School of Hard Knocks
Following breakfast the next morning Lyra met briefly with Newt to explain to him the house colors. Newt told Lyra that basing her reason on the colors of a mango sounded like the best inspiration he could think of. Purple held no significance to her, so that should have been eliminated away right away.
Percy led the group of first-years to the quidditch stadium. When they arrived, the Gryffindor team was just warming up with some stretching and running.
"Can we join them?" Lyra asked Percy.
"We can ask the captain, Wood, if he'll allow it."
The first-years all walked over to the team and were greeted by a tall boy with a golden whistle hanging around his neck. "Good morning Percy, good to see you haven't given any of the first-years detentions yet."
He ignored the comment, "Miss Black wanted to join in on your warmup, would you permit her and the others to join you?"
"No brooms, just the warmup if any of the kids want to."
Lyra, Harry, Ginny, Arthur, and a few others joined in. Harry in particular felt like he needed to burn off some energy. They had been spending way too much time indoors and needed to move around some more. Colin decided to just take pictures.
They started with a lot of stretching, followed by running around the pitch. It was much bigger than the football field Harry had run around back in his first and second years of primary school, but he was a lot bigger and stronger than he was back then. Both he and Lyra kept pace with the other players for the warm-up jog while most of the other first-years stopped at the end. Following that, the team ran the stadium seats running to the top of one of the towers and along the row, then down the next tower. They did three sets of ups and downs before taking a break. Arthur lasted through the first up and down before stopping, Ginny lasted two. Harry and Lyra were feeling tired but energized from the activity when they finished.
Wood commented on their stamina, "The two of you would be excellent additions to our team if you were in our house. We're going to start on the brooms now, so go back to Percy to watch from the stands."
They rejoined the first-years. Ginny was lying flat on the grass, and Arthur had just sat back up. He looked at Harry and Lyra who had barely broken a sweat, "How are you two not exhausted?"
"We used to climb trees all day and hike up a mountain once a week. No cars, no floo, no portkeys. We were feeling weaker after being inside for so long," Harry responded.
"I basically live on a farm," Ginny added, "but that was too much for me."
"I want to do that every day, and find some trees to climb," Lyra was bouncing with energy.
"Lyra has way more energy than me, though she's more connected to the daytime, while I have more energy at night," said Harry.
The others didn't know what to make of that statement, but Percy came up at that moment to interrupt anyways.
"Right now, let's head down to the locker room and I'll teach you a little about quidditch."
They all headed down to the Gryffindor quidditch lockers. There was a long hallway that led to the team lockers that were lined with old quidditch gear from the last 900 years. Percy gave a history of the sport as they walked.
"Hogwarts is older than the sport itself. I can't imagine what the houses competed over for nearly 100 years before it was invented. The site of the first quidditch game took place somewhere called Queerditch Marsh. Over the centuries, the location has been lost and no one knows exactly where it is. We are relatively sure it is somewhere near Puddlemere as they are the oldest quidditch club team. It is assumed that it is somewhere in the vicinity of Quoditch in Torridge District, for obvious reasons."
Percy continued to talk about the history of quidditch until they were in the locker rooms. The Gryffindor lockers had fourteen lockers around the room with names and numbers on them and another seven that had no names on them. Lyra tried to walk through a door on the side but felt like she hit a wall when trying to go through.
"Hold up," Percy said. "That's the boys' bathroom. A lot of the bathrooms and dorms in Hogwarts have wards on them so you can't enter the wrong one."
Lyra nodded and went through the other door to look around. She ran back out a moment later.
"Harry! I know what we forgot we needed to add to the common room! We need a hot spring! There's something similar in the girl's bathroom here!"
Harry's face lit up, he especially missed the hot spring on the island, and after bouncing off the girls' entrance, he ran into the boys' bathroom and found a small tub of bubbling water in the corner. Putting his hand into it, it was warm, possibly warmer than the spring on the island.
Running back out, he said, "There's one in here too, we should talk to Newt after lunch."
Percy looked like he was about to object when one of the first-years called out, "there are extra uniforms in the other lockers!" Everyone crowded around to see.
