Chapter 18

The next morning Professor Sprout approaches the first years again holding Harry's orientation book.

"Good morning, I spoke to Professor McGonagall last night about the school rules. Apart from the rules given out by the headmaster at the beginning of term, the rules in this booklet are the only ones that are currently available. I'm sorry I didn't return the book yesterday, but I wasn't able to speak to the Deputy Head at breakfast. I have taken the liberty of copying out all of the rules, and they are posted on the noticeboard beside the entrance to the set. Given that I was a student here too, I will remind you of two of those rules: Unattended students may not go to Hogsmeade outside of dedicated Hogsmeade weekends, on those weekends only students of 3rd year or higher with a parental permission slip may attend. Secondly, students are not allowed to use the floo without permission from a professor."

Harry smiles and nods, "Thank your pointing out those rules Professor."

"I feel like I should also point out that it's illegal to apparate without a licence, not that it should be possible within the school grounds, as the whole place is warded against that."

Daphne nods seriously, "Thank you for pointing that out Professor, I'm fairly certain that neither Danann nor Finch-Fletchley were aware of that skill, or that it's illegal without a licence."

Professor Sprout nods, "When I was a student they had a Customs and Etiquette class that was mandatory for the first 2 years. It was one of the first classes to be dropped when the board started to refuse tuition increases. I'll let you get back to your breakfasts."

Once the professor leaves, Harry turns around to face the Ravenclaw table, "Hermione, could you write to your parents to get permission for 10 pin bowling for Saturday. That is if you want to come, given that Mari invited you."

Hermione turns around and looks confused for a moment, then her eyes light up in realisation, "Um, I actually forgot about that. Are you sure it's not against the rules?"

"All the student rules are in the booklet that we were given, or given out by the headmaster at the beginning of the year. If you ask your head of house, they'll probably put a copy up in your common room like Professor Sprout did for us."

"I'll be sure to ask Professor Flitwick."

"Changing the subject, I know you wanted to be in Gryffindor, but how are you finding Ravenclaw?"

"Oh, it's great. There's finally a couple of people who can keep up with me. Sue Li's father is a spell researcher from China, and they were only over here for a year until she got her Hogwarts letter. Ginger Bags in third year is just as quick, and has gone through the same stuff I did at school."

"I'm glad you've found a couple of friends in your own house."

"I'm still not as good as you though. After all, you were doing the lumos spell with no incantation."

"Hermione, I've been practicing Celtic Magic since I could walk, and actively practicing it since I was 5. There are no words or wand movements in Celtic magic. It still took me a good 10 tries before I got the spell to go off without starting the wand motion before the word."

"Huh? I didn't notice that, it only took me 3."

"Nobody does, I'm not actually that smart. I just have had very good teachers, and I've developed a work ethic that Mari is jealous of. I spent 10 minutes this morning just practicing the raise wand motion with two syllable words using a dagger instead of my wand. I also spend an hour every morning on my weapon drills, as my mother and I both do re-enactment as a hobby and part of her job."

Hermione looks at him strangely, "Why though? Once you can do it right consistently, why spend so much time on something you already know? There's so much more interesting stuff you could be learning."

"That Hermione, is the difference between Genius and hard work when it comes to success. Anyway, don't forget to write to your parents."

As he turns back to his table, Harry can hear Hermione being asked what that was about, and then quoting the rules from the book without even looking it up. Which quickly gets verified by having her copy of the book handed over.

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After breakfast the Hufflepuffs return to their dorm to get their books for Transfiguration. When they arrive in the dorm, Harry turns to the rest of the dorm, "I'm just going to nip home to ask mum if it's ok to invite everyone in my dorm to 10 pin bowling on Saturday. I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

While everyone else is working out what Harry's talking about, Daphne steps up beside him, "Would you mind taking me with you? I'd like to ask your mother if you could train me."

Harry hangs his head, "Sure. Anyone else, I can only take two people like this."

Susan beats Hannah and Tracy into standing on his other side.

"Ok, take my hand and do not let go. We will be walking there, and unless you're trained, if you let go you will be lost, possibly forever."

Both of them grab his hand before he finishes speaking so, holding tight, Harry steps into the Other, concentrating on finding The Morrigan. Finding her in her Domain, he steps out outside the roundhouse. The goblin guards flinch before stepping aside as he arrives.

