Clay Pinions

By Lochar

Disclaimer: I've said it before and I'll say it again, an elephant's faithful, one hundred... Oh, oops. Wrong slogan. I don't own Harry Potter or Xenogears.

Chapter 17

It was a few days later when Hedwig returned. During the morning breakfast, she swooped down and landed on the table in front of Harry. Holding out her talon, Harry untied the envelope. He looked up at the head table and saw a midnight black owl delivering a letter to Snape as well.

Grinning, Harry turned to Ron and Hermione. "I think I got my response from Snape's uncle."

Ron grinned back while Hermione just shook her head. "Harry, do you really think that he is going to listen to a minor?"

"Snape got a letter as well though. Let's see what mine says."

Harry turned the envelope over to the back, noticing it had a blood seal as well. He broke the seal and pulled out the parchment inside.

To Mr. Harry Potter;

As unfortunate as it is that you must take on the reins of Head as a child, I will still give you the respect deserving of a family Head regardless. As to the matter of my nephew, he should also be receiving a letter from me. I will acquiesce to your first demand, that of Severus giving you a private apology. I am also requiring of him to keep any comments about you and the Potter family to himself. However, I will not take him to task again. Should he make any more undue comments, you should take action yourself as your family Head. So I do strongly suggest that you show him proper respect as a teacher as well, and not purposely draw his ire.

Glastu A. Snape

Harry looked up from the letter and wordlessly passed it to Hermione. "That does say what I think it says, right Hermione?"

She took the letter and read it over herself. And then looked it over again. "He's saying that he is going to make Professor Snape apologize but he won't do it again, so you should not try to make him mad." She looked the letter over one more time. "That's about it."

"Can I see it? I've gotta see this." Ron asked.

Harry nodded and Hermione handed the paper over. Ron quickly looked it over as well. He stood up, paper in hand. "Hey!" he started to shout.

Harry quickly grabbed his arm and yanked him back down in his chair. "What in the world do you think you're doing Ron?" he hissed at him.

Ron looked hurt. "I was just going to tell everyone that the git finally got what was coming to him."

"And that would have been exactly what was warned against. Besides Ron, it's going to be a private apology, remember?" Harry shook his head and grabbed the letter back.

"You'll let us be there though, right?" Ron asked with a grin.

Hermione sighed. "It's between Harry and Professor Snape, Ron. And what part of 'private' don't you understand?"

"But what about your cloak Harry? I've gotta see it. Snape's never apologized to anyone, as far as Bill and Charlie told me." Ron's eyes pleaded with Harry.

But Harry shook his head no. "Sorry Ron, but no. I demanded a private apology from him, so that's what I going to do. You guys knowing about it is enough. Just don't tell anyone, alright?"

Hermione nodded and they both looked at Ron.

"Oh, alright." Ron paused for a moment, and then whispered gleefully. "But look at Snape!"

Harry and Hermione turned to the head table, where the Potions Master was going between reading his own letter and glaring down at the Gryffindor table.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

It was two days later in Potions that Harry expected to receive his apology from Professor Snape. He wasn't disappointed.

Snape walked up to the table where he and Ron were making a potion. "Mr. Potter, you will stay after class. We have an earlier discussion to finish."

Harry looked up at him and nodded. "Yes sir."

Without another word, Snape turned around and strode back to his desk.

Ron leaned over and whispered very quietly to Harry. "Think he's going to do it after class?" Harry nodded. "You sure we can't stay to hear it?"

Harry glared at him slightly and shook his head. "You already said you wouldn't, remember?"

"Had to try again though." Ron nodded and they both turned back to the potion they were working on.

Once class ended, Harry and Ron quickly cleaned up. Ron gathered his stuff up and went over to Hermione, pulling her out the door. She made to wait, but with a few whispered words she nodded and they both left.

Harry packed his bag as well and sat it on the table before walking up to Snape's desk. "You wanted me to stay after class, Professor?"

Snape nodded and sighed. "Yes I did Potter. I realize that you owled my family Head in response to… certain things that happened about a week ago in this classroom, am I correct?" Harry nodded. "He is a very private man, so I doubt I would be able to read the letter he sent you, and you would not be able to read the letter he sent me. I will give you your apology, but first I wish to say a few things to you." Snape paused with a scowl at Harry.