The seven lockers without names on them were opened to reveal uniforms that weren't in use by any players and had no names printed on the backs of them. Without waiting for Percy to approve, everyone started trying them on. Almost all of them were way way too big. Colin was taking pictures of everyone in the jerseys with Harry, Lyra, Arthur, Ginny, Colin, Luna, and a girl with frizzy chestnut brown hair named Daria all getting to wear one. Another one of the first-years was taking pictures of them with Colin asking for a lot of extras to show his parents of him in the jersey. His father had been on his university rugby team and would flip to see his son playing any kind of sport.
Without returning the jerseys, Percy decided to take them back up to the stands to watch the scrimmage between the starters and the reserves. When they got to the stands, the game was already underway with most of the action taking place at the far end of the field. The reserve keeper at their end waved to the group and they cheered back. After a few minutes, the action started to shift back down to their end of the field.
Seeing all the players on broomsticks flying in complicated patterns was amazing. It was incredibly well coordinated and took a huge amount of concentration. As they were watching, one of the Weasley twins whacked a bludger toward the reserve keeper at his posts, forcing him to abandon it. The bludger flew through the post he was guarding but then started to swerve down towards the first years in the stands. Percy watched it fly towards them expecting it to swerve back, but it didn't. At the last second, before it was about to crush Luna, he grabbed her and dove out of the way. The bludger smashed through the seats in the stand and bounced back in the air.
There was chaos among the first-years. Everyone started running towards the exit. The bludger sped towards Ginny who was the closest to the exit. Someone yelled "DUCK!" and she hit the floor causing the bludger to crash into the exit and wooden boards fell across it, blocking their escape. They turned to run for the exit on the other side with the bludger crashing into random benches as everyone dodged. From the far end of the field, they could see Wood speeding towards them. As they got to the other end, they started pouring through the exit with the bludger coming around for another attack.
It was aiming for Lyra and just as it was about to hit her, Arthur pushed her aside and through the exit causing the bludger to crash into his arm with a sickening crunch. He fell to the ground, crying out in pain as the bludger swerved around to finish the job. With just Arthur and Harry left on the platform, Harry pulled out his staff to defend his fallen classmate. Further off, he saw Wood approaching with speed but right as he was arriving, he dropped the golden whistle he was about to blow and had to dive to pick it up.
Harry saw the bludger coming back and raised his staff above his head almost daring it to attack him. As it came in range, he swung down at it with all the force he could. The lampong horn on the end of his staff hit the bludger with incredible force.
The impact echoed over the quidditch pitch.
GONG!
The bludger was struck with such force that it was batted down into the ground of the pitch nearly fifty feet below. It sunk about a foot deep into the earth. Finally, they heard a whistle blast and Harry saw the other bludger, that the twins had been keeping under control, and a tiny golden ball falling from the sky nearby.
"Arthur!" A girl with short brown hair dove towards them on her broomstick, hopping off at the last second. "Are you ok?" Arthur was groaning and desperately trying to fight off tears. "We need to get him to the infirmary."
Percy came back out with the other first years as Wood hopped down into the stands. "What in the bloody hell, Percy? Why are the first-years in our uniforms?"
"They wanted to take pictures, Wood. What the hell is wrong with your bludger?"
"There's nothing wrong with it, the bludgers attack anyone in a uniform, that's why they don't attack the spectators!" He knocked on Percy's head like a door. "That's the kind of thinking that's going to get you a fancy job at the ministry one day." Turning to the rest of the first-years, "Everyone, you're looking at the next Minister of Magic here!"
Before Percy could respond, Gred or Forge landed holding the dug-out bludger. "Both of you cool it. Katie, I need you to take Angelina with you and bring your brother to the infirmary, we'll join you soon." Turning to Harry, "That was one hell of a whack!" He tossed the bludger to him, it had a huge dent in the side. "I didn't know they even could be dented, they're supposed to be made of solid iron. What's your staff even made of?"
Harry looked at the ball. It was a lot heavier than he thought it should be, but then again, it did use magic to fly. He tossed it back to the redhead.
