Disclaimer: Everything belongs to J.K Rowling

Chapter 13: The Catalyst

Rowena had taken my decision remarkably well, I had expected her to be silently fuming and make up some quote about how I was acting incorrectly. She hadn't, she had just quietly accepted and told me to return the day after for my usual lesson.

That was where I currently was, on my way to the fourth floor hidden beneath the coolness of my treasured cloak. The fabric almost felt like an extension of myself by now, I must have used it more this year than the other three combined.

The silver door shone brilliantly in the afternoon sun shining through the tired panes of glass. It swung open as always and my feet guided me inside, leaving my head to remain in contemplation. I was led to my armchair where my legs nicely bent down and positioned me comfortably against the homely leather.

"Ahemm."

I jerked awake and my eyes roamed the room until they found the speck of black and purple in front of me. My master was sitting in her own armchair with her hands folded and looking at me with an unamused look.

"Had a nice daydream?" Rowena asked sarcastically but it lacked the bite her sassy remarks usually held.

"Something like that," I deflected with a jawn and sank further down in the armchair.

Rowena raised her eyebrows and looked at me expectantly, "You've been asking for this since day one and now, when I've finally relented, you're as uninterested as you can possibly get."

I said nothing and let the silence stretch throughout time. Rowena only observed me patiently and waited for me to respond to her statement.

"I guess," I finally declared after hours and hours of silence, or that was how long it felt.

My master narrowed her eyes at me and sent me a look I couldn't quite decipher. "I want to clarify something." Rowena paused and stood up abruptly. "Your decision to not take the vial of blood is not something I blame you for. I think you should do it," she explained.

A heavy sigh escaped my lips and I slumped further in my armchair. "It just feels so…incomplete, anticlimactic. I gestured with my hands helplessly. "Doing nothing, that's what I'm choosing. It feels wrong, it goes against all I'm for."

Rowena held her neutral expression and didn't move a muscle as I vented my frustration. Her hands were folded neatly in her lap and if it wasn't for the slow and rhythmic rising and falling of her chest, I would have thought she was dead. "As I said, your decision. You're free to change your mind."

"I can't though. It's wrong." I ran a hand through my hair in frustration and stared at the great chandelier hanging from the ceiling. "I took this decision in hope that my future can be better," I declared, trying to sound confident.

Her lips moved ever so slightly into a challenging smile. "Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?"

I remained silent after that. My aim was to stay as she did, still as a rock, not one single movement. Unfortunately, my fingers gained a life on their own and I started to fidget with my fingers. Forcing myself to stop, only to begin only a few painful moments later. I never dared to look up at her, I could just about imagine her amused visage and arched eyebrow as she observed my futile attempts to out-silence her.

"Are you done?" Rowena stood up and stretched demonstratively. "Perhaps you can continue your childish games after the lesson."

I almost physically jerked at that. Right, the lesson, the reason I'd gone here in the first place. The one thing I'd been looking forward to for ages, learning how to fight.

"Yes master."

I sprang from the armchair as if it was a trampoline and quickly followed in her wake as she went inside the room designated for duelling. Nothing about the room was out of the ordinary compared to what I'd seen before, but it felt different.

"I wanted to do this differently, but here we are," my master began in her lecturing tone and my ears were perched to the maximum. "You've shown some ability in using curses and magical shields to fight someone," Rowena continued and I felt myself begin to glow under her seemingly small praise, but I knew that anything other than a straight up insult was a great accomplishment.

"However," Rowena interrupted my moment of basking in the rays of praise she shone upon me. "You have shown no tendency for anything other than using those means."

I felt like a matchstick which had just been snuffed out mercilessly. Although I tried to not let my expression falter too much.

"So I'll learn transfiguration and charms and such," I surmised quickly in an attempt to hinder any further dents to my self esteem.

"That is for you to decide." Rowena waved with her wand and a wooden spear emerged in her other hand. I gulped heavily and tried to think of anything but getting impaled by that spear.

Squaring my shoulders in an attempt to appear confident I spoke up, in an octave or two higher than usual. "What is there for me to decide?"

Rowena remained in her neutral expression and I swore that I heard an exasperated sigh. "How you will repel it."

I stared at her wide eyed for a few moments, "Without using a magical shield?" I confirmed with a frown.

"Naturally," Rowena declared haughtily and pinched her nose. "So if I banished this spear straight at your heart, how would you stop it?" she inquired curiously and lifted the spear to take aim.

I took a hesitant step back, "Dodge it?"

Rowena's hand twitched and this time she definitely let out an exasperated sigh. "I was thinking with magic."

