Chapter 8
Harry rose early that Sunday morning, ready to head to the greenhouses. The other boys were all sleeping, Ron more noticeably than the others. Neville however was almost ready at the same time Harry was. He picked up his four pots while Neville went off to get whatever he needed for his work in the Greenhouses. He had made them all yesterday following Neville's help, though he had taken a break to go flying with Ron.
Hermione was already up, reading in the corner as you would usually find her on a Sunday morning. Crookshanks was curled up in her lap. The room was otherwise empty. Gryffindor's were not notable early risers.
"Hermione, Neville and I are heading to the Greenhouses, if you want to join us?" Really Harry just wanted her to take a break from all her studying. She looked up at him and waved him off.
"No thank you Harry, I was hoping to finish this today." She lifted the book slightly and Harry saw that it was a book on wizarding families. Harry was surprised at the reading material honestly, given her dislike for all things pureblood and her focus on magical academics over general information.
"Not your usual reading material." Harry noted casually while waiting for Neville, he placed the pots down on the table in front of him, where Hermione had collected a few of her textbooks. She watched him do so but looked away sharply, a frown forming on her brow.
"I needed a break." Hermione replied before looking up at him. "And well, it's still all a part of our magical history, regardless of people's opinions." She blushed then. "And when you talked about your family I got interested in looking into the histories of wizarding families rather than goblin rebellions and the Statute of Secrecy."
"Anything interesting?" Harry asked, genuinely curious.
"I think so. It's weird. This book is about the more notable members of British wizarding families, but it's most odd. They all seem to follow similar trends, with children and grandchildren being talented in similar fields."
"So?" Harry asked, not being that surprised. "Parents teach their children and all that." Hermione shook her head.
"Yes that might be the case for some families, the Ollivanders are almost all wand makers. The Blots are all talented portrait painters and Arringtons for their brooms. Did you know they own all three major broom making companies? But it goes further than that, many of the Longbottoms, Bones and Prewitts, who are almost all twins also, were talented duellists. Greengrasses were almost always famous botanists. Carrows were brilliant at alchemy, though not like Nicholas Flamel, who was also from a long line of alchemists." Hermione took a quick breath.
"It goes on and on like that, for every family. It's not that all the members of the families all do the same thing, but all the big achievements were in the same fields. Except for two." She looked at Harry more intensely then, making him a bit uncomfortable. "The Peverells and the Potters don't follow this trend."
"They don't?" Based on his reading of his family's history and the achievements of each individual, this didn't surprise him. Though it was interesting that the external view of his family was different to that of other families.
Hermione shook her head in confirmation. "No, they don't, there are famous potioneers, spell crafters, botanists, zoologists, curse breakers. It's basically endless. The difference is most peculiar."
"What about the Weasley's?" Harry asked, curious about his friend's family.
"There's not much in here about them. Just a small entrance about them being a large family and a few famous explorers." Hermione shrugged.
"Hey Harry, are you ready?" Asked Neville, coming down from the dormitory. Harry smiled and nodded, picking back up the pots. He turned back to his bushy haired friend but she had already returned to her book, so Harry left her. Talking to Hermione had been oddly stilted this last week since their first Ancient Runes class, but he wasn't sure why. She wasn't being awkward or not herself, but it was like she looked for the fastest way out of the conversation. So with a sigh he exited with Neville, who was carrying a small tree with him.
"Is that a wiggentree Neville?" The trees were covered in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, though they hadn't actively learned about them in the previous two years of Herbology. It was a small tree, it's stunted nature similar in appearance to a bonsai, with brown bark and branches which all forked at a right angle from a single central trunk. They were covered in small green leaves. "Where were you keeping it?"
"My gran gave me my grandad's trunk for my birthday, it has a compartment for plants. Best gift she's ever given me, besides my dad's wand." That didn't sound right. Harry had read a lot about wands over the last two months and if there is one thing he knew about wands is that they are all unique and it was not often that a wand would respond well to another holder, even if they were family.
"Your dad's wand Neville? Have you been using it this whole time?" Neville seemed to suddenly think he may have said something wrong. Harry had to grab him quickly as he almost took the vanishing step, again.
"Thanks. Close one." Neville righted himself. "Umm, yes?"
"You should talk to Professor McGonagall about that Neville. The first thing I ever really heard about wands is what Ollivander told me, the wand chooses the wizard. Then I spent hours going through all his wands. I don't think that you can just choose your own, even if it was your dad's."
"My gran said that it would make me as strong as he was." Neville looked rather sombre at that thought. "And I want to make him proud."