"We are totally putting this in the museum downstairs," the second redhead said, landing beside his brother. "The Boy-Who-Bludgeoned, this power is the reason why they couldn't find a trace of the Dork Lord." The two of them hopped on their brooms to fly down to presumably do what they were saying.
Wood looked back at Percy, "Get these kids out of the uniforms and back to the school, I'm going to inform McGonagall about this. Everyone else put the gear away. Alicia! Supervise the cooldown exercises." He hopped on his broom and sped off toward the castle.
Percy led them downstairs to return the uniforms, keeping quiet the whole time.
When they got back to the castle, McGonagall was waiting for them with Wood. "Mr. Weasley, my office, now. Mr. Wood, you can take over the first-years until lunch."
Wood just stood there like he was asked to play with a baby dragon, "Um, what do you kids want to do?"
Lyra asked, "Can we go see Arthur?"
Wood nodded, and they walked to a room with large open doors and an entirely white interior. Beds with privacy screens lined the walls. On a bed near the door, Arthur was laying down while Katie sat next to him. On the other side, a woman in a white robe stood with her wand on Arthur's arm. A blue light was glowing as she moved her wand, there was a sound like a wooden board being slowly broken, and Arthur's face twisted and contorted with pain.
Lyra went around to the side that Katie was on and held Arthur's hand. He looked up to see her and she squeezed his arm while saying, "Thank you."
Arthur smiled through the pain a bit. Wood looked down at him, "Well at least we know you'll be joining your sister in Gryffindor now. I might as well give you your talk about the differences in the houses now since it doesn't seem like Percy is going to be back. Madam Pomfrey, can we use some of the empty beds for a talk?"
The healer gave him a sour look as she was working on Arthur's arm, "Mopsy!" An elf popped in, "Please bring chairs for the students here." One by one, chairs appeared in the room for the students to sit near Arthur's bed.
"OK, you've already heard from the prefects of the other houses, and I'm sure some of them said things that weren't very flattering about Gryffindor house. The rivalries between the houses go back to the founding of Hogwarts, and nothing about that will change. Personally, I don't feel like there should be any rivalry between the houses, except in quidditch. Once you leave Hogwarts, the houses won't matter, but they will shape your personality for the rest of your life. It is in that regard that I feel that Gryffindor is the best house."
Taking a deep breath, he sat up straight and continued, "Gryffindors are known for being tough, headstrong, adventurous, chivalrous, and partiers. We are also known to do things without thinking of the consequences, like Percy and the uniforms. Just so you know for the future, all the team uniforms hold a charm that acts as a potential target for bludgers. That's why it's safe for people to attend quidditch matches as these iron balls will only go after the players in the air."
Getting back on the subject, "The people you become after Hogwarts is the reason I feel Gryffindor is the best house. You learn all your harsh lessons while you are still in school. Percy is probably going to have his prefect status put on probation right now for endangering all of you. He is going to make sure something like that never happens again. We get into situations often that teach us valuable, and often painful, lessons that steer us onto the correct path for how we lead our lives. We also learn to expect such situations later in our lives. If I poke you with a needle, the first time you'll cry in pain, but after a few times, you'll treat it like it is, just a needle. You'll learn to dodge, parry, and heal from the attack."
"Hufflepuff tries to keep their students from feeling the first needle and their students often leave Hogwarts without knowing how to deal with dangerous situations. Ravenclaw will read and study all the different kinds of needles and how dangerous they are, deeming themselves experts in needles, though when faced with the real thing will fail hard. Slytherin, well, they are most often the needles themselves."
"As I'm sure they told you, the biggest rivalry is between our houses. Most of what goes on inside Slytherin House remains a secret known only to themselves. From what the rest of us know, they have rules and procedures for everything. They exchange favors like currency, act as influence peddlers, and will bolster or undermine people's reputations on a whim. Like Gryffindors, they will also leave Hogwarts stronger, but will also be wary of everyone they encounter, making it exceedingly difficult for them to truly trust anyone."
By the time he was done speaking, Arthur was sitting up in his bed and flexing his arm and fingers slowly. He was given a sling and told to keep it on for the next two days to make sure everything was healed properly.
