbook, as the animated vision wizards casting the various spells was a great aid to my mind when actually attempting them.

Most of the spells were variations on the levitation charm I already knew, but they tended to vary in specific ways, for instance, while Wingardium Leviosa was used to produce a levitation which could then be directed to move about on its own or follow you within certain confines, Hieratus Leviosa allowed for the creation of a fixed point levitation, which could be used as an anchor of sorts that resisted forces trying to move it as if it was fixed to the ground. Meanwhile, the basic spell, Leviosa, which used just the flicking motion of the longer charm turned the object into something like a balloon, making an object just behave as if it was weightless, though still retaining its mass.

Either way, all of them fucked physics right up the back door, and I am reasonably convinced that there was probably some way to make a perpetual motion device or something of the sort from them, not that you would need to since there was almost certainly a spell that just did that without the hassle.

'I bet that it's named something like "Rotorio Momentum too…'

Anyhow, there were several other levitation spells of comparatively higher difficulty, such as Wingardium Avios, which grew Itty bitty wings on things and made them flap around after you like affectionate birds, or Terranian Repulsos, which seemed to sort of flip the gravity on things around, making them rise to the ceiling.

That last one was interesting in practice, as it seemed to stick to objects it was cast on very well, and I had to counterspell it, and not with summoning charm Accio either, which I didn't know the hand movement for yet, instead the book gave instructions for "Terranian Amoricum" which brought the sock I had practiced the other spell on crashing to the ground like a sack of bricks.

When I tried to pick it up it was so heavy that I could barely lift it.

Apparently in order to restore an object to its proper weight one had to carefully balance the power of the two charms, as things could become permanently too heavy or too light if one screwed things up, especially with very light objects like socks, which had very little weight of their own, to begin with.

I kept trying to return my sock to balance for about another half hour, before deciding that simply rendering it weightless was the best option I could do quickly, as lunchtime had already arrived. The table was rather full, and I was greeted by much fanfare from my friends who had been rather worried about me after last night.

"Peeves was it? Blasted spirit. The school can't get rid of him supposedly."

Hermione, who was surprisingly actually at lunch today, nodded, having abandoned the girls when I came down, seemingly out of worry. That was nice of her.. "Yes, in Hogwarts a History it says that Peeves has been here since the school was founded, and came with the castle itself. The last time they tried to get rid of him the caretaker ended up having to resign in disgrace."

"I wish Filch's would try his luck then." Ron chortled, halfway through a chicken leg. "Bloody ghoul he is, and I would know, we have one in the attic back home."

"A ghoul?" I raised an eyebrow, not remembering that little tidbit. "Is it dangerous?"

"Nah, he mostly just scrabble around and groans."

"Huh." I had thought they were undead, maybe that was something else. It was odd living in a fictional, well, formerly fictional world.

"Well, I just hope I never get caught out that way, I don't want to take a tumble like that one. Madame Pomfrey said you were in pretty bad shape."

I turned, smiling at Harry and putting a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, I'm sure your time for tumbles will come as well."

"Er… thanks?"

I continued to grin, patting him on the back, until the bells began ringing, which elicited a groan from Ron.

"Ugh, History of Magic, with that bloody boring ghost."

Hermione looked personally offended at the assertion, but I stood up from my seat, still in a pretty chipper mood. "Come on Ron, how can you not want to hear about Emerica the evil sacrificing the Virgins of the coven of East Northumbria?"

"You know when you say it that way it sounds fun, but then Professor Binns starts talking and it all sort of fades out to grey," Harry grumbled, getting up to follow me, along with most of the first-year class.

"Wake me up when class is over alright?"

"Sure thing Ron."

Yeah, it was going to be a fun class.

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Threadmarks Chapter 16: Bubbling Brews and Surprising Success.

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Oct 9, 2019

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#106

Friday morning found me in the bathroom once more, changing my face in new and interesting ways in an attempt to expand my metamorphic abilities. It was slow going and tiring to boot, but I knew it could be done. The real issue was creating a face that wasn't too chalky or plasticky to use. Convincingly replicating flesh other than my own just continued to elude me.

It was a shame too, once I had that one down I could really start putting my powers to use, though I wasn't entirely sure of their value at the moment.

Once I had finished returning to my default appearance, I returned to the dorm and snatched up my motioned ring materials, before heading down to the common room. I knew quite well that Snape would probably heavily disfavor our class, so I needed to ensure I was completely on top of everything. I already knew most of the textbook fairly well, but a quick review session wouldn't go amiss, and I needed to make sure that my equipment was in tip-top condition.

That done, I lugged the pewter cauldron downstairs to the great hall, where my housemates were just starting to trickle in for breakfast.

Deciding not to overdo it so much today, I helped myself to a fair amount of bacon and toast, along with my tea, but not enough to demand any major biological alterations to my frame.

Ron started another game of exploding snap, but I elected not to join him today. Instead, I wandered out of the hall and down off towards the dungeons. I was quite sure that I wasn't going to be scoring any points for being early, but I certainly wasn't going to lose them being late, and I hadn't been down to the lower castle before, so I wanted to make sure I was early.

Lugging my cauldron under my arm I had to admire the architectural achievement of all of it. High, vaulted ceilings formed intricate curving joints on odd angles that required extensive stonework, and there were at least four underground levels, perhaps more if it ran down all the way to the lake from the cliffs.

It's hard to think of tunnels and small passages as impressive, but damn if Hogwarts didn't manage to pull it off. Thankfully, the Classroom itself was next to the bottom of the stairs, and thus, despite my longing to explore those winding passages and delve into whatever secrets they held, I restricted myself to sitting just outside the door of the classroom, and ensuring that my cauldron was as clean as I could make it.

It wasn't long at all before Professor Snape descended the stairs, his long robes fluttering as if he were a great bat in motion, his eyes narrowed slightly as he saw me.

"Irving. Why are you here?"

"Irving thought it would be best to arrive early for the first day of classes professor."

"A point from Gryffindor for your cheek." He said coldly. "Do not attempt to arrive here before me in the future."

"Yes, professor." I sighed internally, it seemed that even preparedness wasn't going to save me from Snape's aggression.

"Good."

The professor unlocked the door of the room with a silent Alohomora, beckoning that I follow him. "You may study at one of the desks until your classmates arrive, provided that you do so silently."

"Thank you, professor."

"That will be another point from Gryffindor for your speaking out of turn Mr. Irving."

This time I nodded in acknowledgment, opening my textbook and beginning to review the potion recipes I would need to know this year again. I really didn't care about House Points to begin with, and if anyone complained I could just point them at how many I earned elsewhere.

I spent a fairly long time there just reviewing, and occasionally glancing up around the room. Much unlike the dungeons outside it's door, the potions classroom had dry air, possibly the result of some sort of enchantment placed on it to prevent the more dank air of the dungeons from penetrating. In one corner a large bowl of water was being fed out of the mouth of a demonic-looking gargoyle, and several supply cabinets covered the walls. In addition, a large number of pickled animals were about, which I suspected might just be Snape enjoying terrifying children more than an actual need for the shriveled husks.

Otherwise, it was fairly similar to the other classrooms, save that the desks seemed sturdier, and had small burner pits built into them.

"Keep your eyes on your book, Irving."

I nodded again, returning to the recipes and instructions I needed to pay attention to.

About another ten minutes passed before the first of the other students arrived, Slytherins coming trickling into the classroom in ones and twos, before the great bulk of the Slytherins and Raven claws arrived together, with Malloy and Ron in some sort of dispute.

"You will cease arguing Weasley, and five points from Gryffindor for disrupting the studying of others."

"What? But he-!"

"That will be two more points then. Sit."

That cut off the mood pretty quickly, as Snape firmly established which side he was on. He took to the front of the classroom with a sneer, glancing out over the lot of us.

"I do not expect some of you to do well in this class," He stated directly, though thankfully his gaze was not focused on me, instead glaring back towards Harry. "as there will be no foolish incantations or wand waving. I do not even expect everyone amongst you to recognize the magic which it is."

His gaze departed Harry once more. "However, if you can come to appreciate the subtle science of potionery, the artful expression of the simmering cauldron and the bubbling brew, then I can teach you the method by which to bottle fame, to brew glory, and even…" his eyes went again to Harry, "to put a stopper on death. Still, it seems that some of you believe yourselves to have come to class with such immense abilities as to feel no need to pay attention. Mister Potter."

The boy looked up, a bit shocked by having his name called out.

"What would I get if I added the powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

I didn't know Hermione's hand could shoot up so fast, but she obviously hadn't figured out the game we were playing here yet.

"I am not asking you miss Granger, five points from Gryffindor for your cheek. Please answer, Potter."

"I… I don't know sir."

"Very well, then, surely you can tell me where I can find a bezoar?"

"Er, no sir."

"Fine," Snape smirked. "Perhaps then you could tell me the difference between monkshood and Wolfsbane."

The boy shook his head a third time and the smirk only grew, revealing yellowed teeth.

"A pity then, it seems fame then is not everything. A point from your house for wasting everyone's time with your lack of simple foresight."

Then Harry raised his voice about Hermione knowing and I almost wanted to sink into my desk. Why the hell did we have to waste time on this nonsense?

Finally, once Snape had verbally berated him and taken another five points from our house, we actually got started on the classwork.

After about another twenty minutes of introduction, we got to the actual potion-making segment.

"Today, we will be brewing an aromatic potion, specifically the flowery aromatic potion used in many shops of, particularly bad taste. Once brewed and poured onto and absorbed by an object that object will continuously emit a smell some consider fragrant until a scent eradication potion is used to end the effect. You will be starting with it due to the plentiful nature of its ingredients and it's relative safety in the case of accidents as if it bubbles over the brewer is normally only confined to smelling of rotten fish."

The professor flicked his wand and one of the supply cabinets opened. "You will find the recipe on page twelve of your textbook. If you can brew it by the end of class unassisted then I will reward you with an appropriate number of house points."

I nodded, looking down and checking my listings, two daffodil flowers ground to powder, the liquidized residue of rose thorns, 3 grams, and one piece of fish-bone (preferably Cod) also powdered.

That did seem pretty simple, I went over to the cabinet, quickly finding what I needed despite the large variety of materials. Since an entire class needed to do it at once all three were in fairly large and obvious quantities. I did glance at the fish bones. I had no way to tell Cod from any other variety, and I didn't yet have the summoning charm down to just pull a cod one out specifically, so I grabbed one that seemed to be about the median size and firmness, and filled my cauldron with water before returning to my desk.

Before starting I used my scales to measure out precisely the volume of each material I needed, just as I would when cooking.

'Alright… heat cauldron to boiling.' I ignited the burner with a whisper of Incendio, watching it flare to life underneath my cauldron. It took around four minutes for it to begin bubbling.

My first task was to add the powdered daffodil flowers, with the instruction to sprinkle them in slow spirals around the outer edge of the potion. Nothing too tricky just yet, I did so and immediately began stirring as instructed until the water smoothed out into a creamy yellow color, signifying I had about a minute to add the fishbone.

Carefully, I placed the bone into the dead center of the cauldron, watching it dissolve and bubble away until there was nothing left, keeping it in place with a gloved hand over the simmering concoction, which quickly took on a sort of beige appearance.

Finally, I took my premeasured rose thorn residue and dropped it into the potion all at once, and a faint flowery scent began to drift up as it formed into pink and red spirals, slowly drifting across the surface of the potion until the entire thing bore a sort of candy-striped nature that the picture in the book displayed.

The entire process was sort of mesmerizing in its own way, taking my entire attention. I did not look up simply because I didn't want to, it was all so carefully and beautifully put together.

I took the cauldron off of the heat, allowing the potion to settle and thicken into a slightly more syrupy form for a few minutes, watching to make sure I did not allow it to thicken for too long, before pouring it carefully into a set of three bottles, with a little bit going into a fourth. Inside the glass it jiggled a little bit like jelly, wobbling back and forth but keeping those distinctive red and pink stripes.

Carefully, I lifted the four little bottles upon their wooden rack and brought them to the front of the classroom. It was the first time I had looked up since I started brewing, and I realized that some of the others had not even started yet, indeed, a few still seemed to be trying to figure out their burners, or asking professor Snape for support. Even Hermione was just in the middle of the second stage and seemed to be keeping her cauldron too close to the fire.

"While I am sure that your classmates are fascinating, I do hope you got up from your seat for a purpose, Irving."

"Oh, yes professor, sorry, I have just finished."

"Finished? It has not been an hour yet, mister Irving. Do note that I will reduce your grade if you waste my time on sub-par potions."

I gulped a little but shook my head. The ones I had brewed were near enough to perfect, I could feel it.

Snape raised an eyebrow as I brought them forward on the rack, carefully placing them on the professor's desk, where he addressed them with a scrutinous eye, before reaching down and uncorking one of the bottles.

"Hmm, the smell is fairly subdued, you used Herring Bone rather than Cod."

I nodded "the textbook said-"

"I am aware of what the textbook said, and despite your failure to follow it's suggestions, I cannot deny that these potions are acceptably brewed." He frowned as if he was swallowing something bitter. "Two points for Gryffindor. However, I will not have you wasting time in my classroom. You will immediately begin studying the boil-healing potion, and write me a two-foot essay on the importance of its ingredients and their symbology over the remainder of the class."

I nodded sharply, returning to my seat, and quickly flipped to the section detailing the potion.

Still, even as I started writing with that damnable quill pen, my mind lingered on my success, and how easy the brewing was.

Potions, it seemed, might be another route to power.

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Threadmarks Chapter 17: A School of Cunning Pranksters.

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#117

Time, as it always did, continued to run its course, and as I grew more comfortable at Hogwarts, I chose to accelerate my studies in as many fields as I had hours in the day for. It wasn't that I neglected my classmates, indeed I hung out with them at mealtime, helped them with their charms, and generally tried to be a decent person, but for all of it I could hardly forget that I had a higher calling.

That selfsame calling was what motivated me to spend my nights practicing my levitation charms in all their variants, reading through a number if new spellbound to expand my ever-growing roster of charms, and generally trying to become as much a sponge as humanly possible.

Couple this with semi-regular practice in regards to my metamorphmagus abilities and I was left with very little time to hang out with the children that filled my house.

Anyhow, my transformative studies seemed to be hitting a roadblock, with my skin remaining somewhat plasticky despite my best efforts, and as a result, I made the climb to the headmaster's office on Sunday afternoon.

Well, to the gargoyle outside of it, upon which I knocked as politely as possible.

After a few moments, it shifted aside, allowing me to enter, after which I found myself on something like a stone escalator. The spiral staircase beneath my feet grinding against the wall as it brought me to the door or Dumbledore's office.

After a moment of hesitation, I knocked again.

"My, yes, come in if you'd like."

I pushed the door open to find myself in the Headmaster's office, It was a chaotic, yet somehow organized place with several dozen portraits on the walls, most empty, or taking care of their own business. I smiled at the sight, before turning my gaze towards the old man at the back of it. I hadn't seen him since the feast, but he really did look quite grand, in a sort of Father-Christmasy way. He smiled and waved as I came in.

Beside him, the Phoenix also cawed, before kicking off of its perch and circling the room, as if to show off. Seemingly satisfied after a loop-de-loop, it sat back onto its perch and fluffed out its plumage.

Dumbledore watched the bird with an amused smile before turning back to me "Mr. Irving I believe, Severus said that he was impressed with your potion making ability, to what do I owe this visit? If I may ask."

I did a bit of a double-take, "He really said that?"

The headmaster smiled. His eyes really did twinkle! "Not in so many words, but the message came across."

"Ah" I nodded "...well, did he tell you about the other thing?"

"What thing is that?"

"Well, that I'm a metamorphomagus."

"Ah," the old man's smile returned. "Why yes, I believe he had mentioned something about that during the summer. I believe you were having difficulty controlling your abilities?"

"Yes, that's why I thought I'd come and ask you for advice."

"I'm surprised you did not speak to Minerva, she is an expert in transfiguration."

"Well…" I rubbed the back of my head. "I was actually going to ask if you know any alumni who were metamorphomagi themselves. I wanted to talk to someone who had gone through the same things" I smiled sheepishly. "It's a little private."

"Oh, well that's not too difficult." The old man smiled, scribbling down a note. "There are currently three metamorphomagi who have studied at Hogwarts alive, though one is currently living under a lake in Siberia and thus not very communicable. I would recommend sending a letter to Nymphadora Tonks, who graduated in the spring. I am quite sure she'd be willing to help you."

"Ah, thank you for your time." I nodded, running up and accepting the note. Fawkes cawed again as I moved up, sticking his head out in a gesture that prompted me to pet it slightly.

The headmaster seemed to find this extremely amusing, chuckling to himself. "Think nothing of it, though do please take such queries to your house leader first in future, I have a great deal to take care of as headmaster."

I nodded, smiling, "I'll do that, thank you again."

The bird seemed saddened by my lack of petting but cawed when I waved goodbye to it as I walked out the door, seemingly still cheerful.

My note secured I spent the evening writing a letter to the older shapeshifter, asking her about a number of things regarding my condition, and getting it up to the owlery.

I had to use a school owl, as I lacked one myself, so I picked an old barn owl with a Hogwarts tag on her. She was quite cooperative once I stroked the top of her head a couple of times, willingly taking the letter and heading out to who knows where the former Hufflepuff was.

I hoped she'd write back soon. It'd be nice to be able to continue advancing I'm my shapeshifting.

'Still, it's not like I don't have other things to practice.'

Indeed, there was quite a bit more for me to do, especially in charms. You see, in the evening on Saturday I had secured myself a bag of perfectly ordinary rocks from the side of the lake.

These rocks were to be a testbed for my new spells and materials going forward, a collection of tools by which I would improve my charm craft, and most notably the act of making my charms and transfigurations "Stick".

Thus, Sunday evening, just after dinner, I wandered over to the upper floors of the building, the seventh specifically.

I had been holding off for a while on this, though, now that I was here…

Well, might as well nip that future school invasion in the bud.

'I need to access and destroy the vanishing cabinet.' I repeated in my mind as I wandered back can forth across the halls. I couldn't remember which one it was, but I knew I needed to bounce back and forth three times to get the room to open. 'And I need to avoid exposure to the Horcrux in Ravenclaw's diadem.'

I didn't want to even try to tangle with that thing until I was damn sure I had a way to kill it. Fiendfyre would do, but I wasn't going to even look at it until I was able to get rid of it for good.

I smiled as the room ground open, revealing…

What I actually needed right now, a training and study room with an extremely conspicuous and partially broken cabinet in the corner.

'Well…' I smiled. 'Looks like I'm practicing Incendio first.

One thoroughly and utterly burned magical artifact later, I was feeling pretty good about pre-empting one of the major potential avenues of attack for enemies of Hogwarts in the future. The room seemed to respond to his by making confetti rain from the ceiling on the now smoldering pile of ashes, but I had slightly more interesting things to think about at the moment.

Such as the bag of perfectly normal rocks from the lakeside that I poured out onto the floor. My new and lovely test subjects.

You see, previously when practicing my charms, I was limited to testing them on items that I actually cared about, and thus creating combinations of things that might tear them apart, or trying permanent enchantments on them would was an obvious no-no.

But now?

Now I had a bag of rocks.

"Incendio Perpetua." I intoned, flicking my lovely wand with a thrill as one of the simple lakeside pebbles burst into a long-lasting flame. I smiled as the room itself raised a brazier from the ground itself, seeing right through to my purpose, and letting me toss the stone into it with a levitating charm.

That was just the start though, and I perhaps went a little overboard with all of it as I continued to play around. Soon I was surrounded in the room by a little series of orbiting burning rocks, that darted back and forth across the room on preset paths, leaving blazing trails of embers and soot behind them.

'I ought to figure out how bludgers are enchanted.' I smiled, watching as the stones flew about the place in their incandescent display. If I could dump a bag full of flaming heat seating rocks anywhere I wanted to harass my enemies it would be hilarious. I was pretty sure there was a spell for it too. I'd have to go see if anyone had written a book on the actual magic behind Quidditch when I got the chance, though tonight I was already risking being caught out by filth in the hallways.

'Has anybody left an invisibility cloak in here by chance?' I wondered. Though to my disappointment the room did not provide one.

'Oh well, I'll just have to scrabble then. Can you give me an exit to Gryffindor tower then?'

The room shifted, and I smiled as it formed a new door on the side, one emblazoned with a roaring lion.

"Thank you."

I went through the physically impossible door and found myself deposited on a spiral staircase, further up than the 1st year dorm was, I smiled as I headed down that way.

After two steps the stairs dropped out beneath me, warping into a solid stone slide that dropped me quickly at the bottom in a heap.

Stumbling to my feet in shock, I realized that that must have been the girl's side and that the room had almost certainly known it was going to do that.

'I just got pranked by a door…' I grumbled, wandering up the stairs a level to enter my own dorm room at last, and collapsing into bed with a thud.

I questioned why the school was so dull of pranksters as I drifted off into the night's embrace.

Morning rolled in with a thick Scottish fog, casting the whole world beyond the window of my dorm room in a deep and impenetrable grey, and required me to use Lumos just to fumble my way over to the bathroom, where I found my way into a shower in the dreary melancholy that the weather evoked. I was rather tired after the length of my escapades the night before, but the hot water rushing over my skin did a lot to provide me with warmth and comfort in the dreary light of a new week of classes I had already largely advanced past.

At least it was Herbology first in the morning, that was normally fun, and it was one of the only classes I had that I was not ahead of my classmates in.

Breakfast was a nice affair as always and found me downing a copious amount of Yorkshire tea in the hope that it might be able to prop up my mood for the rest of the morning with its gradual infusion of caffeine.

The liquid balm proved ineffective when Malfoy or some other Slytherin hit me with what I suspect was a Repulsion jinx while I wasn't looking. This prompted me to let go of my mug and spill the liquid all over my lap. While a simple drying charm removed the damage, it still had me considering the pros and cons of levitating his underwear in place and leaving him hanging in the courtyard.

Alas, the bell rang, ending my internal deliberations on the value of publicly humiliating an eleven-year-old, and demanding that my attention instead turning towards the process of scrabbling to the greenhouses to avoid being tardy.

Still, the sheer number of pranks and pranksters that seemed to be trying to come after me was enough to make me seriously consider learning "Protego" at my earliest convenience, and perhaps trying to enchant my robes with it.

'I refuse to be punked with this degree of regularity.'

Last edited: Oct 9, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 18: Heroism Begets Inconvenient Loyalty.

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#121

The rest of the week continued apace as I kept up my practice of magic, though the attempts at sabotage slowed down a bit as the week continued, Draco, realizing that he wasn't going to get a rise out of me publically, turned his sights back towards Ron and Harry.

Well, it did kind of suck for my classmates, but I was personally relieved to avoid his pranks for now. I had been careful not to show it, but I did have a breaking point, and his attempts to sabotage my academic progress had been pushing me towards it, rapidly.

I dealt with this mostly by imagining throwing a stream of burning rocks at him, which I found was pretty cathartic, though the room of requirement just refused to give me lifelike dummies, as if chiding me for the idea.

'Whatever, Castle, you're not my mom.'

Indeed, much unlike a mother, it let me keep practicing my spells and studying Ling after I really ought to be in bed. Something that I was certainly feeling Thursday morning when Ron woke us all up in an excited frenzy.

"Mates, we have our first flying lessons today." He put on a voice I immediately recognized that he reserved for only one thing. Games. Ron was a blatant gamer at heart, whether it be exploding snap or Quidditch, extracurricular competition seemed to be the thing that got his blood boiling. I could see why. He was good at them.

"They don't let first-years on the Quidditch team, Ron." Seamus groaned, rolling out of his bunk. "No reason to cause such a fuss about it."

Ron rolled his eyes at the boy, somehow already dressed in his robes despite just leaving the bed. "And you think they don't watch the first years? Hah! I bet the team Captain watches all the first year flight classes to pick out new talent."

Seamus seemed to reconsider at that.

I groaned, rolling in my bed. The one subject I lacked strong interest in was, of course, the one that all my classmates were going to adore.

Don't get me wrong, flying was cool and all, but still, it just seemed so inefficient.

I mean, wizards could teleport and time travel, and yet they still flew about by shoving brooms into their crotches.

I just didn't see the appeal. Now that broomless flight Snape and Voldermort could do? That was much more my jam.

Eventually, fighting off my drowsiness, I clambered out of bed, glaring at Ron as I could feel the bags under my…

'Oh right,' I rubbed at my eyes, removing the unsightly results of my late-night practice, though shapeshifting abilities gave me no respite from the aches and pains of my tired body, at least not yet. It was possible that if Tonks ever got back to me that those issues could be resolved.

Still, I pushed myself up, following the rest of the chattering mob of boys down to the showers, though I was a bit behind the lot when I finally made it to breakfast.

Still, while I didn't say much, I did feel a little less groggy once I had some tea in me, and Ron's excitement for flight was both palpable and infectious, ad he told stories about his own exploits and those of his brothers, I almost felt myself liking the sport.

Almost. Then I remembered the heat-seeking cannonballs and decided that yeah, that was a pass from me.

Anyhow, our groggy band did eventually make its way to the great lawn, just against the forbidden forest and outside of the walls proper, where a woman who was obviously Madame Hooch stood at attention, overlooking a large number of brooms.

I winced when I saw that the Slytherins were there also, remembering this scenario from the books.

'Well, I don't want to interrupt Harry's rise to stardom then do I?' I smiled, leaning back as the teacher began talking. Besides, this would provide ample opportunity to make fun of Draco if I played my cards right…

Well, maybe, I'd need to decide on whether I wanted to be the target of his ire again once we actually got going.

"Alright, each of you, stand beside a broom, we will be going over the very basics today, I'm sure you understand?"

As the class formed into lines beside their brooms I stayed in the middle of the crowd. I knew that the exhaustion was doing a number on me, especially with the bright sunshine giving me a headache.

Well, let's just say that I didn't really want to fall asleep at the steering wheel when I was on a cleaning implement fifty feet up in the air.

Eventually we were told to call our brooms to our hands, which a few students managed in one go, but certainly not me. To be honest, I think it would have been easy normally, but at the moment even that was a bit of a challenge. Still, I got it on the third try, fighting through my headache. That done, we were instructed to straddle them, and I truly had to wonder how any male wizard was ever convinced of broom travel as a bright idea. My hormones hadn't kicked in yet so it was mostly just uncomfortable for now, but I'd bet my ass that Quidditch players wore cups.

Still, I didn't get much time to think before I was knocked in the back of the head and subsequently run over by a rapidly ascending Neville, sending me sprawling. I really should have noticed that the boy was behind me before going for that broom.

Just the way the dice fall I guess.

Anyhow, embarrassing situation aside, I dusted myself off and watches as Neville managed to perform some truly entertaining, and entirely beyond his control, mid-air stunts, before smacking into a tower and falling off his broom.

Like everyone else, I winced when he landed on his feet with a crunch.

'Poor guy…' It was a shame too, of the first years he was the sanest, but his luck with magic was probably the worst in the school if not Wizarding society as a whole. Thankfully I knew he'd turn it around someday.

Still, for now, he had to be dragged off to the hospital wing, leaving a large group of combative eleven-year-olds from opposite houses glaring at each other.

What could possibly go wrong here?

Of course, Draco had to be an asshole, snatching Neville's discarded Remembrall, of course, Harry being the burgeoning hero he was, had to confront him about it, getting into a shouting match that quickly escalated into a flying one, despite Hermione's whining about rule violations.

Personally, I decided that the best thing to do until Madame Hooch returned was to take a nap. Laying back on the cool green grass and smiling to myself as a cloud blocked out the sunlight for a moment.

"Mister Irving, are you sleeping there?"

'Oh hey, it's professor McGonagall, who would have guessed.'

"Yes Professor, I'm a bit tired, and we have to wait for Madame Hooch before we can do anything."

I could almost hear the eyebrow raise in her voice as she turned away. "Well, I will leave you to that then, come along now mister Potter, we have matters to discuss regarding your flying just now."

I wasn't sure if anyone actually saw me give a thumbs up or not as I drifted off further into dreamland.

Only to be awoken by the return of Madame Hooch. "Right, up now, Rupert, your nap is over. Though I suppose it's preferable to what your classmates got up to it's still not sensible for class."

I grumbled, getting up onto my feet and straddling my broom once again as the teacher lady went over the basic concepts of not throwing yourself off of the deathtraps that wizards called transportation.

The fucking flying car was safer.

Anyhow, I did eventually get off the ground, doing a few basic aerial maneuvers, such as turning and accelerating and decelerating, under Madame Hooch's careful instruction, before slowing down and coming to a safe landing.

"You aren't really cut out for this stuff Rupert." Ron nodded, rather brutally, but then, the boy did know what he was talking about. "I think I've seen my family's old owl fly with more enthusiasm."

"What can I say? It's just not very exciting to me." I shrugged. "Maybe if we get to ride Hyppogriphs at some point, or Thestrals."

"What's a Thestral?" Hermione cut in, and I smiled.

"Flying black pegasi, they're invisible to people who haven't seen anyone die." I gestured towards the other side of the castle. "They pull the carts that the upper years ride in off the train on. I can't see them but it's pretty obvious they're there."

Hermione stared at me for a moment, before nodding seriously, "I'll have to go check out some books on magical creatures."

"Sure thing." I nodded, "I can actually point you at a few, maybe after History of Magic?"

Hermione's eyes lit up, a large smile crossing her face. "Yes please, that sounds wonderful."

'Does she have a crush on me?' I wondered, keeping my thoughts to myself as I turned back towards the castle. 'Or was she just that lonely.'

If it was the first I certainly didn't want to reciprocate. That would just be too creepy until like, fifth year, minimum, and even then she really wasn't my type. Still, I had been the first one to really show her much attention here, so she might just be latching on to me like a lonely puppy…

I forced on a smile as I nodded. "Yeah, see you then…"

Our massive assembles group shuffled back towards lunch in a generally good mood, especially after Harry came back and broke the news.

Ron especially took it very well as our little cluster of Gryffindor boys was held up in the halls on the way to lunch.

"She made you WHAT?" he seemed ready to leap into the air or hoist Harry up on his shoulders.

"The seeker she said, she talked about that dive I did to catch Neville's Remembrall like it was very impressive."

"The Seeker, she made you the bloody seeker. Top show Harry, hah, if you can fly like that we'll win the championship for sure."

As the excited conversation continued, our ranks were broken by none other than Draco Malloy and his Tweedle Dee and Dumb clones.

Well, that might be a little harsh on Crabbe and Goyle, but they certainly looked the part.

"Potter, you say that McGonagall made you a Seeker? Seems like Gryffindor won't be any good this year either."

I pinched the bridge of my nose while everyone waited for Harry's response, but apparently my nonstandard reaction was enough to earn Malfoy's ire.

"What's wrong, Mudblood? Headache? Did you get one from talking to your little girlfriend, she's a know-it-all too you two go-."