Harry gulped and nodded.

"First off. After this, I demand that you show me the respect due to a Hogwarts Professor. I did find out about your reasons for calling me Instructor, and I do not approve of them." Harry nodded easily. "My second remark is this. While I do not expect or even wish that you would get along with my Slytherins, I would like for you to refrain from insults against their own families as well. You are a family Head, and you should act like it. If you abuse your slight power, I, and other important families will put you into your place."

"Yes sir Professor." Harry nodded quickly. "As long as I am not first insulted, I will not insult any Slytherin's family."

"I guess that is… fair enough." Snape grimaced at that. "In any case, I offer my... apologies... Mr. Potter. My grievances are not towards you for the most part, but towards your family. I will endeavor to make those comments only to the person they pertain to. While I still stand by the comments I have made against you in particular, I will attempt to treat you as you deserve to be treated."

Harry's eyebrows rose. More than I expected, really. "I accept your apology Professor Snape. May I be excused so that I am not late to my next class?"

"Get out of here, Potter. Keep quiet in your lessons and I will do the same with you." Snape waved him off, before turning and walking into his office, cloaking billowing behind him.

Harry nodded to his back and turned around himself. He grabbed his bag and quickly headed out the door. He caught up to Hermione and Ron outside of the Transfiguration classroom and went inside with them.

-

There was only one word for Hermione right now. Frantic. Harry smiled to himself, as she was a whirlwind of activity, pulling all of her notes from the year.

"We've only got two months until exams you two! We need to start studying and making sure we know everything that we were taught." She pulled another stack of paper out from somewhere, separating and piling them according to subject. "Come on you two, if you don't pass these, do you know what will happen?"

Harry tilted his head, curiously grinning. "Actually, no I don't Hermione. What will happen?"

Ron took a step back, throwing Harry a look that clearly said 'You're on your own.' He sat down in a chair to watch.

Hermione turned around. "We'll be held back! We'd have to repeat first year again! I'd miss out on learning all the new spells, and you two would get farther than me, and if I do really horribly, they may even send me home, not to come back!" Hermione managed to stream it out in a single breath, the horror of failing completely written over her face.

Harry had to take a step back from the onslaught. "Calm down Hermione; Breathe for heaven's sake." She took a deep breath. "Good. Listen to me. You're the smartest witch in our year. I haven't seen a spell yet that you couldn't do, and you've just about memorized every one of our textbooks."

Hermione flushed with the praise.

Ron snickered a bit. "Managed to calm her down a bit, mate?"

"But- but- You still have a lot easier time with the spells than I do. I can't do them all perfectly. And even Ron knows some of the history about spells and things that I don't know. What am I to do? They're going to throw me out!" Hermione started wailing again.

"Spoke too soon." Ron managed to laugh out.

Harry waved a hand at Ron. "Hermione." She ignored him, turning back to her pages, frantically making even more notes on them. "Hermione." Still ignored, even Harry had to grin a little bit. He coughed, changing his voice a bit. "Ms. Granger, twenty points if you don't turn around this instant!"

Hermione, reacting more to the threat of lost points than any voice Harry might have been trying, dropped her notes and quickly spun around. Noticing Harry's smile, and no prefects or the Head Boy, she scowled. "Harry Potter…" she nearly growled. "We have to make sure we'll pass, or we'll get into so much trouble."

Sighing, Harry still had to chuckle slightly at Hermione's insistence. "Like I said, there's no way you'd ever fail Hermione. Let's pick a subject, and I'll prove it." He grabbed a random sheet of paper from her stacks. "Transfiguration." He looked at it better. "Hermione, just looking at this, you're not going to fail. This is from the next chapter in the book."

Hermione blushed. "If I study it now, hopefully I can do it well enough in class. Harry, I need those notes. I'm not done with them yet!" She made a grab for them, but Harry pulled them away.

"Let me test you with them real quick. Hmm… Alright. How would you turn a goose feather into a usable quill?" Harry asked after looking over the paper.