When they arrived at lunch, they were greeted by Percy outside the great hall with Professor McGonagall.
Percy stepped towards the group, "I need to apologize. Even though I wasn't aware of the charm on the robes, I should have asked before allowing you to take them from the lockers. I am sorry that I put all of you at risk." Turning to Arthur, "I owe you a minor debt, Arthur, please let me know how I may repay it when it's convenient for you."
McGonagall stepped forward, "For those of you who don't know, a minor debt is not binding, it is just a courtesy to offer in this kind of situation. There are life debts that when one magical selflessly defends another's life with their own can lead to a kind of compulsion that may demand a higher amount of recompense before the compulsion is lifted."
That sounded a bit weird to Harry. The whole point of a selfless act was that it was selfless. So he asked, "Do life debts ever happen between family members or with Aurors who save people?"
Percy fielded that one, "no, not normally, except with distant relatives or an Auror working outside their job."
"Is there any magical compulsion for the person who performed the selfless act to relieve the one who was saved of their debt?"
"No? Maybe?" Percy looked to McGonagall who shook her head no.
"Then it just sounds like a life debt is a magical compulsion formed out of a person's guilt for needing to be saved by someone who didn't need to. Families expect each other to protect them and we expect Aurors to do the same, that's why there is no guilt. I would assume the compulsion is even stronger if the person who saved the other is an enemy."
McGonagall's eyes widened, "That is an interesting theory, Mr. Potter. Perhaps you can do a project on that later in your studies. I'm sure that you could do some fascinating research on the idea. It's a shame you don't have a house yet or I would give points for the idea. For the rest of you, curiosity is a good thing. If you ever have an idea about the limits of magic, bring it up with a professor. There are always advancements in magical theory going on and you could be onto the next big idea."
The first years weren't sure about the idea of life debts but chatted about it through lunch.
Following lunch, Newt approached their table. "Harry, Lyra, I don't think we will need you today for anything while the common room is being worked on, a lot of it will be completed after dinner, so come by before curfew. I have a Druid that I work with who would like to bless the room."
Harry and Lyra looked at each other. They had occasionally done blessings on the island, the most basic was the squirrel to ward off the heavy rains. They did have one other they had performed previously, with The Giver's help, on the village but it needed more research.
"We also have a blessing we would like to perform," Lyra said, getting wide eyes from Newt. "We needed to do some research on it first but maybe we can get it done before dinner, we would need to spend some time in the library."
"I will need the Druid to look over your idea before it can be performed, so go ahead to the library. You both told me of many interesting things about how you learned magic, so I am very intrigued in hearing what you might come up with for your blessing."
Harry and Lyra ran off to the library. The other students might be doing something else, but this was more important. Upon arriving at the library, they ran to the search desk. Harry wrote down "Basic Arithmancy" and Lyra dropped one of her feathers on the card that came up and it zipped off with them running after it.
After the stirring situation at the Abbots' tea house, Harry had asked Severus about arithmancy. From what The Giver had taught them, Lyra's tea potion should have been sweet and given her a boost of energy. Severus explained to them that due to some mystery of magic, arithmantic meanings in numbers changed based on the location you were. Depending on the region you were in, local meanings for numbers might be different and may affect how your magic turns out, despite your intentions for it to be the same as the region you came from.
That meant that the blessing they had been saving for wherever they settled down needed to be completely reworked with local arithmantic properties. They went through all of the materials they had with them and were able to assign materials to all the steps in the blessing except for luck and fortune.
While digging through books on bird feathers as potion ingredients, Wood came into the library with the other first-years.
"Good, you are still here. I took the rest of your year back to the quidditch field and let them play with some practice bludgers. They're soft and I figured everyone could use a bit of fun to get over this morning's events. What are the two of you up to?"
"We need a bird that symbolizes luck and fortune," Lyra said. "But we can't find one."
"Well, lucky for both of you, the answer to all problems is quidditch," Wood laughed. "You need a Golden Snidget. It was used in quidditch before the snitch to end the game but they were getting endangered as a result of their overuse. He walked over to the search desk and scribbled down the name of the bird. A few cards flew down to him and he grabbed one and started to walk off."