Ron was between us like a fucking lightning bolt, drawing his wand on the Slytherin like a champ.

It was honestly a little touching. The guy really was a heroic sort at heart, even if he didn't ever seem to really figure it out.

"You take that back Draco or I'll have you pulling your teeth out of your breakfast tomorrow."

"Casting spells on other students in the halls is a major offense Weasley, but if you sorry lot really think you can beat us, I'll be happy to have a three against three duel with you sorry lot in the trophy room tonight."

"Dueling isn't allowed Malfoy."

"What's the matter, too scared? Oh, I'm sure everyone will love to hear about the cowardly Gryffindors."

That last one prompted Harry to step in as well. "You already know we're better Malfoy, but fine, well do it."

"Hmph, see you then, Potter. Hope Weasley and the muggleborn don't drag you down too badly."

I rolled my eyes as the Slytherin walked away, typical snotty…

'I just got dragged into a subplot didn't I…' I grimaced, wondering if there was some sensible excuse I could use here without pointing out the obvious trap, which would probably stop them from going at all.

Just backing out without explanation would make me look like an ass too. It would in their minds make it a three against two fight, and to top it all off, Ron had literally just jumped in front of me to defend my honor, quite literally. How the fuck was I supposed to just bail on him after he went and did something like that?

There really wasn't an easy answer coming to mind, especially since my thoughts went to the fact that the trio probably had to meet Fluffy to beat Quirrell later. If they didn't they might end up needing even more direct intervention on my part. Intervention that I might as well get out of the way now.

Still, even in my addled state, I received a premonition that left me grumbling.

'Unless I flip the table I'm going to get drawn into all of this shit aren't I?'

I suppressed a groan. That meant more late nights, and these ones without even making real progress on my personal abilities.

'I may have to give Hermione a rain-check on that shared study-hour. I need a nap.'

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Threadmarks Chapter 19: Nightly Escapades and Petting the Dog. New

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"Why on earth would you agree to that?"

I glanced at Hermione with slightly sagging eyes. She had already been a bit mad at me for sleeping through History of Magic, but when I gave my reasoning she just blew up.

"You know quite well that duels on campus are against the rules."

"Yes." I nodded "I do, and moreover I think that the entire thing is probably a trick from Malfoy."

"You do? Then why on earth are you going?"

"Because Ron wants too, and he literally jumped in to protect me from Malfoy this morning. To my knowledge, the worst that can happen to me is a detention or two and some lost house-points, and neither of those are big enough penalties to make me decide to be disloyal to someone who has been loyal to me. I'm not that much of an ass."

"What about expulsion?" The girl asked grimly, and I resisted the urge to roll my eyes.

"The professors may threaten expulsion a great deal, but the danger of it is wildly overstated. To my knowledge essentially the only grounds for it is outright murdering your fellow students."

"You can't just break the rules because the consequences don't bother you, they'll probably go on your permanent record."

"Who's going to care what I did in first-year when I'm leaving with a stack of NEWT'S?" I sighed down into my desk, "Still, I appreciate your concern Hermione, thank you for looking out for me in your own way, but I still need to do this out of obligation to Ron's bravery if nothing else."

"How can you be so smart, yet so stupid?"

"By knowing that there are things more important than strictly following the rules, and loyalty to your friends is one of them." I smiled, "now, let me go show you the magical creature books that probably detail Thestrals. When I was mapping the library, I saw a few in that section that looked interesting."

I got up from my seat on the bench outside the classroom, where I had been letting Hermione berate me.

"W-wait, you can't just."

"I'm not going to talk about it anymore, now do you want to learn about the Invisible Black Pegasi that live on the school grounds or not?"

The girl bristled, her hair seeming to rise as she tried to stand up taller than me.

Still, after a moment she relented.

"Fine, but don't think you've heard the end of this. I'm not going to let you all go out and get caught then lie your way out of it."

"Cmon then. We have a book to grab."

The pair of us went down to the library, I returned a small pile of books myself, and then withdrew "Flying Creatures of Europa" and "A Treatise on Magical Breeds of horses." Though, unfortunately, we could not study them in the library.

Thankfully, it was still sunny outside, and fairly warm, so I just invited Hermione down to the lakeside to go over them with her.

Though as we soon discovered, finding a specific creature and its description in one of these books was… difficult, to say the least. "You know, I really wish that Wizarding authors were sensible about alphabetization, at least if they insist on not putting in indexes."

"I hear that some of the upper years have spells that let them find the right page, but I haven't been able to find them in a book yet."

"That would be handy… ah, here we go, Thestrals. Thestrals are a flying species of magical horse known to inhabit Europe and some parts of western Asia and North Africa, they are normally seen as harbingers of death, though this is likely due to their carnivorous diet and the fact that people in areas where large numbers of deaths are occurring are more likely to be able to perceive them."

"Ooh, let me see, let me see…"

The two of us continued largely apace for that over several hours, discussing several other breeds and types of magical creatures, including the other breeds of flying horses, such as Aethonans and Granians.

Overall, it was a pleasant way to spend an afternoon, and while it wasn't directly contributing to my powers and abilities, it was better to have friends than naught.

It was the goal to surpass Dumbledore after all, not Voldermort.

Eventually though, as the sun began to set, we returned to the castle for dinner and afterward departed our separate ways. Me up to my Dorm room to take a short nap, and Hermione back over to the library, apparently to further her studies in magical creatures.

I could hardly blame her, they were cool, but I was starting to feel like my eyes were dropping out of my head from exhaustion by that point, and I wanted to have my wits about me for any nighttime escapades.

"Oy, Rupert, wake up."

At Harry's prodding, I rolled out of bed around eleven pm, grumbling. I was feeling a fair bit less tired by that point at least, so that was something. "You two know this is probably a trick right?"

"You told us already mate, but I'm not going to let Malfoy go calling us chickens for the rest of the school year if we don't show up," Ron smirked, helping me up. "Besides, it's not like we can't outrun Filch, just keep the hats on and he'll have no way to know it was us in the dark."

I nodded at that. It did occur to me that the man must have a pretty rough job all considered, being a squib caretaker in a school full of superpowered children.

'I should get him a Christmas gift when the holidays rolled around, as a thank you for taking me to the hospital wing last week at least…'

Still, sympathizing with the man was for later, and as we crept through the silent halls of Gryffindor tower and out the door of the common room.

Only to run almost face-first into a very grumpy looking Hermione.

"So, you all decided to break the rules anyway." She glared at us as if her posturing was going to change our minds. "You could all be- well, sent to detention, or worse, and you still decided to go through with it?"

"Head off Hermione, I'm going to go knock Draco on his butt." Ron sighed. "What do you think will happen if we skip out? He'll have the whole of his bloody house calling us cowards."

"Better that then drop-outs." The girl frowned, and I saw her eyes turn over towards me, before going back to Ron. "I'm going with you."

"What? Just a moment ago you were calling us idiots!"

"Well, Somebody has to make sure you don't try to lie your way out when you are inevitably caught."

I rolled my eyes at the tone, it was transparent as the wind to my ears, but it certainly wasn't going to win her any points with Ron.

"Fine, stick your nose in, what do I care."

"Er, excuse me…" I turned from the pair of future lovers towards Neville, who was standing by the edge of the landing. "I uh, I'd just like to go into the common room, I forgot the password."

"Oh that's easy it's Scaralicious" I turned back towards the living portrait of the fat lady, only to find her absent. "Son of a… alright, you can come along to Neville."

"What, bu-oh, she's gone… Yeah alright, it's better than sitting here in the open I guess."

Our party now assembled, we began our descent.

It really was a different castle at night. The friendly warm buttresses and old glass windows, normally so dignified and friendly, cast deep and ominous shadows over the cold stone floors, and a silent draft seemed to flow through the halls without beginning or end, sending shivers up my spine as we turned onto yet another unlit corridor.

Finally, after perhaps half an hour of silent creeping, we reached the trophy room.

I had never been there before, though it was certainly impressive, as befit a school with a thousand-year history. Several trophies marked victories in the Triwizard tournament, which had me chuckling. While it had been discontinued in 1792, it seemed to have been a regular biannual occurrence for more than three-hundred years before it was cut off.

Still, as interesting as the various awards were, it became clear as the minutes ticked on that we had, as I thought, been hoodwinked.

"Malfoy isn't showing, that dirty coward," Ron grumbled. "See if I don't bloody his nose for this."

"Didn't Rupert tell you it was a trick?" Hermione asked, whispering in the dark. "We should get out of here before Filch comes…"

"Ah speak of the devil," I whispered, hearing the clattering of keys in the distance, and turning to find a light approaching us from roughly the direction of Gryffindor tower. "Run."

I had a vague idea of where we were going, even in the dark, and I had seen this song and dance before. But, the corridors of Hogwarts were maze-like even in the daylight, and at night it was easy enough for even me to get lost.

Filch seemed almost preternatural though in his ability to follow us, perhaps knowing the minds of students well given that he had been working here so long. We barely got a chance to stop and find our spot before his lantern would be visible behind us again.

Finally, though, I smelled the telltale scent of dog fur, and I knew we had reached our temporary destination.

"The doors unlocked, but it won't budge."

"Step back I'll get it." I kept an eye out behind us as Hermione pushed Harry aside, opening the door with a quick kickback jinx that forced it open.

It was honestly a little surprising that it worked, I would have figured that it would be warded against such a simple charm, but perhaps Dumbledore wanted unruly students to be able to enter that first room, just so Fluffy could dissuade them from violating such rules in future.

'Wait, no, didn't Quirrell break into it or something?' I grumbled, but hardly had time to think about as the light of Filch's lamp became visible around the corner.

We, of course, being idiot children save one, piled into the room, Ron thinking quickly enough to shut the door behind us as we stopped to breathe.

Well, the others stopped to breathe, my own eyes searched the room, and sure enough, found the shape of the enormous sleeping Cerberus…

Then Ron had to go and speak. "Great work Hermione."

It was a simple thing, not shouted or anything, but it was enough, prompting the dog to wake up almost immediately, growling heavily as its three pairs of eyes blinked open to stare at our group.

God, he was huge, at least eight feet tall at the shoulder, and he probably weighed as much as a pickup truck. A true magical beast of that there was no doubt.

"Easy there boy, easy…" I waved my hand, trying to draw his attention and keep my own voice as calm as I could manage. Big as he was, he was still a dog right… well, three dogs, possibly. I had calmed big and angry dogs before, though none quite so big as Fluffy here. "Easy… we're not here to hurt you or to get at what you're guarding, and we're sorry for waking you up from your nap…"

"Why are you talking to the-" the thing's heads snapped to Harry with a growl and he let out a meep, cutting off his words mid-speech. I rolled my eyes. Did none of them have dogs?

'Oh right, they don't.'

"I'm calming him down, hey boy, eyes on me, eyes on me." I smiled trying to keep a straight face as the enormous monster pawned forward towards me, and mercifully away from the rest of the group, sniffing the air around me as if trying to pick something out.

Carefully, I raised my hand up, petting him on the nose tentatively.

He seemed to accept it, and after a moment a long tongue hung out of his central head, licking my face and leaving a trail of slobber.

"Uh-huh." I smiled, "you're just a big softy under all of that, aren't you? Probably starved for attention all locked up in here too. I betcha they don't let Hagrid take you out on walks or anything."

The dog let out a pitiful noise, and I came to the conclusion that if it couldn't understand human speech then it could give a good enough approximation.

"Ron, don't move away from the door. This big boy here should be a guard dog if I'm not mistaken, and guard dogs are normally left places to guard something. If you approach it he'll get mad."

"Er, right…" the boy said, moving back to the door. "Ehm, are you sure he's safe?"

"Oh heavens know, look at these big pretty canines, I'm fairly sure he could bite all of us in half if he wanted to, couldn't you, you big fluffy murder machine."

The dog let out a happy whine and I smiled.

"See, atrocious dangerous, now sit down and I'll pet you behind your ears."

The dog obliged, and I smiled, stepping around to his shoulder and rubbing behind each if the heads in turn. It really did seem rather cruel just leaving the dog in here. Poor thing was just starved for attention and he barely had room to stand up or move.

'I bet Hagrid feels terrible about it.' I sighed, scratching down to the shared base of its necks, which elicited a happy sigh from the creature.

Once you got over the terrifying appearance and the fact it could kill you as soon as look at you Fluffy was a pretty good dog.

"Well, I think we should probably head back to the dorms soon." I smiled, gesturing to the door, where the others seemed to be watching me with a mixture of terror and amusement.

"Filch has probably given up by now, or at least chased our shadows somewhere else."

"Yeah," Ron nodded sharly.

"I uh, I think I might need to go have a rest."

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Threadmarks Chapter 20: Watch what you ask for. New

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Following our night-time escapades, I began to settle myself into a routine, so as to hopefully avoid exhaustion in the future. It wasn't too tricky as we all began to delve into our various personal subjects, though I was a fair bit closer to Hermione than the rest for the moment. All in all the most important thing that happened as far as the school at large was concerned was the extremely obvious gift a Nimbus two-thousand which Harry received in the middle of lunch on the nineteenth, shortly followed by him starting into Quidditch training.

Things in our year were a little more strained because of an ever-escalating series of spats between Ron and Hermione, but to be honest I really didn't care. It would all resolve itself one way or the other, and I was still half-waiting for Draco to call Hermione a Mudblood. Heavens knew he used it to describe me enough.

Slurs always had struck me as fairly silly.

Anyhow, my own studies were on the whole much more important anyway. I had established a rough time frame on hos long I could make fires last, about three days, and was slightly working on improving that, but more importantly I was expanding my own knowledge and spell-bases considerably. I had finished the first stack of library books entirely on the seventeenth and after a fair bit of searching withdrawn another of similar size.

"One-thousand and One Useful Charms" was particularly to my taste, being essentially a raw spellbook. While my wand movements still weren't precise enough to cast the really high-level stuff just yet, I was already starting to dig my way into the medium difficulty ones with repeated practice.

In fact, with the dancing charm squared away, and a good bit of progress in transfiguring my rocks, I was fairly sure that I could pass the finals for three of my seven classes already if you made me. And I knew the recipes for potions, even if Professor Snape was thus far refusing to let me brew them ahead of the rest of the class.

Indeed, he had penalized me for asking, and potioneering ingredients were hard to come by.

That was something for next summer though, and I had already begun to formulate a plan to earn more pocket change. Mostly by abusing my shape-changing powers.

On that note, I had been quite happy when Nymphadora finally replied to my letter, near the end of September, commenting that she had forgotten about it due to intensive auror training and also that she was very sorry to take so long.

She sent a caramel with it as an apology, which I decided to accept as sufficient to more than make up for the wait, especially once she started going into details about our powers.

It turned out that she was more than happy to instruct, if only by mail. Given the way she gushed about things, I suspected she had grown a little lonely in her training. Still, I did appreciate her described motivation, which was that nobody had helped her while she was in school and figuring out her powers was a pain.

She also spent two full paragraphs bemoaning that I wasn't a year older as she would have loved to be in school with me so she could teach me in person, it was very touching.

She did provide a good list of answers to the preliminary questions I had sent, at least from her own experience, and she said she planned to experiment on a few more of them before getting back to me.

Overall, I was quite glad with her answers, as they assured me that yes, the powers over my form I now possessed were indeed as extensive as I had estimated them to be, though a few places did still seem to have issues.

First and foremost there was the matter of age and infirmity, which according to Tonks, and corroborated by other sources once I knew where to look, was a somewhat nuanced matter.

A metamorphomagus could always look young, and would never be infirm, per se, since they could always alter their body to be in perfect health, but their mind (or more likely soul) was not necessarily so lucky, as they tended to eventually go mad to the point where they just couldn't function, and starved to death or failed to keep their body healthy.

That was a sobering thought, but it was still a good two-hundred years spent in my prime by most margins, and during that time I could always go and try to follow Mr. Flamel's example, or potentially pursue some other route to eternal life.

On other concerns, such as conservation of mass and the like, she was less sure, apparently having never even heard of the concept. Still, she seemed to think that I couldn't change body weight, so that might just be the explanation as far as practical concerns went.

By far the most complicated though was my question regarding transformation into inhuman shapes, to which she replied with a resounding yes, however, she did note that unlike Animagi, we had to go through the process of making sure everything worked anatomically, and since unlike them we couldn't change body weight, we had few real options for transformations in our own size category.

She didn't know whether if a metamorphomagus became an Animagus they could then change shape while in their animal form, though she didn't see why they shouldn't be able to, since Animagi didn't lose any charms or curses put on them just by changing form, and our shape-changing was innate.

Most important of all, however, she explained how to support proper shape-changing into other people, something she encouraged me to use to prank other students and professors, with the exception of professor Sprout, who she apparently still had a fondness for.

I wasn't really planning for using it to that purpose, to begin with, but I agreed anyway in my response letter, since I had no reason to be discourteous to the girl who was going so far to help me out, and we began a fairly lively correspondence on the weekends, where I asked questions about our abilities, and she quizzed me about Hogwarts Gossip and the like, as well as what some of the seventh-years were up too. Especially the boys.

Collecting that information was little trouble, and more than worthwhile in the face of the progress I was starting to make on faces. I was starting to do a convincing enough Draco that I wanted to punch my own nose in.

Joking aside though, it truly was a big help for my attempts to rewrite my own biology going forward, and I enjoyed every letter as a chance to further expand and understand my horizons.

Well, there was one other nice change. About midway through September, the twenty-first I think, I got invited down to Hagrid's Hut.

It was a big place, more the size of a cottage than a hut, but inside was perhaps the jolliest giant you might ever meet.

"And so I says to him, "Yer a Wizard Harry" and his eyebrows go right up to here." The groundskeeper regaled us with the story of his rescue on the boy's birthday. "Hah, you could hear all their mouths creaking on the hinges, they all hung open so far."

Harry, who was with us, seemed rather excited about the tale, rather than embarrassed as I had thought he might be. He really did seem to have a strong bond with the gigantic man.

"And then he zapped Duddly and gave him a pig's tail it was wicked."

"A pig's tail? Hah, I would have paid to see that." Ron chuckled, trying in vain to bite into a rock-cake that was far more rock than cake. "Who went and got you then Rupert?"

"Me?" I asked, turning towards the boy. "Professor Snape actually."

"Oh, that can't have been that nice an introduction to magic." The large man said. "Professor Snape is a good man, but not much of a talker."

"Actually he was quite polite, much more so than he's been in class." I nodded. "I mean he wasn't kind, or particularly inclined to explain things, but he wasn't constantly berating me or anything."

"My brothers say he just hates Gryffindors." Ron interjected, "but he does seem a right creepy bloat what with those robes of his."

"Bah, there's scarier." I shrugged, turning back to the giant. "Say, Hagrid, am I right to think the Cerberus in the third-floor hallway is yours?"

"Oh you all met Fluffy? That's a rules violation innit?"

"We were hiding from Filch a bit over a week ago, anyhow, I'm concerned he's not getting walked enough, he seemed really attention-starved."

"Oh, I see, ran in there by accident, that's right then." The giant smiled as if running away from punishment somehow made explicitly forbidden actions acceptable. "Yeah, I see him twice a day when I feed him, and I do wish I could walk the big lug more, but as it is he's supposed to be a secret, so don't go talking about him too much."

"Oh, we won't," I assured the man. "I just felt like he was in a tough spot locked up in a tight corridor with nobody around to take care of him. Dogs shouldn't be left that way."

"Well, I suppose I could talk to the headmaster, but I've got my groundskeeping duties to take care of."

"We could help take care of him." I smiled, though the horrified look on Ron's face and the coughing noise Harry made had me reconsidering.

"I'm not getting near that monster again." Ron whimpered, and I almost burst out laughing as Hagrid corrected him.

"Fluffy's not a monster, he's just a bit big for a dog is all, perfectly tame as far as beasties go. Oh, he can fight sure, but he's dear if you let him get used to you."

"Well, even if Harry and Ron don't want to, I might be able to do it, or maybe someone doing their NEWT in Care for Magical Creatures. Dogs just shouldn't be left alone that way."

"Yer right Rupert, I'll bring it to the headmaster at the first occasion." He smiled at me cheerfully. "Lots of folks forget that just because a Beastie can take a bit out of you that doesn't mean they don't need care and attention. Are you planning to be a Magizoologist by any chance?"

"No not really, not that I'm opposed to it, that's just a bit too narrow for me."

"Ah, I getcher. Well, you all better be heading up the hill then. Don't want to be out too late and havin to give the runaround to poor old mister Filch again."

Looking out the windows, it was indeed getting late, and we soon waved goodbye to the groundskeeper as we returned to the castle.

At the time I doubted anything would come of it, so you can imagine my shock when three days later I received a letter from the Headmaster's office ordering me to report to the groundskeeper's cabin at my earliest opportunity to assume my new (paid) position as the apprentice kennel master, along with a personal note at the end suggesting that I ought to keep the position confidential for the conceivable future, since only my house head and my legal guardians had been informed of my new role.

There were also included a few Sickles that served as my first week's pay.

Truly, the Hogwarts administration was going to put an eleven-year-old boy take care of a gigantic monster out of Greek myth solely for the reason that It was convenient, and that I already knew he existed.

I was apparently also going to be responsible for feeding him and cleaning up after him from now on. The latter of which I was sure would be lovely, given his enormous size.

'Right, I'm starting on cleaning charms tonight.'

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#169

"Who's a good boy?"

The three heads wuffled together in something like harmony.

"That's right it's you."

I tossed the enormous steak, easily ten pounds of beef, to the dog, who proceeded to start tearing into it with a fairly gruesome display of raw biting strength.

It would be terrifying if I didn't know what a big softy the dog was in general. This had quickly become my morning and afternoon routine as September fell away into October, and the dog had gotten used to me taking over for Hagrid. He clearly loved the attention at least, and I had more than a couple of new scars on my legs and torso where his play had gotten a little too rough.

Or I would if I didn't just erase them. Of all the people in the school, I was probably the best suited for regular injuries, with the possible exception of Hagrid and his half-giant physiology. With the degree of control I was starting to have over my own physiology I wasn't sure even poison would work on me, as long as I acted quickly to isolate the region it was in and throw it out of my body before it was too late.

Of course, my ongoing shapeshifting training was only a minor component of the greater whole of my advancement.

While I had been unable to just tear through learning the middle year charms and transfigurations like I had the first and most of the second-year ones, I had sporadic success in picking them up from time to time, and most of my issue was with wand-speed.

It wasn't that I couldn't cast Protego, it was that I couldn't cast it fast enough to matter, and that was becoming immensely frustrating as I tried to progress onto more advanced spells, requiring even more complex movements.

Still, while I had originally intended to expand the hall Fluffy was in using one of the extension charms I had started to pick up, (albeit still requiring me to cast them very slowly) I soon ran into another issue.

I had been quite excited casting my first extension charms, albeit very carefully and in the controlled environment of the Room of Requirement, but it had soon come to my attention that as good as they would be for giving fluffy a bit of space, I could not do so.

They were utterly and completely illegal under the dominion of the Ministry of Magic in Great Britain. With the exception of the creation of a few heavily controlled items.

This was, of course, ludicrous bullshit, and probably just an attempt at creating an artificial monopoly by the creators of said-items, but I could believe it nonetheless, and it was described in both my charm books and in "Elmyre's guide to Wizarding law in Britain." Whatever cartel was implementing such moronic controls had clearly been in power since at least seventeen-eighty-five when they were last updated to disallow private use.

Morons.

It wasn't like that would stop me remotely in terms of my own private magic-item creation, but I couldn't be so flagrant in violating the law while technically an employee of Hogwarts, as that would reflect badly on the administration and the trust they placed in me.

Plus, it would sort of defeat the point of him guarding the trap door of he could wander too far from it when Quirrel tried to break in.

So Instead I just kept the fireplace in the hallway going when I could, which was all the time when I could keep the rocks I placed there on fire and did my studying with the dog in an armchair that I could conjure up for a few hours.

His attempts to get all three heads into my lap at once we're a little awkward and tended to interrupt my study a little bit, but they didn't really hamper me too much, and besides, he was a dog.

His drool was more dangerous, but Reparo saw to it that none of my books suffered permanent damage.

I scuffed underneath his chins, using both hands to move back and forth between the three heads as I put him to be fed for the evening. He really was a good dog, and I felt bad for leaving him in such a cramped space.

Still, I had to get to Potions, and the dog couldn't accompany me down to the dungeons, much as I might find Professor Snape's reaction to me bringing him to class hilarious.

I'm not sure even I had earned enough points for Gryffindor to make up for that.

So my walk to the dungeons was lonely, at least until I got down to the great hall stairs, where the rest of the First-Year Gryffindor boys were hanging around.

'Waiting for me.' I realized belatedly, as Ron got up after seeing me, waving cheerfully.

"Hey Rupert," he smiled cheerfully. "How was work?"

I stared at him suspiciously, they wouldn't be waiting for me without a reason. Still, I could find no immediate flaws in his behavior.

"Nothing much happening, dogs are as pleasant as always, why were you all waiting around for me?"

"Ron whizzed on Hermione's shoes again," Dean said nonchalantly, eliciting a protest from the Weasley. "What? You were just going to talk around it for ten minutes, and Snape's going to take off points if we're late."

I turned my gaze back to Ron. "And you want me to intercede on your behalf?"

"I think so yeah," Ron nodded. "I uh… I was a bit rude in hindsight, but she caught me at a bit of a poor time, and I may have snapped a bit badly."

"Just tell me what you said Ron."

"He told her that if she wanted to not get told off for sticking her nose in everything then she needed to get it out of her books first." Harry interrupted, prompting me to once again draw my eyes back to Ron.

"I can't see that going over well."

"It didn't, and now I think she's really upset, she looked like she was going to bite my head off."

I rubbed the back of my head, eleven-year-olds, a combination of a lack of tact and an inability to deal with said lack of tact.

"Right, I'll try to talk to her at lunch, but it'd be better if you apologized as well. Hermione has a hard enough time from Malloy as it is. No need to add on to that."

Well, that was certainly a face. I don't think Ron was expecting that particular comparison.

"Look, I'm not saying that you're as bad as Malfoy, and it'd not like she isn't a bit aggravating at times, but think about it this way. Even if she's annoying she's still part of the house, and if we're going to be housemates we ought to stick together."

The boy sighed, looking down a bit, before shaking his head. "I… I understand that mate, it's just that, well, she's always going on about her books and nonsense. It drives me up a wall."

"I get that Ron, really I do, but think of it this way, doesn't Percy Drive you up a wall too?"

"Sometimes I guess, but he's my-"

"And she's our housemate, got it."

Ron looked at me for a moment before nodding, though just as he did the bell started ringing out.

"Damn, sounds like we're going to be losing points after all. Run for potions."

One frantic dash later, the four of us were through the doors, and readily being told off by snape.

After he was done robbing Gryffindor of the lead I had given us over the past week, we did actually get started on out potion for the day.

"Today you will be making a variety of Wound-Closing-Salve, much like the cure for boils which you have all already made. You will find it on the fortieth page of your textbooks. However, as you should all be by now accustomed to the selection of ingredients available to you, I will not be taking any specific measures to provide you their locations, nor will I be doing so again in future without…" his tongue lingered on the words, "exceptional circumstances."

Dark eyes swept over the classroom. "Is that entirely clear."

A chorus of "Yes Professor"s rang out from the assembled students, and the bat-like man nodded sharply.

"Then you will begin now, and Mister Longbottom, please avoid melting your cauldron today."

Permission given, the students began to move out to the cabinets, however, I had a good theory we were going to be doing this potion next, after being assigned one of Professor Snape's apparently punitive essays on it in the last class session, and I had already mentally prepared for those specific ingredients.

'Let's see, Flobberworm mucus in the upper right-hand cabinets, Iron shavings in the second one on the lower right, blood-beetle shells in the first on the left…'

My search was not nearly as frantic as the other members of the class, which is why I turned around in time to spot Malfoy walking away from my desk, a smirk fairly evident on his face.

'He could at least be subtle about it, though I doubt Snape intends to intervene regardless.'

Returning, I carefully inspected my materials, everything seemed to be largely in place, so it seemed most likely he had put something in my already softly boiling cauldron.

Checking over it I took a short sniff. Yep, definitely something different, aged Death'sshadow if I was recognizing it from the cabinet, not healthy to breathe in too long.

Putting on my Dragonscale gloves, I huffed the cauldron back over to the gargoyle water basin, dumping its contents and refilling it, along with casting a quick Scourgify into the bowl that washed it out fully of the residue.

I might not be able to make myself immune to all pranks, but I certainly wasn't going to fall for that one.

Hell, Snape didn't even deduct points for wasting water, maybe he did like me after all.

Or maybe he wasn't willing to go so far as defend active sabotage from his students.

Either way, I got the pot back onto the burner, and the rest of the world started to melt away as I ground up the beetle shells while I waited for the cauldron to once again return to a soft boil.

Working on a potion was just sort of… Tranquil I suppose, and as I began to add the flakes of shells and mucus and the potion thickened up, turning a bubbling orange, I could only smile.

Twenty-seven clockwise stirs and four counterclockwise later, I added the iron and the crushed Raspberry seeds, as well as the tail of Salamander that would provide the core of the salve. I smiled as, just like the book said, the tail broke into small chunks of flesh, absorbing the potion and turning into sort of a gooey mess at the base of the cauldron as I removed it from the flame.

Taking a small bronze ladel, I scooped out the disgusting material, placing it ever so carefully into a glass jar I had prepared for it before it could harden. Sealing the top I lifted it up to my face, smiling.

Only to have it ripped out from between my fingers by the long and pallid grasp of my professor.

"Acceptable, mister Irving. Just. Though I suppose you have managed to deliver at least this degree of quality with some reliability."

The man turned black and unreadable eyes down on me. His lips forming into an indecipherable frown.

"Given your ability to deliver results of this grade, I believe that you will be more than suited for an extracurricular assignment. You will speak to me after class. For now, you may write an essay on the forgetfulness potion."

"Er, yes Proffessor."

"Good," the professor's eyes darted across the room, as a low whistle emerged from Neville cauldron.

I could barely blink before the man had placed my jar back down and dashed across the room intent on preventing a repeat of last week.

Personally, I was just left wondering what the hell he wanted now.

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Threadmarks Chapter 22: Potions, Poultices, and Conversations. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 11, 2019

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#179

"Mister Irving, take a seat."

I nodded, doing as the professor asked. He had directed me into his office after the end of class.

Carefully, he withdrew from under his desk a wooden rack, with several bottles, vials, and jars on it.

"Do you recognize these potions mister Irving?"

"Those are the ones we've made so far right?"

"Indeed, I keep one of these for each of my students in my capacity as Potions-Master, and I use it to formulate your grades based on the metric established by the Hogwarts board. This one is yours."

I glanced down the line, nodding.

"Do you know why I have called you here today?"

"I assumed it was to offer me some kind of extended or advanced studies."