"Uhhhhh…I could create a wind which could force the spear to change direction," I thought out loud quickly. Rowena nodded slowly and I let out a long breath, I didn't want that spear near myself anytime soon.

"Adequate solution, any other way?" Rowena weighed the spear in her hand and I quickly scoured my mind for ideas.

"I could transfigure it into something unharmful," I began quickly. "Or I could conjure some kind of wall. Perhaps I could use an incendio and burn it before it reaches me." I rambled on and looked at Rowena who only nodded as I offered each suggestion.

"Alright, I think there is one problem though."

"I can't do any of those things?" I guessed with a grimace.

"Indeed," Rowena confirmed with another nod. "Look at it positively, at least you have a lot to learn."

I gave her a forced smile which looked more like a grimace. "And I'll learn those things before you throw that spear at me, right?"

"I like trial by error."

Shit.

-()-

"I think that's enough for today," Rowena declared as another spear was turned into ash just before it would have pinned me to the wall neatly. Sweating and with ash all over my robes and face, I slogged after her back to the main room.

Rowena waved her wand carelessly and I felt the shroud of black stoft disappear immediately. "You did well today," she remarked with her back turned to me. My face split into a huge grin at her words. Seconds ago, I'd been ready to fall asleep at any moment. Now I felt as if I could run to Ben Navis, climb the thing, then run back.

"Thank you," I responded with relief practically laced in my voice. "It wasn't that good though," I argued to Rowena's back. She remained silent and still so I took that as my cue to elaborate. "I could have come up with a better way or just known some other useful spell to counter. My solutions were really simple…" I trailed off as Rowena slowly turned around to face me with an unamused look.

"Sit down." I swallowed and sat down in hesitant trepidation of what would come next. Rowena sank down gracefully in her seat in front of me and licked her lips. "You think you lack intelligence?" my master demanded with a curious look.

"I…uhhh… I mean…not really…kind of?"

Rowena arched an eyebrow at me, "Your level of articulateness is astounding," she snapped sarcastically.

"I just think I can't come up with the best solution. Hermione always knows some way to solve everything. For me, I have to think to solve the smallest of problems," I admitted honestly.

My master nodded as I spoke and I felt a pang as she seemingly agreed with me. "You're wrong," she eventually said. "But even if you were right, it is not an issue."

I gave her a weak smile. Thank you, but not being able to know enough is a major weakness. Surely Ravenclaw would recognise that."

"You're referring to my house's valued trait, intelligence," Rowena stated neutrally.

"Well…yeah."

"Let me tell you something," my teacher straightened her back and leaned forwards. "My house's trait may be one thing, but it is not the trait that I value the most."

"Really? You don't care about being smart," I asked and did not believe her for a second. "You said that the entire reason you kept yourself alive was to preserve your knowledge," I accused with a raised eyebrow. "I can't learn everything you know."

Rowena tilted her head slightly and looked at me for a few moments, "You and I have different notions of what 'intelligence' is," she stated vaguely.

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Being intelligent is not about memorising facts and spells," Rowena said confidently. "It is about being given a piece of information and coming up with something to do with it."

"Which you can't do without knowing things," I argued stubbornly.

"You do know things, that is not a problem." Rowena countered heatedly. "You may think that your friend is smarter than you by a mile. I can assure you she is not."

I opened my mouth to argue but was silenced as Rowena slashed her wand with a flick of her wrist. "You have time and time again shown adaptability and ingenuity in solving tasks."

Rowena stood up and began pacing back and forwards across the room. "Your short…excavation to the chamber of secrets is a brilliant example of this. You struck where it hurt the most. The diary."

I glared at my teacher as my ability to retaliate was still absent.

"Perhaps I should have been more clear when deciding my house's traits. It shouldn't have been intelligence, it should have been creativity. That would make matters clearer."

"Those are not the same things," I replied loudly and my declaration echoed throughout the room. I had actually broken through the silencing charm. Or she had cancelled it, which was more likely.

"Intelligence and creativity is synonymous to me," Rowena declared with a shrug. "They should be to you as well."

I didn't respond and opted to remain silent. Rowena stopped pacing and set her eyes upon me with an unimpressed glare. "I can assure you, you can be the best at acquiring information in the world, but if you don't know how to use that information in any other way than how it was mentioned. You're useless." Rowena raised a finger and pointed at me sternly. "You are not useless."

"If you say so."

My master looked at me with narrowed eyes for a couple of moments. "I'll give you a piece of advice you won't like."

I rolled my eyes. "Do I ever like the advice you give me?" I asked rhetorically.

Rowena shook her head and let out a long breath. "For the love of Merlin, stop with the pity party."

I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off.