Harry stopped him, and Lyra performed her magic with the post owl feather, Wood just watched it zip off.
"Wow, that was pretty cool," he said with some awe. He asked for another feather from Lyra and tapped it with his wand, muttering "semita meridiem," causing it to glow white. Then he passed it back to Lyra, "Do it again."
She did, but this time when it zipped off, it left a trail of white light behind it. The children were awed at the sight of the magic while Wood walked off, following the trail of light. A minute later, he came back with the book, opening it he showed the first years a golden bird with a narrow body, a needle-like beak, wings at least three times as wide as its body, and tail feathers that looked like hair off its back end. After a moment, the picture in the book came alive, and it began to fly around as golden sparks came out of the book.
Harry read as quickly as he could through the descriptions of the bird. "It's perfect!" he yelled and grabbed the book to run out of the library with Lyra running after him.
Wood grabbed his arm, stopping him. "Wait, you need to check it out first," and walked Harry up to the front desk, where a Ravenclaw girl with dark blonde hair was sitting.
She looked up and saw Wood and then down to Harry, "Hi Ollie, the library isn't your normal hang out, is it? What do you have Mr. Potter checking out here?" Scanning the title, she gave him a smirk, "Of course, a quidditch book, he's not going to be on your team, you know?"
"Good competition is still needed or else the game would get boring. I still think you would enjoy the game, or at least you should take a ride with me sometime to watch the sunset above the castle," he winked at her as he spoke to her.
"Still not going to happen, Ollie," but the smirk she had given him earlier was still on her face too. Looking at Harry, "Do you have your wand?" She opened the book to the inside cover. There was a large black dot there, "place your wand on the dot to check it out."
Harry pulled his wand out of his robe where it had been stuck to his right forearm.
"Woah, cool wand, Harry," Wood exclaimed.
Harry tapped the black dot on the page and a book next to Penny glowed. She wrote his name down in the book. "You're good to go, Mr. Potter." Harry ran off while Wood stayed to talk to the girl. Lyra had been waiting by the door and the two of them ran together to the tapestry.
When they entered, about a dozen people were working inside. They could see some of the Balete trees growing in a circle in the center of the room, they were about five feet tall at the moment, but they could see the roots growing as some of the people working cast spells at the tree and shoveled some dragon manure around the base. The floor was all dirt and the fire pit with the steps around it had already been placed. Dougal was in the half-developed grove of bananas and mangos still wearing his straw hat with a very enthusiastic Whispers gesturing at the trees. Newt and Tina were on the far side of the room giving instructions to Parti Flâneur about something regarding the walls. They saw the children come in and started to walk over toward them.
Newt greeted them, "How's the blessing coming?"
"There's one thing we don't have," Lyra started. "We need eight feathers from a…" she took the book from Harry and opened it up, "... a golden snidget."
Newt looked interested, "I'm very curious to see what you're trying to do, is there any particular feather you need?"
Lyra examined the picture in the book, "If we stuck the tail feathers in the ground, would they stand up straight on their own?" Newt shook his head. "Then the wing feathers, can you get them?" Lyra responded.
"There is a reserve for them in England, I taught one of the keepers there, I'll head over now to see if I can get them." He walked out, leaving Tina there with the children.
"He's very interested in what you've got going on, especially because it has its roots in animals rather than plants or trees like most other druidic blessings. The one that he was planning on will center around the trees in the room."
Harry was interested in that. Plants were his passion; watching them grow and develop. For now, though he looked back at the book Lyra was holding with the golden snidget and thought about quidditch. He wasn't sure he liked the game, but flying definitely looked like fun. Then he remembered something else.
"Tina? Would it be possible to put a hot spring in the common room? We had one on the island, it was a bit of a hike to get there, but it was always worth it just to soak in there with the whole tribe and relax."
"I don't think so, Hogwarts has always been a bit traditional, and having a group bath probably wouldn't be something that would be approved by the board of governors. You might need to ask Dumbledore directly about it."
Lyra was hoping for one too, so both children were disappointed with that answer.