"If you'll give me my notes back, I can tell you. They're not done yet." Hermione huffed and held out a hand for the notes.

Harry shook his head. "Come on, these notes look perfect to me. Explains it well enough that I could do it right now, I think." He paused. "Hey, that's an idea. Ron, go upstairs and grab one of the pillows. We'll let Hermione's notes explain it, and we can try it."

Ron nodded, and ran upstairs to their dorms.

Hermione looked fretful. "But Harry, my notes are nowhere near done, and if it doesn't explain it well enough, you might mess something up and hurt yourself. Or Ron could hurt himself as well. You don't need to do this, just give me my notes. Please?"

"Hermione," Harry laughed slightly. "We haven't had to do a spell yet that your notes have failed us on. Remember, we use them too if we can't do it."

Hermione made several more attempts to get Harry to return her notes before Ron came back down, but to no avail.

Once Ron had come back down, they sat down looking over Hermione's notes. Hermione wrung her hands, seemingly scared that her notes wouldn't be up to par.

Ron made a rip in the pillow and pulled out a handful of feathers as Harry looked at the notes. "Let's see… Ron, first thing you need to do is stretch the feather longer. As long as a quill."

Ron nodded. He tapped the end of the feather, then tapped the tip. Leaving his wand touching the tip, he pulled his wand up to the length of a quill, the feather lengthening out to match where he was pulling his wand. He pulled his wand up, and the feather quit growing. "Next?"

Harry looked back down at the notes. "Widen it. Tap the center of the feather, pull left, and then do it to the right."

Ron did so, pulling the feather left with his wand. The lopsided look lasted long enough for Ron to tap the center again, and pulled right this time. "It's getting hard to hold it this way. Hurry up, what's next?"

"Harden the stem of the feather quill. Trace your wand down the stem, then swish and tap the nub of the quill with 'Congelo'."

Ron traced his wand down the stem, his hands starting to shake. "Congelo!" he called out tapping the new writing nub, and the feather quill shimmered. "Come on Harry, hurry. I can't hold it much longer before I mess it up."

Quickly reading the last instruction, Harry grinned. "Finish it with a flick and 'Stabilis'. Then it should hold itself."

Ron flicked his wand quickly at the quill, and called out the spell, "Stabilis!"

The new quill seemed to shiver on its own, before Ron let out a loud breath. "Merlin that was hard. But I got it done. See Hermione? Your notes are good enough that I can do it the first time."

Harry looked down at the notes. Picking up his own wand, he swirled it in a tight circle before pointing his wand at the quill, and called out, "Reverto Exemplar!" The newly made quill shrunk down and turned back into the feather. "The reverse spell works too." He looked back down at the notes. "You've already done this spell, haven't you Hermione?"

"Wh- what makes you think that Harry?"

Ron looked between the two of them. "Your notes were awfully specific. I don't think you could have gotten that much just from the book. You practiced it, making your own notes, didn't you?" At Hermione's stare, Ron shrugged. "I'm not that thick. The rest of the book doesn't give that much detail, we have to learn it from McGonagall. You figured it out yourself didn't you?"

Hermione's face reddened. "Alright, alright. I did. Mainly because of what Professor Maison said to us, Harry. If I can get ahead of the class and be able to work the spells more often, I'll be able to do more powerful magic quicker."

"Ahh… And if you can do the spells ahead of time, and be able to do even more powerful spells, there's no way you'd be held back." Harry looked at Ron, grinning. "So Ron, do we make her finish up now, or do we just take her notes so she'll be done?"

"You two will do no such thing! I'll pack up. If you two took my notes, I'd never get them back in order. Then I would end up being kicked out of Hogwarts." Hermione smiled at them, and then started collecting her strewn about notes and books.

Harry laughed and stood up, helping Hermione as well. "Good. I didn't want to have to take them. Besides, you'd probably just take them back during my lesson with Professor Maison in the morning."

The trio managed to quickly clean up all of Hermione's notes and books, then headed up for their respective beds.

-

"Hermione's probably gonna be mad that she missed watching, you know Harry?" Ron commented while the two of them were on their way to the Muggle Studies classroom the next morning.