"I get it, you have a piece of Voldemort's soul in your head and you don't want to pay the price to remove it, that is understandable," she admitted. She raised a finger warningly. "What is not acceptable is you acting like a petulant, little child."

I frowned and refused to meet her eyes. Perhaps I had been a little childish occasionally these past few days. Every now and then.

Rowena shook her head in exasperation. "Tomorrow. Same time. See you."

With that she strided inside her personal room gracefully. Her silver door swung shut violently but the effect was ruined since it didn't even make the bearest of thuds.

-()-

"What is the most important aspect of the cutting charm?"

Flitwick's question left the classroom deadly quiet. Not even Hermione or Michael Corner, who usually put their hands up, did. I pondered the question myself. My conclusion was cutting things, a cutting charm which couldn't cut things was rather useless, right?

I did not raise my hand to share my thoughts.

Flitwick smiled jovially and stepped down from his pile of books. "The answer is versatility," he declared with a wave of his wand.

The amber light we had learned to create over the past few lessons burst from his wands like a swarm of bees and cut through a table with a clean cut. A couple of my classmates stared at the destroyed table with wide eyes. Flitwick then pointed it to a string on his table and the same honey yellow blast appeared. The string was severed in half.

"As you can see, this charm can be used to cut through the thinnest of paper as well as the thickest of trees."

I nodded along with the others. When we had practised the charm, we had attempted to sever a piece of wood. I had no idea if I was capable of using the same spell to cut down an entire tree. It would be cool to be able to do it though.

"As a final test to see how well all of you have learnt not just the spell itself, but how to use it, we shall have a small tournament."

The tension which hung in the air at that moment was tangible.

"Then, at the end, the person who had learnt the most shall get a prize."

Everyone perked up at that. Even Ron's back was as straight as Malfoy's. Ears were perched. Eyes were wide open.

Flitwick conjured a bowl with a bunch of paper slips in them. The great chandelier with all its candles dangled over him to create a sense of formality.

"Let's begin."

The process of selecting everyone's opponent didn't take long at all. I was paired with Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw. I admittedly knew very little about her, but I would be a fool if I underestimated anyone these days. Especially someone from Ravenclaw house.

The rules were very simple in the tournament, only one spell was allowed; the cutting charm. The crux was that the spell wasn't allowed to be used directly on your opponent.

Everyone divided into the pairs which had been selected and soon after, cries echoed around the tired classroom. Great, amber lights illuminated the wooden furniture.

"You ready?" I asked the brunette with a small smile.

Lisa nodded quickly. She raised her wand at me, I did the same.

I remarked that her posture was all wrong, she faced me too squarely. Her movement would be limited. Her wand was aimed a little too high as well, it would be a little too easy for me to duck any incoming spell. It was in times like this I noticed that I actually had made some progress. However insignificant it may seem.

We gestured to Flitwick that we were ready to begin and our teacher conjured a bunch of items inside of our small ring. A marble desk. Two bottles of cider. A pack of cigarette cards. A muggle lamppost. Peculiar choices.

Lisa opted to start with the obvious and sent a spell at the pole to make it fall down at me. I cut the beam clean off mid-air with a spell of my own. The heavy metal beams clanked to the floor with two heavy thuds. I thought quickly and picked up the pack of cigarette cards and threw it at her with as much power as possible.

It felt like time moved in slow motion when I aimed my wand at the small projectile and fired five lights of honey-colour at the pack. The papers inside exploded in a cloud of chaos which covered her almost completely. It was better than I could have hoped for.

I smiled inwardly and picked up the bottles of cider and shook them violently. I could see the bubbles inside writhing to try to get up. I rolled the bottles gently over the floor just as Lisa managed to rid her face of the paper.

I flicked my wand twice in quick succession and two amber golden lights struck the bottles. The best word to describe what happened was an explosion. The translucent liquid inside burst and exploded like someone had popped a balloon filled with gallons of water. Lisa was left dripping of the sugary substance. I smiled weakly but I wasn't finished yet, my victory wasn't secured. There was only really one item left to use; the marble table. I scoured my mind to find something to do with it but didn't find anything. My eyes strayed upwards and I felt myself let out a long breath. This probably wasn't allowed, but Lisa should come out unharmed.

I fired another spell into the air and it struck the chandelier in the ceiling with a smattering sound, it rained lights. I hid under the table as the candles dropped from the ceiling like a small volcano had just exploded. I heard Lisa shriek in fright and she quickly ran out the circle to escape the rain of fire.

She left the circle, which meant that I won.

When the thuds over my head had stopped and I was sure that no candle was left to drop down, I left my cover to see that the entire class had stopped what they were doing to watch.