Turning to his passengers he says, "These are not Gringotts goblins, they are sill Fae. If you insult them, they will likely attack. One rule to always remember, never ask a Fae for their name, always ask what you may call them. Second rule, if a Fae is armed, never approach within weapon distance until you have spoken to them, and have been invited to. Many of them will assume you mean to attack." He turns back to the Goblins, "I have guests, inform my mother that I wish to speak with her."

The two guards have a whispered conversation before playing rock-paper-scissors. At that point the loser goes inside. Susan and Daphne both share a glance at that. A few seconds later, the guard comes back out and says something to Harry.

Daphne and Susan follow Harry through the doorway into the roundhouse. Once inside, Harry sniffs once and then goes bright red, "Mum! I've got some classmates from school, so I hope you're decent."

There's a sigh from the other side of the fabric partition, "Yes Harry, I'm decent."

As they pass through the partition, whatever they were expecting wasn't a tall woman with blood red hair, wearing a business suit. On the animal skin bed behind her is a pink book with Mills and Boon clearly visible on the spine.

"Hmm, I know Susan, but who might you be?"

Daphne curtseys, "I'm Da…", thinking better of it she instead uses the hated nickname that Tracy gave her, "You may call me Daph."

Morgana smiles at her, "My, you're a quick study aren't you."

Daphne nods, "A product of my upbringing. May I ask how you would like to be addressed?"

Morgana smirks, "You may."

After a pregnant pause, Daphne asks, "How would you like to be addressed?"

"You may call me Morgana."

Morgana looks at Susan, "Is she always this uptight?"

Susan looks at Daphne apologetically, "Usually, though she's relaxed a few times since we met on the train."

Turning back to Daphne, Morgana shakes her head slightly, "Child, if you spend much time around myself or the Fae, you will need to learn that there is a time and place for formality and masks. That time and place is in some of the Sidhe courts that are not so friendly to mortals. Elsewhere, they will treat you as you treat them. If you are relaxed and happy, they will be relaxed and happy. If you are like this, then they will see your formality as being guarded and expecting some sort of subterfuge. The same is true in the mundane world. For the most part, if you approach people without a hidden agenda or hiding behind a mask, they will reciprocate. It is a lesson I had to learn about battle when I was young, and I didn't learn the lesson before it had already affected people's perception of me.

"Now, Harry, what was it you wanted to see me for?"

Harry indicates the two girls while he's talking, "Did Mari tell you that she invited the people who were sharing our compartment to Bowling on Saturday?"

"She did not, though she has other concerns in her life at the moment."

"Would it be ok if I invited the rest of my dorm mates, fair warning I think one of them is Christian, but not Mari's dad's type?"

Beyond a slight tightening of her eyes, Morgana doesn't even acknowledge the C word, "It shouldn't be a problem, how many are we talking?"

"10 or 11, plus Hermione from Ravenclaw."

"Hmm, I can't drive that many… I'll book another 3 lanes, and set up a discrete area for you to open a gate. Do make sure they've all got parental permission."

Harry smiles, "Already ahead of you with that one."

"Good boy, now I want to see you home at 7 tonight for your training."

Harry sighs, "Yes mum."

As they're about to leave, Daphne says, "May I have permission for Harry to train me?"

Morgana's response is instant, "No."

Susan smirks, "Daph, I think you meant to ask more casually. Morgana, I'd like to learn Celtic magic, is it ok if Harry teaches me?"

Morgana smiles, "Certainly, now off with you three, you have lessons to deal with." Before Daphne can rephrase her request, Morgana has stepped into the Other.

Daphne turns to Susan expecting to see an expression of smug superiority, instead Susan has a compassionate smile on her face, "I can't imagine how hard it is for you to let your guard down, but we'll all work on it with you."

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Harry, Susan and Daphne step out back into the dorm room with the others waiting expectantly. Immediately Hannah asks, "So, how was it?"

Daphne and Harry look a little nonplussed, Susan on the other hand answers, "It was fine, more comfortable than side along, but very disconcerting as you can't see anything so you're walking along being led by your hand."

As if the dam broke, Susan and Harry start to be peppered with questions, leaving Daphne to one side feeling somewhat lost. Neville nervously walks around the crowd to her, "Daphne, are you alright?"