"Can't help it if she didn't wake up in time. We can't go up the staircase to wake her up, remember the first time you tried it?" Harry laughed.

Ron turned red, but laughed as well. "Hey, I didn't know the stairs were going to do that. It's not my fault."

Quickly finishing their walk downstairs, Harry pushed open the door into the classroom. Like always it was set up for his lessons, training mats covered the ground. Professor Maison sat in the middle of the room, eyes closed, meditating.

Ron sat down against a wall, while Harry started doing his warm-ups. After a minute, Maison opened his eyes. "Good morning Mr. Potter. I heard you had an interesting day yesterday."

Harry lost his balance in the middle of a kick and fell over. He quickly stood back up. "I might have sir. It was a private interesting though."

"Undoubtedly. Although, another person may not have been so private about it." Maison said. Harry looked at Ron, who shook his head. "In any case, continue with your warm-ups. Mr. Weasley, it wouldn't hurt you to at least go through the basic warm-ups as well, if Mr. Potter is teaching you. You need to stay in shape and limber."

Ron stood up and joined Harry. They went through the warm-up exercises for another fifteen minutes, before Ron sat back down and Harry stood before Professor Maison.

"You've been practicing controlling your Chi, correct?" Maison looked Harry over.

Harry nodded. "Yes sir. I think I've got it too."

Maison raised an eyebrow. "It only took you a couple of months. I'm impressed. Let me see." At this, Maison's eyes unfocused and Harry felt the Chi being channeled. Maison's eyes refocused, but Harry could sense a passive power behind them. "Alright, channel a small amount into each of your fingers. Leave your palm and thumb free of energy."

Harry did as Maison requested, easily splitting his Chi into four separate flows.

"Now, I want you to pull the energy from your ring finger into your palm, then channel it into your thumb."

Harry did as requested once more, and Maison nodded.

"Good. Now, the whole purpose of learning such fine control was this: Harry, I want you to channel the same amount of Chi that you normally push into you hand, around your hand instead. Like so." Maison demonstrated, and Harry could sense Maison's Chi wrapped around the outside of his hand. Harry copied him.

Maison looked a little startled. "Very good. Very quick, as well. Now, what you can do with this Chi is actually quite interesting. Can you, for lack of a better word, harden it around your hand?" To Harry, the Chi around Maison's hand seemed to become much denser. "This is the best as I am able to make it. Can you sense the difference?"

Harry nodded, and thought about it for a moment. "Did you channel more Chi into it Professor?"

"No, I just strengthened it around my hand. Try it. Make it become solid, instead of just loose energy."

Harry concentrated for a few minutes, pushing at his Chi. Pushing it together made it smaller, but still moving energy. "I can't get it. Pushing it together doesn't do it, so how do I make it solid?"

Maison thought for a moment. "Hmm. How does it feel to you then, Mr. Potter? The Chi itself, when you channel it outside your hand or arm?"

"It's... moving. I give it shape, but the Chi moves around inside. That's how it feels to me." Harry said, after a moment of thought.

"Then, it is like water and you are a bowl?" Harry nodded tentatively. "Can you freeze the Chi, like water in a bowl? It would be solid then."

Harry took a breath and concentrated on his Chi. Controlling it, he stopped it from flowing around his hand. Instead, it now felt like a glove. "It feels like I'm wearing a glove of my Chi." Harry's voice was amazed.

"Perfect Harry. Just perfect. Now," Maison pulled his wand from somewhere in the workout clothes he was wearing and with a swish, a cement block appeared. "You've seen the students with Sensei Uzuki, breaking bricks and boards, correct?" Harry nodded. "Hold onto your Chi, and then punch the brick, as hard as you can. Don't make it any stronger than a normal punch, besides your 'glove' of Chi."

Harry looked at him, then nodded. If I end up breaking my fist, at least I can get Madam Pomfrey to heal me. Harry pulled his fist back, and punched at the block. Wrist locked, his fist hit the block, and the block cracked down the center. Harry felt the Chi surrounding his fist flare, and then there was much less of it. "Hey, I barely even felt the hit!"