"Not entirely correct, but not entirely wrong either." The Professor glanced at the potions. "Do you know, mister Irving, at what grade of effectiveness the Ministry of Magic considers potions to be market Grade?"

"Not precisely know, I have done a bit of research on ministry regulation, but not in regards to potions."

"I see." The Professor picked up the candy-striped potion we made on the first day. "Am I correct in the statement that this was the first potion you ever made?"

"Yes, sir."

"Hmph," The Professor snorted. "While none of your potions have been high enough quality to sell in my own opinion, even this one reached above the minimum level of quality that the ministry mandates for a license of potion sales. We're one of my NEWT level students to submit it, I would give them a passing grade, albeit barely."

Dark eyes turned towards me, with heavy black bags beneath them. "In short, you clearly have a great deal of talent in potionery, and despite your occasional poor behavior I find you one of the least insufferable of your house and year." The Professor's lips were fixed in a permanent frown, that contrasted with the words he spoke. "As such, and due to the rarity of such talent amongst your peers, I believe it should be cultivated. I understand that the headmaster already has you working to a certain degree for the Groundskeeper every day, and I hardly have such time as to waste it on tutoring you personally." The man tapped his finger on the rack. "However, Hogwarts does have some, avenues of academic and athletic extracurricular development, though they are normally used by students in upper years, some exceptions, such as Mister Potter and his new membership on the Quidditch team, are occasionally made. Are you interested in pursuing such development in potions?"

"Yes professor, certainly."

"Good." The man withdrew a rolled-up scroll of parchment from his desk. "While I personally would never sell potions of the quality at which you are currently producing them on the market, several retailers possess lower standards. NEWT level potion students occasionally sell to these retailers, however, you are too young to qualify for a license to do so." The man pulled open the scroll. "As such, I will be doing so on your behalf if you choose to agree to it. In exchange, I will provide you with the necessary ingredients to continue developing your skill privately, and assign you independent studies on various potions. The ingredients will be paid for by the sales of your existing potions."

"What type of things would I be making?"

"Largely potions not covered in the standard academic curriculum. Putting you even further ahead of your classmates would, I suspect, result in your future potions classes being exceptionally boring, at least until you started advanced level courses."

"Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"Not particularly. Though note that I as your supervisor in this will have the right to end this program at any time should you fail to continue advancing at an acceptable rate, or make yourself insufferable to the point at which I no longer wish to support your studies in this way. Make no mistake, I do not offer this opportunity to every student."

I nodded, "thank you for the chance then, I will be happy to participate."

The man's frown somehow deepened at the thanks, or perhaps at the excitement leaking into my voice. Whatever the cause, he gave no acknowledgment save to give me my first assignment.

"You will begin by brewing several batches of Fire-protective potion until you can do so at a level I deem acceptable to sell consistently. You will find the ingredients necessary for its creation on your desk when you leave this office. I have given you enough for three batches, four if your measurements are precise." The man pushed the scroll into my hand, though I felt a bit of metal inside of it. "The instructions are in there, as is a key that will let you into the empty laboratory on the second floor of Gryffindor tower. Do ensure that your burner and workspace are entirely clean before you begin brewing."

"Yes, professor."

"Good, now leave, and stop wasting my time."

"Yes, professor."

I left the potions classroom behind with a bag full of ingredients and a half-giddy smile on my face.

Even if Snape was a rude, obnoxious and in some ways downright ugly man, as well as a truly horrible teacher, I could still hardly harbor a shred of annoyance to him after such an opportunity. The ability to brew more potions on my own without needing to worry so much about ingredients meant that I would be able to really advance my studies there as much as I was in Transfiguration or Charms. For how much I was enjoying what I had already done, I was sure that I could push onward and upward at an even faster rate if they let me. There was just so much to do, so much to learn.

Snape was getting a Christmas gift. Whether he wanted one or not. I would add him to the list next to Filch, Hagrid, Dumbledore, and McGonagall. Well them and all the Gryffindors except for Fae Dunbar, her and that other girl she hung out with that somehow managed to avoid the rest of us entirely.

Sometimes I wasn't even sure the other one existed, she was usually so quiet I couldn't even remember her name.

Anyway, after lunch, I pretty much immediately scooted up to the Gryffindor tower potions lab, which seemed to have been a classroom at one point, perhaps when there was a Gryffindor Potions Master. The place was utterly coated in thick layers of dust, that made even clearing out a desk area feel more like an archaeological site than a work surface.

The dust just kept drifting back while I got the fire going too, so eventually I just decided to Scourgify the entire room over and clean everything until there wasn't a speck of the fluff left anywhere to come out and harass me.

'You'd think the House Elves on staff would take care of that. Maybe they don't have to maintain out of use rooms?'

There were rainy more than enough of them on campus, probably more than two hundred classrooms total with perhaps eighteen in use. I wasn't entirely sure if there had just been more wizards at some point, or if professors had a habit of shaping new rooms out when they arrived while old ones like this got left behind save for the occasional couple of…

Well, let's avoid the indecent thoughts for now. Perhaps the castle was inclined to permit them in the same way it was inclined to prank in people.

Anyhow, that wasn't my concern for now, as I began the process of crafting my first private potions and sank into the process almost completely. It was so exciting, and the instructions were fairly simple, basing it on colors and forms rather than specific numbers of stirs, it seemed like it trusted me with more control over the brewing process than the ones in the beginner's guide.

It took a little getting used to, and by the time I finished, I was getting a little late for feeding Fluffy, but still, I had succeeded three out of four times, and the first hadn't really failed so much as produced a sub-par product while I got used to directing my own stirring and using my intuition for it.

Three batches, or four vials, of Fire protection potion later, I stowed them carefully in my bag between the fabric of my are robe, before packing my materials and leaving for Hagrid to go grab the afternoon steak, then taking it up through one of the back passages to arrive just outside the third floor corridor.

As I entered, I found myself buried under what must have been two tons of dog, who immediately begin slobbering and liking all over me as he pinned me down, barking happily.

I broke out laughing as I struggled to get up, tossing his steak across the room to get him off once I managed to get ahold on it. I did notice he had left a truly enormous pile of foul-smelling waste on one corner, but fortunately for me, Scourgify was not a difficult spell.

The dog started happily chewing away on his steak while I conjured up my normal armchair. I wouldn't need to refresh the fireplace for a few more days, and the book I had been reading. "Charms of the Sun, and Other Celestial Bodies." Was still where I left it.

That was good, I was worried that one of these days Quirrel was going to break in here, try to fight Fluffy, and fuck up anything I had left in here in the process. I wasn't too worried though, Fluffy was a good dog, and essentially immune to magic, or at least his breed supposedly was. Traditionally the only way you were supposed to be able to get past a Cerberus was by proving dominance over it by wrestling it.

I felt a great furry chin come down on top of my head as I sat, and smiled. The likelihood of somebody like Quirrel, or even the big V himself being able to compete with Fluffy in a physical contest was pretty laughable, so really the only vulnerability I could foresee would be the music thing, which I was fairly sure Hagrid would let slip eventually but wasn't anything to worry about for now.

Anyhow, I did have one more obligation tonight, and after spending about an hour getting myself covered in dog hair and drool, and another minute or two making sure I managed to get it all off of me with spells, I waved goodbye to Fluffy and headed up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

"Hay Lavender" I waved, coming in. "Do you know where Hermione is?"

"Oh, yeah she's up in the dorm, want me to go get her?"

"Yes please." I nodded to the Blond Girl, she was easily amongst the most cheerful of our year and turned towards the window. It seemed that a light rain was coming in for the evening, covering the world in a thin blanket of grey clouds some of which glowed red in the setting sun, casting the Highlands in their shadow.

It was a beautiful sight to take in, and I smiled as I watched the thing go. The towers of Hogwarts truly had views like no other…

"Rupert, you wanted to talk to me?"

I turned my eyes towards Hermione, who looked particularly frazzled, before nodding.

"Yeah, yeah I did, come on, let's go sit by the fire."

The girl nodded, following, and I noted the redness around her eyes.

'She's been crying…' I realized after a moment sighing and moving into the armchair across from her, a small table between us.

"What do you want?" She asked, looking a bit glum.

"Ron asked me to talk to you, originally, but now I think you need to maybe talk about something else."

She nodded a little bit. "Why does he have to be such a boar…"

"Because he's not really thinking about you or your feelings when he says bad things about you, just the inconvenience you're giving him at the time."

"But I'm not trying to be an inconvenience" the girl protested. "It's not like I'm trying to stick my nose into everything like he said, I just want to talk to people."

"And you can, but not everyone wants to hear about books all the time." I smiled, patting the girl's shoulder. "Just like he hasn't been thinking about you and your feelings, I don't think you've been thinking about his interests. What does he want to talk about?"

"He only talks about Quidditch?"

"So why don't you talk to him about Quidditch then? Or maybe try to learn chess? If you want to talk to us you have to think about what we want to talk about, and while I know it's pretty easy to ask me about charms, you should spend a bit of time learning about what other people like. Harry for instance, do you know his favorite food?"

"No, should I ask him?"

"Maybe, but he seems to lean towards the sweets at dinner, so maybe talk to him about them. Just try to think more about it." I smiled, patting the girl's shoulder. "Oh, and tell me if Ron doesn't get around to apologizing himself in the next week so I can give him a levitating we'd until he does."

"So you can what?"

"Don't worry about it Hermione"

"No, no, casting jinxed on other students is against the rules."

"Not a jinx, I was just going to use a levitation charm."

"That's still in violation of the spirit of them."

"Shpirit shmirit, see you later Hermione, and think about what I said."

I smiled as I left the indignant girl behind, jogging back up to my dorm room.

Well, that might set one relationship on its way to being solved. Now if only I had a way to get Harry and Draco to kiss and make up.

Well, maybe not the kissing part, I wasn't that kind of shipper.

Last edited: Oct 11, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 23: Trolls and Punishment. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 12, 2019

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#209

There was definitely a shift in my school priorities as I started taking care of fluffy and brewing more interesting and advanced potions, a certain change in the way I looked at things.

I recognized it as the feeling of responsibility. I was responsible for and to things beyond myself now, which meant less time spent on personal development, though that was still a factor in the new arrangement Snape had offered me.

Still, I wasn't complaining, none of it was at all unfair, and I was quite happy with it. It distracted from the monotony of studying and practicing magic, keeping them fresher than they would be otherwise, something that would hopefully save me from being quite as burnt out in the long run.

Still, time continued to flow by, and while the classes ground by day after day, I could feel the air beginning to build with tension.

Halloween, All Hallow's eve, Hallowe'en, whatever you wanted to call it, it seemed was a far more important holiday for wizardkind than for even the most enthusiastic of those less magically inclined. If I had to describe it, it would be something like the ordinary event rolled together with the American's fourth of July.

The excitement in the halls was palpable as we built up to it, especially amongst the older students, and even I couldn't help being infected with that same excitement by the environment around me. Even knowing that Quirrell was likely to try his hand at attacking Fluffy.

I wasn't all that worried about the big dog. If he was easy to hurt then he wouldn't have given the dark wizard so much trouble in the original timeline.

I was more worried about the troll, that encounter was a much more close-in thing in canon, but it was also very important to building friendship between Ron, Harry, and Hermione.

I needed to be there too, of course, to protect them from any butterflies I might have caused to make the troll more deadly, but still, I wasn't entirely sure it would work if I managed to beat it without effort. Not to mention flashing my abilities in front of the whole school perhaps a bit too early.

Of course, even that was predicated on Hermione missing the feast, of which there was no guarantee.

'Well, no point in beating myself up about it, I'll just do what seems right when the time comes and go from there.'

The promised day of the feast came quicker than expected, with a flying lesson in the morning that saw me making sluggish, but hopefully not entirely incompetent maneuvers, and a Charms lesson in the afternoon that covered everyone's favorite levitation charm.

An hour and a half of repeating the same swish and flick motion that I had been performing since summer, and a good six points earned for Gryffindor from my efforts to help the other students around me in learning the spell, we were let out into the festive air of the castle on Halloween. Live bats flew through the halls in swarms, dropping candies, rather than guano on our heads, there was music in the air wherever you went, and everything smelled like pumpkins.

Truly, it was a wonderful holiday.

It was hardly a time to be alone, so I made sure to give Fluffy a long visit. Feeding him his usual steak but also throwing him a ridiculously large Rawhide that Hagrid had given me, which I had only managed to get up the stairs due to my mastery of the very levitation spell which our class had been using.

The dog appreciated this greatly, and much of the remaining hour or so before the feast began was spent on long belly rubs and wiping dog spittle off of my face.

When the bells finally did sound, I found myself laying on the giant Dog's thick coat of warm belly fur, gently stroking underneath his chins. It almost broke my heart to leave him, but I did so anyway, joining the stream of students pouring downstairs to the Great Hall.

If the pumpkins and bats that had decorated the hallways of Hogwarts were an amazing experience, then the great hall itself was almost indescribable. Bats flew through the air, dropping bombing runs of chocolate pumpkins on the tables, or dancing back and forth, the Ghosts performed a waltz in the air above the diners, and banners streamed from the window sills in all manner of orange, yellow, and black.

And hell, that was just the opening act.

I pushed through the teeming crowds, arriving at the Gryffindor table, getting into my seat and sighing in relief as the press of bodies lessened somewhat.

It was tricky getting around when you were one of the smaller people in the building.

"Oh, hey Rupert." Harry waved from his place two down the row. "How are you?"

"Quite good thank you, Fluffy was quite energetic today." I smiled, to the boy. "I love the big lug, but heaven knows he's exhausting to play with."

"I wouldn't know, I've never had a dog."

"Get one when you get the chance, just make sure to get a bigger one. Small dogs are just cats in dog-clothing."

"I, uh, I'll keep that in mind." The boy nodded, and I smiled, I didn't really even dislike the mini's that much, but bigger ones were right up my alley.

Still, there was something off here, yeah Hermione was missing, but also…

"Where's Ron Harry?"

"Oh, he went to apologize to Hermione, reckon he got tired of your Wedgy-things."

I forced my face straight, actively using my ability to shapes hit to not give away that I was sweating bullets on the inside. "As well he should, still, it's a shame they're late for dinner."

'Shit Shit Shit.'

If it was just Hermione I would have a pretty good idea of where she was, but if Quirrell let the troll out now then I would have to search the whole bloody castle for wherever Ron and Hermione could be.

My hackles raised and I forced them back down, and I took hold of my wand under the table even as I ate sweets and drank horrible pumpkin juice with my right hand.

The hearty feeling of power in it was like a lifeline even in this situation where I might have gotten two of my friends killed or eaten, entirely by accident.

Sure enough, the stupid fucking Voldermort in disguise came running in, screaming about the troll, and I could barely suppress my desire to just rush him and rip that stupid turban off of his head.

Sure, they were just kids, but Ron and Hermione were still my friends, and still my house and year, part of my extended family in this world, of a sort. They were certainly family much more so than anyone at the orphanage was. I couldn't even remember their names.

I could barely restrain myself as Percy Weasley and that nasal girl started to organize us into rows.

"Harry. Where did Ron say he was going to apologize to Hermione." I whispered, gently tugging on the sleeve of his robe.

"He saw her on a bench by the staircase on the second floor… Oh no, they don't know about the troll do they?"

"No," I said, pulling the boy away down a side corridor from the main group. "They don't, we have to warn them."

The boy didn't even waver a second before nodding. Harry really was a Gryffindor at heart. "Right. We can't let the troll get them."

"Lead the Way, Harry."

"Right."

I followed the boy to the staircase at the back end of the Great Hall, where we climbed up quickly onto the second-floor landing at its top.

"Ah, they aren't here, maybe one of the professors grabbed the-"

Harry's sentence was cut off by a girlish shriek and I found my own lips pressed into a thin line.

'Of course, it isn't that easy.'

"That sounded like Hermione," I shouted, breaking into a run. "Come on."

The decorated hallways seemed barren and empty as we ran as if our lives, or more accurately our friend's lives depended on it.

Unfortunately, I was a tad too late, as we rounded a corner and came face to face with a sight that had been plaguing my nightmares for the past month.

Ron lay bleeding out on the side of the hallway, propped up against the wall, trying to bring himself to his feet. He was still conscious at least, but it looked like he might have taken a hit to the side by the troll's club. His left arm was hanging limp at his side. He clutched at his wand bravely, as if hoping that doing so would help him get back up to fight.

I didn't have time to admire his bravery though, as Hermione was in arguably worse straights, bereft of her wand, she was caught in the monster's disgusting hand, being brought up in front of its face.

I saw red.

"Harry. Get Ron." I barked, in a manner that seemed to shock the boy from his own terror.

"But-"

"GET. RON." I nearly screamed this time, raising my wand, feeling a white-hot anger rise in my gut, for both myself being so late on this one, and for Quirrell letting this thing loose in a school full of children.

Trolls were immune to most direct offensive magic, and certainly all such spells that I knew.

Fortunately for me, that barely narrowed down my options at all.

I cast the first spell that came to mind to free Hermione, my tongue on fire as I shouted the incantation, my magic flowing hot through my arm in a way that made my wand vibrate with power.

"Tarantallegra."

No bolt of light shot forth from my wand's tip, and no sparks showered over the monster, but my charm still took effect, as evidenced by the way the troll began to stumble, staggering back and forth as it tried to stop dancing.

Its eyes turned toward me full of a brutish sort of anger as it tried to get me to stop, throwing the closest thing at hand towards me.

'Oh no, you don't.' "Wingardium Leviosa." I caught Hermione's clothes, bringing her softly over towards myself as I spotted that Harry had managed to get around behind the troll as it staggered into the walls and put its arms and shoulders through the windows, cutting itself on the jagged glass, and filling the hall with the autumn gale from outside.

Still, even dancing it was dangerous from its sheer size, and even as I drew Hermione back it pursued, eliciting a scream from the girl as it launched into some horrid mix between a sprint and a jig.

I was having none of it, taking aim at the creature's eyes, and drawing a horizontal swipe between them with my wand, I bit out the name of the cutting spell.

"Diffindo."

Now troll hide, especially mountain troll hide, is resistant to a great number of spells, however, as, in the case of many giant creatures, their eyes were a weak point in this defense.

The troll screamed in utter agony as its legs began doing the Can-Can. Dropping its heavy club, it clutched at its eyes where my spell had torn them in two, shrieking in pain and anger.

"Come on Hermione, let's go."

I grabbed the girl's shoe as I pulled her still levitating form, despite her protests, over past the bleeding troll, making a run for the corner of the next hallway over. I dashed across the broken glass of the hallway, glad for the shoes on my feet and whatever enchantment was protecting them.

I was relieved, however, to find that the cavalry as it were, had arrived before the Troll managed to try to pursue us.

"I trust, mister Irving, that you have a good reason for seeking out and combatting a fully grown mountain troll against explicit orders to return to your common room."

I raised my eyes to see Professor McGonagall, along with Sprout and Flitwick both, who were already moving past the pair of us towards the blinded troll.

I kept my face straight. There was no point in lying here.

"I came here to save my friends after I was made aware that they were in danger Proffessor. When I saw Ron injured I sent Harry to get him to the medical wing, and I then engaged the troll to protect Hermione."

"Mhmm." I saw not a flicker of the usual jovial it in my House Head's eyes. "Speaking of that, you should put miss granger down, she appears to be turning blue."

"Oh," I exclaimed, quickly setting Hermione to her feet, where she proceeded to lean herself against a wall on her forearm, throwing up rather pitifully, as I tried to apologize.

The Professor, however, demanded my attention.

"And why did you not inform your prefects?"

"I did not believe that they would be able to react with appropriate haste. Harry knew the bench where Ron and Hermione had been." I bit my lip, before shaking my head. "We were only barely in time to save Hermione as it is, and I hope that Harry getting to the hospital wing was what brought you here." My eyes fell a bit. "Is Ron alright?"

Hermione, god bless her heart, looked utterly anguished at that, letting out a pitiable sound, but the professor smiled for just a brief moment as she reassured us. "Mister Potter delivered mister Weasley to Madame Pomfrey with haste, and he appeared to still be conscious even. I have no doubt he will be alright."

The old woman's eyes turned back to me sharply. "This does not absolve you of this flagrant violation of school rules."

Hermione tried to get up in front of me, but I raised my hand, holding her back.

It was almost always better to deal with punishments by taking responsibility for your actions, especially when dealing with teachers.

"I will certainly not apologize for saving my friends, but if you see it necessary to punish anyone severely to discourage future reckless behavior, then I will certainly accept any appropriate punishment as the obvious leader and instigator of this rule-breaking behavior."

The deputy headmistress nodded sharply. "Good. I will speak to the headmaster in regards to what would be appropriate."

I nodded in return.

I just hoped that if they saddled me with ten-thousand detentions that it wouldn't leave Fluffy too lonely.

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Threadmarks Chapter 24: Scolding and Celebration. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 14, 2019

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#254

I tapped my fingers on the edge of the armchair. I had been asked to wait in Professor McGonagall's office until the situation with the troll was fully and sensibly resolved. It gave me plenty of time to think as the Deputy Headmistress was no doubt running back and forth the school, and probably calling in the Weasley's as well.

Her night was no doubt going to be as hectic, if not moreso, than my own.

The silence of the cold hours ticking towards midnight suited me just fine. They gave me a chance to think away from the hectic battle against the troll, and to reflect on the day, or perhaps night, before me.

It was true that I hadn't exactly tried to avoid this course of events. Not really. I hadn't just told Hermione and Ron to make sure to come to the feast or something like that, but still, it felt eerie that things had happened so… closely, to how they had in the books.

It was all just far too coincidental, I had been pestering Ron about making up with Hermione for weeks now, and he chose Halloween of all nights to do it?

Sure, there hadn't been a girl's toilet, and nobody had gotten injured the first time, but still, it all felt rather odd.

Not impossible, but suspicious.

It would bear further testing, and quickly. Could I upset events fully? Flip the apple cart so to speak, that there might be no recognizing this world anymore?

The Quidditch game coming up would have to be my testing ground. I would interrupt Quirrel's jinx before Harry even caught on to it.

I straightened in my chair as Professor McGonagall entered. Her Visage was stern, but not angry, and the kids of her eyes betrayed a tiredness at odds with her otherwise perfectly standard demeanor.

It was sort of impressive how well she held it up.

"I appreciate the responsibility you showed in taking credit as its initiator, however, I wish to be entirely clear on the reason for your punishment." She spoke in a thicker Brogue than usual, possibly another habit of her tiredness.

I nodded, and the professor continued.

"You are not being punished for fighting the troll, you will, however, be punished for not taking every possible opportunity to inform the professors." The woman seemed to sag a little. "It would be different if no-one was hurt, but mister Weasley suffered grievous, potentially deadly injuries. As such, I cannot be nearly as lenient as I might be otherwise."

"I understand, professor. Though Ron will be alright, right?"

"Yes, thankfully, mister Weasley was taken to the hospital ward with great haste, something he has you and mister Potter to thank for. His injuries will be healed entirely, barring perhaps a few scars on his chest where his ribs broke the skin. Madame Pomfrey expects a full recovery in around a week." The woman sighed, and just for a moment, she looked as exhausted and vulnerable as she probably was. Then her teacher-persona came back in full force, her eyes hardening. "I am aware that you acted in the best possible intention, however, you did still endanger mister Potter and Yourself with your decisions. As such, you will be serving night detentions every other day for the next three weeks, excluding Wednesdays."

I sighed, sitting back in my chair and looking done to the tiles. "I understand Professor."

"Good." The woman nodded. "You have shown remarkable maturity in handling these events, excluding the initial stupidity of attempting to handle the situation entirely yourself."

I felt a hand come down, tapping my shoulder, and I looked up at my house head.

"Do not fret too badly, the detentions should be in the company of Hagrid, with whom I believe you already get along."

"Yeah." I smiled, that would make the loss of study time better at least. "Yeah, that does sound better."

'Maybe I'll get some hands-on time with magical creatures in the stead of it.'

"Finally, it comes to a matter of house points, of which I am compelled to deduct eighty from Gryffindor house due to your abject disregard for the rules and procedures of the school, and your endangerment of both yourself and a fellow student.."

I watched her, guessing what was coming next, a guess she soon verified. "However, for your excellent use of esoteric charm work in the protection of your friends, I will be awarding Gryffindor House fifty points." She nodded sharply at last. "That is all I have for you tonight Mister Irving, you will be informed of the conditions of your detention tomorrow at breakfast. You are dismissed."

"Yes, Ma'am."I nodded, feeling my shoulders sag as I got up from my chair, tension released as I started the long walk back up to the Gryffindor Common Room.

The detention was nonetheless the last thing on my mind. I would need to manage my actions in the following weeks carefully, measure my actions against my loyalty to my friends and my need to test the very fabric of reality.

Also to do both without getting on Voldermort's hit list.

Thus it was with that burden on my shoulders that I greeted the fat lady, who chided me for being up so late before letting me in without even asking the password.

I stepped through the portal and almost tripped as I stepped in.

'Huh?' I blinked in the sudden light, which filled my eyes for the moment after having gone walking around in dark corridors for a quarter-hour.

"Oh great, now we've blinded him."

I felt a hand come down to help me stay standing as I shook off the disorientation of suddenly stepping into such a bright room.

"Is told you that was going to happen."

I looked up, shaking off the blindness to realize that the common room was in fact quite full of people. Not the whole house to be sure, but at least a good chunk of it was down there, mostly from the lower years.

"Quick get him up next to Harry."

I felt the arm sweep me up along with more grappling me, and looked down to find that I was being suspended between the Weasley twins before I could get a word out, they had pushed me onto the top of a comically stretched out chair, dropping me on the padding with a thump.

"What?" I asked, still not quite processing the entire affair.

"You saved our younger brother mate." One of the twins, I think it was George, spoke. "You think we were just going to let that go uncelebrated?"

I glanced around the room, finding Harry somewhat similarly petrified on my right.

Clutching a candy pumpkin in one hand, and generally seeming to be trying his best to ignore the entire bit.

"I think he's gone into shock George, get some sugar into him stat."

I turned to the closer twin, my brain finally starting to catch up with the situation at large.

"You're throwing us a party then..?" I asked, still reeling a bit. "Isn't Ron still in hospital?"

"Yeah, but ickle 'Mione volunteered to run him down his sweets, and we've already been down to see him when our parents came." The twin chuckled. "Isn't think he's right charmed her, our Ron a regular Prince Charming isn't he?"

"Closer to Prince paste on a wall as I heard it. We should teach him how to duck."

"An excellent Idea Fred, couldn't have thought it better myself." The boy, who might be George or might be ducking with me, turned back to me, throwing on his most pompous accent. "Anyhow, let it not be said that this noblest house of Gryffindor does not know how to appreciate heroics. This feast, well, what remains of it, is yours." He gestured to the round tables dotting the hall, which was still laid out with the Halloween feast stuff from earlier.

"Well, Harry's too I should think, just as soon as he releases his death-grip on the pumpkin." The other twin nodded. "He's been likely that since we dragged him out of bed half an hour ago."

I tapped the boy experimentally on the shoulder, eliciting no response. Chuckling, I smiled. "Do you two know the cheering charm?"

"Oh, good idea. Felxiatus" one of the twins chuckled, throwing out the spell and zapping Harry.

The boy immediately released his pumpkin, instead, chuckling happily. "You… you lot really know how to throw a party."

"Well, the professors did tell us to continue the Halloween feast in our common rooms."

"Hah!, sorry, it's just, I'm so happy, I've never, heh, had anybody really do, hehe, anything for me like this before."

I hopped out of my makeshift high-chair, hopping down to get some food while the twins continued talking to Harry, I had been too nervous to eat much earlier. Finding some candied ham, I smiled, it would be good to have a bit of meat in my stomach after such a whiplash filled evening.

I was actually so caught up in my consumption that I hardly noticed the other Weasley coming to sit down across from me.

Percy Weasley was a fair bit taller than me, having already put on most of his puberty height, and despite his role of guiding the first years I really didn't see much of him, since I spent so much of my time studying or otherwise alone.

Normally when I did see him, he was telling off Ron or the like.

Anyhow, the boy looked a bit shaken tonight, as one might expect, and lacking the brave face that Fred and George were putting on. He smiled as he sat down though, greeting me.

"Rupert…" the boy sighed. "I'm, well. As a prefect I can't exactly approve of your behavior tonight, Professor McGonagall already told me you had declared that you were the leader compared to Harry." The Weasley seemed to be trying to drill a hole in the floor with his gaze. "But, while I can't exactly go clapping you on the back like Fred and George, I do want you to know that I appreciate you and Harry saving Ron. He really might have died if you all hadn't been there to get him to the medical wing, Hermione too, I suppose, and I'm not entirely sure the professors would have gotten there in time for him if you had come to me, so…"

I looked at the boy has his gaze swept up.

"While I can't really say this as a prefect. Thank you anyway."

I barely had time to blink before the boy was walking away, seemingly to go harass some second years who were getting a bit too handsy with each other on the other side of the room.

It was an odd feeling that he left me with, and I had to wonder just how much was going on in that boy's head.

I didn't have much time to ponder though before what amounted to the rest of the first-year Gryffindors came over and started questioning me intently. Even some of the older years still hanging around wanted to know what it was like fighting a troll, and I realized that Harry was apparently directing all questions my way.

I doubted it was intentional on his part, but still, it left me with quite a crowd.

It made getting my food down a little difficult, but after a moment I shoved down the feelings in my gut and got to storytelling properly. I talked about how we figured out they were missing in the hall and ducked away from the group, how Harry had known roughly where to look. How when we had gotten there Ron was already injured and how I had thought to fight the troll with things that bypassed its tough hide.

I tried to make sure that I didn't forget to mention Ron and Harry's heroism as well, occasionally pointing over at the other present boy and mentioning how brave he had been and how clever his timing for getting past the troll was.

I also managed to find out that Ron had apparently been hit by the club pushing Hermione out of the way, something she had rather tearfully explained to this present when I was still held up in McGonagall's office.

There was a fair bit of anger in the room when I answered how many detentions I had gotten and the number of points I had lost, but I tried to calm the group down by explaining what I thought McGonagall's situation was.

Overall it was a nice evening, and when we finally got to bed circa two AM, I was feeling much cheered up by the party the Weasley Brothers had held open for me.

In fact, it was almost enough to make me forget that we had potions in the morning, and Professor Snape would no doubt have little mercy for exhausted Gryffindors.

Almost.

Last edited: Oct 14, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 25: Helping Hagrid and Making Mischief New

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Charlezany

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Oct 14, 2019

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#255

It was a dusky evening when i made my way down the winding path to Hagrid's hut at the edge of the Forbidden Forest, around seven-thirty pm, just after I had finished up dinner. It was a tad chilly so I had put on my heavier winter robes, which were quite appropriate given it was the first of November.