Daphne nods sharply, and then remembers what Morgana said only a minute ago. Taking a deep breath, she lets herself crumple, "Actually, no I don't think I am."

"Family expectations?" he asks sympathetically. When Daphne nods he continues, "I sort of know what it's like. I'm expecting a howler from my gran because I didn't make it into Gryffindor. My relatives didn't know I had magic until my uncle Algie accidentally dropped me out of the upstairs window when I was 8, and I bounced. He's the one that gave me Trevor."

Neville looks up, suddenly nervous at the silence, Harry and Justin are both staring at him in absolute horror, while the rest of the dorm are giving him sad, but understanding looks. Taking a deep breath, Daphne admits, "That was the same age I started learning Occlumency."

Harry puts his hand up, "Excuse me for being the non-magical in the room, but what's Occlumency?"

Daphne winces, so Susan speaks up, "It's the magical discipline of protecting your mind. My aunt taught me at around the same age. But she was very gentle and understanding about it. My lessons stopped once I could detect an intrusion. I take it yours didn't."

Tracy winces even before Daphne shakes her head. Before she knows it, Susan has pulled her into a hug, "I know it doesn't make it better, but it's not right making an 8 year old do that. Is your sister being taught the same way?"

Daphne shakes her head and almost whispers, "No, she's not the heir."

Harry looks thoughtful, "So, from the age of 8 you've been expected to have a shield in hand, and a sword ready in case you're attacked. Even when you should be safe?"

Tracy shakes her head, "Only at home, when she came over to our house she could relax."

"Doing re-enactment means you hear a lot of war stories. Some of those stories were about soldiers in the Vietnam war, apparently the locals were prone to ambushing the Americans wherever and whenever they could. I was told that some soldiers seriously injured loved ones when they were startled in safe locations because their brains no longer knew what was safe."

Hannah looks at Justin beseechingly, "Is that true?"

Justin shrugs, "I'm sorry, I don't know, maybe ask a Ravenclaw?"

Tracy nods, "Hermione knew all of those books, maybe she knows."

Megan knocks on one of the partitions, "Motion carried, Hermione will be asked at lunchtime. Meeting adjourned."

Laughing, they all start to head up to Transfiguration on the 4th floor. Daphne lags a little behind, not feeling as though she really belongs here. Catching her out of the corner of his eye, Harry says to the others, "I'm just going to show Daphne a different route, we'll meet you all outside the classroom."

They all wave him off, and by the time they realise that he doesn't know any other routes through the castle he has already grabbed Daphne's hand and disappeared into the mist.

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Daphne clamps down on her alarm as she goes from walking down a corridor to being surrounded by impenetrable mist, her only contact outside herself being Harry's hand holding her own. Then she feels him take her other hand before he starts to speak, though muffled by the thick fog.

"Daphne, I need an honest answer from you, so please try to let down your defences."

Reflexively she responds, "How can I trust you?"

"That is precisely the point. Unless you give people a chance, they will never live up to your trust. However, at the moment I am trying to decide whether to teach you to do this."

Daphne stills, and her thoughts grind to a halt, in a small voice she says, "Really?"

"Really, but I want you to let down your defences. I want you to lay down your shield and sheath your sword."

"I'll try." For the first time in a year, Daphne tries to let go of the magical technique that protects her mind. Slowly the rigid control over her reactions eases, not all the way, but enough that she starts to shake.

"I think I'm as done as I can be."

"Very well, then I ask you this. What do you think when I tell you that the only people who can find you here are myself, my mother, and anyone else that knows you and is trained in Celtic magic."

Daphne fair sags with the idea that there's somewhere she could be where she can just not be on guard. Where her father can't appear and launch a surprise attack on her mind. Where the darker purebloods can't find her and do what their eyes promised to do when she became an early bloomer.

"That's what I thought, you have until 7 to decide if you want to do the quick way or the safe way."

Without any hesitation she replies, "The quick way."

Harry lets go of one of her hands, and a slight tug sees her stepping forward 1 step, then 2, and then they emerge into the Transfiguration corridor, ahead of them are the rest of the dorm group walking from the other direction. Daphne doesn't have time to raise her defences again before the others notice her shaking.