"Your Chi absorbed the impact. As you can tell though, it used the Chi to buffer the hit. Your Chi is used up, lost, and you must channel more Chi into the barrier if you want to hit like that again. The stronger the punch, and the stronger the material, the more Chi you must use to protect your fist. If I do it, I can manage about two hits. I don't know what the depths of your Chi is like, but I know you have more Chi than I do. You could probably manage several more than I could. There's even a very advanced technique allowing you to extend your Chi barrier to a held item, making it almost unbreakable while you hold it."

Harry grinned at his Professor, then turned to Ron, who both could hear sputtering. Ron had a flabbergasted look on his face. "And you mean I won't be able to do this?" He waved to Harry and the brick.

Maison looked over to him. "You could, but it would take many years to learn to harness the Chi you have available. Part of the reason magic stunts your ability to use Chi, is magic is a pervasive energy. It seems to put a stop to the growth of other energies in your body. Harry will have a bit of a harder time gaining anymore amount of Chi as well."

Maison stood up and clapped his hands together. "Enough of the theory and Chi use today though Harry. We haven't sparred since before Christmas, so today will be a practical test of your ability. We'll spar, but no Chi, no magic."

Harry stood up. "Yes sir, Professor Maison." He got into a defensive position, his mind immediately slipping into the Void. He waited on his Professor.

Maison slipped into his own form, one Harry didn't recognize. Harry made a mental note of how he was standing, so he could try it later.

After a few moments of watching each other, Maison started off, pushing from his back foot, rolling into a roundhouse at Harry's head. Harry dropped low, trying to sweep Maison's single foot out from under him. A jump moved him back enough, landing on both feet. Harry came back up as well. Maison was in a basic karate stance now, and Harry slipped into a Tai Chi stance well suited for offense or defense. Nodding to himself, he went for the initiative this time.

Leading with a light jab from his front fist, the punch was knocked out of the way. He followed it with a heavier punch from his trailing hand, which connected with Maison's shoulder. Maison spun around, but caught himself enough to bring his leg up in a kick that caught Harry in the side. Harry was knocked down, and quickly jumped back to his feet while Maison stood waiting for him.

To Harry, his Chi seemed to be almost jumping, willing itself to be used. He ignored it, his vision tunneling towards Maison. Harry took a couple of steps back, then started circling Maison. His teacher just turned in place, watching Harry.

Harry stepped right again and then took several quick steps forward toward Maison. Jumping at him, he threw a snap kick towards Maison's head. Ducking under the kick, Maison grabbed Harry's leg, pulling him down onto the ground hard. Harry was stunned for just a moment then rolled away just as Maison's foot came down where his back had been. Climbing quickly back to his feet, Harry grinned.

This time, Harry threw a simple kick out at Maison's chest and his foot was grabbed. Harry spun, his other foot coming in unblocked, hitting Maison in the chest and knocking him down. Harry came down as well, his knee landing on the teacher's chest. "Do I win?" Harry grinned.

Maison shook him head. "Not yet; you are doing excellent though. But you forgot something important." At Harry's confused look, Maison's hands, which had been trapped underneath Harry, were still holding his leg; Maison lifted him up, throwing Harry off him and onto the floor. Maison stood up. "Don't leave your opponent any leverage points."

Harry felt Maison's Chi flicker for a moment, before it settled again. "I thought you said no Chi?"

"I did. But as you are currently in the Void, I assumed you wouldn't mind me using it as well, would you? Entering the Void has an effect your Chi momentarily." Harry backed up, his mind working overtime. Blast it... I thought he was already using the Void.

Harry had no more time for frivolous thought, as Maison went straight after him. All of Maison's moves now seemed more precise, more controlled. Harry was hard pressed to keep blocking. A punch to his stomach was blocked, while another fist seemed to appear, going for his collar. Barely averting that, Harry was forced to jump backwards to avoid the kick sent towards his knee. Landing from the jump, Harry was knocked back by an open hand pushed into his stomach. Harry fell to the ground and Maison jumped at him. He had no time to dodge and found Maison's own knee pressed into his throat, one arm pinned by Maison's bodyweight sitting on it, the other because he had landed on his arm.