I reached Hagrid's house with little issue, smiling as Fang came running out the slightly open door to lick me. After handling Fluffy for so long, I wasn't even slightly disturbed to be tackled by the dog.

The softening Charms I had taken to applying to my robes in the morning did wonders for stopping unnecessary bruising from the loving tackles of either of the overgrown pups.

"Hoy, Rupert, I see Fang could smell ya before I did, how are you this evening?"

"Pretty-" I tilted my head to the side, avoiding a drool covered tongue "Pretty good Hagrid, bit annoyed at having detention, but glad it's with you instead of Professor Snape." I rolled out from under the dog, standing up onto my feet. "I think he might like me, but I doubt he'd show much mercy on the cauldron scrubbing front. How are you?"

"Well enough, well enough. I heard about that business with the troll, right heroic of you to go and save your friends that way, even if it was a tad dangerous. Trolls are dumb brutes but ya wouldn't want to be in a fistfight with them if ya were any smaller than me."

I nodded. "Yes, though I got there too late to save Ron from some nasty injuries." I had gone to see the boy after potions, he had been awake already and cheerful, but he clearly wasn't feeling too well. Something about having to regrow part of his skeleton to fix it. "Wish I'd been able to move a bit faster."

"Well, yes right on that, but you'll be getting plenty of exercise with me." Hagrid patted his belly, chuckling. "I'll just be having you help about the place, put some of those charms of yours to work. We'll be in the forbidden forest a bit as well. Supervised, of course, ye'll be perfectly safe as long as ye stick with me or Fang. Not all that much worse than trolls in there anyhow."

"Really? What's happening in the forest."

"Oh, I just tend to go out on patrols at night, check for lost students wandering where they shouldn't be. I suppose the Centaurs have been uppity recently, but they normally end to their own business."

I nodded, "where should we get started then?"

"Well, ye could always tend to the animals while I get things ready, that'd be a big help."

I smiled, turning towards the door.

"I'll take care of it then."

As far as detentions went, it was entertaining, and that night at least there was no attempted mugging by Quirell, nor any dead Unicorns as of yet. Indeed we hardly spent any time at all in the forbidden forest, and mostly Hagrid just had me help carry things that needed to be moved around using Levitation charms.

Not that the man really needed the help. He was twelve feet tall and with the strength to match. I half suspected he could toss about Ogham stones with little effort.

Still, it was a calm enough night, frustrating only because it prevented me from properly studying as I would have liked to, or from spending more of my time with Fluffy.

I made my way up to the Griffin dorm tower around midnight, though I did have a short run-in with Filch, he let off when I explained I was returning from detention. Cackling something about how they ought to keep all the students that late just to scare them into line. Lovely fellow.

I rolled into bed around twelve-thirty, exhausted after the second late night in a row, but happy enough nonetheless, as it seemed my detentions weren't going to be near as bad as I had worried. There was the opportunity to learn from Hagrid there, even if it meant a little less time studying charms and such.

I woke up, as usual, a bit before dawn, crawling out of bed and into my robes to go and feed fluffy. When one had a dog to take care of, even the weekends weren't fair game to sleep in. I applied my normal morning charms and hurried out the door before I woke anyone up.

Carrying the enormous dog's morning food up the hidden passage that led outside of his corridor, I paused near the top, hearing whispers outside.

I couldn't quite make them out, but I recognized the voices well enough.

'Malfoy and his posse…'

No doubt they had cottoned on to my schedule somewhat, well pity for them, I wasn't quite that easy to ambush, not to mention I was my ostensible work uniform of a heavy apron over my robes. That ought to be convincing enough.

Carefully, I stretched the flesh in my legs out, it would make them look spindly if observed, but they were hidden beneath my robes. Gradually I affected a rough imitation of the Hogwarts caretaker, long scraggly hair included, it would be more than enough in the dark.

I set myself into the mood to imitate the man's voice, hoping that it would be enough to trick the eleven-year-olds.

I needn't have worried, I didn't even have to speak a word as I poked my head out from behind the armor that covered the secret passages entrance, and came face to face with Vincent Crabbe.

I put on my biggest, toothless grin as I stared down at the boy, who seemed utterly paralyzed in shock.

"F-f-filch!" He yelped, turning to run. Draco was sprinting before he even got the whole word out, and Goyle ran with nary a look in my direction.

I imagine they didn't want to join me for detention.

"Ten points from Slytherin," I chuckled to myself as they disappeared around the far corner, smiling as I brought the food up out of the hallway, and reverting to my normal for before going to meet the big dog.

I had been quite happy to see that he hadn't been hurt at all yesterday, and was more than a little surprised to find out that Snape lacked the limp I had expected of him.

That was good, though it meant the gang probably wouldn't be on his trail. That didn't matter much though. The Philosopher's Stone was essentially secure as long as Nobody got it out for Quirrel, though he might resort to the Imperius curse if he actually figured out the problem…

It might be good to find a way to reveal him or get Harry to grapple him before it came to that. Maybe at Christmas. If I could just get that Turban off in front of Dumbledore.

'I wonder if there is any sort of soul-jar spells you could use to trap him in.'

Smiling as Fluffy ripped into what I believe was an entire cooked turkey, I stroked the soft fur of his belly, since I couldn't reach his back. The whole thing with Quirrel was mostly a sideshow compared to the diary next year or dealing with the mass-murder who slept two beds away from me, but it might not be if there was a way to stop the dark lord from escaping back into the wild, to begin with.

Well, that wasn't so simple, without access to the restricted section I could hardly expect to be able to access that kind of magic, and it's not like I could approach anyone on the subject without looking like an aspiring dark wizard myself, which was exactly the impression that I did not want to give.

Perhaps I should just research that spell that turned people into Ferrets and then drag him out to the woods and choke him to death, though that would almost certainly move me right up to the top of the Dark Lord's shit-list, and be very hard to explain to others.

I guess I could do that for Pettigrew as well come to think of it. I don't think being an animagus got you out of forced transfiguration.

Or maybe it did and he would kill me instead.

The answer at the end of the day was that I didn't know enough about any of it, and I would likely need quite a lot more library digging, and indeed class learning before I did. I glance up at Fluffy's growl, and a startled hooting, only to spot a small owl flapping away, and a letter it had clearly dropped laying on the floor.

I chuckled, feeling a bit of sympathy for the poor bird, and moved to pick up the letter.

Sure enough, it was addressed to me, and in handwriting, I recognized as well.

'Let's see what Tonks has to say to me today?'

I smiled as my eyes began to trace the lines. She really was a very nice young lady. After I had mentioned I was staying over the winter break with Harry, she had apparently decided that this was reason enough to promise to come visit in person, and on Christmas no less, as she was spending the eve with her parents, and apparently didn't want to spend more than one day being called by her full name.

It was very nice of her nonetheless, especially from my perspective, taking time out of her own holidays to come and hang out with a pair of chickenshit orphans. I couldn't say that I would do the same in her shoes, but then from what she had written, she had had a very hard time keeping up with her friends after leaving Hogwarts.

Well, it wasn't really my business anyway. I was just happy I would be able to pester her about figuring out my powers in person, even if it might end up revealing them to Harry in the process.

I left Fluffy behind with a promise of treats in the afternoon and went down to Breakfast, where I drank my tea and waited for my friends to arrive. Surprisingly, Dean and Seamus actually made it down first, quizzing me about my detention for a while before Harry, Neville, and Hermione got down the stairs. Ron's absence was felt, and Hermione kept looking over towards the medical wing worriedly.

What was that called again? Survivors guilt? Well, Ron lived, so hopefully it would cool off when he got out of the hospital wing and I wouldn't have to talk to her about it. That type of subject wasn't ever enjoyable and she was an eleven-year-old to boot.

Eventually, as the conversation turned to the upcoming Quidditch match, with it seemed half of Gryffindor coming over to ask Harry about it, I excused myself, heading for the library.

For once I wasn't aiming for the reference section, instead, angling towards magical and dark creatures, which had their own sizable area, almost four rows across. Though the shelves weren't completely full here. A lot of the subject was art books, or species native to other continents, but I was more interested in Animagi, as well as other ones I knew I would have to be aware of in the near future, Dementors and Dragons most notably. I had already checked out the only book that remotely covered Cerberus' weeks ago.

I had to admit, those miniature goblets that marked Triwizard tournament wizards had caught my eye, and I half wondered if my older soul or animagus powers would let me bypass the age line. Confundus Charms were supposed to let you fuck around with the thing right?

That could lead to some hilarious situations if I felt like it. Why limit such a prestigious tournament to just a few competitors after all?

Well, that could wait a couple of years, as I pulled the books that interested me down off the walls, building up an enormous tower of the things which caused Mrs. Prince to roll her eyes nearly out of her head.

I smiled as I brought the things up to the counter, letting them rest just above it in an enormous stack.

All for the pursuit of knowledge.

Last edited: Oct 14, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 26: Quidditch is Alright After All. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 15, 2019

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#279

Banners fluttered in the wind on what would probably be the only sunny day in the entire month of November, as just about the entire student body of Hogwarts took its places in the stands around the Quidditch pitch. The massive structure marking its border was drawn up in the colors of the four houses, Red and Silver, Bronze and Black, the stripey patterns decorated the towers in a way that was far more visible to those within them.

I moved up the stands with the rest of the Gryffindors, mostly just listening to Ron chatter.

He had been let out of the Hospital just yesterday evening and had been the very model of chipper Ness since, apparently quite happy to get to the year's first Quidditch game.

As we hit the stands though, his chattering actually toned down somewhat, instead, turning into a sort of buzzing anticipation.

"You have the banner right?" I asked, glancing up as we climbed the stairs to our wooden standing area.

"It's right in my bag here." Ron nodded, tugging on the edge of it to show me. Hermione and I had started making it last weekend at his insistence, and I had even picked up a couple of new charms in its creation. "You two are bloody brilliant making this, by the way, they normally sell things like this at professional matches."

I glanced at Hermione, who looked sheepish at the praise and smiled. "It was mostly Hermione who did it, I just put the last of the charms on."

"Brilliant work then Hermione." Ron nodded, and I swear it looked like her head was going to pop off.

Whatever those preteen hormones were doing to that girl I was glad she had shifted her attention to Ron. In the last week, I had even seen her checking out a stack of Quidditch books, half of which I'm fairly sure were just annotated rulebooks.

I hadn't quite intended for her to become a walking libram of Quidditch lore when I suggested she read some of it a few weeks back, but it seemed she was unwilling to do things by half-steps.

As we got up into the top of the bleachers and struggled our way to the front, there was a general hubbub, and I was surprised just how much magic was being fired off in the form of sparklers, house symbol illusions, all that sort of thing. Probably just wizards getting their energy out before the game began. I didn't even need to put on my binoculars and I was already seeing a fireworks show.

I smiled. That prevalence of magic would hopefully cover up my own trap, glancing towards the staff box.

If Quirrel tried to his broom sabotaging hex, I had a bag of rocks under his stand, and my wand already pressed to my side.

For you see, as long as I didn't have to cast it quickly, I was very much capable of casting Oppugno, I had already confirmed it in the room of requirement during my planning stage for this very event. Not only that, but the obvious and blatant connection drawn between Quirrell and the hex should cast even more suspicion on him by the staff. Hopefully enough to have him apprehended by Dumbledore after Christmas perhaps before.

Still, the game was already starting, and I was happy to see the red and gold up on their broomsticks soaring by above our heads, looping through the towers and doing tricks and such, though I did make sure to boo the silver and green like a good little Gryffindor.

I almost missed when Hermione poked me in the shoulder. "Quick, grab the corner." I turned and saw the banner being rolled out, smiling I nodded, grabbing hold of the proffered end and rolling it down the front of the stands.

It was about seven feet top to bottom, and roughly ten across, but the lettering was big, and I was sure the Slytherin section could read it well enough. Across it in an animated font "Potter for President, Go Gryffindor" went scrolling by under the direction if a combination of two charms, while little red and gold witches and wizards riding broomsticks zipped through the words.

I was rather proud of it, personally. Much as I was willing to give Hermione the glory on it. If people were going to know me for things I would much rather it be fighting Trolls than making animated banners.

I smiled as I spotted Harry Gaping in our direction. Waving back and almost dropping the banner in the process.

'Alright, let's see to that then.' I smiled, fixing it in place with a variety of levitation charm.

Ron looked relieved as well, nodding as he let his end float and pulled out his binoculars. "You ought to see the look on his face, hope that makes him catch the snitch ey?"

I nodded, dropping my arm back down to my side as I spotted Madame Hooch stepping out onto the pitch.

"I think they're about to start."

I smiled as the woman started speaking over the crowd, pressing her was up to her throat and commanding a nice clean game that we all knew wasn't going to happen.

And soon enough, the golden snitch was up, buzzing around, the bludgers were flying, and with a release of a held breath, the Quaffle was in the air.

I really hadn't thought all that much of Quidditch before, but I could see the appeal once it started up. It was a visual spectacle, almost more like jousting in the air than a game of soccer, with the cannonball bludgers ricocheting back and forth between Beaters, and the Quaffle racing back and forth like a fast-paced blend of basketball and football. It did make other sports look fairly tame in comparison with how ludicrously hectic it was.

So, there was a bit more enthusiasm than I might have initially had when our chaser knocked in that first goal and a bit more indignation when the Slytherin beater knocked a bludger into her flank from halfway across the pitch, sending her careening down towards the stands.

Still, nothing really caught my attention until Harry dived after the snitch, and I dragged my eyes over to the faculty box, snatching my wand up into my hand, my binoculars left hanging down.

I was pulled away however when a small golden ball whizzed by just above my head, and I was nearly knocked over by a clashing blur of red and green as Harry, locked up with the Slytherin Chaser, Flint I think, tore by above me.

Cursing, I staggered to my feet just in time to see Harry dive to the pitch after thing, leaving the Slytherin boy behind him, reaching after it.

Then his broom bucked in the dive and he was nearly thrown off.

'Shit.' I glanced up towards the faculty box, spotting Quirrel, and pointed my wand down below as the running commentary on the game turned towards describing the seeming foul occurring on the field as Harry's broom was obviously being Jinxed.

"Oppugno," I whispered, directing my wand underneath the faculty tent and going slowly through the motion of the spell as I focused on that bag of ordinary rocks.

I smiled as they shot up towards that blur of purple Quirrel, pelting at him and immediately ending his jinx on Harry, in a very public display, I might add.

Professor Flitwick Counterspelled them in just a moment, but the attack had been more than obvious enough to reveal that Quirrell had been the one casting the hex. None of the subtle nonsense Hermione had pulled in the original timeline.

I barely had time to watch the faculty box though, as a whoop went off in the crowd, the chase resuming after only a moment of hesitation.

Smiling, I turned my eyes back to the pitch, Harry was diving again, easily outpacing the much larger Flint,

They dived just above the ground, chasing that little bead of golden light, around what seemed like the entire stadium, dashing dancing between bludgers hurled at them by the other team. One almost hit Harry in the head, eliciting a gasp from Hermione and an angry boo from Ron.

Then, with a mighty stretch, Harry reached out, snatching the little thing before it could zip off.

I shouted and cheered with the crowd as Harry meekly came to a stop in the center of the pitch, raising up his hand with the captured sphere, and ending the game with a total of 170-40 Gryffindor, the ridiculous point-swing of the Snitch easily securing our house a victory as Red and Gold banners rolled down from all of the towers.

In the chaos, I turned my eyes back towards the faculty box, which had seemingly calmed down, though I hoped that suspicion was now firmly placed on the man.

As we filed down out of the stands, I smiled as I saw the already forming crowd around Harry, good for him to be celebrated yet more. There was a big smile on his face as he was being carried off, once again by Fred and George Weasley.

I put a hand on Ron and Hermione's shoulders as they moved to join the already packed crowd of older years. "I'm going to head off to take care of Fluffy, I'll see you and the hero of the hour at dinner, yeah?"

"Oh, yeah, sure thing." The boy nodded, and Hermione followed suit.

"See you in a bit then."

I smiled, heading back over towards the castle. I needed to cast some other spells quickly just to get Oppugno off of my wand before anybody thought to check.

That in mind, I threw out a number of small charms while I was coming from Hagrid with the food for him. The charms I was snapping out were mostly levitation based, to carry Fluffy's meal behind me, smiling, I continued my ascent up the stone staircase, content in the knowledge that I had managed to avert fate, at least a little bit.

Reaching the hallway, I peeked out, as usual, to make sure the coast was clear.

I was about to step out when I saw that the door was open, my heart racing, I dashed inside.

The hallway was a mess, my things, including my now permanent armchair, we're strewn about all over the place, clearly the remnants of a fight.

I calmed down a little though when I saw that Fluffy was still quite fine, though, with a couple of scorched spots on his faces, I smiled, moving forward to pet him as he got up to kick me.

That was when I noticed the blood on his teeth, and on the floor as well. It was mostly a crimson, but strained traces of black flowed through it like poison.

'Oh yeah, it was Quirrell trying his luck alright…'

The man must have come here straight after the game, perhaps realizing that his cover was blown.

I washed off the dog's fur with a Scourgify but shoed him away from picking the junk on the floor, Dumbledore might be able to do something with that. I managed to buy the great fellow off by giving him his food.

I also took a little time to replace my own books, table, and chair, fixing it up with Reparo, before finally moving back out to find a Professor.

The first one I came across was none other than Snape, who I quite literally opened the door to face. Towering over me, he looked down with a frown.

"Mister Irving." The man said, raising an eyebrow.

"Somebody tried to attack Fluffy," I said, and the man almost immediately pushed past me, eliciting a growl from the gigantic dog.

"Easy boy, Easy. Professor the blood's on the floor, and this place was really torn up before I started fixing my books. It was on Fluffy's teeth as well."

The man went to the blood almost immediately, and I had to move to stop fluffy from mauling him. Something he didn't seem to be paying attention to at all.

He cast some sort of charm or other, pulling the half-dried liquid into a model before turning those beady eyes towards me.

"You will be coming with me to explain what you've seen to the headmaster now mister Irving. This matter is of significant concern to the school as a whole."

I nodded sharply, walking up to fluffy and gently scratching the enormous dog's belly to calm him down.

"I understand."

It might not be enough to identify Quirrell on its own, but with all the other evidence. I suspected that the man wouldn't be making it to his attempt in June.

Last edited: Oct 15, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 27: Finding the Inevitable Wuxia Artifact New

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Professor Dumbledore looked a fair bit more stern as I described the evidence I had found in the hallway. Keeping his eyes on me as I described what I had found, everything from the scorch marks on Fluffy's back to the blood on his teeth.

"Burns you said?" He stroked Fawkes, who had landed on his desk between us. Professor Snape had taken to waiting by the door.

"Yes, though from my reading that should be nearly impossible, Cerberus are supposedly immune to even the hottest of fires." It was one of their distinguishing traits after all. They typically lived in Mediterranean Volcanoes.

"Indeed." The Headmaster nodded, glancing back towards Snape and then to me. "Severus, see that Rupert here is given some burn salve to heal poor Fluffy. It seems I may have to start implementing more security measures on the door, to prevent repeats of this incident."

The Batlike professor nodded.

"This will affect you as well mister Irving, you may need to learn a password to pass through the Wards I intend to erect."

I nodded, that made sense, if Quirrell was getting more desperate there was no reason not to hamper his attempts further.

"Sir, if I may discuss something with you more privately?"

Dumbledore nodded, looking rather grim. "Yes, I should think… Run along now Rupert, do give my congratulations to Harry regarding his victory today."

I nodded, "I'll do that professor."

As I departed the Headmaster's office my mind raced, wondering just what would happen now that all of these gears were set in motion to discover Quirrell early.

As the weeks of November continued to tick by however, I found that my assumptions might have been somewhat… premature.

Oh, it wasn't that Dumbledore didn't put his new security measures. Most notably a ward on the doorknob that could leave you standing there for hours without realizing it if you tried to open it without saying the proper password first, along with a load of other things worked into the door and wall itself somehow that were probably even meaner.

Still, if they had a strong suspicion of Quirrell now, they didn't act on it, and soon enough I was too much in demand to care.

You see, Mid-year exams were coming up at the end of November and start of December, and Hermione and I were swiftly transformed from classmates into being everyone's favorite study aides. Especially once they realized the upper years had their own exams and weren't going to help them anymore.

What's worse, I was more approachable than Hermione, so while she was mostly just helping Ron and Harry study, something she was prone to do anyway, my self appointed role as the "big brother" to the First Years who had been willing to help all semester ended up with me helping just about everyone else in Gryffindor.

Hell, even Fae and that other girl came and asked me for support, and Dean and in the last week before exams Dean and Seamus started following me around like sick puppies.

It wasn't that I didn't enjoy helping them either. It was a worthwhile use of my time, but it meant that my own advancement ground to a halt.

I did manage to get Neville to brew a potion without killing himself, which was nice.

Still, I was thanking God when the exams finally got started, and I could ironically relax. Not one of them was remotely challenging, being written for eleven-year-olds who were expected to pay limited attention in class.

Hell, I was even thankful for Quirrell's exam, though I was annoyed that he was still around to give it at all. I felt like there was more than enough evidence of him being suspicious at this point, even if he sold the rocks off as a prank.

Anyhow, they did eventually come to an end, as the Christmas holiday came into swing, and I remained at Hogwarts, having absolutely no desire whatsoever to return to the orphanage. Even as my friends began to depart and the tests finished up, I found myself more than happy for the renewed Solitude.

Of the first years, only Ron and Harry were actually staying, and the whole of Gryffindor house was left mostly deserted on the night of the eleventh when classes official ended. We got up by the window of the dorm room together to watch the Hogwarts Express Steam away into the distance.

"Right." I smiled, wrapping my hands around the shoulders of the two. "What do you two want for Christmas?"

The boys turned, blinking at me like I was mad.

"What? You didn't think I was going to just forget about everyone at Christmas time did you?"

"Well, I was thinking of asking Fred and George to maybe make me one of those little miniature Quidditch Pitches where all the players buzz around, but I suppose you might be able to do that." The boy shrugged, sitting back. "Maybe with the Chudley Cannons."

I rolled my eyes at the mention of the boy's favorite team, turning my head towards Harry.

Harry, if anything, looked rather embarrassed, scratching at the back of his neck. "I uh, I haven't really gotten many Christmas presents before. Can you give me a couple of days to think about it?"

"Sure, that'll give me time to go and learn the sixteen step conjuration charm that making Ron's gift will probably take." I chuckled, looking between them. "Anyhow, we have a couple of weeks before Christmas, so what did you two want to do?"

"Mostly I want to catch up on my sleep mate. Hermione's been driving us like horses these last couple weeks. I appreciate the E's and O's, but still…"

"She had to drive you that way, how did you even forget a charm after learning it?"

"I just don't use Lumos that much alright." Ron shrugged defensively. "Anyway, I think we should ask my brothers what they're planning, Fred and George are always where the fun is."

"That sounds good." I nodded, "though I still do need to take care of Fluffy."

"We'll try to schedule around that," Harry said, shivering. "I don't really fancy spending my morning with a monster dog, no offense."

"None taken."

"Well then, let me know what you're planning on, I'm off to look up a fifth-year conjuration charm for animating snowglobes."

Heading off down the halls, I was struck by just how empty they were, the library as well seemed duller than usual, and in the absence of Miss Prince seemed to have been taken over in operation by a charmed stamping set, as well as several gargoyles placed strategically around the Restricted section, which glared when I got too close.

I'd have to try my luck there once Harry got that invisibility cloak.

Still, it was more than just snowglobe charming I was actually here for. I had largely exhausted my previous stack of books before the hullabaloo around mid-terms started, and Professor Snape was staying over the holidays, so I was going to be able to keep practicing my potion brewing.

To that end, I dug through several shelves in the potions section, looking for things that were both written in legible English, and were not entirely redundant with recipes I had already learned.

As it turned out, that was a more difficult challenge than I had at first anticipated. Potioneers seemed to have a predisposition for writing entire books about the uses of singular potions, and much of the work that had been done was done so in Old English. I only managed to dig out a few that I thought would be useful in the first few rows.

It was the last, however, where I struck gold.

Running my hand along the spines of the books, dusting many of them off, I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard a voice ring out in my head.

"Hello, there young fellow."

I pulled back my hand immediately from the book. The rather blandly named "Book of Potions" my mind screaming Horcrux.

Though, stepping back, it did occur to me that even Dumbledore would likely object to leaving an item like that in the library. Knowingly at least.

Oh, who was I kidding, this was very back of the section, nobody had probably even been back here in 200 years. Not to read the books anyway.

"Ah, please, don't be alarmed." The book spoke and I backed up another foot, raising my wand. "I am not, as you may fear, a dark artifact, indeed, what is speaking to you is just a charm."

I glared at the talking book, not believing it for a moment. "What Charm specifically."

"A combination of several actually, bound into the pages and spine of this book, for you see, this, my masterpiece, bears an imprint of my personage, to help guide young Potioneers like yourself."

"And, who are you?"

"Why, didn't you read my name on the cover? I am the great Zygmunt Budge. The greatest Potioneers in history, or at least the most advanced."

"Never heard of you," I said, rolling my shoulders. "Your book is covered in dust in the back row of the Hogwarts Potion section."

"That's because the last blasted brat who found me had no ambition whatsoever."

"You sure they just didn't want their soul eaten?" I asked, taking another step back from the book.

"Soul-eat...Oh, you think I'm a Horcrux, aren't you a mite young to know about those?" The book somehow managed to pull itself out of the shelf. "Wait wait! Come back, I promise I'm not. You could check me for dark magic or anything, I'm just a book with a bit of an old man's personality in me."

I glared at the dusty book as it managed to drop itself onto the floor, crashing down with a thump. "At least tell me what year it is."

"Nineteen-ninety-one," I answered matter-of-factly, feeling a bit of pity for the thing. If it was a Horcrux it didn't really seem to be the phylactery of a particularly competent dark magician.

"It's been that long? The last brat to pick me up was in eighteen-thirty-five! Please, don't leave me here."

I glared down at the book, sighing.

"Fine, but I'm taking you to my house head to have you looked over for dark magic."

"Fine, fine…" the book sighed, ceasing it's frantic movement as I picked it up. "He won't find any, I'm a perfectly normal book, well, other than being a seminal masterpiece."

I rolled my eyes, shoving the dusty thing into my bag, and heading towards the front of the library to check it out.

I had already been reprimanded for not relying on authority figures once. I wasn't going to let it happen again.

McGonagall listened to my explanation patiently enough, checking over the device with her wand before sighing and shaking her head.

"I do not believe that this book is anything more than it has told you it is."

"See, haha, you should never have doubted my genius, who says you can't duplicate your personality into a book. Small-minded fools, the lot of them."

"Still, it is a surprise that a book outside of the restricted section if capable of human speech, if only, apparently, with certain students." The professor glanced down at the book, and then back up to me. "I will ask the headmaster if he has any more insight in this matter, but as the confiscated sneakoscopes in my desk are not going off, I doubt you have anything to worry about."

"You keep sneakoscopes in your desk?"

"Indeed, they are extremely useful when fairly dealing with students, I find." The deputy headmistress smiled calmly as if she didn't just reveal that she had us all under perpetual lie detectors. "If that will be all mister Irving I had intended to depart this evening."

"Ah, sorry to hold you up then, thank you for your time."

"Nonsense, answering student's questions is my job." The witch smiled, picking up a small box from the side of her desk and walking towards her fireplace. "I will see you again a few days before semester starts I am sure. Goodbye, mister Irving."

"Goodbye." I waved, as she exploded into a flash of green flames, leaving behind a string sooty smell.

She was barely gone a moment before Zygmund started talking again.

"So, brat, how much have you heard about the interschool potions championships?"

I turned to glare at the hardback, which seemed to be flipping itself back and forth on the desk, it's papers whizzing by.

"If you can't find a name for me other than boy you're going back on the shelf."

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Threadmarks Chapter 28: Chess and Dessert New

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Charlezany

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Oct 16, 2019

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Hogwarts was an awful big castle for how few people were in it, even during the year proper, so when the six hundred and some normal population dwindled to just about forty it was very easy for it to feel empty.

Well, the ghosts were around at least. The Bloody Baron seemed to have taken the opportunity if holiday to start up some sort of vendetta against Peeves, following him about the halls with tireless efficiency. Ron had taken to teaching Harry the finer points of Wizarding Chess, and I had mostly just locked myself away with my lovely new talking book.

Zygmund, as it turned out, was true to his word regarding being an expert potioneer, at least by the standards of the fifteen-eighties. He wasn't all that familiar with more modern potions, but the ones he did know he had absolutely mastered, and some of them even invented.

Apparently, he wanted me to take part in the interschool potion-making contest, which he had been shut out of as a child, and which occurred every seven years, in exchange for his tutorship. With a bit of study, I had discovered that there had been such a contest two years ago, as evidenced by the trophy room. As such there ought to be another in my fifth year.

Unfortunately, that meant I would still be underage by a bit, but hopefully by then I would be in a position to request a special exemption or something of that sort. Especially with both his tutelage and professor Snape's continued instruction.

Anyhow, I did agree to compete in his stead, something that seemed to relieve the book greatly, and he began in earnest on instructing me in the ways of potionery.

Then we skipped ahead a bit because I already knew most of what he was talking about, and could cite it right back to him out of other books I had read.

Still, I couldn't deny the aid he gave, letting me really sink my teeth into potions properly in a way that I never would have been able to under Snape, getting at not just the brewing requirements and specifics of each individual potion, but also the roots of their functionality.

It was eye-opening talking to someone who really did view it as a science if an admittedly mad one. The book of potions went into long diatribes regarding the symbolisms and natures of different ingredients and brewing techniques. There was a lot to digest and remember, but I was for once overflowing with time, and the days leading up to Christmas proper were almost lackadaisical in comparison to the frantic last few weeks of the semester. Even making the Christmas presents for everyone and getting them sent off barely took any time at all in comparison to how much I had.

Ron's present, as I had expected, was by far the most interesting. Sure, the magical illusion of movement inside of it wasn't as cool as if I had made it with proper animatronics, but the effect was much the same, giving a continuous if tiny Quidditch game in which the Chudley Cannons were constantly beating the Barcelona Goshawks.

It was adorable, despite being rather implausible, and the charms involved were some of the most intriguing I had learned in their application.

I was fairly certain that one of them was used in the Marauder's map as an output control, though I still lacked the ability to perform the security charms that I suspected were its core.

Still, even as I threw myself into my studies, time continued to pass, and soon enough those remaining in Hogwarts gathered in the Great Hall for Christmas Eve, carols drifted through the air, sung by a ghostly choir, and the first snow of the year had descended on the Highlands in an imperious and billowing blizzard that covered the whole of Hogwarts in a deep white blanket. Around the Great Hall, a dozen enormous Christmas trees had been brought in by Hagrid, and Professor Dumbledore once again led us in the singing of the school song, before finally letting us eat.