Of course they had.

"Exemplary work, Mr Potter!" He looked ready to explode, he glowed brighter than the mess of candles on the marble table. "That is a very strong case for the victory."

I smiled weakly and returned to my seat and waited for the rest to finish. It didn't take long.

I won. Flitwick gave me a small box with a blue ribbon. "Congratulations, Mr. Potter."

I shook his offered hand and unwrapped the package. I stared at the item for a couple of seconds.

"This is the muggle equivalent of a cutting charm," Flitwick declared with a serene smile.

I let out a long breath and stared at the piece of metal and plastic. What on earth was I supposed to do with a scissor?

-()-

When classes were finished and I finally managed to ditch Ron and Hermione to attend my extracurricular lesson, I was striding confidently towards the fourth floor. As I got inside, I found my master already seated and looking at me with the most 'I told you so' expression I had ever seen.

"You saw it?"

"I saw it," she confirmed with a shake of her head.

"I know what you're going to say," I began before she could continue.

"I'm still right," Rowena said with a shrug.

I rolled my eyes. "This time, yes."

"Do you see what I tried to tell you about creativity now?" she demanded with an arched eyebrow.

"Yes master. You were right as always. Is that what you want to hear?"

Rowena raised her chin haughtily. "Naturally, it is nothing but the truth."

I shook my head, "Naturally."

-()-

"Are you sure you can actually win over her though?" Malfoy asked, sceptical, as we went over our plan again.

We had gotten our ideas for the plan early on and it was practically nailed on what our revenge, or 'retribution' as Malfoy liked to call it, would be.

"Yes," I stated confidently. Although, I didn't actually feel as confident as I made it sound. So far, I had only had about ten lessons about actual fighting and the subsequent nine after the first, exciting one, had been about fights in history and what tricks and inspiration I could gain from them.

Malfoy held his hands up in surrender. "If you say so."

"I do say so." I glared at Malfoy as he shuffled around a few papers we'd used to plan this whole debacle. "I still think your part is going to be the problem. Will your father actually do what he says? He doesn't seem like the kind of guy to offer help to anyone."

Malfoy stopped his incessant shuffling and rolled his eyes. "I've told you, I've written to him and he told me he'd do it."

"Do you trust him?"

This time Malfoy outright glared at me. "He is my father, Potter. Of course I trust him. Wouldn't you trust your father? I stood up warningly but Malfoy didn't stop. "Oh wait, you haven't got one."

I clenched my fists into knuckles and imagined myself punching him so hard his teeth flew out his mouth. Taking a deep breath, I tried to calm myself. This arrangement between us wasn't perfect, but it was mutually beneficial.

"At least I'm not a selfish little ferret," I settled for instead and spun on the spot. "You should try to do something for someone else once in your life."

All that said, I walked out of our meeting place and flicked my wand neatly to have the door smash shut with a loud bang. Hopefully, it would take a good hour before my locking spell disappeared.

It wasn't the first time something like this had happened, but usually, we only needed a few days to cool off in between. Then we'd be back to being civil, not friendly, but civil. Which was really all I could hope for, considering I was colaborating with Draco Malfoy.

-()-

"Master, I have a question, if you don't mind?"

Rowena paused just as she was about to enter her own private room. "As long as the question isn't stupid…"

I rolled my eyes. "I was wondering…did you ever meet anyone?"

She turned around with an unamused look. "I've never met a single person in my own life," she said sarcastically.

I winced. "I meant…someone you cared for?"

"You're wondering if I ever married?"

"Well…yes."

My master nodded slowly. "I never married anyone, Ravenclaw is the name I was born with…" she trailed off and stared at something just beyond me.

"Oh, okay," I said quickly. I didn't know how far I could press her, we had known each other for a couple of months. She knew everything about me, I could not say the same about her. Not even close.

"There was someone though."

My master's words dragged me from my mind with a violent thug. "What?"

Rowena let out a deep sigh and didn't meet my eyes. "I met someone once, when I was young. About the age I looked like this." Rowena gestured to herself. Her about twenty-looking self.

"What happened?"

She shrugged. "Nothing…" Rowena frowned and met my eyes. "I liked to explore the world, explore magic," She had a look in her eye I had never seen before. The vivid purple was clouded and absent. "He wanted to settle down and start a family."

I remained silent and waited for her to continue.

"Eventually, he left one day and didn't return." Rowena looked like she wanted to say something else but closed her mouth. She met my eyes with a pointed look. "Sometimes, you meet the one you think is meant for you, but isn't the one meant for you."

Rowena smiled sadly and turned around. "Sometimes, it's the opposite."