"That is how you should pin someone. Especially since I weigh about two kilos more than you do, the way you tried it would not have worked. Do you yield?" Maison's voice was serious, but his eyes were dancing with laughter.

Harry grinned at him. "Yeah, yeah. Guess I need to learn when to keep my big mouth shut, don't I?"

Maison stood up, pulling Harry along with him. "Most likely, yes. Your form is excellent though, and you have a great deal of skill, especially for one as young as you are." Maison pulled out his wand again, which didn't even look like it had been touched. He waved it at the classroom, the mats dissolving and turning into his desks. "That's enough for today. You two go ahead and have a good day. Mr. Wood probably has your Quidditch practice scheduled again."

Ron grinned. "If it wasn't for classes, Harry'd probably have practice every day, for ten hours a day."

"Don't say that Ron. I'll be scarred for life." Harry shuddered, and then laughed. "Thank you for the lesson, Professor Maison."

"You're welcome. Now you two enjoy the rest of your day. I've got papers to grade." With that, Maison sent them both off.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

The next two weeks for the trio went by quickly.

Potions class went quietly, since Harry made sure to partner with Ron, and Professor Snape was studiously ignoring Harry for the time being. Hermione's potions were always exactly as required to be, so she didn't get into trouble.

All three of them had managed to get House points in Transfiguration when they were able to turn feathers into quills on their first tries. They were now waiting for the rest of the class to catch up, and both Ron and Harry were pushing forward with the help of Hermione to learn the spells ahead of time. Both boys wanted to be able to cast stronger spells quicker just as much as Hermione did.

Quidditch practices with Oliver were great. Harry seemed to be picking up a sixth sense to where the Snitch was. The Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff match had went to Ravenclaw, so it was between Ravenclaw and Slytherin for deciding whom Gryffindor would be playing at the end of the school year. Oliver had gone slightly crazy going over old plays by both teams, and the whole team had been force to memorize counter-plays.

After the few words of praise Professor Maison had for Harry, he now drove him even harder to get better. The lessons in the next two weeks were much harder, focusing on his martial arts instead of even starting a new technique with his Chi. To Harry, he seemed to spend half the time on his butt, and half the time on his feet being knocked back on his butt. But he was having fun.

Therefore, it was a shock to the three of them when they saw Professor Kettleburn levitating a stretcher with a crying student towards the hospital wing. The Professor was looking worried and shaking his head.

"I'm just a Squib! Send me back home, don't let the OWL examiners know!" The girl wailed. "Please, just let me go home." Her voice trailed off as the stretcher and Professor Kettleburn disappeared into the castle.

Harry looked at Ron and Hermione. "Weird. Wonder what that was all about?"

"Honestly. Didn't you two know? That's the third person in Professor Kettleburn's classes to go into hysterics. A third year girl in Hufflepuff and a sixth year boy in Slytherin." Hermione looked at the two of them.

"And how'd you know about it?" Ron asked.

Hermione shrugged. "It's about all the rest of the girls in my dorm talk about. I don't get into gossip, but it's hard to ignore if that's all you hear the whole night."

Harry gave Hermione a look. "As far as I know, guys don't gossip. So how were we supposed to know?" She shrugged. "Wonder what's causing it?" He thought out-loud.

"I don't know. But for some reason, they're supposedly perfectly fine after a few hours." Hermione looked down towards where Professor Kettleburn had come from. "I think the Professor came from the Forbidden Forest, near Hagrid's hut."

Harry grinned, nudging Ron. "Hey, let's go see if we can figure out what's causing it." He stood up, Ron quickly standing up as well.

Hermione's face went white. "But… What if it happens to the two of you? You don't want to get hurt do you?"

"Hey, you said they're fine after a few hours, right? Then even if it happens to us, we'll be fine." Ron laughed. "Come on Hermione. You can follow behind us, and if something happens grab a Professor, ok?"

"Alright, but just to keep you two out of trouble." Hermione stood up as well.

All three walked towards Hagrid's hut, chatting quietly. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary.

"Maybe Hagrid knows something about it. Wanna go ask him?" Harry asked, once they were near the Forbidden Forest. They all stopped.