While it was supposedly nothing compared to the Christmas feast scheduled for the next day, the Hogwarts Christmas Eve feast was nonetheless a wondrous thing, as Ham and Turkey were stacked high on my plate beneath mountains of mashed potatoes and roasted vegetables, and for once the ubiquitous pumpkin juice had been replaced by something actually drinkable in the form of a pleasant peppermint-tea.

A good dinner all in all, and one that would surely be fattening for those who couldn't effortlessly rewrite that fat into more height and muscle.

It was funny, at this point I had already outgrown my summer robes, just because I was converting all of my regular overeating into getting taller at the moment. Allocating resources as I pleased turned overeating from a danger into a pleasure.

I might have to start taking care as I got older so as to avoid turning myself into a giant by accident.

It would be a little hard to explain if I did.

Anyhow, on that front I was also excited, Tonks would be arriving midday on Christmas and coming to the feast. It would be nice to meet my long-distance mentor in person. I had so many things to talk to her about, especially in regards to disguises and the like, and half of me wanted to introduce her to Fluffy. I was sure she'd like him.

'Well, maybe not…'

It was a crying shame how many people were scared of the big fuzzball. As far as I knew the only person he'd even hurt was Quirrell, and frankly I would hurt Quirrell too. Well, if I was given the opportunity and was fairly sure he couldn't hurt me back.

Of course, if I was excited, well, Harry and Ron were almost levitating out of their seats with how much they were buzzing.

"You reckon well get pudding tomorrow?" Ron asked, rubbing his stomach as we returned from the already enormous feast of the knight, walking through hallways where Illusory snow drifted down from above in puffs and flurries. "Charlie said the pudding was the best part."

"My uncle doesn't like pudding, so I've never had any. What's it like?"

"Oh, pudding? Well, it's like if you can imagine a sort of creamy dessert with a candy-frosted coating around the outside. Where the flavor is so rich that you have to take small bites just to savor it all."

I felt my own mouth start to water at the sheer awe with which the red-headed described what was probably his favorite dessert. "That sounds like pie without a crust…" I smiled, remembering, old Christmas Dinners. "I'm partial to pie myself. Not the tart kind though, have either of you had any chocolate pies?"

"A chocolate pie?"

"Yeah, it's normally a really thick batter, almost like a heavy pudding, and normally you bake them into a crumbly crust made of Or-I mean chocolate biscuit crumbs. The crust is so crumbly that it only sticks together because of the pie batter, then you spread a whipped cream on top."

"Cor, that does sound good," Ron mumbled, and I spotted Harry liking his lips, bringing a wide smile to my face.

"Maybe I can make you all one someday, or get the house-elves in the kitchens to do it, they're all very nice."

"What's a house-elf?"

"They're little magic folk, like goblins except they love to be servants and whatnot." Ron explained, "Lots of the old pureblood families have them, but I didn't know Hogwarts did, I thought the tables just conjured the food."

"Ron, that's against Gamp's law of conjuration." I chuckled, "I swear without Hermione about to pester you all your brains would fall out of the top of your head."

The boy looked sheepishly down. "Well, maybe, she really was a pretty brilliant help for midterms." The boy smiled "Can't play chess for the life of her though, she just doesn't have the instinct for it."

"Well, that's one thing you've got in spades" I chuckled, nodding along as we began the ascent up the Gryffindor tower stairs. "More than most anybody here when you're not being a git."

The boy frowned. "Oy, what do you mean when I'm not being a git. I'm not a git right Harry?"

"Er-" the quiet boy glanced about for an escape. "We should hurry, the stairways are moving."

As we scrabble on ahead I smiled, patting Ron on the back. "Don't worry too much Ron, being a git isn't the worst thing you could be?"

"Really?"

"Yeah, you could be a git in Slytherin like Malfoy."

"Heh." The boy chuckled as we reached the common room stairwell. "I suppose that's true. Not many Gits as big as Malfoy."

"Exactly."

The Gryffindor Common Room was as decorated as the rest of the castle, with an enormous Christmas tree at its center, and heaps of room-temperature snow heaped across the floor, the chandeliers, and even the armchairs. The whole place was lit up by the warm glow of the roaring fireplace, and candles floated back and forth in rows and columns along the tree that gave the whole thing a wonderful festive vibe.

"It really is pretty." I smiled, gesturing to our usual trio of armchairs, arrayed about a game of Wizarding chess that Harry and Ron had left there in the morning. "I'm honestly surprised that the school even bothers decorating them, given how few people stay, then again, it's probably the House Elves or the castle that do it."

Harry turned to me as Ron easily snatched his knight. "The Castle can do that?"

"Oh, yeah." I nodded cheerfully, "There's this room on the seventh floor that… well, let me show it to you tomorrow when Tonks gets here, it's like the third coolest thing in the castle."

"Only third?"

"Hogwarts Castle is very awesome." I smiled, rolling my hands down the sides of the armrest as Harry attempted a pitiful defense against Ron's ruthless onslaught. I was honestly surprised that the boy was still interested in playing, given how often the Weasley one. "I think once I've finished my NEWTs I'll go off and build my own."

"Your own castle?" Ron raised an eyebrow, looking over and swapping his rook with his king, rather appropriately. "Where would you even get the land for that mate?"

"Island Growing potion, and lots of it." I smiled. "The kook who wrote one of the potion's books I've got invented it, let him grow his own island up in the Hebrides, to live on as a crazy hermit, but I figure if I brew enough of it and use some space expansion charms out in the middle of the Atlantic it should be more than enough to build a castle on."

"Be a bit far away." Ron noted sagely "Check"

"Yeah, but once we can apparate who cares?"

"Fair enough. Aw, Harry, that was a terrible move. Checkmate."

"What, how?" The boy glared down at the table in disbelief. "Oh, your knight?"

"Yeah, cuts off both your escape routes."

"Bloody hell Ron."

"Anyhow" I cut in over the chess-related bickering. "I figure I'll invite everyone out there for feasts and stuff, just like here." I took over Harry's seat across from Ron, switching in for the next game. "I don't really have any family at all, and I don't care about the other folks at the orphanage much, so I sort of feel attached to all of you lot."

As out pieces reassembled themselves from the construct murderbowl of the previous game, Ron smiled, patting me on the shoulder. "I don't really know, but I feel that mate. You and Harry especially are almost brothers, and I know a thing or two about brothers." The boy's eyes turned towards the board a bit. "Though honestly, mum wanted to see about adopting you after you two saved me from that troll back at Hallowe'en. My dad talked her down though, said we could hardly afford it, and even so she should ask you first." The boy smiled "You two can expect sweaters from her tomorrow by the by, and probably some letters of unending gratitude if you haven't got them already."

"Got mine," Harry said, and I nodded.

"Two weeks into November mate."

"That does sound like her."

I smiled, turning towards Harry. "You too, if you need anything just tell me."

The boy looked a bit downcast honestly. "I… well, in Summer I've still got to go back to the Dursleys."

"Don't worry." I frowned, patting the boy on the back.

Ron nodded along, exercising my new addition to his vocabulary "They may be as bad as Slytherin Gits, but at the very least, they've only got you two months a year."

"Just smile and think of Hogwarts. I'll come to visit you when I can." I hadn't originally been planning on it, but well, it wasn't like I planned to stay at the orphanage at all. Not when I could pass for an adult if I wanted to.

"Really?"

"Yeah." I nodded. "Count on it."

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Threadmarks Chapter 29: Christmas Morning Mayhem New

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#346

The tingling of the tiny bells that hung on the wreaths at the feet of our beds awoke me from my sleep as I awoke on the morning of Christmas day. Some unseen gale, probably of the castle itself's doing, shaking the things ever so slightly as to allow us to awaken.

Outside of our windows, ice clung to the edges of the castle, and the whole world seemed frozen in a wondrous pale blanket as in the far distance the morning sun began to creep over the mountains and lochs.

I shook myself, drawing up out of my covers and feeling my heart fill up like bubblegum as I saw the array of presents clustered against the sides of my bed, placed there by magic or house-elf, I hardly cared.

Wrapped in ribbons of silver and gold, several books, and a few boxes signaled that it was indeed a blessed Christmas morning and that at least somebody liked me.

It left a fuzzy feeling all over.

Smiling, I grabbed up my slipper from the floor, chucking it across the room at Ron's still form, and eliciting a yelp that also woke up Harry.

"Oy, what was tha-" the boy blinked, then blinked again, and finally a third time as a huge grin spread across his face.

He dove for his presence without a speck of shame at the sound of my barking laughter, and Harry's confused groaning.

Then, like a pack of sharks smelling blood in the water, all of us entered into a frenzied spree of shredded paper and torn ribbons, digging into our newfound wealth of presents with abandon.

It was great fun, and by the end of it, the three of us had left the dorm a bit of a mess, and we sat proudly in front of the stove to show off our loot.

I drew out one of mine first, a small clockwork Cerberus that snapped its tiny jaws when I wound the gear at the back.

"This is very nice Harry, where'd you get it?"

"I got it out of an ad in the Daily Prophet." He smiled, holding up his new pair of shoes. "You made these right?"

"Yep, they should let you anchor onto your broom. I had to think about ways to help you since you asked for Quidditch, and they've got a sticking charm you can turn on or off by clicking the heels. I don't know how good they'll be for you, but they should be fun at least."

"Wicked." Harry grinned, slipping them on and experimentally clicking the heels, only to find his toes stuck to the ground, unable to do more than pivot. "That's a strong charm isn't it?"

"Not really, if you can anchor most charms to items they work fine. It's only things that expel energy, like fire, that take more work to get done."

"This is some wicked charmwork too…" Ron said, holding up his snowglobe. "Hey, Galvin Gudgeon just winked at me. That git hasn't won a game in his career, who does he think he is?"

"It's not the real Galvin, just an illusion Ron, but I am glad you like it." I pointed to the cloak by Harry. "What's that?"

"Oh, this? I don't quite know, the note didn't say who it was from. Just said to use it well."

Ron's eyes lit up. "Quick, quick try it on."

As Harry faded from sight, I chuckled as Ron nearly fell over cheering. "That's a bloody invisibility cloak, and a massive one too."

"Really?" Harry asked, looking down to find his now missing body and experimentally sticking a hand out from beneath it. "That's… odd, certainly. I wonder who could have sent me this?"

"Who cares, think of how badly we can get Malfoy with it once he's back at school, he'll never see it coming."

I glanced at the overexcited Weasley, then back at Harry. It really was a good morning, and after last night, well…

They were going to find out later today anyway.

"On a related note to that, Ron." I interjected, smiling the whole way, "I have a secret to share with you two."

That got both of their attention really quickly, as I pressed my lips to my mouth in a shush in motion.

"What kind of secret."

"One that I don't want getting out, but that'll let us harass Malfoy, easy, in fact, I've already used it a couple of times."

The boy smiled, nodding, a movement reciprocated by Harry.

"Good." I nodded in turn. "You know how I think of our year in Gryffindor as sort of like siblings a bit? Well, just so you know, you two are my favorite brothers as it were. Though I'll probably tell Hermione too." I smiled as I lifted a hand to my face, and felt my form shift as I became a nearly perfect copy of Harry.

The boy just kind of stared at me, while Ron's face split into a massive grin.

"You're a bloody metamorphomagus? That's a hell of a secret mate."

"A metamorphomagus?" Harry asked Quizzically as I shifted my form again, stretching out to become a passable replica of Filch. At a distance anyway.

"Yep" I cackled, imitating his voice. "It means I can shapeshift at will, into anyone or anything, well, if I can keep the image straight in my head and the biology works." I smiled. "Tonks, who's coming over later today for the feast and to hang around a while is also one, and I'm hoping she'll show me some tricks."

"Stop being Filch please, I don't want the memory of him in undersized Pajamas to last any longer than it has to."

"Sorry, Ron." I smiled, returning to my normal form. "Anyhow Harry, it's a really strong natural ability I was born with, but it's even better if it's secret, which is why I waited to tell you two."

"So you can be anyone?" Ron asked, scratching at his chin. "Does that mean you can be gi-"

"Yes I can be girls theoretically, but I haven't tried it. And I won't unless I need too, it's undignified."

"S'alright Rupert, I was just asking. Think that means you could sneak into their dorm?"

"Don't know, I haven't tried." I glared at the boy, tapping my finger on the ground. "And no I'm not trying it today."

"Aww, but-"

"Right." I cut him off. "We're going to breakfast now."

"Fiiine." He grumbled, snatching up his mother's sweater and pulling it over his head. I followed suit, and Harry caught on when I went for mine, heading down to the Great Hall below. With a quick side trip to feed and visit Fluffy, who received three enormous dragon bones for Christmas. Ron and Harry stayed in the hall, no doubt being faintly horrified by the crunching and slurping sounds from within.

Surprisingly, we were actually up among the first to the hall despite our delay, though it was still quite early on Christmas morn. The peppermint drink was back, thankfully, and the breakfast was a warm thing of pastries and muffins, accompanied in my case by a good stiff tea.

Only Professor sprout was there ahead of us, and I was hoping she would enjoy the tiny Hula Dancer I had cut up out of a woodblock and forced to dance eternally for my amusement. Even in the hall, I could hear the faint sound of Hula music under the carols that echoed through the upper rafters.

'Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to sayyyy' I whistled along with the faint song from across the table, smiling even as I saw professor Snape stalking into the hall as if the softly drifting snowflakes and general cheerful attitude had no effect on him at all.

Seeing us at the table, as well as Percy, who had been up even earlier, he stopped, his face set in that trademarked sneer.

"I see all of the Gryffindor's are dressed as Weasley's this year. I had not realized they had superseded your house colors."

You know, as far as Snape went, that was a soft jab. Maybe the festive spirit was getting to him after all. I hope he liked the necklace-vial I got him. If he put a bit of antidote in there it might well save his life later.

One person who was looking particularly festive was the Headmaster himself, who arrived in a burst of puffy white smoke, looking quite happy with himself and wearing a conspicuous pair of red and white stockings. It was good to see that my gift to him was being well appreciated, though I had the feeling it would be.

Not Last, but certainly least was Quirrell, for whom I had prepared absolutely nothing, and intended to give nothing.

Not much you could give to a dead man walking after all. As far as I could tell the professor was already mostly a husk.

Hagrid had been telling me about the Unicorns getting attacked over the break. It was pretty heartbreaking stuff. I had half a mind to learn healing magic just so I could go treat them myself. Though Madame Pomfret was apparently doing all she could for the moment, I worried she'd be overtaxed once students got back.

Still, now wasn't the time to think of such things. Hagrid arrived last of the present staff, Filch being in bed to my knowledge, taking his spot at the faculty table and soon getting caught in a boisterous discussion with Professor Dumbledore over the proper care for greater Scottish Newts. His present from me wasn't with him, but I suspected he would like it as well, given that it was a book on attempts to train or domesticated dragons (most of which were unsuccessful things. I wasn't sure if he'd end up with Norbert, or Norberta rather, in this timeline, but I wouldn't mind seeing him try raising her proper if he did.

If nothing else, I intended to raise my own dragon someday and seeing his attempts would be helpful. I might even be able to help him out with some potions on the side.

Of course, our peaceful breakfast was ruined when the main doors to the hall flew open and approximately seven hundred snowballs came flying in, all moving together in a swarm that was recognizably the result of Oppugno.

They clattered against the tables, tracking students and teachers alike like heat-seeking missiles. We were thankfully near the front of the hall and managed to take cover against the onslaught.

"I'd been wondering where Fred and George were," Ron commented as we heard the things make a sloshing mess of our food.

"Look, Dumbledore is standing up."

Indeed, glancing through the end of the table, we saw that the venerable headmaster had indeed stood up, waving his hand to stop the great cloud of snowballs, hundreds of which still remained.

His eyes twinkling, he snapped his fingers, and the snowballs turned, forming orderly rows in the air, before rocketing out of the hall far faster than they had entered, firing off in a barrage of frozen missiles as they raced out the front gate towards their likely unwitting targets.

I would not want to be those two when the swarm found them.

The old headmaster sat back down as we crawled out from our cover, smiling and drinking from his cup, while Quirrell said something about writing a ban on that charm into the school rules, a suggestion that everyone else largely ignored.

I turned to Ron, glancing down at our slush-covered plates.

"Want to go watch Fred and George get pummeled by hundreds of snowballs?"

The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"Sure why not?"

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Threadmarks Chapter 30: Shapeshifters at Christmas New

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Oct 17, 2019

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#368

We arrived at the scene of the absolute snowball massacre with smiles on our faces. Fred and George lay exhausted on the grounds, having been pelted by what must have been at least two-hundred snowballs each in a truly brutal display of magical supremacy on the headmaster's part.

"I think-"

"We may have overestimated out chances." The sopping twins spoke, climbing up off of the snowy ground.

"You two very nearly got all the students." Ron interjected, "but professor Dumbledore had the teachers covered."

"So, foiled by the Headmaster then?"

"I think"

"We should rethink our stratagem"

"You know you don't have to do the synchronized talking thing. We've all heard you talk normally before."

"Ah, you're quite right young Rupert-"

"but lots of people visit-"

" for the Christmas Feast. We have to be-"

"on top of our game."

I raised an eyebrow, glancing up and down their slush soaked robes, which were already starting to freeze up in places from the look of them.

"Well, well well, what do we have here, a couple of troublemakers huh?"

Turning, we found ourselves staring at a woman wearing a brown jacket, long flowing black hair falling down from the top of her head.

Of course, who she was was fairly obvious at her next line.

"Though I will admit it's a step up from what you tried last year." A large grin crept over the woman's face. "Still, you really ought to leave such things to the professionals."

I looked at the woman, then back to the boys, then back to the woman again.

"Tonks?" I guessed and smiled as she immediately turned towards me at the name.

"Oh?! You must be Rupert then, I didn't recognize you. Heh." The woman giggled as she stepped forward suddenly, sweeping me up in a hug as her hair shifted rather dramatically to pink. "You seemed far too shy to be hanging out with those two."

"Oy, George, I think-"

"Were being talked down to."

"Everyone is assuming-"

"We only had one pile."

My eyes froze up as I could almost hear the grins crack across the boy's faces, and I heard their footsteps scatter behind me.

"We should probably run now," I said, pushing myself out of the short-lived hug.

"What? From those two? I'm an Auror in training you know."

A muffled Oppugno in the distance was shortly followed by another one, and the snowballs began to rocket out up above the fields and trees.

I think Tonk's eyes actually widened a bit, and Harry and Ron were already dashing for cover.

"Oh, yeah, I see."

"Into the Castle. Now!" I grabbed hold of the woman's hand, pulling her towards the door to the passage I used to go feed Fluffy.

Recognizing it as the closest interest as the enormous swarms of snowballs drove towards us like clouds of angry frozen bees.

"Hey aren't we-whoa!?" Tonks stumbled, falling onto my back and knocking me over into the snow as our bombardment began, a veritable blizzard's worth of snowballs raining down onto our backs as we scrambled at last into the relatively safe confines of the passage, revealed by tapping one of the base stones of the castle with my shoe.

I stopped for a long moment, panting away at the exertion, and drying myself off with a quick hot-air-charm.

Tonks, climbing to her feet since she had been knocked over again somehow, smiled as she glanced up and down the hallway. "Well, I can't say I knew about this one." She chuckled, drawing out her own wand and copying my spellwork. "How'd you find it?"

"Hagrid told me about it when I got my job," I said, smiling. "It hooks right up to just outside where I work."

"You have a student job? You should have written to me about it. We could compare chores."

I rolled my eyes, smiling. "Well, it's kind of a lightweight secret, but I'm not exactly supposed to go spreading it around. I don't think they'll mind me sharing it with such an honest person though."

"Oh, honest now am I? I'll have you know I was a better prankster than those Weasley's will ever be."

I looked at the young woman for a moment before smiling. "You want to place a bet on that? I'll put five Sickles the Weasley's have you beat by the time they leave."

"Deal. They're never going to impersonate a professor and go streak-er… they can't disguise themselves like I could."

I smiled as we reached the end of the hallway, glancing both ways at its exit.

"Alright, we're clear, I'm not supposed to share this with other students who don't already know."

"Do you have to be constantly vigilant?" The woman giggled. "Sorry, just something my trainer likes to talk about."

"Well, maybe not constantly." I went up to the door to the third-floor corridor, whispering the password under my breath. I paused for a moment, wondering if this was actually a good idea or not.

'Eh, what's the worst that could happen?'

Sliding the door open, I stepped inside. "Fluffy, I'm back, and I brought a friend."

I was immediately tackled by the multi-ton dog, as usual, sent flying sideways from the door and pinned to the ground as I was liked all over by the enormous canine.

Tonks shouted, running in with her wand drawn, but seemed to recognize that I was not immediately being torn apart a moment later.

"Mmm, fine Tonks," I said, waving and smiling from where he had me pinned as I was licked by tongues thicker than my forearm. "He's just a bit affectionate is all."

Tonks stared at me, then back to the dog, then back to me. "Is that a bloody Cerberus?"

"Yep, they put me in charge of him after I stumbled in here and saw how lonely he was. They won't let me walk him, though. He's gotta always be here to guard that trapdoor over there."

"They put a first-year in charge of a Five-crosses rated magical creature?" The woman shook her head in disbelief, prompting fluffy to look up from me, Growling.

Tonka backed up a bit, but I just smiled, script ching at Fluffy's neck and turning him back my way.

"He's just an overgrown dog really. Come on, give him a pet and see if he doesn't like you." I smiled, "Can't bloody well get him off of me, as you can see."

The woman rolled her eyes, tentatively stepping forward, and I saw in her eyes a little fear when the dog's hackles raised up, but I just kept scritching his chins, and she managed to reach his back alright, running her hand down the thin velvety fur on his side.

The dog relaxed even further as she established that she was a petter, and not an enemy, and while Kept my hand on him, I let him turn to sniff at her, which elicited a slight eep from the woman.

Then she got a big slobbery tongue licked across her face and I knew everything would be alright.

"Pteh, it got in my mouth."

I laughed as Fluffy pressed his faces into her, the heads trying to compete for affection like they always did, and she desperately tried to fend them off.

Before long we were both laughing at the antics of the enormous dog, even as he leaped back over towards me, panting happily.

"See, I told you he was a good boy."

"A good boy who can take a Nundu one against the other. Supposedly anyway. Cerberus are immune to most everything."

"I know, isn't he awesome?" I smiled cheerfully. "Supposedly the only way to deal with them is wrestling them and pinning them onto their backs, but he'll do that if you just rub his belly."

"What, really?" The woman asked, moving her hand up.

"Yes, but don't stand next to him when you do if you don't want to have to metamorph yourself out of being pancaked." I smiled, laughing as the woman quickly sidestepped, nearly stumbling. "You can probably guess how I found that one out."

That elicited a new round of laughter as she managed to get Fluffy onto his back, scratching at his belt rather happily. "You're right, I think he really is a good boy."

"Yup." I smiled, scritching at his face, as I turned towards the door. "I do wonder where Ron and Harry got off to though."

"Oh?" The woman said, getting up off the dog and tripping and falling, which she got up from seamlessly. "Were those your friends? Was that black-haired kid Harry Potter? Really? I didn't even say Hi!"

"Yeah, thick as thieves we are. Well, us and Hermione, but she's home for the winter break."

"Hah!, I met Harry Potter and didn't even look at him. What would my mother say?" The woman laughed loudly. "Alright then, show me to the local celebrity then, I didn't properly introduce myself."

I stroked Fluffy behind his ears, nodding. "Alright, we can head out, just let me say goodbye to the big pooch for now."

A couple of minutes later we were back out wandering through the castle corridors, false snow falling on our heads, and the occasional splatter of snowballs indicating that Fred and George were still at large for now at least.

I shuddered to imagine how much detention McGonagall would assign them when she got in for the feast that evening. They'd probably spend the rest of break washing warts off of toads.

For now, though, it meant that venturing outside was hardly a good idea. Forcing us to search within the confines of the castle proper.

"I'm not sure I can let a Hufflepuff up into the Gryffindor common room, some things just aren't done." I teased as climbed the stairs towards the fat lady's painting.

"Oh yeah? But what if I looked like this?"

I chuckled as Tonks adopted a load of Weasley features into her appearance, her hair turning the bright orange of that family and freckles dotting her face.

"I, uh, I don't think that changes your house, but whatever works I guess."

"Cor, now should I talk about Quidditch and whatnot?" She put on a faux Weasley Voice. "You can hardly tell those brothers apart I swear. Except maybe Charlie, he's better looking."

"Are you sure you're one to talk about people's looks?"

"Hey, if I make myself look as pretty as I can be then my mother starts praising me, and there's nothing worse than getting letters talking about how great a seductress you'll be from your own mother."

I blanched a little at that. "I'm eleven, you shouldn't be talking that way!"

"What for? Do you think I don't remember being eleven, you probably love hearing about it."

I rolled my eyes, wandering up towards the fat lady, and muttering about Hufflepuffs being freaks under my breath. "Curmudgeonly."

The door swung open to reveal my friends at their armchairs, Ron predictably crushing Harry in Chess.

"Hey all, I brought Tonks up with me, don't mind how she looks. She goes out of her way to be ugly."

"Oy, I resent that."

"Anyhow, She seems to want your autograph, Harry."

"What, really?" The boy looked up, asking. "I don't even have a signature."

"Guess I'll just have to settle for meeting you properly then, Wotcher Harry." The temporary-Redhead stepped up next to the armchair, offering the boy a handshake. "You're a pretty big deal, though I'm sure loads of people have told you. My name's Tonks, I finished my NEWTs last year."

"Isn't that an Auror Cadet uniform?" Ron asked, looking at the woman a bit shocked. "Isn't see them when my dad takes me into the ministry."

"Yessir Mister Weasley, I'm a certified Auror in training. Study for your NEWTs kids."

"What's an Auror?"

"Ministry of Magic police department." I spoke up, "though they're sort of the military too since Wizards don't really have armies."

"We don't like to think of ourselves that way, but it's true I suppose." Tonks nodded. "Our job is law enforcement though, not just fighting. A lot of our jobs are about unregistered Floo-powder sales."

"I can see that." I smiled, chuckling along with Ron. "So, the feast will probably start soonish. You're coming right?"

"Yep, though I'll have to sit at the guests' table."

"That's fine then." I smiled, chuckling.

"We should head on down."

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#373

It was a fact that all meals at Hogwarts were excellent affairs, full of good food and good friends and fun and all of that.

The only sour note was the ubiquitous pumpkin juice.

Still, compared to the rest, the Christmas feast blew them all out of the water. Half of the absent faculty came back to the castle, the guests' table was full of alumni, and the carols continued to fill the air. Through the billowing snow above our heads, illusionary ice-skaters sent drifting flurries spinning with their passing, and the tinkling of bells filled the hall with a festive attitude.

Particularly festive at the staff table I think, some of that stuff seemed to be fairly hard. Especially whatever it was that Hagrid was knocking back a keg of.

Truly, it was the most wonderful time if the year, and that went double for the Gryffindor table, though the pranksters of the day were looking fairly glum themselves, especially with the Icycle Dunce caps they had stuck to their heads.

I had no idea who had come up with the idea, but it was entirely appropriate, and it had them sneezing and looking generally miserable the entire duration of the feast.

It went on for quite a while, as some of the staff, and even a few of the guests, started to get a bit tipsy. Most notably Hagrid started trying to chat up McGonagall, ultimately resulting in a kiss that left both of them blushing. Though I think in Hagrid's case it was mostly the alcohol.

As the feast wound down, Dumbledore, who had not been entirely sober himself, still managed to stand up and clap to give a short speech.

"I am quite happy to see you all here, on this most festive of days, some faces new, and some quite old. I would invite you all to think, as I am, on those not here, as well as those who are no longer with us and raise a toast in their honor, to celebrate that highest of callings, love. Love for friends, or love for family, let us celebrate it on this most happy and sacred night."

He raised his glass and tipped it slightly. "A toast."

His sentiment was echoed as all of us scrabble to bounce our glasses around, though I saw Harry looking a bit down at the words.

"A toast." I knocked back a bit of tea, smiling at the peppermint smell emanating from it. It seemed even the house-elves were in a festive mood tonight.

Merriment and good cheer were truly the best way to stave off the chill of winter. That and perhaps a good trip to Tahiti.

The feast lasted half an hour or so longer, and I ended up having to say goodbye to Tonks at the end of it, not having learned nearly as much with her as I had hoped, but still quite happy to meet the other metamorphomagus who was somewhat near my age.

Eventually, I dragged myself upstairs with Harry and Ron, mostly intent on checking out our Christmas presents. In particular, I appreciated my gift from Professor McGonagall, certainly far cooler than the animated Banner I had sent her way.

I figured out how to do animated illusions of Quidditch players then, of course, all of the Quidditch fans would get one, The House Head included.

Anyhow, it seemed that the professors had a preternatural sense to tell which students were sending them gifts, as all but Snape had gotten back to me. Mostly in the form of books, but also with Fluffy earmuffs with dogs on them from Professor Dumbledore.

Still, while I liked all of the books, the one McGonagall had sent me was the most interesting.

"So you want to be an Animagus" was a brown book with a drawing of a witch turning into a bird on the cover. I believe she might have been the inventor of the spell. Either way, it was interesting that McGonagall had anticipated my long term goals that well.

'She might have been paying a bit more attention to me than I realized.'

That though was confirmed when I flipped open the cover and found a handwritten note inside.

"Mister Irving, it has come to my attention that you have been delving into potions and transfiguration techniques already far in advance of your year of study, and I thus assume that if you have not already looked into becoming an Animagus that you will soon do so.

While it is not considered a universal course at Hogwarts, I would encourage you to seek guidance on this subject in accordance with school and ministry rules. I should note that failing to register status through the proper channels can result in a sentence at Azkaban, which I assure you is not worth the benefits of the unregistered state.

While I normally only offer to help students learn to become an Animagus once they have studied the subject in the third year. You have already demonstrated a great capacity for independent study and work.

Therefore, if you can prepare yourself appropriately, and finish this book, I will be willing to begin this matter with you sooner than normal, rather than have you attempt this privately at risk to your legal and personal wellbeing.

Signed, Minerva McGonagall."

'She really does know me quite well.' I smiled. I had to wonder what the teachers thought of my voracious appetite for new Magic spells and abilities. The only class I hadn't pulled ahead of my year considerably in was Herbology. Though in DADA my knowledge was mostly theoretical. My wand didn't seem to like Hexes, Jinxes, or curses at all, so I doubted I would ever be much good at offensive magic.

Hell, my best offensive ability was a bootleg spell in the form of the cutting charm, which wasn't even intentionally designed as an attack.

Still, the offer was tempting. It wasn't like I needed the ability for stealth anyway, given my innate shapeshifting ability. It would be more of an interesting exercise in magic, and perhaps another way to make myself famous.

I'd have to check who the youngest Animagus ever was. If I managed to steal that accolade I'd be well set for interviews for a while.

