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SPECIALIST
Chapter 4
Harry twirled his wand between his fingers, holly wood spinning between narrow fingers, reminiscent to the way someone would fiddle with a pen or pencil. As it always did, a lance of warmth rushed up his fingers and leaked up his arm,
«Punch» A sharp thrust of the wand and a sharp hiss of a command, almost as if the holly wood in his hand were some sort of spear or blade. Shearing through the space and unleashing a mere ripple through the wind; unless you were looking for it, it would remain unseen. Though in Harry's mind, it was as if he had unleashed a battering ram the size of a redwood, barrelling into the 'face' of his target and flattened it to dust against the far wall. He twirled his wand again, watching the beheaded behemoth fall as he jogged backwards in retreat, the decapitated goliath (a hulking mass of humanoid stone, towering above the teen) collapsed at his feet with a 'BANG'.
Harry bit back a sneeze as he got a face full of dust.
He sneezed anyway.
A dusty floor, weeds inching their way up between the cracks in the cobblestone, further cracked by the force of the fallen figure. Sunlight tinted green as it passed through leaves and stained glass still clinging to its broken panes; the wind whistled through near empty windows and gaps between the dishevelled and near ruined buildings around him.
Given a moment to breathe, Harry let his gaze flit to the North as he took a seat on the shattered and non-functional fountain. The boy restraining himself for flicking away the debris with his wand (a waste of magic) as he let his eyes fall on the distant towers of Hogwarts Castle, magnificent, glorious and very much deserving its place as the centre-piece of Hogwarts City...
He rubbed a hand across his lightly perspiring forehead and brushed further grime off the knees of his baggy trousers, casting a furtive, unsurprised eye at the utter carnage at his feet.
Nothing but dust and stone. Many a piece of stone still relatively humanoid, for Harry had not taken to completely shattering them. Boulders shaped like people, people whose size dwarfed Hagrid's.
The silence over this precinct was stifling, always warranting a second glance over the shoulder and a wary hand on the wand. As it should, these ancient, empty buildings intermingled with the equally old trees and shrubbery, the two having grown in, around and on top of each other. Never mind that the building were an extension of Hogwarts itself, this was still the Forbidden Forest out here...
Harry, once again, twirled his wand between his fingers, slashing it viciously (and without warning) up from his hip to above his head with another dark sounding hiss. A crescent of pinkish, red (reminiscent to a branch with multiple twig-like offshoots) hurtling towards one such humanoid shape that had twitched in a way that Harry disapproved of. NOW destroyed as it slumped in multiple shattered pieces.
He twirled his wand between his fingers.
Twirling his wand was a bad habit, something he was quite consistently reprimanded for by Flitwick.
"If you have time to fiddle with your wand, finish off your target!"
A harsh bark that made him jump, his gaze quick to snap off to his right and noted the four feet, at best, man by the name of Professor Filius Flitwick. The Charms Professor having seemingly appeared in the cobbled side street leading back towards the castle proper.
Harry noted his professors worried gaze with a raised brow, but a shadow fell over him and he knew immediately why it was present. He felt a disturbance of wind and noise, Harry quick to pre-emptively reply to what was about to happen; having the gall to twirl his wand between his fingers once more,
«Halt» Swift arm and wrist movements painted a square of lime green light above his head. Unfurling and expanding like a glowing umbrella, awaiting the next colossi's strike against him.
Not only did the colossal, stone hand NOT flatten him to the stones beneath his feet (as Flitwick surely worried it would), but the wrist and palm cracked and splintered against the ceiling of light Harry had conjured. The force reverberating up the being's body, forcing it to stagger back from its would be victim.
Harry followed it with a sharp glare and a much tighter grip on his wand, long strides flowed by a sharp cleave of his wand through the air,
«Reap» A blade of crimson red, reminiscent to the blade of scythe to the few who were fast enough to perceive it, crossed the space between Harry and his target. The blade scorched a path through the stone goliath's wrist and split the already damaged limb in two, «Punch»
No bright colours or pretty shapes with this spell, no intricate movement of the wand. Harry raised his arm, glared at his target, spat out the spell and blew a hole right through the face of the being before him.
It slumped and fell apart.
The BANG of Harry's spell echoed through the air, sound bouncing off the shattered masonry as it dissipated into silence. Near silence at least, the wind whistling through the gaps in the buildings and rustling the leaves. Harry Potter finally left alone with his Charms professor and the mess he'd made,
"Good morning, Professor." He offered the minute man a polite bow at the waist (as he'd read was appropriate), "I hope you had a good summer."
He smiled and his expression was mirrored by Flitwick, the professor's moustache twitched a bit as he engaged his student in a little small talk as he distractedly cleared up the rubble and reconstituted the shattered buildings and features without taking his eyes off of the boy. Said boy seeing this for what it was...
A display of power.
Silent casting, minimal wand movements, all whilst holding a detailed conversation with him as he spoke about how he spent time with his 'sire' (his goblin father) and extended family in Portugal.
A shiver ran through Harry in response.
"So, would you care to explain what you are doing out here so early?" Flitwick's expression was the right mix of stern, disapproval and amusement. Telling Harry: no detention but maybe a loss of House Points,
"Ah, sorry Professor." Harry was just a little sheepish, "I was trying out some new evocations that I'd been working on this summer. I have a mentor meeting in a few hours and couldn't wait to try them out any longer."
"A mentor, hmm? Congratulations, I'm sure you'll do well. " Genuine praise, even though Flitwick's eyes glimmered teasingly, "Back on track, however, those spells did look rather dangerous."
It was Harry's turn to smirk a bit; fear and apprehension, Flitwick was clearly uneasy in the face of the devastation that Harry had wrought,
"I'm sure you can see why I wanted to test them in private?" He tried to keep the smugness out of his voice (the gaunt, greasy haired visage of the man who would call him 'arrogant' helping there), "I need to learn how to regulate the spells power and effects before I think of using them on other people."
It was Harry's turn to feel a little uncomfortable, Professor Flitwick's gaze quickly snapping to him, dark eyes immediately searching and wary. Though they softened just a bit afterwards and Harry was able to offer a loopy smile,
"I suppose." He smiled again before quickly switching back to 'business', "Well, be that as it may. It is far too early to be duelling, Mr Potter. Especially in the Forbidden Forest."
Flitwick crossed his arms and levelled a glare at Harry here, the boy gulped and shook his head,
"Sorry Professor, I was just excited at being allowed to go into the Forest, now." Harry flushed with a lopsided grin, scratching at the back of his head, "At least, on my own."
"I will let you off this time alone, but do not work out here outside of curfew again. Is that understood?"
He agreed and allowed himself to be ushered out. Offering a cheeky little wave as he trotted down the dim pathways (the sun's light not yet lighting them as it slowly lit the sky) off towards the Gryffindor dorms once again.
About fifteen minutes is what he'd spent out there, he would have cursed at the utter waste of his time... had that interaction not gone ABSOLUTELY to plan.
'The professors monitor the city, even this early.' Harry peeked down at his small, analogue watch (a 'gift' from the ever-growing pile of Dudley's cast off's) and noted four twenty-seven on its surface.
So, Harry smirked a bit as he upped the pace and rushed towards the Castle, his journey leading him past dusty, empty building and rooms. Flitting past the occasional spot of litter and a few cleaner buildings (ones he knew were used for classes from time to time) before bolting past the greenhouses to the castle itself in a dead sprint.
When he hit the moving staircases, Harry decided against going up as he initially planned, but down,
"I'll have to practice the big stuff down there, then..." The quiet reasoning under his breath, a satisfied smirk on his lips...
[TO BE CONTINUED]