Harry didn't really know exactly what the circumstances with Neville's parents were. But he did know that they were not around in some capacity. It was just hard to get a feel for it as he often switched tenses when they came up. But Harry of all people was not one to push on this particular topic.
"I always have also wanted to make mine proud too, it's…difficult…trying to live up to the memory of someone who died protecting you. But I realised something this summer and last when I spent time with Mister and Missus Weasley." Harry stopped their steady trek down Hogwarts' Grand Staircase and put his hand on Neville's shoulder.
"If you try your best and be kind to others, even if we make mistakes, our parents will always be proud. The best thing we can do for them is to act in a way that makes us proud of ourselves too."
"And for whatever it's worth, from where I'm standing Neville, I think your parents would be mighty proud of you already." A few tears escaped from the other boys eyes and he quickly rubbed them away with the sleeve of his robe. Harry grinned and clapped him on the back before continuing their walk.
Greenhouse number four wasn't empty when they arrived. Daphne Greengrass was working in one corner. She was wearing brown overalls and a white blouse, strange attire for a quintessential pureblood and her hands were covered in dirt. Her dark hair was pulled up in a messy bun, which accentuated her delicate neck.
Harry looked away, his face growing hot, and followed Neville down the greenhouse to a spare space amongst some mallowsweet. The small herbs wilted when Harry's shadow passed over them and blocked them from the sun, only to spring up as the light reached them again.
"This is where Professor Sprout lets me work, it's the smallest one so the whole greenhouse is for student projects." Harry smiled and put his pots down as Neville began collecting some plants. "I put these together yesterday. One oak and one maple."
The Gryffindor brought over two saplings and put them down in front of them, the trees were small enough to repot, as intended, but big enough for Harry's purposes.
"Why does Professor Sprout have non-magical plants?" Harry asked, it was a curious thing for the Herbology Professor to bother with.
"She doesn't." Neville replied. "I asked Hagrid and he found them in the Forbidden Forest. Said he was more than happy to, for you." Harry smiled, Hagrid was a good man.
"Well I have four of these things, what else were you wanting to try out?"
"I thought it might be wise to try something easy first, before the wiggentree, just in case." The boy smiled sheepishly at Harry, who grinned back.
"Just in case it explodes you mean? You know I'm not Seamus right?" Neville chuckled a bit at that.
The two boys got to work extracting the plants and repotting them. Once the trees were planted once more they also got to planting a moly plant, a fast growing flower they covered in first year. Harry then set about using a severing charm to split the oak down the centre.
He then used his rune carving kit to hollow out a part of the tree, avoiding the centre so as not to kill it. He took a unicorn hair from his pocket and carefully straightened it into the recess.
"Neville, what's that spell for healing plants?" Harry asked, looking up from his work. Neville was just finishing up transferring the wiggentree and looked surprised to be asked for help.
"Umm the lignum conjunctio?" Neville asked. "It's pretty simple, just hold the pieces together as close as you can, say the incantation and then drag your wand up along the split you want to heal."
Harry did just that and watched as the oak sapling sealed itself back together. The tree was left whole, as though it hadn't just been in two pieces down to its roots.
"Thanks Neville, couldn't have done it without you." Harry said, grinning at his dorm mate and pushed his glasses back up as they had slid down his nose while he was concentrating.
There was a snort from the far side of the greenhouse. Harry turned around to see Greengrass was still there.
"Problem, Greengrass?" Harry asked, immediately ok the defence for his friend. Neville was ridiculed enough by the Slytherins during class, he didn't need to be on the weekends also. Especially in the topic he was actually bloody good at.
The girl looked up from her work and smirked at him sardonically.
"No, no problem at all. It was just a dumb comment." She pretended to think for a second and then added. "And more than a little bit sad really." Harry's back was up now.
"What, exactly, is sad about our private discussion, Greengrass?"
"What's sad, Potter, is that you would need Longbottoms help on anything, let alone being incapable without him." There was something of a snarl beneath her tone. She brushed her hands off on her overalls and rolled her eyes at him.
"I don't know what your problem is Greengrass, but it's not with me or Neville, so go take your attitude somewhere it's wanted." Harry was gripping his wand tightly without having noticed, his knuckles turning white.
"That's true, I have no issue with Longbottom." Greengrass replied calmly with a shrug. She moved over to the entrance of the greenhouse and picked up a bag. She looked down her nose at him, a familiar expression on her face. "To think the last of the Potters, of the Prestige bloodlines, would be so talentless." And with that she left.
Harry's grip on his wand loosened and his shoulders slumped. A venomous tentacula then tried to take a bite out of him.