Best get my name out there young if I wanted to be well known as a prodigious young wizard.

Anyhow, I got into the book pretty easily. Mostly it was a guidebook of sorts, largely covering things I already knew, though a few facts were interesting, such as the fact that atmospheric charms could be used to guarantee success with the full moon and lightning storm requirements, or that becoming an Animagus left a permanent mark on the user was interesting. As in it left marks on their skin related to the animal, and similarly left marks on the animal related to the person. I had to wonder how that would even work with a Metamorphomagus since I could alter my skin essentially at will.

'I suppose I'll find out.' I smiled. Holding a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month sounded troublesome if you didn't remember you were a wizard and could stick it to the roof of your mouth with a charm like a retainer. In fact…

'Maybe I should get the whole group to do it.'

It wasn't as if I couldn't handle the potion end of it for them, and if we all became an imaginary together it would reinforce that whole Marauders bit that the trio had going on originally. Plus if we managed to handle the thing properly I would bet that McGonagall would give us all points to Gryffindor.

Of course, Hermione wasn't here right now, but who was to say we couldn't get the mandrake leaf over to her house if I got the professor to help. I'd have to talk to her about it tomorrow.

It'd be awesome if we could pull that off ahead of time, and as far as I could tell, while the potion was quite advanced, it was mostly just intensely time-consuming on the mandrake leaf, and with the patronage of a powerful witch like the professor we could be sure to have clear skies and thunderstorms when we needed them.

As the plan began to coalesce in my head, I spotted Harry leaving the room, ringing several bells as he went, quiet as he might be trying to be. The invisibility cloak was clearly wrapped around him, but he obviously wasn't used to it yet. His feet were awkwardly sticking out of the bottom and it was dragging along behind him on the floor.

I debated following him for a moment, trying my luck with the Mirror of Desire, but after a moment I decided against it. That would be a waste of time, and he'd find it easily enough anyway.

I smiled, hoping he'd have a pleasant walk, as I found myself drifting off to sleep.

I awoke in the morning well ahead of the other two, finding Harry safely back in bed as if he hadn't gone on his midnight adventure at all, I snatched up my robes quickly, putting on my work coat as I went down to feed Fluffy for the morning. Descending the hill to the iceboxes Hagrid kept the steaks in, I saw the big man up and about, in fact, he seemed to be waiting for me. "Hey, Hagrid, Happy Boxing day."

"And a Happy boxing day to you as well, Rupert, did you have a pleasant Christmas?"

"You can bet," I smiled to the big man. "Did you like your presents?"

"Oh yeah, yeah, think I'm going to put them to use real soon as well, I went out to Hogsmeade last night, won a beauty of a dragon egg in a card game with Professor Quirrell." He smiled, lifting a ridiculously large egg "Dealer was a right shifty chap, he seemed to know too. Well, I shouldn't say much more than that." The big man smiled, "anyhow, I wanted ter' tell ya about your Christmas gift. Though I can't give him to ya right away."

I blinked at the man, my brain processing that statement. Hesitation crept its way into my voice. "Are you giving me fluffy?"

"Aye, and here I thought'd be a surprise, but yeah, after last night well… and you've gotten so used to him. Anyhow, the school won't be needing him much longer, and the headmaster agreed." The Giant shrugged "You'll have to let me take care of him on Friday though, just need one last thing before I Letcher have him."

I glanced up at the big man, wondering what on earth could be going through his head.

"Hagrid, Fluffy is not going to fit in the orphanage, not to mention what a ridiculous breach of that statute of secrecy even bringing him there would be."

"Oh, I'll take care of him in the summers." The Big man smiled, rubbing his hand against the back of his neck. "Ta be honest I had planned Ta send him back to Greece at the end of the School Year, but I can't bear Ta do that after you've bonded to him."

"I can't afford to feed a Cerberus, Hagrid." I sighed, sitting down on top of the icebox. "I don't even know where to buy those steaks."

"Oh, well I can take care of that too if you'd like, long as you're a student at least."

I glanced at the man, my jaw setting.

"This is more about you wanting to keep Fluffy isn't it." The way the man's face fell confirmed the question even as I asked it. The Giant was a shameless animal lover, and he didn't want to let that dog go.

"Well…"

Seeing a 12-foot tall man press his fingers together in embarrassment was entertaining, but also fairly ridiculous. The poor man just looked terrified at being put on the spot. Odd as that might seem with how large he was.

"Fine, I'll take him," I said at last. "But don't cry too much when I move him somewhere else when I graduate."

The man immediately brightened up, patting me on the back with his massive hand.

"Now there's a good lad. Folks just don't appreciate the feller enough back in Greece. The feller I bought him from just seemed to want to be rid of him."

'Probably because he ate through his bank account.'

Honestly, I had to wonder where Hagrid got all of his money from.

Maybe Dumbledore just gave him a massive expense account.

Still, it was nice to think that I'd be able to keep Fluffy. I smiled as I rocked back and forth on the icebox lid, feeling as if something about the conversation had gone over my head a bit… something just.

'Ohhhhh.'

'They're getting Quirrell tomorrow.'

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Threadmarks Chapter 32: Epic Offscreen Wizard Duel Promotes Drastic Action. New

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"You want to join this next game?" Ron asked, leaning across the table.

"Not right now Ron. No." I shook my head. Sitting in my armchair and trying to keep a straight face. "Keep slaughtering Harry. I'm sure he'll get sick of it eventually."

"He's getting better." Ron defended. "You took a knight and both of my bishops last time Harry."

I smiled as the two fell back into their own banter, but I doubted that the grin reached my eyes.

'They're fighting Quirrell now.' I thought, leaning back in my chair. They were battling him now and there wasn't a damn thing that I could do about it. Dumbledore had not been present at the feast this morning, no doubt with the intent of luring the professor into attacking. Away on official international business.

Not that it would be sensible to be there at all. I would just be an easy hostage. I had no delusions of taking on any dark wizards.

Not yet.

Give it a few years, as I gathered resources, abilities, and other forms of power to my name, and perhaps the prospect of knocking over some death-eaters would be less horrifying.

But then, Quirrell wasn't just some Death-Eater, and that was what had me sweating. Even weakened as he was, and possessing an utterly incompetent wizard, Voldermort was still fundamentally himself. An utter monster of a wizard who was in a level really only contested by some of the most powerful individual casters in the world. Sure, he was being battled by three powerful experts in an ambush, while in a dramatically weakened form, but still, there were just so many things that could go wrong…

I sighed, forcibly relaxing into my chair. I was worried about the professors, probably all the combatants except for Snape. I was worried about Fluffy. Would he really be able to help in a magical battle of that magnitude? Would he even survive?

I was even worried about myself. About what would happen if Voldermort one his battle and broke through. Stone or not that would see him loose in the castle.

I sat there for more than an hour that way, just reclining, and well, hoping. There was nothing I could do if he did win except maybe throw Harry at him and hope that in his inevitable gloating he got himself burned back into proper undeath.

It was only when the comforting voice of the headmaster filled the common room, and perhaps the halls outside of it as well, that I was able to relax. He was in the school now, and whatever the result of the day might be, it was over.

"All students and faculty members should, at their earliest convenience, please report to dinner a bit early today. There are several announcements to be made."

Looking up from the eternal chess game, I found that yes, it had indeed become dinnertime. "Cmon." I smiled, nodding towards the pair. "Let's go see what the headmaster has to say."

"Eh? Is it that late already?" Ron asked, turning to look out the window. "Blimey, I could have sworn it was earlier. We should head down then." He glanced towards the board. "We can just leave it there, the pieces normally don't kill each other."

"I bet we'll come back to find yours have just killed all of mine on instinct Ron," Harry grumbled as we all began to move towards the door, followed shortly thereafter by Percy, who had also been studying in the common room.

We made our way down the stairs, and found the second and third-floor doors out of them were conspicuously walled off by stone, not that it hampered us much with the destination of dinner, though Percy did comment that no one had told him about any plans to block them that way.

Eventually, though, we made it to the great hall.

The central keep of Hogwarts looked little the worse-for-wear, which probably meant that they had managed to keep the fighting within the tight confines of the second and third floor, but I had no doubt that those levels were probably a mess now.

Still, I was a bit stunned when only two professors other than Dumbledore were present in the great hall. Those being Flitwick, who was nursing some sort of injury on his scalp, but otherwise seemed quite composed for how frazzled his robes looked, and Professor Sinistra, who looked fine if perhaps a tad guilty.

Dumbledore himself looked as unflappable as ever, though his phoenix was with him, perched proudly on the back of his chair, and glancing back and forth across the room with keen eyes.

He nodded as he saw each student come in, waiting until the entire student body had arrived before speaking, hid voice clear and cutting over the assembled body.

"There has been an incident today, of a most unfortunate nature regarding an attempt by a rather deranged, but nonetheless powerful dark spirit to penetrate the defenses of the third-floor corridor. However, through the heroic efforts of your House Heads, this was put a stop to." The old man took on a grim face. "Unfortunately, Professor Quirrell was caught in the battle unprepared and has perished. So he will not be able to continue your education in Defense Against the Dark Arts in the coming semester."

There was a general intake of breath around the hall at that news. A casualty of a professor was nearly unheard of. Hogwarts normally only hired from the most capable of people.

"Fortunately, despite the involvement of a rather large, and now quite dead Basilisk, which the spirit attempted to use to his advantage in the fighting, professor Quirrell's was the only death suffered on the staff. However, both Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout will be unavailable in their duties as house leader for the immediate time-being, and I would ask that you not bother professor Snape as he takes on the urgent task of brewing the appropriate potions to heal some of the injuries inflicted during these events. Furthermore, I ask that you do not attempt to enter the second or third floors of the central building for the time being, as we will be undertaking a significant effort to remove the lingering traces of dark Magic and other hazardous materials from these levels."

If the news of the death of a professor was big news, the explosion of discussion as the professor finished speaking this time was far greater. Ron visibly gulped at the mention of a basilisk, and even Fred and George looked rather shaken. This was clearly a major event, and it had happened right under the noses of the student body. Indeed, from the looks on the other tables, not a single student knew this would happen.

I imagined that was why they wanted to do it over winter break. The twenty-seven of December was just about as empty as the castle was going to get.

"I ask that if any of you have issues that would normally be taken to your house leaders, that you bring them to Mr for the time being. The door to my office will remain open until seven in the evening, and open at ten in the morning until your professors have recovered."

There was nodding and murmuring at that, and several questions raised, but I held my own tongue. Wanting to wait until afterward. Professor Dumbledore addressed the concerns in a quiet and calming manner, explaining things as best he could in a grandfatherly manner. He smiled and spoke, and suggested that people have a little patience, and did his best to calm the room.

I for one was a bit shocked at what I presumed to probably be the death of the Basilisk.

'Voldermort must have run for help from it when he realized what was happening.'

If he pulled that thing out it was almost a miracle that no-one had died in the process, well, except Quirrell. Even as far as magical beasts went, that one was a true monstrosity of legend. I could only hope that Fluffy had managed to survive against it.

Hopefully, that would calm the next year down at least. Give me more time to study, and less to worry about…

My eyes traced over to Scabbers, who was sitting up on Ron's plate eating up scraps.

'Well, maybe more time to worry about that one then.'

Capturing the death eater, would no doubt be tricky, especially without…

Well, or I could just go balls to the wall with it. That might actually be better, knock over all the pins in play and Let Dumbledore clean them up before he got too involved on the Horcrux front. Though who knew if he'd even get down that trail at this point. They weren't exactly something that a first-year could ask about.

There was just a bit too much on my plate, I needed to think, but the crowded hall was not the place to do it…

'No. No, enough thinking.' I sighed, when else was I going to have an opportunity to get the fucker in a small room with someone who could most assuredly catch him? 'Time for action.'

"Come on guys." I smiled, nodding towards the two boys. "I want to go ask Dumbledore about Fluffy."

"Oh" Harry's face shot up, from where he was sitting in thought. "And Hagrid too."

"Yeah" I nodded. "You want to come too, Ron?"

"Sure, Hagrid my friend as well, even if those rock cakes are real tooth breakers."

"Quit your whining." I smiled, patting the boy on the shoulder. " Madame Pomfrey fixed it didn't she?"

"There was blood everywhere."

I hid my smirk by laughing as I saw Scabbers hop onto the boy's shoulder.

That was good.

As we walked through the hallways up towards the Headmaster's tower, and his office, I was glad to see that there wasn't a line. Though it was on the second floor, the hallway was just off the stairs and didn't seem to have suffered any real damages from the battle that had resulted in the rest of the floor being walled off.

That was also good, the fewer things and people around the better, the chances of keeping the rat locked up for his trial.

I didn't exactly know the charms to capture him as it was, but Dumbledore had just come off a fight with a Basilisk and probably Voldermort's ghost. If he was ever going to be on guard. It was now.

The Gargoyle was standing to the side of the door today, and a little placard had appeared above the opening indicating that it was indeed the Headmaster's office. Not that I needed it after my previous visits.

"The stairway moves, pay attention." The remark may have come off more biting than I intended. My mind still locked on the rat I knew was behind me. The situation I was about to cause still locked into my mind.

The other boys nodded as I stepped onto the rotating spiral, and arriving I politely rapped on the door at the top.

"Come in." The Headmaster's voice rang out, and he smiled wearily as he saw me come in. It appeared several of the paintings were in a thankfully muffled argument behind him.

"Ah, Misters Irving, Weasley and Potter." The old man smiled. "I will have to ask you to forgive me my tiredness, a great deal has happened this afternoon, and I find myself rather exhausted." He kept his face even as he continued, only the barest of glints visible in his eyes "I suppose you are here to ask about your canine friend?"

"And Hagrid!" Harry interjected, himself looking rather upset, drawing a tired nod from the old Headmaster.

"Hagrid was hit by a cutting curse, but he is quite alright save a new scar, I should suspect he is down at his hut, as for Fluffy-"

"Hold on a moment please, there is one other urgent thing," I said, cutting him off and drawing my wand. I felt my hackles rise, goosebumps rise on my skin. There was no walking back from this. No time to think myself out of it.

"Yes?" The Headmaster raised an eyebrow, surprised, but clearly more interested now. His eyes sharpening as he saw me draw my wand.

I spun to face Ron, raising my wand at the rat on his shoulder, the charm at the edges of my lips, my words barked as I cast a spell I had been sporadically practicing since I had looked up Animagi as part of my discussion with Tonks. I bit out the letters as clearly and properly as I could manage, waving the wand in a way that I must have done a hundred times, though I had thought of using it later.

The scene had played out a thousand different times in my head, ones where I caught the rat myself, ones where he killed me. Ones where he killed Ron or held one of us hostage. It was part of what had held me back so long, but if there was no time like the present then there was no time to waste.

"Homorphus."

There was a startled gasp and a yelp from Ron as a short and ugly man formed on top of his shoulder, crashing down on top of him in a squeaking yelp of his own, his eyes wide with surprise, and not a little bit of terror.

Peter Pettigrew had collapsed to the floor atop ron, and in front of the one man, the one incredibly powerful Wizard, I was quite sure he couldn't escape from. Not easily at least.

My shoulders slumped as silence reigned in Dumbledore's office, my tension spent.

Whatever happened now, It was out of my hands.

Last edited: Oct 18, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 33: Rats and Dogs New

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There was a long and lingering silence, or at least it felt quite long, I couldn't actually be sure as to whether it was short or long, not really, I was utterly blown out.

Then Peter went for his wand, Voldermort's wand.

He was an idiot for doing so. If he hadn't he might have been able to try weaseling his way out of things.

As it was, even with his head start and the surprise of even seeing him there, Dumbledore was far, far faster.

A bolt of red light knocked the wand out of his hand, sending it scattering to the ground, and before it even touched the stone-paved floor wrought iron chains were conjured into existence around the murderer. Dumbledore had risen to his full height in an instant, a Visage of that terrifying specter that kept even the Dark Lord in check. Fawkes summoned to his side in an instant.

"You are…" I could tell the Old Man's mind was racing, trying to place the face of the man in front of him even as Ron tried to scramble out from under the now chained up man.

Ron for one seemed utterly petrified as he scrambled back, letting out syllables that weren't quite words in something vaguely like terror, while Harry seemed utterly surprised.

I didn't know what my own expression was like, but I quickly schooled it into a stern one. "I was right then. He was an animagus."

"An aniwhat?" Harry asked, stepping further back as Dumbledore moved forward.

"A wizard who could turn into an animal," I said, my voice shaking through no effort of my own, though not for the same reason as everyone else. "From Ron's description, he lived far too long to be a rat."

"Not just any animagus." Dumbledore advanced implacably, somehow avoiding the cluttered objects that filled the room. "Isn't that right Mr. Pettigrew." He strode forward, his eyes almost alight as the phoenix Fawkes fluttered forward to drop the fallen wand in his hand. Dumbledore looked at it for a long moment before his eyes flared with anger, his grip tightening around it.

"I see."

The room itself seemed to darken as he stepped forward to Peter, grabbing hold of the scraggly brown jacket he wore and pulling up the left sleeve, something that seemed to send terror shooting up the Death Eater's spine for a moment as his Dark Mark was brought forth.

This time, I was very sure that the room was actually darkening, the lights above shaking somewhat.

The man looked about to say something before Dumbledore Stupefied him in an instant, leaving his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

There was silence for a long moment before the old man glanced towards Ron, and then Harry and I.

"A Great Injustice has occurred." Even the old man's voice seemed to be shaken, but he overwrote it with a voice of command that brooked no debate. "Rupert, you will find your dog with Hagrid, injured, but alive, I will summon the three of you to speak to me again tonight, please do not go to bed until I have done so." The man snapped his finger over his head a crackling sheen of fire falling over him "There are matters of great urgency to attend to at the ministry. I must depart."

There was an ear-splitting crack, and he was gone with the Death Eater, vanished in an instant, likely off to bring Pettigrew to justice.

The three of us were left standing alone in the quickly brightening light of the Headmaster's office, with even the painting staring dumbfounded at their successor's now-departed form.

"Bloody hell mate…" Ron was the first to break the deafening silence. "That fellow was Scabbers? He's been living in our house since…"

Ron grimaced as if he was swallowing something entirely too disgusting. "Mum's going to throw a fit."

"Oh, no doubt." I nodded sharply "I couldn't think for like half an hour when I figured it out. Half of me still wanted to believe it was just a magic rat."

"I… uh…" Harry seemed entirely unable to come up with anything in this situation. "What do we do now?"

"Now, we're glad we have that rat out of here and let Dumbledore take fare of the rest. That's why I didn't tell you the moment I found out by the way Ron. I was worried about what he'd do to us if he overheard it." I grimaced purposefully as I spoke. "You see that mark on his arm, Ron?"

Ron nodded, then froze for a moment. "Wait, was that the-"

"Yes, it was the dark mark. The library has newspapers from the war."

"...Bloody Hell…"

"What's the Dark Mark?"

"It was used by the Dark Lord's toadies in the last war as his symbol. They used to paint it in the sky when they murdered somebody." I glanced back over at Ron. "That guy wasn't just some old pervert wizard. He was a Death Eater."

Ron shuddered, looking at the ground.

Harry didn't seem too inclined towards moving either.

Still, I had something else to take care of, and it might do them some good to come with me.

"Right. That's that then. Dumbledore will take care of it anyway. Let's go see what that stupid snake did to my dog."

"Oh, right, Fluffy." Harry Nodded, "and he's with Hagrid too."

Ron still seemed paralyzed, so I waved my wand in his face, spritzing him with conjured water. "Hey!"

I smiled at the boy as he waved me away indignantly. Eventually, he seemed to perk up a bit, though, after a moment, an odd look crossed his brow. "Did you just say "Your" dog?"

I smiled at that, a grin stretching across my face.

"Guess what Hagrid gave me for Christmas?"

Fluffy was, as it turned out, a real fighter in his own right, but still not a match for the Basilisk. The poor pooch lay with his massive frame out on the grounds next to Hagrid's hut, and he certainly did seem to be having a rough time. He was missing one of his front paws completely, and his leftmost head above it was also wrapped in bandages, if still intact. On his side, there were several massive scars, a couple of which looked like puncture wounds, and in general, he seemed to have gone through a truly brutal time.

This did not stop him from leaping at me in a tackle as I approached, or at least trying too.

I winced at the pained whimper he emitted as his imbalanced leap hit the ground, curling himself up into… well, it wasn't a little ball, but it was a ball nonetheless, I approached the massive pup with concern.

"No need to do that boy, don't move around so much." I patted on his uninjured heads, and, after a low whine from it, also very carefully on the one mostly wrapped in bandages. I set to comforting the dog even as Ron and Harry stayed back aways, still clearly terrified of the poor pooch's massive size.

Maneuvering myself to avoid his scars, I got into a position to hug his furry exterior, wrapping my arms around the poor boy. "They had you fighting that big old snake, didn't they. I bet you showed him what's what."

"Oh he did at that, Rupert" a broad voice boomed out, and I turned to see Hagrid wander out of his cabin. Under his shirt, he was bandaged over, but he looked about as Jolly as always if a bit sore. "Especially after it got Professor McGonagall through her glasses. Why Fluffy in there did more damage to that big beast than any of us until Professor Dumbledore arrived, that is."

Harry blinked at the man, though personally I was more interested in comforting my dog.

"How big was the Basilisk, snake, thing then?"

"Oh, he was right gigantic Harry, as big as Fluffy there around but much longer, only seen a few things bigger, and then mostly Giants and the like. I think Ukranian Ironbellies are about the same size."

Given Hagrid's qualification for calling something gigantic, one could only imagine how large the snake in question actually was.

"You got any treats to give Fluffy here Hagrid?" I asked, scratching along the dog's belly until it rolled over and pinned me underneath.

"Oof, uh, preferably ones that will get him to move off of me?"

Hagrid smiled. "I've got just the things, I was planning on getting them out as part of giving him to you anyway." The half-giant sighed. "Sorry about getting the big fella into a fight on his last day, Fer what it's worth we weren't expecting to be pitting him against a Basilisk."

"You were expecting to be attacked?" Ron asked, apparently haven broken himself temporarily from his funk. "How come you didn't tell anyone?"

"Hey, yeah, what if someone had been on the third floor?"

"Er," Hagrid suddenly looked quite unsure of himself. "I'm not supposed to tell y-"

"Quirrell was a dark wizard wasn't he," I said, saving Hagrid from his embarrassment. "That's why nobodies all that broken up about him. Oh, and I knew it was him hexing Harry, that's why those rocks at the quidditch match…" I let my words hang as Hagrid turned toward me wide eyes.

"That's a bit of a brain you've got on yer there Rupert, d'you watch them muggle detective whatsits?"

"Wait, someone was hexing me at the Quidditch match?"

"Oh yeah, remember when your broom bucked around all over the place?" I asked, shaking my head as I continued to pet my dog, even as he was still pinning me under his bulk. Forcing me to reinforce the straining bones in my chest. "That was Quirrell I'm pretty sure." I glanced towards Hagrid. "He tried to get past the trapdoor on the 3rd floor didn't he."

"Ah, I can't say." The man shook his head. "Though, uh, it's all taken care of now far as I can tell, Dumbledore took care of all of it."

"Right." I nodded. "It's not like it matters that much anyway as long as it got resolved. Now, treats. Dog off."

"Ah, Sorry Rupert, I got distracted." The man pulled out something like a woolen sack and dragged an enormous piece of Jerky out of it. "Here Fluffy."

The dog got off of me in an instant, staggering to his feet and letting me get out from below, returning my body to normal. "Thanks." I smiled, climbing to my feet. "So uh, he's mine now right? I get to walk him and everything?"

"Ah, well, you may have to ask the Headmaster about that a bit. I doubt the board of governors will like having him wandering about school too much once the breaks over." Hagrid chuckled. "Cerberus aren't known for being good with children, much of a load of tiff as that is."

I glanced up towards the treeline, a smirk coming to my lips. "I could always walk him in the forbidden forest. He's a hell of a lot meaner than Fang is, and Fang's fine."

Hagrid glanced towards me, and then back towards the treeline, then finally to me again. "Why that's a great idea, recommend it myself I will. Though you'll want to steer clear of the area southwest of the lake. That's out where Aragog and his lot are." The big man smiled. "I'll recommend it to the headmaster myself I will."

"Thanks, Hagrid" I smiled, while Ron muttered something about the bloody lot of us being insane.

"Nothing to worry about Rupert, now, how would you three like to join me for tea?" He glanced towards the massive dog, and towards me, who was not going to let go of my pet until at the very least Dumbledore summoned me. "Er, I'll bring it out why don't I. Think you can conjure us up some furniture Rupert?"

"Sure." I nodded, smiling at the big man. "And thank you for the offer, that sounds lovely."

After this day of all days. Tea sounded like exactly what I needed.

Last edited: Oct 18, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 34: Answers and Animalistic Aspirations. New

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The old wizard looked far grimmer than I had seen him when at last we were summoned back up to his office.

"Come in… come in…" the man sighed, his eyes tracing over our group, they lingered on Harry for a long moment, before turning to me.

"I must thank you, young Rupert, for your cleverness this night has brought a great injustice to light, one which I believe may well be rectified in the near future. One which I must admit that I did not… well, I did not quite do my due diligence to prevent when it first occurred." The man glanced towards Harry for a moment, before settling to look at the three of us as a whole. "Tell me, do you know who that animagus you revealed was?"

"Not really" I lied, "you said his name though, Pettigrew right?"

"Indeed," the old man nodded. "He was thought to have died several years ago but obviously, I, along with many others, were fooled."

"He was a death eater, wasn't he!? From that mark on his arm." Ron ventured, and the wrinkles on Dumbledore's face only deepened.

"Yes, very observant mister Weasley, but there is a great deal more to this story." The old headmaster turned towards Harry, his gaze softening. "This has to do with the death of your parents Harry."

"What?" The boy asked, suddenly paying a great deal more attention despite his tiredness.

"Peter Pettigrew was considered a good friend by your father, one of his best in fact. Part of a quartet not unlike that you three and miss Granger have formed if Minerva is to be believed. I believe they called themselves the Marauders. It appears however that Peter was not as good a friend as I, and all others, had believed. Not by half." The old wizard sighed. "Due to a certain charm, your family should have been safe from harm. The charm required someone trusted to hold a secret for it to work, a secret held by someone trusted. It was clear that someone trusted had shared it with You-Know-Who when your parents were killed, but Peter also seemed to die around the same time, and few believed he was the traitor, myself included."

"That man… Ron's rat killed my parents..?" Harry sounded more confused than angry as if he could hardly process the concept. It made sense, despite it all he was still new to magic.

"Not personally, but he did no doubt betray them. His Dark Mark was proof enough of that. I'm afraid however that our mistake runs deeper, for it is clear now that in our haste to see justice done for your parent's deaths, we, that is, Wizarding society, threw an innocent man into Azkaban?"

"Azkaban?" Harry's voice was faint as if it was all just a tad too much to process, and I moved to his shoulder, nodding as Ron did the same. "What…? What do you mean?"

"Azkaban is the ministry prison and a terrible place." Dumbledore frowned. "And it houses, has housed for years, in fact, your Godfather, a wizard by the name of Sirius Black. You can rest assured that I am taking every Avenue available to me to expedite his release, for it is evident from the questioning Pettigrew answered under Veritas-serum that they imprisoned the wrong man there. I can only hope that he retains sanity after his time there. So few do."

Harry looked distraught. "I have a godfather? Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"He was in prison and thought to have murdered your parents, and Peter as well for that matter. The case appeared clear and he was not given a trial, It was a bad time, and the war had scarred people's hearts." Dumbledore raised his hand. "I do not claim that we could not have done better, but please do understand that the populous was utterly terrified after the war. Now that this new evidence has come out, I am sure that little time will be wasted retiring this injustice. Indeed, I can assure you that I have already begun mobilizing support to release your godfather."

"Will… will I be able to leave the Dursley's then?"

The man looked at Harry sharply and then sighed, shaking his head. "Harry, there is a tad bit more than you know regarding why you were left with the Dursleys. When I say you are safe there, I assure you that you are truly safe." The man stared for a long moment and then relented slightly. "I do not know how his decade in Azkaban has treated your Godfather, indeed, once Minerva is able to resume her duties as deputy headmistress, I intend to go and check on him, or perhaps, if the process is sufficiently expedited, attend his release, but until I know the status of his sanity, I cannot tell you if he will be allowed to take custody of you. Azkaban is a terrible, terrible place, and the toll it takes on its inhabitants is not to be taken lightly. I will do all I can."

I glanced towards Harry, and then back towards the professor, before moving to support my friend, who seemed to be having a hard time taking all of this standing.

"I… please, professor, can I meet him?" The boy looked down. "I've never had any family except the Dursleys, and they're…"

"A bunch of bloated idiots." I nodded, smiling at Harry. "Why not have Harry meet him once he's out professor? Even if he's gone mad it'll be better than not knowing."

Dumbledore looked towards me for a moment and then sighed, bobbing his head slightly. "I'll see about it. There will likely be a trial and I'll have you meet him then at least, if not before." The old wizard grimaced slightly as he turned towards Ron. "Ronald, your family has already been notified about… well, about mister Pettigrew. I expect that they will come to collect your brothers and you tomorrow for a family discussion of sorts."

"Oh, I can't see Mum taking this well, the troll already almost made her blow her top." Ron frowned. "At least nobody got hurt this time, and it's not my fault at all."

"I've tried to assure your parents that every reasonable measure is being taken, but I can understand their concern." Old eyes with a little glimmer in them turned towards me. "Rupert, your actions this evening have been far beyond the expectations of a student, and had they not been this could have turned out far worse. While I do not intend to make your part in this public for your safety, I will award Gryffindor one-hundred points for your cleverness and foresight in this matter."

"Thank you, professor." I smiled lightly, nodding, though personally I would be fine with having it published later, once I was strong enough to not fear death-eater retribution.

"Then that will be all for tonight I think, you three." The headmaster nodded. "I have a great deal more work to do, but it thankfully does not involve keeping you three so far up past curfew, unless, mister Irving, you have any more surprises for me."

"Not particularly."

"Then you three ought to get to bed."

Back in the Dorm Room, the three of us clustered around the stove. The cold of winter making it too uncomfortable to occupy the rest of the room without being buried beneath covers.

"So…" Ron started, before stopping awkwardly.

"You've got a godfather then Harry." I smiled, nodding lightly. "It sounds like you may end up being allowed to move out of the Dursleys after all."

"Yeah…" Harry nodded lightly. "Yeah, it's just… why did nobody tell me? I don't care if the Dursleys knew, but, it seems like Hagrid, or at least Dumbledore should have let me know he existed at least. Even if they thought he had betrayed my parents." The boy swallowed. "I-well, I don't know hardly anything about my parents beyond what aunt Petunia and the Dursleys have told me."