Tracy marches past the door and shoves Harry to one side against the wall, at the same time Susan, Megan, and Hannah come over and pull Daphne off to one side.

"If you hurt her, I will castrate you and make you eat it. Do you understand?"

Harry smiles and nods his head over to the group of girls.

On the other side of the corridor, Hannah asks, "Are you ok? Did Harry hurt you?"

Scrambling to pull her defences back up, Daphne shakes her head, "He just wanted to ask me a question in private. I… haven't got myself back together."

Susan leans back and looks her in the eyes, "Merlin, you stopped using your occlumency. When was the last time you did that? Don't answer that, just take your time and sit in the middle. We'll make sure none of Malfoy's allies bother you."

Daphne closes her eyes rather than give in to the urge to lash out with legimancy against Susan.

By the time Daphne gets herself back under control, the Slytherins have already passed them and thrown a few petty barbs their way. Together, the Hufflepuffs all enter the classroom with seconds to spare. Sat on Professor McGonagall's desk is a cat. When the door closes the cat leaps off the table and turns into Professor McGonagall. "Good morning everyone. In future, if you are dealing with personal problems outside the classroom, you may want to let the professor know so that they don't mark you late. Now take your seats.

"Transfiguration is probably the most dangerous magical discipline that you are going to study at this school. Miscast it can cause death or serious injury. As such, if I see anyone horsing around in this class they will be asked to leave and will not be invited back."

Harry puts his hand up, "Yes Mr P… Danann?"

"Two questions, the first is why do we only have one class a day where we're using magic? The second is, why is transfiguration so dangerous?"

McGonagall nods, "In answer to the first, most of you are unused to the drain that casting spells places on your magical ability. The single lesson is to allow you to acclimatise to the strain while accounting for practice and homework. Next year you will have 2 lessons a day, and in third year you'll start your electives.

"As for your second question, transfiguration and conjuration are inherently temporary changes to the nature of something. If you take transfiguration into your NEWT years, you will start to learn human transfiguration, which if done incorrectly is very much permanent. Because of this, you should never eat transfigured food. Giving transfigured food to someone has been held up as attempted murder before. You will also be using transfiguration on conjured animals, if you miss because someone jogged your hand, you could end up turning someone elses hand or head into an inanimate object. Needless to say that doesn't usually end well. "

The lesson starts out with theory and formula relating to the amount of magic different things take to change from one item to another. For the second half of the lesson they are each given a matchstick and told to turn them into needles using the spell they were taught in the first half.

By the end of the lesson, Harry was the only person that hadn't made any progress on his matchstick.

"Mr Danann, please stay behind after class."

Once everyone else has filed out, Minerva looks at Harry, then up at his scar, "Harry, what seems to be the problem with this spell?"

Harry shakes his head, "I'm not sure, I could visualise the matchstick, and I could visualise the needle, but it just wasn't changing."

"Did you visualise the change itself?"

Harry looks at her like she's grown a second head, "What?"

McGonagall points at the blackboard, "We covered it in the first half of the lesson, you need to start with the matchstick and visualise it turning into a needle."

Harry closes his eyes and tries to do just that, "I'm sorry Professor, it seems to be beyond me at the moment."

McGonagall nods, "Any idea why?"

"It might be that Celtic magic uses a lot of visualisations itself?"

"Think about it, and practice visualising the change. I want to see some progress next week, even if it's just changing the material or the colour."

"Yes Professor."

"One last thing, may I tell the headmaster about your identity?"

"I'm at school now and my mother only asked that you don't until I arrive."

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Albus curses as he dips a vault key in the inkwell. Whatever's going on with these keys is now affecting things outside his person. Pulling out the second key he proceeds to wipe… put the key in his other hand while he pulls out a hanky to wipe both keys off. He's about to reach for the quill when his door charm indicates that Minerva is coming up the stairs. Quickly, he composes himself before she opens the door.

"Minerva, to what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Harry Potter didn't die, he was blood adopted."

There's a clatter of keys as they fall onto the floor from his suddenly nerveless grip, "I visited the grave, his body was buried there."

"None the less, Harry Potter is attending Hogwarts as we speak. He's hiding his scar with magic, but it's there if you look for it. Now I suggest you leave well enough alone and keep this information to yourself. After all, if everyone thinks he's dead they won't be hunting for him. That includes Severus."