"Ow! Ruddy plants!" Harry swiped at it, his mood only deepening. "What was that all about?" He demanded, turning on Neville. The other boy looked like a deer in the headlights and Harry forced himself to relax.
"Um I don't really know, but she's in Slytherin so…" Neville trailed off with a shrug as if that explained everything. To his credit in a way it did, Harry Potter and the House of the cunning and ambitious had never got on, even when most the school thought him the Heir of Slytherin.
"What was the nonsense about my family and prestige though?"
"You don't know?" Neville asked with a frown, putting down the soil he was carrying.
"I don't, and I really don't like not knowing things I am apparently meant to know about." Harry pushed away the venomous tentacula again and moved to help Neville start packing another pot. They had finished his own work but Neville still had some of his own personal projects.
"Well, it's family magic stuff I guess?" The boy said uncertainty, though Harry chalked this up more to his lack of confidence than any true question.
"What's family magic? And why am I in my third year and only hearing about this now?"
Neville shrugged and pulled over another pot. "You sort of have, being a Parselmouth is a type of family magic. They are sort of abilities or talents that are passed down in a family. It's why everyone was so shocked by it and why people…well, made the assumptions they did." Neville finished awkwardly.
"I'm not a Parselmouth anymore." Harry revealed. "I tried a few times over the summer, I can sort of remember how to say some things that I did, but it just sounds like hissing now."
"That's…that's rather odd. I don't really know what to make of that, never heard anyone losing a family magic before." The boy shrugged.
"Do the Longbottoms have any…abilities? Family magics?"
"You should know Harry, even though most families really know pretty much everyone else's magics, it's considered a bit rude to ask or talk about them."
"I'm sorry Neville, I didn't mean to…" Harry apologised quickly, not wanting to offend his friend.
"It's not offensive, Harry." The blonde boy said, waving off his apology. He picked up a bunch of valerian and separated one and placed it in the soil. Harry added more around it.
"Just a bit of a private topic." Neville finally finished. "But I don't mind talking about it, as I said, pretty much everyone knows anyway. My father has the family magic, not everyone in a family will be born with it. The Longbottoms are able, to an extent mind, able to fill magic around them. It helps with duels especially, helped my dad escape You-Know-Who a few times, my Gran was always so proud of him."
"Huh, that's pretty cool Nev." Harry said. "But then what was Greengrass on about my family for?"
"To be honest Harry, it was pretty rude what she said, may as well have called you a mudblood. Especially because it was your family." Harry frowned, she hadn't been pleasant, but she hadn't been all that insulting. Malfoy said worse on the regular. "Well it's another Pureblood thing, there are just some things not done, and to mock someone for not inheriting their family magic is one of them, so few do you see."
Harry didn't really see how it worked for his family, but at the same time it made a sort of general sense. If they loved anything as much as magic, purebloods seemed to love their heritage. Maybe to suggest that you were less connected to that magical heritage was similar to how they mocked muggleborns for not having any.
"So she was saying I'm somehow lesser or not living up to my family or something?" Harry asked him and Neville looked uncomfortable again. He really did that a lot. "Thank you for telling me all this." Harry said, trying to reassure him.
"It's I guess more significant because it was you. See even though most families don't pass down their family magic to everyone, there are a few exceptions."
"The Potters being one I suppose?" Harry asked and the boy nodded.
"There are a few families that were part of the Prestige bloodlines, these are a group of family magics that, well, they are less obvious, but basically make members of the family savants in certain topics, like they were just born to do them."
Harry thought back to the book on his family history and that made a lot of sense. Every member was identified by the subjects they were good at. Although it was also didn't make sense as all the people who married into the family were written the same. A mystery for later perhaps.
"So by saying that I'm talentless she was inferring that I didn't inherit my family's legacy?" Neville nodded in confirmation. "She's not really wrong though."
"Isn't she?" Neville asked, looking confused at him.
"Well sure, I'm not exactly a master in transfiguration as McGonagall has repeatedly told me my father was, nor any other subjects." Harry said with a shrug.
"Seriously Harry? Ignoring that you're one of the better spell casters in all our classes, you're also the youngest seeker in a century, made such on your very first time on a broom."
Harry drugged again. "Maybe you're right, though I would wish I inherited something more useful than flying."
"Harry." Neville said, an unexpected sternness to his voice. He then picked up one of his rune laden pots with the molly in it. "Show me another third year doing something like this then?"