"Oh…" Ron looked down a bit. "Well, why not ask around about them then? I know Dumbledore has been running the school for almost half a century now, and they weren't that old I don't think. Professor McGonagall might have known them too."

Harry looked up, blinking, staring at Ron as if he had just smacked him in the face with a trout, and I had to restrain myself from laughing. Harry obviously wasn't much good at asking people for help, even worse than I was honestly.

"Plus your Father had that group of friends Dumbledore was talking about right?" I smiled, patting the smaller kid on the back. "And your godfather will be out of Azkaban soon enough, so I'm sure he'll be happy to tell you about it." I turned my gaze towards Ron, chuckling a little. "Your life is looking up Harry, it's Ron I'm worried about."

"What, why me?"

"Well your mother is probably going to break your spine hugging you tomorrow." I smirked, "And I bet that your whole family's going to end up sitting through the entire court case for Pettigrew."

Ron's face immediately fell. "Oh bollocks, Dad's warned us about the Wizengamot. Said the last time he was in there over a biting teacup there was over a month of deliberations."

"It might be faster or slower for Pettigrew though." I sighed, "Death Eaters are traditionally a pretty hard sell, and he can't claim to have been charmed for a full decade with no one around to keep re-upping it."

"I suppose that's true at least."

I smiled, nodding, and hopped up into a squat. "Right, I have one more thing to bring up with you two," I smirked, walking over to my bag and pulling a book out. "Though it will have to wait until Professor McGonagall is cured."

"What's that then?" Ron asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Book on how to become an Animagus." I smiled, plopping the book down between the boys. "It's what let Pettigrew become a Rat or McGonagall become a cat. It's a pretty advanced type of potions and transfiguration magic." I smiled tapping on the cover of the tome.

"So it would let us turn into animals?" Harry wondered. "What type would we be?"

"Depends on your personality and suchlike." I said, "It's all in the book. People turn into animals that resemble them."

"No wonder Pettigrew was a rat then." Ron sneered. "I wish I could bloody his nose, spying on my family like that."

"Yeah…" Harry agreed. "So, what do we have to do to become animagi?"

"Well, it isn't exactly easy, but I think we can pull it off with Professor McGonagall's help. The trickiest part is holding a mandrake leaf in your mouth for a month, which we can start on whenever. Hopefully soon so we can go for the record."

"A whole month? That sounds impossible." Ron groaned, but I shook my head, smiling.

"It's actually not so bad, I'll just use the sticking charm to put it on the roofs of our mouths, and soon enough we'll forget it's there." I nodded "after that, I'll brew the potion on the next full moon, and then we can have McGonagall conjure us up a lightning storm and drink it down. Then presto, all of us will be animagi before you know it. I want to see if I can get Hermione to do it too if I can."

Harry nodded his head a little. "That doesn't sound so bad if you can use a charm for it." He turned away from the book. "What's this about a record though?"

"Oh well, actually you'd be the only one to break it, but if you can pull it off before Christmas next year you'll be the youngest Animagus ever. Well, ever recorded at least." I gestured to the stack of books by my bed. "Currently the youngest recorded was a Congolese wizard, who did it at twelve and a half."

"That'd put all of us over him wouldn't it?"

"Yes." I nodded, smiling at Ron before turning back to Harry. "So how about it? Want to be famous for something you actually did yourself?"

The boy's eyes lit up when I phrased it that way, and I saw that Ron was quite taken with the idea as well.

"Yeah." Harry nodded, grinning war to ear. "That sounds nice."

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Threadmarks Chapter 35: Walking in the Rain New

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"Sorry there was nothing more permanent available there Rupert," The Half-Giant said, gesturing to the crude but animated wooden prosthetic attached to Fluffy's right side where his leg used to be. "I'm afraid everyone's a bit preoccupied with all this madness goin about. Why even I'm being called into the ministry, the headmaster thinks they might give me my wand back now that the real beast that was killing students back when I was here got found. Anyhow, I had professor Flitwick charm it, so it should serve its purpose."

I smiled, patting on the obvious recent tree trunk. It had been stripped of bark and had some basic joints carved into it, but it was hardly what I'd want for Fluffy long term. Especially since regrow in his leg didn't seem to be an option.

As it was, he only managed to live through that much Basilisk venom because he was even more ridiculously unkillable than the snake had been.

A good first pet if ever there was one, though I hardly intended to limit myself to him. Animals seemed to like me fine, and I saw no reason to put together anything less than a menagerie.

Hagrid seemed to be doing well enough by it.

"I'm glad to hear that you're likely to get cleared, I imagine the Ministry doesn't like being dragged into a holiday session though."

"No, I reckon they don't, ah but they seem to be working faster than usual on account of wanting to get it over with by New Years. I think the Headmaster's using that to get this whole mess resolved properly."

"Maybe." I nodded, turning towards my dog. "So you want to join me on Fluffy's inaugural walk?"

"Well, why not?" The big man smiled. "Not much else to do and the headmaster can find me well enough if he wants me."

I nodded, smiling, and eyeing up Fluffy's back, he was definitely strong enough to carry me on it, and his fur lived up to his name, but I ultimately shook my head.

That could wait until he had a less haphazard prosthetic. "You ready to go for a walk boy?"

The big dog bounced up and down on his hind legs, almost knocking me over as he shook the ground with his weight, and sending birds flitting away from the nearby trees.

"Seems to just be glad to be outdoors since yesterday." Hagrid smiled, cheerfully walking alongside us as we got underway down from his Hut into the forbidden forest.

I had been into it several times during detentions, but all of those had been late at night when the trees blotted out what little moonlight found the valley, and the only way forward was to follow your lamp, or Hagrid's rather. Well, that or to cast Lumos, but regardless, it was always very dark and foreboding, and aside from the occasional stop to let a hunting parry of centaurs by, there was little in the way of magical creatures out and about at night. In this part of the forest anyway.

I suspected that the darker things mostly dwelled deeper in. Aragog's brood, and other monstrosities.

Still, in the daytime, I actually found it fairly inviting. Much wilder and more like the North American Forests of my previous life than the thoroughly domesticated forests of England. Though still not as thick as a truly wide forest, as Hagrid did his job maintaining the paths and clearings. The overgrowth was thick enough to hide much, but still not sufficient to really slow down our progress, especially with Fluffy and Hagrid ahead of me.

It would be a bit prettier if it weren't winter, but still, the walk was lovely, and it was good to see Fluffy enjoying himself after the scare the day before.

Indeed, such walks quickly became routine in the following days, twice a day in the morning and in the evening. The last week of December passed as quickly as any other, despite the uncertainty of things, and the ministry, for once moving at a lightning pace under pressure from Dumbledore, forced a trial upon Peter Pettigrew.

That was a good thing, don't get me wrong, but on the other hand, out of everyone in the entire Gryffindor dorm up to year four, I was the only one not attending. All of the Weasleys, as well as Harry, we're dragged off in the morning, leaving me largely alone, and with Hagrid gone on some errand towards getting his own wand-rights back, and my house-head still out of commission…

Well, let's just say, Fluffy got an extra-long walk that day.

I stroked the fur on his side, smiling as I had to nearly jog just to keep pace with the enormous dog.

If he weren't so immune to magic I'd turn him red, just for a giggle.

His rightmost head was unbandaged by that point, and I got to see the damages up close. He had taken a wound there from some fiendfyre Quirrel, well, Voldermort, had conjured. What was left looked like a fairly brutal burn, but you could almost feel the dark magic coming off of it. He was quite lucky to have even kept both of his eyes on that head under such a powerful attack.

Apparently he had given Quirrell a nasty bite, which was what had prompted the particularly powerful curse.

Anyhow, he seemed cheerful either way, though I had to reach and scratch the neck of that head when I wanted to pet him, less I brush the still-raw skin and send him yelping in pain.

I grimaced every time I looked at it, but at the end of the day, there was little I could do as of yet. Dark magic was just too hard to heal. Even with phoenix tears.

We walked a long way together, through those canyons of oak, where the weathered and ancient trees of the forbidden forest reached like the pillars of a temple for the heavens, as if in support of the great grey dome of clouds above our heads.

A great grey dome that decided it ought to start chucking down rain when we were nearly out of sight of the castle.

"Hell," I cursed, as the rain began to dump in bucket loads atop our heads. "I don't feel like keeping a charm up for the hour walk back, let's just find ourselves a nice hollow and wait for it to soften."

Fluffy nodded his heads, barking, seemingly entirely undisturbed by the rain, I frowned at him.

"Yeah yeah, well some of us don't have inch-thick skin to keep us comfy in literally any environment."

The dog barked, kicking up damp sod with his hind legs as he bounded forward, leaving me running to catch up as he tore a path through the thickets to a large tree in the distance. I smiled as he began to dig out beneath one of its enormous roots, his paw and prosthetic both the size of shovels and with far more force behind them.

When all was said and done, I was able to press myself into the newly formed shelter easily, and Fluffy was able to wedge himself into a fair part of it sideways, though his left side stuck out a bit. There was actually a fairly large amount of room left still sheltered, he was just too big to make use of it being something like seven feet tall at the shoulder when sitting.

I petted his muddy brow, even before washing the dirt off of him with a quick Scourgify. The dog licked my face and I laughed as I propped myself up on a raised embankment under the root. I dried the area I was sitting in and laid down on my side to make the most of the shelter, smiling at the dog who had gone and made it for me.

The rain didn't seem inclined towards letting up anytime soon, and it's rhythmic drumming on the wood above me had me feeling sleepy within minutes, as I softened the rock I propped my head upon, giving me a spongy pillow.

As I felt myself begging to fall to sleep, I had the foresight to put up an alarm spell to wake me in a couple of hours, though in hindsight falling asleep in those woods at all would normally be a mistake.

Luckily, that particular tree did not decide to eat me or anything, and my sleep was easy, if not particularly long.

It was afternoon when I woke up, courtesy of a low growl from Fluffy. I blinked my eyes open, seeing that the rain was still pounding down like a hammer around us, difficult to even see through, but that had not stopped my dog from rising to my defense, his ears perked in anticipation.

Clearing my head, I rolled up onto my feet, trying to avoid the puddle which had formed in the bottom of the dugout area. Listening carefully, I was just able to make out a mewling sound echoing through the storm.

'That doesn't sound like a threat…'I stood up out of the hollow, trying to look around as I put my hand on Fluffy's haunches. "Down boy, down…"

I stepped out into the rain, belatedly putting a charm up against it as I tried to force myself to see through the downpour. As I tracked forward, Fluffy behind me, I followed that mewling noise.

I didn't really see the creature until it was right before me. Splayed in a small but fast-flowing stream, a golden horse, or foal rather, smaller than even me. It had clearly broken its ankle falling into the divet, and I didn't think it could even stand on its own.

It mewled louder as I stepped next to it, but ceased as I pressed my hand against its neck.

"There now, everything is going to be alright, okay, everything will be fine." I put on a brave face, though my charm dropped as I picked the thing up, allowing the rain to soak me almost immediately. Spitting water out I sighed.

"Let's get you back into the hollow."

Fluffy moved up, apparently content that the tiny foal wasn't going to hurt me. After a moment he liked it, which set it mewling again, and I rolled my eyes at the dog. "Did you really have to do that?"

The enormous dog gave me six fully powered puppy eyes and I smiled as I felt my annoyance fade. It was more important to take care of this little one anyway.

I carried the foal back, absently noting that she was a mare, and placed her into the seat I had been occupying underneath the root as I tried to stay in the rest of the hollow, not that being dry would do me much good at this point. I hadn't really bothered learning any healing charms, given my own abilities on that front, so I was in a bit of a conundrum over what to do about her ankles.

I mean, I could brew a potion for it, but that was hardly…

'Ah, I'm a wizard.' I chuckled as I raised my wand, tapping it on the ground and conjuring a rough cauldron set up. Ingredients weren't too hard to come by here either, and this one only needed…

Well, I had some ingredients on me, so hopefully, I could scavenge the rest.

I frowned as I realized this would be the first time I was making a potion without a recipe in front of me, and in suboptimal conditions no less.

That wasn't good.

Still, it wasn't like the ankles were going to mend themselves, and I did know the recipe for the bone-mending potion, having made several batches for market.

I'd just have to hope that that was enough.

'Let's see, crushed juniper berries, a twig from an oak tree, a piece of iron…'

I was in luck, I had two of them already, albeit in small quantities, and the oak twig would be easy enough to scavenge up here.

Carefully, tensely, I took to brewing the potion as the two animals watched on, ensuring that not a drop of rainwater fell in, hoping that my memory was correct.

As the potion bubbled and boiled, slowly turning a shade of milky white, I let out a long breath of relief.

It had worked. I had remembered correctly.

Pouring it into a transfiguration flask, I brought it up to the lips of the young foal, who recoiled a bit, but eventually began to sup at it once I made it evident that I wasn't going to move. I just had to hope that it would work on whatever species the golden mare was.

As luck would have it, it seemed to, as with a creaking sound that signified a mending bone, the small creature managed to stagger up onto her feet.

Only to collapse again in exhaustion.

I smiled, stretching to place her up on Fluffy's back. She ought to be safe to move now, but it would take a bit more care to have the bones mend fully. I was sure Hagrid would be more than happy to do it, and he ought to be back by now.

The cold afternoon rain didn't let up much as we made our way back to the castle, but I hardly cared, I was soaked anyway.

Nothing a good charm wouldn't fix.

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Threadmarks Chapter 36: Visiting the Faculty New

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"Is she going to be alright?" I glanced at the foal, which I had set down and dried off in Hagrid's house, just by the fire. The little golden mare had tried to stagger to her feet a couple of times, but conceded to laying in the warmth after collapsing from exhaustion.

"She'll be fine Rupert, yer potion already saw to that, though I'm half surprised she Letch'yer handle her. Unicorns generally aren't too friendly with boys." The big man smiled. "Though the younger sort does tend to be less aggressive about it."

"That's good." I smiled. "She's a unicorn though? Where's the, well, horn?" It wasn't exactly surprising, but the foal looked little like what I expected of the pure white creatures.

"Doesn't grow in until they're about three and a half years old, the foals are born gold and then turn silvery and white as they get older." Hagrid smiled. "This little one must have gotten lost in the rainstorm, I imagine her herd is worried sick."

I sighed, nodding. "I'll try to get her back to them in a bit then…" turning to look at the big man, I decided to turn the Conversation towards a, hopefully, more pleasant topic. "So, how did things go at the Ministry today?"

"Oh, well, quite well actually. I've got my rights to a wand back I do. Barely a formality they said, once the headmaster brought out the Basilisk's corpse. Seemed the Wizengamot wanted the whole thing over with."

"Oh, that's good to hear then. Planning on taking a trip to Ollivander's?"

"Don't need to, the headmaster fixed my old wand for me." The man smiled, drawing the comparatively small device out of his enormous pocket. "Still works as fine as I remember it did."

"That's good." I nodded. "Planning to finish your education?"

The enormous man snorted magnificently, before starting into uproarious laughter. "Bwahahaha, I hadn't thought anyone but the headmaster would go asking about that. No, no, I don't plan on finishing my schooling, I'm quite content where I'm at. In fact, I'll probably end up teaching care for magical Creatures when Professor Kettleburn retires."

I chuckled, smiling. "I'll be sure to take your class then." Glancing out towards the window, I shook my head slightly, my smile falling. "What about the thing with Harry's godfather."

"That was still underway when I left, though as I hear it Professor Dumbledore is quite hopeful about the outcome." The big man smiled. "Said he got the Minister to authorize Veritaserum for it, so it should be a quick thing."

"That's truth serum right?"

"Yes, at this point the only real one who could stop it is Crouch, and I doubt he wants to tangle with Professor Dumbledore on this at the moment. He had the whole Wizengamot in a righteous tizzy this morning."

I nodded at that. It was easy to forget just how politically powerful Dumbledore was.

I mean he was essentially the prime-minister of the international Wizarding government, and unlike the United Nations, they weren't just for show. Whatever political support he wielded, it was apparently enough to get this all done in just a few days.

"What do you think will happen then?"

"Can't say, not for sure, but I suspect that they'll have mister Black out of Azkaban soon enough, and probably mister Pettigrew in his place." The man handed me a teacake. "Oh, and there's a bit more good news as well, Professor McGonagall and Professor Sprout were both up and about when I got back, though a bit shaken. It'll be good having all the house-heads on call, especially since… well, I suppose Quirrell isn't going to come back for it at this point."

"Oh?" I perked up, startling the little Mare, who had teetered up next to me while I wasn't looking. "That's good news, I had worried the potions to cure them would be harder to brew."

"Professor Snape may be an unfriendly sort, but he's a real prodigy with a cauldron, that and sharp as a tack." Hagrid smiled as I stroked the neck of the… Unicorn. I was stroking the neck of a Unicorn.

I looked down at the mythical beast. The same creature I noted whose hair made the core of my wand. Well, not this same exact creature precisely, but the point was all the same.

It was just odd to think about. Sure Fluffy was rarer, but he was a dog. I understood dogs, even when they had three heads. This was a Unicorn, and about as prominent as mythical creatures could get.

It let out a little happy sound as I continued stroking its mane.

"Hah, a right magizoologist you're turning out to be Rupert, I don't think I've ever seen a Unicorn that friendly with a man before, even if you save them they tend to run off."

I nodded at the half-giant's words, smiling at the little creature. She really was quite small, all things considered, like a foal out of a cartoon.

I glanced back at Hagrid, raising an eyebrow. "Do you know which if any herd she's attached to?"

"I imagine they'll come to get her if ya leave her here. They know me well enough, and they never lose track of their young."

I nodded. "Hear that? Your family will come and get you, so I'll just leave you here with Hagrid for a little bit, okay?"

Much like Fluffy, the unicorn seemed to understand my speech, looking at me sadly until I tore my eyes away.

"I need to go talk to Professor McGonagall about something."

I turned to leave the hut, but was knocked over by a headbutt into the small of my back, knocking me onto the floor as the golden foal hopped up onto my back, neighing triumphantly.

I turned my head, staring at the diminutive creature while it hopped up and down on top of me, leaving muddy hoof-marks on my robes.

"Oh, you're going to be more trouble than fluffy aren't you." I reached up, pushing the little horseback as I stood up glancing towards a chuckling Hagrid.

"Har", Hagrid chuckled, sitting back in his chair as the baby unicorn continued to pester me. "I don't think she wants ya to leave."

"Mister Irving, is there a reason you have brought a Unicorn foal into the castle, and more importantly, my office."

The house-head of Gryffindor stared at me over her wooden desk with a look somewhere between exasperation and amusement, while I tried to look as pleasant as possible.

"Yes Professor, she didn't want to let me leave Hagrid's without her so I just carried her here instead."

"Should I expect a Cerberus in the hall as well then?" The professor raised an eyebrow.

"No, Fluffy is actually very good about that. This little one though? Well, she's a brat."

"I see." The professor's lip tugged up for a moment, before returning to its usual flat line. "I take it you came to discuss the book I gave you for Christmas mister Irving? And I must say that your mug was an excellent use of basic transfiguration."

"That's part of it, yes, and thank you for the book by the way professor, I'm glad you like your mug." I put on my friendliest smile. "I did end up putting the book to use rather quickly."

"So I've heard, and not to its intended use either." The professor shook her head slightly. "It would be a lie to say that your quickness of wit in taking that matter to professor Dumbledore has likely saved several lives, including your own. Just take care that you continue to exercise such caution in the future."

"Certainly" I nodded. "As you can probably guess, my answer to your question is yes. I do want to become an animagus, and I'd like you to help me, on one condition."

"Oh?" The thin woman raised her teacup to her lips, "go on."

"I'd like to help my friends do the same."

The woman covered a smile for just a moment, before sighing.

"I'd take it that would be Mister Potter and Mister Weasley?"

"And Hermione," I said firmly, the girl had already been cut out of so much, and I wanted her to be an ally, part of my adopted family so to speak. This would be bonding, if not necessarily pleasant.

"Miss Granger as well then." Her eyes sharpened on me. "And why should I do this? None of them are performing at such a level that I made them the same offer."

"Because It'd be awfully lonely to do it alone when I could do it with others, and I can brew their potions for them if I need to."

The woman looked at me for a long moment, before a small smile crept up onto her face. "Well, I suppose that's a good enough reason as any." She said tapping her desk with the tip of her wand. "Though I will expect you to ensure that they take this seriously. Particularly mister Weasley. The consequences of a failed animagus potion are often dire."

"Obviously," I said, and McGonagall nodded, drawing out three small dry leaves out of the drawer.

"These are mandrake leaves for you, Mister Potter and Mister Weasley to begin holding in your mouths. I will ensure that miss Granger receives another with instructions to do the same. With any luck, we should be able to brew your potion on the first moon of the new year, a week after classes resume."

"You knew I was going to ask for my friends to learn as well?"

"I suspected you would, and Miss Granger received the same book over the holidays, though I suspect it would have taken her considerably longer than you to attempt becoming an animagus herself."

I stared at the professor for a long moment, trying to think of a clever retort.

"Are you sure you're not a Slytherin?" I settled on, at last, prompting an enormous smile from the woman, the biggest I had seen not produced by alcohol.

"Houses hardly preclude the traits of the others. And from your recent actions, I suspect you have been clever enough yourself." The woman settled back into her default appearance. "Now, is there anything else you would like to ask?"

"Well uh, there is one thing. Has Hagrid told you what he gave me for Christmas?"

"No," the woman said, her eyes narrowing "though with that phrasing I will guess that it was in flagrant disregard of school rules."

"Kind of, though Professor Dumbledore knows, I thought it was probably best to notify you as well." I stroked the foal in my arms as I spoke, sighing.

"Don't tell me he gave you the Unicorn."

"No, no, she's just waiting for her family to come to get her for the moment." I waved my hand. "No, he gave me fluffy."

"The Cerberus?" McGonagall already knew the answer from the way her gaze suddenly dropped in temperature from suspicious to Icey.

"Yes, he's also been having me walk him in the forbidden forest, which is where I found and healed the Unicorn."

The woman looked at me for a moment, then winced, before standing up on her feet. When I moved to follow, she waved me down.

"You will remain seated here for the time being mister Irving. I have matters to discuss with our Gamekeeper regarding the appropriateness of gifting highly dangerous magical beasts capable of combating Basilisks to first years." As the woman left, leaving me in my chair I thought I heard her mutter something under her breath about how my job taking care of it was already ridiculous enough.

I didn't buy the outrage personally. She had already put Harry on the Quidditch team, a team for a game played on wooden brooms moving upwards of two hundred miles an hour.

I just smiled as I moved to the window, the unicorn suspended in my arms, glancing down at Hagrid's hut on the grounds below. Where her figure in tall black robes was stalking angrily towards it.

At least until Fluffy tackled her out of nowhere and started liking her, followed closely by the appearance of an obviously jubilant Hagrid who must have just gotten done feeding the dogs, as Fang was by his side.

Yeah, she wasn't going to make me get rid of my dog.

She didn't have the heart.

Last edited: Oct 22, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 37: Talking and Walking (Well, more Riding Really) New

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Charlezany

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Oct 23, 2019

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#619

"Oww, Rupert! She bit me!"

I glanced at Ron, who was busy backing away from the small unicorn that had decided to plant herself firmly by my side as I did my reading for the night, occasionally demanding attention by shoving her head into my lap.

"You shouldn't have kept trying to pet her then. You know that she's been growling at you for like half an hour."

"I thought it was affectionate."

I stared at the eleven-year-old, schooling my face into a deadpan and raising an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Well, ok, maybe a little less affectionate, but still, who doesn't bloody well want to pet a unicorn?" He glared suspiciously at the small foal. "Aren't they supposed to be pure and wholesome? Why is she being such a little pest?"

"I have my suspicions," I said plainly, especially given the way she'd stuck to me, and that Hagrid hadn't called for me yet. "Well, and she's just a spoiled little princess."

The unicorn licked my hand as if to signify that she appreciated the title.

"And a self-aware one too apparently. Lovely." I turned to Ron. "So, where's Harry?"

"Went off with Dumbledore to go get his Godfather from Azkaban. I don't think the headmaster wanted him to go, but Harry guilted him into it."

I chuckled, the idea of Harry guilting anyone into anything knowingly was just too funny. "Good on him then, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near that accursed rock."

"Me either." Ron nodded. " I've never seen it, but I've heard the stories, it's why my father always pushes for leniency in Misuse of Muggle Artifacts cases. People who go into Azkaban, even for a couple of months, don't come out the same."

"I imagine they wouldn't." I shook my head. "I think when we've finished this whole animagus thing I'll start working on the Patronus."

"Isn't that supposed to be really advanced?"

I shrugged my shoulders, sitting back in my chair. "Only differences I can see between advanced and basic charms are the wand movements and the consequences for failure going up." I smiled. "I think anybody could probably learn any spell with a bit of effort, barring a few with special requirements."

"That's just because you have an easy time with all of them."

"This is true." I nodded. "Speaking of advanced magic, how does that Mandrake leaf taste?"

"Terrible!" The boy made a choking noise." and it's got to be there until the next full moon?"

"Yep." I smiled. "We were lucky to start it when we did, that means we'll be able to brew the potion under the wolf moon, which I believe should strengthen the effect somewhat given its significance. I hope Harry gets home soon so I can shove the third one in his mouth, and that Hermione starts tonight. It'd be a shame for her to only get it a month later."

"It'd be something I could do before her at least." Ron chuckled, smiling good-naturedly.

Before I could think of a witty remark, the door to the room swung open, revealing our final roommate had made his return.

"Hey Harry, how did it go?" I waved, smiling.

"Er… well, alright I guess. We went to Azkaban." The boy smiled for a moment before looking down. "It really did look a dreadful place, even if Peter's a traitor I think I'd almost rather see him dead than put him there. Sirius, ah, that's my godfather, he was crying when they let him out, ran right up and started hugging me."

"I imagine I would too if I got out of Azkaban." I smiled. "Did you like him?"

"Oh, yeah!" Harry perked up immediately, a grin crossing his face. "Well, he did smell a bit bad, but once he stopped crying he told me I looked just like my father, but with my mother's eyes. Nobodies even mentioned that to me before, not even Aunt Petunia!" The boy just kept rambling on, not that I could blame him. "Then he talked to Dumbledore for a while, and I didn't catch most of it, but it sounded like they were arguing about the Dursley's for a while. Then Syrius fell over from exhaustion and we had to get him food."

"I imagine that was all very entertaining."

"Yeah, I'm not quite sure what will happen though." Harry frowned for a moment, before smiling again. "He did say he was going to come to visit before the break was over once he had gone and "cleaned up a bit" whatever that means."

"Probably a lot to do when you get out of Azkaban." I nodded. "I'd bet he spends the next year or two just fixing his accounts and getting back in touch with old friends and family."

"Maybe…" Harry nodded, looking a bit guilty. "I guess I shouldn't expect too much when he just got out of prison."

"Well, you'll have other things to occupy you," I smirked, holding up the last of the three mandrake leaves. "Go stand in the moonlight then stick this in your mouth."

The boy raised an eyebrow at me, and then recognition came to his face. "Oh, That's a…"

"Yes, go ahead."

The boy grabbed it, smiling before I saw his eyes widen as he actually looked towards me.

"Why do you have a horse?"

"She's a Unicorn, now stick that stupid mandrake leaf into your mouth so you can start working on becoming an animagus."

"A Unicorn?"

"Harry."

"Fine, Fine, I'm going."

The boy went to the window, standing under the direct moonlight and shoving the leaf in his mouth, before almost immediately bleching.

"Hah!" Ron barked. "I knew it."

"What..? This is disgusting!" Harry spoke around the leaf, just long enough for me to cast the sticking charm to it, fixing it onto the roof of his mouth until somebody countercharmed it.

"Sorry, them's the breaks Harry, get used to it. For the next twenty-eight days, everything's going to taste terrible for us."

The boy sighed, looking at me with weary eyes behind his glasses. "I think I see why everyone isn't an animagus."

I nodded, about to say something before the foal jumped into my lap, licking my face as I tried to avoid having my crotch stepped on by the overeager unicorn.

"I think your little Princess wants attention, Rupert." Ron chuckled, "perhaps if you kiss her she'll turn into the queen."

"Oh toss off Ron." I shook my head, turning towards the creature. "What am I going to do with you?"

The tiny creature locked my nose and I narrowed my eyes.

"Right. I'm going to bed. You can sleep on the floor." I commanded, tossing a pillow down for the small horse and hitting it with a softening charm for good measure.

Hogwarts pillows were firm things, with only a little bit of give to them.

Pulling my own covers over me, I was only a little surprised to feel a heavyweight come down on top of my chest only minutes in.

I rolled over, pulling my sheets up over my head to prevent stray licks.

'She's not a unicorn, she's a fucking cat.'

Needless to say that on the first of January nineteen-ninety-too, I woke up smelling like Unicorn hair, in a dorm room smelling like unicorn excrement.

I can confirm that their feces were indeed rainbow-colored. God bless Scourgify and its many and varied uses. I grabbed the sleepy foal and brought it with me as I went to feed Fluffy in the morning. No need to have her kick Ron to death when I was awake. We probably made a very odd pair wandering down through the castle. A very sleepy wizard with a similarly sleepy golden horse slung under one arm.

She did have the good sense to kick off of me when she saw Fluffy bounding towards us like a two-ton wrecking ball, scattering to the side as the enormous pooch landed on top of me in a move that marginally dislocated my left shoulder.

Fortunately, I was able to correct that as easily as rolling my back.

"Hey, there boy." I smiled as he began licking me, much to the jealousy of my smaller companion, who began trying to headbutt the dog's legs, since she couldn't even reach his torso.

I laughed as I crawled out from underneath the enormous dog, grabbing one of the enormous steaks that made up most of his diet from the icebox and tossing it to him. As I closed the lid I smiled, seeing the bag of oats that Hagrid had left next to the bin, I grabbed a handful to bring back to the unicorn as my dog mutilated his breakfast utterly.

"Good morning." I waved to Hagrid, smiling as the giant stepped out from his hut. Though my smile soon dropped. "I take it that the parents of our little foal never arrived."

Hagrid shook his head, sighing and scratching the back of his neck. "No, I'm afraid not." He looked down. "She'll probably have to go into the Hogwarts class heard when she's old enough. Shame though. There are a good dozen wild herds in the woods. I'm surprised none have claimed her."

I nodded, looking down at the little golden mare. "Well, at least I'll get to see more of you." I smiled, stroking the top of her head. "What should I do with her now? It's not like she can stay in my dorm room forever?"

"Well, ye are technically still the assistant Gamekeeper."Hagrid smiled. "I'm sure we could come up with something. I was thinking of giving Fluffy some sort of house to sleep in any way, not that the cold's bothering him much."

"So a doghouse with a stable attached?" I asked, chuckling lightly. "Think you could get an expansion charm up inside of it?"