"That's a good idea, Harry. Maybe it's something from the forest, and Hagrid is the Keeper of the Grounds and Keys, so he should know." Hermione nodded.

Ron shrugged. "Fine with me, I don't have a better idea. Let's go."

Turning, the trio started towards Hagrid's hut. Halfway there, Harry's arm shot out, grabbing Hermione and Ron and stopping them.

"Hold on. There's something…" Harry was quiet. It was an oppressive feeling. Something felt like it was pressing against him. Quickly bringing the Void around himself, he felt something trying to pull his Chi. "It feels like there's something trying to use my Chi."

Ron yawned. "That's all well and good. Come on, let's go talk to Hagrid," Ron yawned again. "before I fall asleep standing here."

Harry gave Ron a strange look, and then looked at Hermione. "You feel alright?"

"Yes, I'm okay. Do you think whatever happened to those other students is happening to Ron?" Hermione asked.

Harry gave one more look at Ron. "Maybe. Come on, let's go ask Hagrid before Ron here starts crying about tests." Harry grinned.

"H- h- hey!" Ron managed through another yawn. "Since when would I ever cry about a test?"

They had only managed a few more steps when Harry felt the pressure pushing against his Chi double. Hermione spoke up just then as well.

"Harry?"

"Hmm?" he replied, distracted by trying to keep whatever it was away from his Chi. Maybe… Trying Professor Maison's trick of making his Chi solid, Harry felt the pressure against him now slide around his Chi, instead of trying to push into it.

"Are you sure they're not going to kick me out of school at exam time?" Hermione's voice trembled.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Didn't we go over this a couple of weeks ago? You're probably going to get perfect scores…" He trailed off, realizing how Hermione's voice sounded. "Bugger. I think it's now affecting you too Hermione." Harry stopped again, grabbing Ron who stumbled.

"Alright, you two stay here. I think I can keep it from affecting me. Hermione, if I don't come back after twenty minutes in Hagrid's hut, get a Professor, alright?"

"But Harry-" Hermione began, but Harry waved her off. "All right, fine. Twenty minutes. Then I'm going to get Professor McGonagall."

"Fine with me." Harry walked off, leaving the other two standing where they were.

"Think I'm gonna take a nap, Hermione. Wake me up whenever." Ron yawned again, then sat down on the grass. Lying back, he sprawled out and was asleep in seconds.

Harry quickly got to Hagrid's hut and knocked on the door. "Hey Hagrid, it's Harry! Can I come in?"

"Shure! C'mon in Harry! Door's open, I can't get it right now." Hagrid's voice came from behind the door.

Harry opened the door and couldn't decide whether to laugh or gasp. What looked to be a small, furry stone was actively trying to rip the flesh off of Hagrid's overly large finger, and Hagrid was happily trying to feed said finger to the creature.

"He's teething Harry!"

End of Chapter. :) Points if you can guess what pet Hagrid's got this time.

OK, got some author notes for ya.

Normally I don't feed the trolls, but the anon reviewer 'finally' got on my nerves. For one, that was your first review. If you had problems with my story before now, why have you kept reading and not commenting? And as for your HIGHLY EDUCATED (your caps, not mine) opinion, I don't give a flip. Go back to school, learn to spell, what the word grammar means, and correct use of capitalization before you come back. Oh, and please don't hide behind an anon name. Give me your email address, or send one to me. Mine's posted on my profile. I'd like to correct your review and send it back to you.

As for the rest of my reviewers, thanks for sticking in there with me. While this chapter may have seemed to pander towards the idiot mentioned above, it wasn't. Hogwarts is a BIG school. One kid can't make that many changes, at least not in the first few days, weeks, months, etc. Things are going to go differently, but why would something as big as Hogwarts be different, if there hasn't been anything to change it?

Lessons with Maison are every Saturday. Do you really want me to go over rote lessons? Really? I don't mention them all the time, as it's just practice and whatnot, except when a new technique gets intro'd. Then you get that lesson. I can't give him a new technique every day. Same reason as why I don't give Harry a gear. It blows the whole system out of proportion.