Harry looked at the pot, it's complicated runic arrangements speaking to him not dissimilar to how the words of parseltongue just kind of made sense to him. They just fit together as though that's how they were meant to be. It wasn't as super natural as the language of the snakes had felt, it was just the application of learning. Yet when he thought of what he wanted something to do, or decipher an arrangement, he was just able to piece it together.
"You might be right Neville." Harry said, honestly perplexed. Would he ever actually feel like his place in the wizarding world made sense? He honestly did not know.
"Only one way to find out." Neville took the potted plant from him but Harry stopped him before he put it back on the table.
"If you mean activating the runes, we should probably do it outside." Harry looked around at the glass walls and the glass ceiling. "Far outside."
The two boys stood out in the grounds of Hogwarts, the pot with the molly in front of it.
"So the book said the herbivicus charm should be used carefully and we shouldn't stay too close, especially for trees. When I tried it on bushes it wasn't so bad though. It also may not do anything as it's a magical plant after all. Still, maybe stay back and I will activate the runes and join you."
Neville nodded and took a few big steps back. Once he had moved away Harry took out his wand and taped the runes. The arrangements of runes glowed as they activated and Harry retreated to join Neville.
Both boys watched on and waited. And waited. And waited.
"Underwhelming." Harry said.
"Wait." Neville said, and approached the potted plant. Harry followed and dropped down next to his friend. As they watched on, a small leaf sprouted from the side of the plant and over the course of a minute unfurled itself. The boys grinned at each other.
Neville picked the pot back up and Harry activated the concealing array and all the runes disappeared into the activation arrangement along the rim.
"Shall we try another?" Harry asked, and Neville excitedly grabbed his wiggentree.
They repeated the process but the growth was exceptionally slow, far slower than the molly. Which Neville claimed made sense, given it's a much slower growing plant. Next was the oak tree.
Harry placed the pot down with the sapling standing taller than the other two previous trials. If he was honest he was a bit more nervous about this one, it was far more experimental and he wasn't sure what to expect.
"Neville, maybe you should give this one a bit more distance." Harry said and the boy nodded and moved a few metres further back. Harry breathed in deeply and activated the runes.
Almost instantly he knew there was something wrong. The sapling and the pot both began to shake violently. The tree then exploded upward, widening dramatically, its trunk growing quickly beyond the confines of its container.
Harry sprung backwards as a bough shot from the trunk. He ducked and dodged another and stumbled backwards. The thing was growing out of control as though a tree were just emerging from empty space more than growing up and then out.
Harry scrambled to his feet and ran for Neville. A root tore itself from the ground to his left and Harry sped up. He could see the ground shifting before him, a lump starting to form in the dirt. Neville was just standing there, shock plastered on his face.
"Neville, move!" Harry cried and sprang on the ball of his foot. He collided with the other Gryffindor, pushing him out of the way, just as a giant gnarled root exploded from the soil. It caught Harry mid chest, knocking the wind from him, and lifted him into the air. The boy-who-lived held on for dear life despite the pain in his stomach and chest.
The root continued upwards and became more vertical, merging with the trunk. He started to slide and the rough bark grated on his hands and stomach. Twisting to the side Harry tried to find a branch but there were none close by. He was almost thirty feet up by now and the tree didn't seem to be stopping.
He continued to slide, his back now at the tender mercy of the chafing bark. To his right the trunk began to split and Harry jumped for the fork. His hands slipped and were grazed as he grabbed for it but a ledge had formed and he gripped it as though his life depended on it, ignoring the pain in his body.
The tree continued upwards as Harry scrambled onto the branch, and by the time it started to slow he was probably more than a hundred feet in the air, and he was only probably half way up the bloody thing!
Above him stood an immense oak tree the size of some of the towers of the castle. It's branches were as thick as buses though they forked off into uncountable smaller normal sized branches. The leaves also looked the size of a normal oak tree and they formed into an incredibly dense canopy.
"Harry, are you okay?" Neville yelled worriedly from the ground.
"I'm okay Neville!" Harry replied from the three. He started to gingerly make his way down, trying to ignore the pain in his hands. The bark was large enough that the normal cracks were now efficient hand holds and it was more like climbing down a cliff than a tree.
He was very grateful when he got to the ground and he collapsed onto his back panting. Neville looked at him worriedly.
"I guess I didn't make a new magical plant after all." Harry said, laughing slightly then cringing at the pain it caused in his ribs. "Maybe we hold off on the maple." Before Neville could reply, a new much older voice made itself known.
"And they called me nutty when I planted a whomping willow."
I hope you enjoyed! It seems like approx 4k is where I get antsy and want to post so chapters are probably going to be about this long from now on.