"Oh, I hadn't thought of that, that'd be a good idea." The big man smiled, winking at me in the most obvious manner possible. "But of course I couldn't do that without ministry permission."

'Ah'

I winked back knowingly. "Guess that won't work then. Well, let me know if you can figure something out."

"Will do."

I smiled, glancing at the wooden prosthetic on Fluffy's leg.

"C'mon boy, let's go see if Madame Pomfret can do you better than that."

One trip to the hospital wing, and one significantly improved prosthetic later, I was sitting on top of Fluffy's back as we made our way into the forbidden forest. The dog seemed to handle my weight, and even that of my unicorn companion, fine, and I even got the chance to read some more as I went, specifically, by engaging with by far the oddest of the books in my possession.

"Hello master Budge" I smiled, flipping open the paves of the book as Fluffy bulldozed through the groves below like the enormous fuzzy brute that he was. "What do you have for me today?."

"Oh my, is that Rupert? I had half thought you abandoned me."

"No, there's just been a lot going on these past few days." I smiled, turning the pages. "You'll be happy to note that I've started on the animagus process."

"Really? At such a young age too? How excellent, why, with abilities such as that we will have no issue at all in the competition, presuming that you've found a way to enter."

"The Triwizard cup is the year before, and I already am going to establish a precedent for a load of lower years entering that. Though I still don't expect it to be easy. Maybe if I take down a dragon alone?"

"That… seems technically doable, a potion could certainly be made to allow you to perform such a feat."

"I was thinking with charms actually, you see I…"

Continuing to speak to Budge, we made our way through that typically imposing forest at a safe and easy pace, while I bounced ideas and concepts for potions off of the book in my lap.

It was a splendid way to spend your time, and one I would fall back on often in the days to come.

Last edited: Oct 23, 2019

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Threadmarks Chapter 38: Whole Place is Gonna Smell like Dog. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 23, 2019

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#634

Winter gripped the land in fairly cold and cloudy days as January dragged onwards, while I used the time to take care of my pets, others used it to play with their Christmas presents, toy with newly restored rights, or try to bum cerberus-rides off of their younger brother's friends.

"For the last time no."

"Aw c'mon, it'll be fun, and it's not like much of anything can hurt him."

"Do you think that I'm some kind of idiot? Fluffy is my pet, and really obvious. If he pisses all over Filch's desk after busting in his wall it obviously implicates me."

"Ooh, that's a good one, write that down George."

"Sure thing."

I glared at the boy who was busy scribbling notes down using some sort of magic quill.

"The answer is no."

"Please? Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"Nope, not having it."

Ah, there was the shift, asking for free was one thing, but now he was sure he wasn't getting it. Or they, rather, no matter how uncannily they moved together.

Particularly when they were sliding up to a rube.

"We can make it worth your while." George, or possibly Fred, whispered in my ear while they came at me from both sides. "We know you do potions in your spare time, so how about we" The boy flipped his hand around in something like an actual magic trick, revealing a small brass key and holding it up in front of me. " hook you up with a way to get right into professor Snape's own ingredient cabinets."

I shoved the boys off. "No thank you, not only do I not believe that to be the actual key but moreover I have no intention to steal from my professors."

"Oh, your mistrust and straight-laced-ness, they wound us!" George pressed a hand to his forehead, pretending to faint, while Fred started faux sobbing.

"I've had enough of this. Fluffy, down." I hopped onto the cerberus back as he let me on, followed shortly by a surprisingly adept at climbing little unicorn. "Let's go around the lake, today boy."

As the dog bounded off I smiled, feeling the lightness in my pocket. No doubt the pair had thought they'd managed to nick my wand. Too bad for them. I drew the thing out of my ingredient pouch, a small thing I had put an illegal expansion charm on. I had read further on the enforcement of such measures and found that there had quite literally never been a legal case against anyone not intending to sell an expanded device. It seemed the magic bag monopoly only cared if you were trying to work your way into their market.

Anyhow, my ability to violate the law notwithstanding, It made me fairly resistant to the oldest pickpocket trick in the book, though I was sure that the Weasley's would step up their game in the future.

The lake really wasn't all that big to be entirely honest, and with the massive strides Fluffy took, circumnavigating it was fairly quick, I soon found myself on the returning side, marching along at a pleasant pace as we returned towards the school.

Well, Fluffy was the one doing the Marching.

I was enjoying the crisp winter air and the view of the castle, the astronomy tower piercing up through the clouds, when a loud bark broke me out of my reverie, and prompted the enormous dog I was riding on to swivel a full ninety degrees to the left.

There before us was a… well, compared to Fluffy he wasn't large, but I suppose he would be large for a mundane black dog.

Yeah, it was definitely Sirius Black.

"Good day Mister Black." I waved, smiling, and seemingly stunning the man. "I take it you're here to visit Harry?"

The dog just kind of sat there for a moment before it let out a rapid barking that quickly turned into laughter as it revealed a thin and pale man, with thick aristocratic features that were disrupted only by his sallow skin and weak frame. He didn't look bad, not exactly, as he had clearly shaved and his hair was well taken care of, but his appearance easily betrayed the trauma he had only recently escaped.

Still, his laughter betrayed a heart all too happy to forget about it.

"He told me you were a smart one, you know when we were out at dinner. Quaint little muggle chips-shop on the west coast. Very greasy food. Best meal I've had in my life." The man's smile was broad, despite his appearance. "I suppose that knack for spotting animagi is what I have to thank for the end of my imprisonment. Rupert, I presume?"

"Indeed." I matched his smile. "Would you like a ride to the castle Mister Black?"

"Sure." He smiled, marching forward and eliciting a growl from Fluffy.

"Hold on a moment, let him smell you."

"Phah, I know dogs better than most." Sirius marched straight up in front of the growling Cerberus' Nose. For a moment he just stared eye to, well, a lot of eyes.

Then, Fluffy whimpered and sat down.

"Yep, beta through and through, no way you could even tame an alpha that size. Well, unless you started young I suppose, but even then he wouldn't let you ride him." The man hopped up onto Fluffy's back. "I, on the other hand, am a human, and not constrained by doggish social-structures."

I rolled my eyes, patting the heads of my poor abused puppy. "Don't worry Fluffy, I think you're stellar."

The dog harumphed, standing to his feet and moving towards the castle at a notably faster rate, though it only took a moment before I heard a yelp and cursing behind me.

"What the hell, is that a bleeding Unicorn?" Sirius asked, trying to get the foal, Princess, who was currently biting his ass, off of him, with little success. "Why do you have a Unicorn?"

"She's an orphan like me and I'm really good with animals," I said, nodding sagely.

Sirius looked at me for a moment before remembering that he was supposed to be in comedic pain. Struggling and finally getting princess off of him. "Bloody biter she is."

"Yep, total brat." I smiled, calling her to me and stroking her back fondly. "Cute as a button though."

"Maybe to you kid." The man chuckled. "Ah, it looks like we've found our stop."

I turned to the rapidly approaching castle courtyard and nodded. "All off the fluffy express."

Hopping down as the enormous dog cane to a stop, startling a pair of Hufflepuff seniors making out on a bench, I petted the enormous dog on the nose. "You go hang out with Hagrid, I'll walk you after dinner."

The dog nodded, bounding off with his earthshaking steps.

"Walks are always a good time." The older dog said, and I turned back towards him. "What?"

"Aren't you here to see Harry?"

"Well yes, I am, but I was going to wait for-"

"For me." Another man said, wandering into the courtyard. "You very nearly trampled me earlier, no doubt because you were distracting the driver Sirius."

"I deny any such accusation."

The other man turned to me, offering a handshake, looking much better put together than Sirius. "Remus Lupin, nice to meet you."

I nodded, shaking his hand. "I'm Rupert, Rupert Irving."

"Yes, Sirius said that Harry had a great deal to say about you." The man smiled, before turning to Hogwarts, and then back to Sirius. "Are you ready?"

"Hah," Sirius laughed, the more jubilant of the two despite his worse appearance. "More ready than you, I've already seen him, and I was in Azkaban. Where's your excuse?"

Lupin, or Remus rather, seemed about to respond in kind, before glancing back towards me and sighing. "You know why now come on, you've spent all week convincing me it's time for this."

I smiled at the banter. It reminded me of myself and Ron, and our cheerful back and forth.

The two entered the castle, and we're almost immediately met by a rather stern-faced McGonagall, who's expression immediately lightened into a smile when she saw them.

"Ah, Remus, and Sirius." The Scottish woman smiled and raised an eyebrow slightly as she craned her neck to see me and Princess. "And mister Irving too, why am I not surprised that you were the first to greet them?"

I rubbed the back of my neck while Sirius let out a chuckle. "Good day professor, we've come to visit my Godson."

"Indeed, I'm sure Mister Potter will quite like that, and I see no issue with it." The woman turned her eyes to me. "I am sure Mister Irving will be able to ensure that you do not get lost in reminiscing on your way to Gryffindor Tower?"

"Yes, ma'am." I smiled, trying to look as innocent as possible while my probably-in-violation-of-the-school-rules-but-nobody-was-going-to-question-it unicorn licked my hand.

Eh, I guess it was technically part of my job. Assistant Gamekeeper right? I'd have to remember that when Snape started docking me points.

"Unfortunately, while I would love to chat, I have a pair of troublemakers to track down who are entirely too clever for their own good." The woman gave a harsh glare to Sirius and a slightly less harsh glare to Remus, before turning away.

"Do come by my office to chat after dinner if you can find the time."

The two former marauders watched her go, seemingly trying to keep straight faces, before Sirius broke out giggling, something that soon turned into yet more laughter. "Hah, I think she's mad about us becoming animagi and not telling her." The man chuckled. "James always was her favorite."

"That's true." The werewolf smiled. "She'd always give us worse detentions because of it too, her and her tough love."

"Right, Right?" Sirius chuckled. "Say there, Rupert, see if you can't keep us from getting lost, it's been a while since I've been here, and Dementors play havoc on the memories.

I glanced at the man for a long moment, before turning to Remus.

"He spiked his own drinks with Cheering potion didn't he?"

The werewolf looked at me for a moment, then with wide eyes turned to his friend. "You did, didn't you. God, you're an idiot."

Sirius just grinned wider. "Got to impress the Godson Remus. Don't need to give Dumbledore any more to go at me with."

"Oh for the last time, he said he'd be fine with it once you were stable."

"I am stable, more than those bloody muggles at least. How someone related to Lily had such terrible taste is beyond me. I've only met the man once, but the way Harry talks about them I can see the whole bloody thing in my mind."

"Oh sure, make your snap judgments on what the eleven-year-old thinks."

"You two know I'm right here. Right?"

The two turned to me in sync, before having different responses, Lupin grimaced, sighing as he realized that this was not a conversation to have in front of me. Sirius just kept going.

"Yes, you're his friend, you know he hates the Dursley's right."

"That's true," I admitted, but before he could follow up I raised a hand. "But it probably wouldn't be good for you to meet him drugged either. It'll set false expectations. Besides, if you've got problems then he deserves to see them at least."

The man looked at me for a very long moment, while Remus just kept looking down.

"Skag, you are a smart one, what are they feeding you kids? Owl-bark essence?"

"I wish," I smirked. "You know how much the market rate for distilled wisdom is? No, I'm just smarter than your average Gryffindor." I pulled out my potions manual. "How much of the cheering potion did you drink, I can whip up a counter draught."

"Are you sure you're a first-year?"

"Once again, smarter than your average Gryffindor." I gestured towards the tower. "I normally do my brewing in one of the classrooms near the base. I can get it mixed there before we head up to the dorm.

The wizard stared at me suspiciously for a long period of time, before finally nodding, in an annoyed sort of way.

"Fiiiine."

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Threadmarks Chapter 39: The Sky, or Maybe the Ceiling, is the Limit. New

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Charlezany

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Oct 26, 2019

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#728

Watching Harry interact with the now seemingly detoxed Sirius was an interesting if somewhat embarrassing affair. Both clearly had a great many expectations regarding the other, and both were clearly quite afraid of actually engaging, in case the other didn't meet them.

Or perhaps in case they did.

It was sad enough that I dragged Ron out of the room shortly after I brought Sirius and Remus in.

"Come on." I chuckled, grabbing hold of his arm. "Family matters are family-"

"Yeah, I know." The boy said, twisting out of my grasp. "I was going to go back to the dorm room, not the stairs."

"Much more to do on the stairs." I smiled, "come on, I'll show you something cool."

"Cool like shoving a terrible tasting leaf in your mouth for a whole month?"

"Cool like a room that turns into whatever you want it to be."

The boy looked at me for a moment. "Really?"

"Yes, and what's more, I don't think your brothers know about it. Not yet anyway."

"...wicked."

One walk to the seventh floor later followed along by Princess' clattering little hoofbeats, we reached the corridor.

"Why are you pacing?" Ron asked. "Did you forget where it was?"

"Nope, you just have to pace back and forth to make it show up, it's part of the castle, and a really temperamental part as well." I smiled as I heard the sound of shifting stone on stone, a large metal gate gradually forming to the left. "It's a bit shy as I'm sure you can see."

"Where did it come from?"

"It's here all the time I think, but honestly it's everywhere, the whole castle could rearrange itself with magic if it needed too."

"You're talking like it's alive."

"Alive? No, aware and capable of thought? Yes. Probably. The room actually played a prank on me a few months back."

"A prank? It's a bloody room what did it do?"

"I asked it to open a passage backed to the Gryffindor dorm."

"What did it do, dunk you in the toilet?"

"Girls staircase."

The boy looked at me for a very long moment before laughing out loud. "Now I've got to see it."

"Well, let's go then." I smiled, pressing the great door of the chamber to reveal…

"Bloody hell…"

That was one way to put it. Brainstorming something to impress Ron had given me several ideas, but this had been by far the most ridiculous one. I had worried that even the Room of Requirement wouldn't be able to stretch and alter space just that much.

Before us was a vast field of verdant and precisely cut grass, stretching out into a full-sized pitch, the ceiling was raised up well over three hundred feet, with the same charm that the great hall possessed, depicting the cloudy evening sky drifting above Hogwarts, and wavering images of the stands appeared on the walls, their banners flapping in the wind like Wizarding photographs.

In the center of the pitch, a small, slightly jiggling crate was sitting beside rows of broomsticks, no doubt robbed from some poor storage closet somewhere.

Even knowing it would happen, the ability of the room to create such a titanic space within the castle so easily was jaw-dropping.

I needed to see if this room was kept functional by several different accidental interactions between charms or by more intentional spellwork, but that could wait for another day.

While I was lost in thought at the magical power necessary to spontaneously generate such a massive area, even with spatial expansion charms and the like, Ron seemed lost on his own dream, jogging forward to the row of brooms with the biggest smile I think I had ever seen him wear.

Clicking open the lid on the box, his smile only grew, waving over to me and shouting.

"Everything's here, even the Snitch!"

I smiled, walking over in his direction. "Yep, though it's really only good for training I think. I doubt the professors would approve of us doing anything that could injure us."

Ron looked at me for a moment and then nodded. "I suppose it is too good to be true. Still, the team could use it for practice."

"Possibly." I nodded, "for now though we can. The brooms are just shooting stars, but you could still start training, maybe work it out with Harry."

"Oh, come on, you're not going to practice with me, at least today?"

I stared at the boy for a long moment, before shrugging my shoulders. "I guess I can do it today, but only passing a quaffle back and forth in the air."

That got a big grin, and soon enough we were floating about the massive indoor pitch, hurling the ball back and forth between each other while we moved from one side to the other.

I didn't hate it, and it was easier than expected, but it still didn't exactly get me invested in Quidditch.

We kept it up for a long while before the telltale rumbling of stomachs brought us down from our brooms.

"Time for food I think." Ron smiled cheekily. "Wait until we tell Harry about this."

"It should be fun yeah." I smiled right back. "Don't use it for that stuff all the time though, it's great for study as well."

"Yeah sure." Ron rolled his eyes. "I think I'll leave that to you and Hermione."

"Yeah, keep saying that until two weeks before the end of year tests, great idea Ron." I shrugged my shoulders. "Look, you don't like the book learning right?"

"Yeah, it's pretty boring stuff."

"That's fine then, but you at least should try for an O in the classes where that's not what the finals are about. Charms, Dark Arts, Transfiguration. I'd say potions, but I doubt it's even remotely possible for a Gryffindor to get an O in that class while Snape is in charge. On a final at least, I've pulled it on a couple of individual potions."

The boy smiled, shaking his head. "I'm just not all that good at that stuff mate. Passable sure but O's are a bit..."

"You haven't failed to pick up a single one of their charms during the first lesson. The only thing that kept you at an E for the mid-terms was your own lack of practice."

I glared at him for a moment. "Look, you want to be well known right?" I smiled kindly as I could manage. "Or at least known for something other than your brothers."

"Yeah, but all of them got good marks as well, not like that'll put me past them on anything."

"Ron, you are, in my opinion, the bravest person in our year, quite possibly currently attending Hogwarts, but certainly in our year." I patted the boy on the back of the shoulder. "You, with no guarantee of survival, or ability to stop it as I had, jumped in front of a troll's club to save Hermione." I placed my finger on his chest. "Now, what does that say about you?"

He looked at me for a long moment. "Well my mum said it made me a daft stupid git, but she was crying then and I think she was mostly just upset I'd gotten hurt."

I rolled my eyes. "Let me go at it from another angle. What's your favorite game?"

"Quidditch, obviously."

"Think about it for a moment, what game do you actually play the most?"

"Qui-well, Chess actually."

"Right, so let me put it this way. You're brave, you've got a tactical mind, and you're actually quite good at charms when you're trying to learn them. Moreover, in a pinch, you didn't get petrified in fear but leaped up to save Hermione. Now, what type of wizard does that sound like to you?"

The boy looked at me, and I realized he'd actually been blushing for a bit while I talked.

'He probably doesn't get that many compliments.'

"Er, I don't know. A duelist maybe."

I nodded. "A duelist, an Auror, a martial wizard of any sort you care to name. You may not be an inventive type like Fred and George, or a curse breaker with all the maths in his head, or even a magizoologist, as much as I think that's pretty awesome. Hell, Percy may even end up being a better politician than most, but you, I think, are a fighter." I tapped a finger on my brow, smiling. "Think of it in chess terms. You're not a pawn Ron. You're a knight, or maybe a rook. You've got nothing to be afraid of."

The boy nodded and smiled still quite red. "Thanks, Rupert, that's really… well…"

"Ah, but do hang on a moment, I'm not done yet," I smirked slightly. "We've established that you're a rook or a knight, but if you want to be that. Want to become an Auror or a master duelist, with all that natural talent and disposition you have for it, there's one important thing."

I had Ron attention now as I raised a finger, though after a moment dread seemed to settle onto his face.

"Yep, you have to work. Practice. Develop." My smile softened a little. "I don't expect you to become a freak like me or even study the way Hermione does, but tell me, if you're going to become an auror, do you want to become "just" an auror?"

"What do you mean?"

"That if you really want to define yourself, to even surpass your brothers, you have to aim upwards, not just to become strong, but for the top. Becoming the best. I know that's what I'm aiming for."

"You want to become an auror?"

"No." I shook my head. "But I do want to surpass Dumbledore."

Ron looked at me wide-eyed as if I had just grown another head. "But… He's Dumbledore! He's the best wizard since Merlin!"

"Certainly one of the strongest yes." I smiled. "You see why I spend so much time learning now? Trying to develop and expand my skills? I want to have a story and a power to surpass his."

"That's insane mate. He beat Grindelwald, and even You Know Who was scared of him."

"Yep, and I don't doubt that worse wizards will be about in our lifetimes. I mean they seem to show up a few times a century for their big wars and such, and that's if neither of them comes back. They are dark wizards after all."

"Aren't they dead?"

"You Know Who maybe, nobody knows how he died, and he just disappeared when he attacked Harry. Grindelwald is a prisoner in Nuremregard in Austria, though I think if he was going to escape then he already would have. Wouldn't rule it out though."

Ron gulped at that, then nodded. "I… well, I'm not sure I'd want to fight someone like that."

I smiled. "No, you would." I reassured him, "not for all of the same reasons I do to be sure, but for some of them. Remember what You Know Who thought about muggle-borns?"

"Yeah, he tried to bloody murder them all."

"Well, me and Hermione are Muggleborn. Would you stand back and let him kill us?"

"No of course not mate."

"Then see, you want to fight him if it means protecting your friends. You already did that with the troll."

"But… but… it's you know who?"

"Which is why I have to be the best, and why you should try to be the best you can as well. Dumbledore won't live forever, and when he dies, somebody is going to need to do his job. I stepped back from the boy smiling broadly. He was still just eleven, to him this must seem like some sort of secret knowledge. Something to shift his whole worldview, well, hopefully, for the better. "It's definitely going to be me, but if you're up to it, I hope it'll be you all too. You and Harry, and Hermione. If one Dumbledore can do all that, why not see what four can achieve?"

The Rumbling of my stomach alerted me that in my proselytizing I had perhaps inadvertently delayed dinner a bit too much. Not to mention hardly letting the boy getting a word in edgewise. I just kind of got caught up in my own idea.

'Oops.' I rubbed the back of my head, suppressing my own embarrassment.

"Well, just think on it, I guess. You're the first person I've told this too." I smiled, playing it off as wanting to wrap up. "For now let's go eat and find out whether Harry and Sirius have managed to speak a word to each other yet."

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Threadmarks Chapter 40: Dinner Plans New

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Charlezany

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Oct 27, 2019

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You know, I'd seen plenty of death glares in my life. Dozens of them honestly.

None even approached the glare that Professor Snape was drilling into the back of Sirius Black's head throughout dinner.

It uh, well, it did sort of deafen the conversation a little, for me at least, Harry had apparently hit it off wonderfully with Sirius once they actually started talking to each other, and at some point, the conversation turned to Quidditch. That was about when I tuned out, as Sirius apparently thought it absolutely hilarious that Ron was a Chudley Cannons fan, as they had been terrible even in his own youth.

I was actually left sitting across from a fairly melancholic Remus Lupin.

"So." I smiled kindly. "They manage to get over themselves?"

Remus looked at me for a long moment before a small smile pulled up the corners of his mouth. "You're very mature for a boy your age aren't you."

"I'm an orphan." I nodded as if that explained anything. "and a fairly lonely one before I came here at least. I like the caretakers better than the other children."

"That's… well, I'm glad you've found friends at Hogwarts."

"Yep." I smiled, nodding to the older man. "I'm quite glad I ended up in Gryffindor, I don't think I could have bonded nearly as well in the other houses." I gestured to the few people at the Slytherin table. "I think I'd be next best suited to Slytherin, but I'm a muggleborn, so everyone there would hate me."

"Oh?" The man asked, raising an eyebrow. "I would have pegged you for a Ravenclaw."

"No, not really." I shook my head. "Well, maybe, but the thing is that while I enjoy research, it's all in the service of wanting to get better at magic. Hermione is much more in line with Ravenclaw's ideas I think."

"Well, I can't deny that you're clever. " the man smiled, leaning back in his chair. "I doubt anyone would have caught Peter if you hadn't been so on your guard."

"I was reading up on Animagi anyway, Professor McGonagall got me a book on them for Christmas."

"Really? Are you planning to become one?"

"Yes, she wanted me to become a registered one, figuring I was going to develop an interest in it eventually anyway." I smiled cheerily. "She was right, but I'd planned to wait a couple of years before starting on it."

He looked at me dead on. "You're starting on becoming one now? At eleven?"

"Yes, everyone in our group is. Ron, Harry, Hermione and me." I opened my mouth, pointing out the leaf stuck to its roof. "Harry is going to be the youngest one in recorded history as far as I can tell."

"I'll say…" the man smiled, giving me a long look before shaking his head. "You all really are amazing."

"Thanks" I grinned.

"No need to thank me. It's your achievement. If you do it, that is." He glanced over at Sirius, then back to me. "I hear some people screw up the incantations on their first couple of tries."

"We've got McGonagall backing us, so she'll conjure a lightning storm the minute the potion is finished, and we should be able to drink it right away."

I heard a burst of laughter rip out from down the table as I realized that Sirius had been listening in on our conversation. "Hah, that would have saved us so much time. Bloody atmospheric charms, Of Course!" The man almost fell out of his chair. "I should have made James learn the bloody things. Would have saved us a year and a half."

Harry, glanced at the man. "You're an Animagus?"

Sirius looked up, smiling widely. "Of course! All of us were, your father too, and Peter, of course, should have known he was bad the minute we saw his shape." The Black's face turned dark for a moment, before lightening. "But the answer is yes, and I'm even registered now, much to my chagrin. The Rat's testimony included that little revelation. Fortunately, they decided my existing decade in Azkaban covered for a three-month sentence."

"What do you turn into then?" Harry asked excitedly, and I smiled, already knowing the answer.

Before Sirius could answer, however, Remus left the table, saying something about visiting the bathroom. I could guess at his reasons.

"A whopping big black dog, though admittedly not as large as young Rupert's pet. I'm surprised they let you have a Cerberus."

"Fluffy is a good dog." I felt a tongue on my arm and rolled my eyes. "And Princess is a very good unicorn as well if a bit of a brat." I pet the golden creature as she crawled up onto my lap. "Though she's pretty enough to make up for it. Most of the time at least."

"I know the type." Sirius smiled. "Anyhow, we all had nicknames based on our Animagus forms. I used to go by Padfoot, and Remus, well, we hit him with a hair loss charm by accident in the second year, so he got named moony. Your father was a stag, so he was Prongs, and then Peter was Wormtail."

I heard a clatter from down the table and spotted Fred and George carefully replacing their goblets.

"A stag?" Harry asked, seeming quite taken with the idea. "I wonder if I'll be a stag?"

"It's quite possible." Sirius shrugged. "You remind me a lot of him, though a bit shier, like your mother that way. Still, I wouldn't be surprised at all if you ended up a stag."

Harry nodded. "I'd like that."

"So would I." The older man smiled. "If you manage to pull it off maybe I can take you and your friends over to one of the big nature parks in the United States. We went over one time just after your parents got married, though your mother kept getting mad at us for running about without her. Came after me with the broom she flew over on one time at… yellow rock or something like that. It has a big magical forest in the middle of it, much larger than the one at Hogwarts, and the volcano had some great picnic spots."

"That sounds great." I smiled. "I'd love to get out of the orphanage, well, without needing to sneak out."

Harry smiled, nodding. "I hope I can do it too."

Sirius nodded, a bit of steel entering his eyes, as he smiled and stood up from the table, glancing up at a returning Remus. "I'm afraid it's about time for us to go, Harry, it was good seeing you again, and nice to meet you as well Rupert, Ron. I wish you good luck in your endeavors."

"Oh." Harry's face fell immediately. "Al-alright then."

"Chin up Harry, it's not as if you won't see me again, I'm off of that bloody grey rock now." The aristocrat smiled. "Besides, I have a somewhat late Christmas present on the way for you, I wanted to put my bloody great bank account to use since my mother did the world a favor and kicked the bucket, after re-inheriting me no less. Though she didn't fix the bloody wallpaper." The man smiled widely. "Of course I'm now head of the great and prestigious House of Black, so I suppose I can just add myself back on."

The man smiled widely, hugging Harry.

"I'll see you again sometime soon, at the Express when the semester ends at the very least." He smiled pleasantly, holding Harry up against his chest. "Think you can wait that long?"

"Y-yes…" Harry nodded, and I looked away as I realized the boy was tearing up.

Well, he was still a kid after all. Not as hardened as he would be at fourteen, nor as experienced.

Actually that would be a problem. I'd have to find some other way to keep my friends in adventuring shape in the years to come.

'Maybe I should go try to tame a Nundu and bring them with me. That would be at least as bad as a Basilisk.'

I smiled, shaking my head as the remaining Marauders departed.

'Something tamer than that for the near future I should think.'

There was always Hagrid's dragon. Just dealing with Norberta would be more of a pain in the but than most students could deal with.

I chuckled at the thought as Harry returned to the table, looking sullen. I quickly schooled my face into a softer smile.

"Chin up Harry, you've got family now, and he actually seems to quite like you too."

"Yeah, it's just… yeah, you're right." The boy sat down, wiping under his eyes. "I shouldn't feel too bad about when you don't have anyone to go home too."

"Who me?" I forced a laugh. Well, maybe forced is the wrong word. I wasn't exactly alone, not having made the friends I did here, but still, I did miss my old family. "I'm in a good spot really. I can be anyone if I want to, so it's not like I'm really stuck in the orphanage. Hell, the first thing I'm doing when I get home is heading over to Diagon Alley. I've actually gotten a little change with the student job Dumbledore gave me, and I figured I'd open a Gringotts account. Maybe get some summer work to start filling it up."

Ron looked at me like I was a madman. "You can't do magic outside of Hogwarts, nobody would hire you."

I glanced at him, then smiled, just a little bit. "Who said anything about working for wizards Ron? Muggles have money too, even if the conversion rate is fairly poor, and fixed by ministry statute."

Well, that was a lie to some extent, I was fairly sure that Galleons were worth far less than their weight in gold, but that didn't matter since their warding prevented them from being melted down.

Not like it mattered in the long run anyway, not with the plans I had for the summer.

"I guess that's true." The boy nodded, smiling. "I hadn't thought of that."

"It won't be fixed pay work." I admitted, "the muggles have laws against letting children work, but I can still do handyman work, and make myself look older if I have to."

The boy looked at me, then over to Harry, then back up to me. "Wait… is that why you've been getting so tall then?"

"Shh," I put a finger to my mouth. Even after just one semester of shapes hitting enforced growth, I was already looking more like a fourteen-year-old than an eleven-year-old. I was already taller than Fred and George."I just, um, grow abnormally."

The boy looked at me confused before realization crossed his face and he winked dramatically. "Oh yeah… how could I forget."

"Hush up. I'm just glad the Slytherin are up at the front of the hall." I smiled, thinking of a way to get my friends the adventure experience they were lacking. "Do you two want to come on my walk with me tonight?"

"Mate you don't walk, you just ride the great big dog around."

"Same thing." I waved my hand dismissively. "But I can promise adventure, all the wonders of the forbidden forest laid out before you. Heck, we might even see some centaurs. I've seen hunts of them a couple of times, but I think Hagrid told them to leave me alone."

"That sounds like fun." Harry nodded, cheering up almost immediately. "What are they like?"

"Well, I haven't talked to them, but I think they're basically the same way they've always been since ancient Greece, and I think they don't like wizards too much." I scratched the back of my head. "They used to roam all over the place before the statute of secrecy. Now they mostly get drunk, go hunting, and stargaze. They're supposed to be spectacular diviners." I gestured to my robes. "Either way I keep my robes shielded, and from what Hagrid told me Fluffy scares them."

"Yeah, sure I guess that would be fun." Ron nodded. "I've never been in the forbidden forest before."

Harry nodded along. "Yeah, it'll be exciting."

I smiled, they were totally going to shit their pants.

"Well let's get going then."