Tina saw their crestfallen faces, "This whole house is a new thing for Hogwarts, try to convince the other students after the sorting and maybe you can find a way to convince the people in charge. I'm sure that this room will go through many more changes over the years."
Newt wasn't back yet when it was time for dinner so they went to eat before coming back to the room. Newt was there with another man. He wasn't as old as Newt but had a long grey beard. The man wore white robes that covered his head with a laurel of leaves holding the hood in place. He wore a brown leather belt around his robes with a large sickle on the left and a cutting of some kind of plant on the right attached to it. In this right hand, he carried a scepter which was polished white wood and had a small space on the top that was like an empty chamber of some kind. On his shoulder sat a small black and white spotted bird with a dab of red on its head.
He walked over to the children and knelt before them. "Harry Potter, your legend precedes you." He looked at Lyra who had stepped a little behind Harry at the man's approach, "but we are here because of you, Miss Lyra Black, for this most unprecedented event in the history of Hogwarts. My name is Glen Albanwr. I work around the British Isles as a Druid, helping the earth and the creatures who live in it."
Harry wasn't sure how to respond so he settled with, "That sounds interesting."
"Indeed it is, and Mr. Scamander here tells me that you are interested in doing a blessing of your own. Do you have the details written up?"
Harry nudged Lyra who pulled a paper with their notes and placed it on the table in the room. The paper had nine concentric circles with dots on each of them and notes scribbled on the side. She looked back to Harry and the druid before starting an explanation.
"One of the first magics we learned was using feathers for light and purification, specifically the hoohoo feathers." She pulled one of the feathers from her braid to show everyone.
"You use hoohoo feathers as ornaments in your hair? These are exceedingly rare and expensive," Glen said with astonishment.
Harry stepped in, "There are hoohoos where we live, they drop their feathers regularly, we just collect them. Lyra keeps them in her hair to use in different situations. It's just an added benefit that it looks nice."
"Incredible, please continue."
"After seeing a few different feathers used with very specific results, we started to test feathers from other birds and got different results from them. From there, we devised a blessing for our home that helped to protect and nurture the land. When we came here, we had brought some materials to repeat it, but we needed to change parts of it to match the arithmantic practices for the region."
"That shows some incredible foresight. Many blessings and rituals have failed, with catastrophic results, when migrating them to different parts of the world."
"Lyra tried to make her tea give her more energy and sweetness using a stirring technique we had learned, and it ended up doing something else. That's when the potions teacher here explained what she did wrong," Harry explained.
"It's always good when your mistakes are harmless," Glen continued. "Most students don't discover mistakes like that until they turn themselves into an artificial chimera or accidentally salt the earth with dark magic."
Lyra wasn't sure what those meant but Newt's face showed it wasn't good, so she continued with the explanation. "So using eight different birds, we set up the blessing here. It starts with one red feather and ends with nine yellow feathers, both from the hoohoo." Then, reading from their notes, some copied straight from the book, she recited:
"One represents the beginning, a leader, a goal. We will place one red hoohoo feather to begin the blessing at the center of the circles representing the bringing of light and purification.
Two represents balance and cooperation, commitment, and fairness. It represents contrasting forces, life, and death, day and night, good and evil. There is a type of owl from our home that has black and orange feathers that flies in pairs, we will use their feathers for the second circle.
Three represents completeness; past, present, and future; mind, body, and magic; beginning, middle, and end. It is considered the first complete number in European arithmancy. It represents talent, energy, art, humor, and success. For this circle, we will use a cracked eggshell, the fluffy down from a chick, and an adult feather - all from a type of hawk that lives in our home.
Four represents stability, protection, hard work, and organization. For this circle, we will use the feathers of post owls from Diagon Alley.
Five represents instability, uncertainty, and adventure. It also represents a lot of negative personality traits. For this circle, we will use a bird of many colors from our home with five different colors marking each spot on the circle.
Six represents harmony, friendship, family life, loyalty, reliability, and love. For that circle, we will use a green bird that can mimic speaking and lives in large family groups.
Seven is associated with magic, mysticism, imagination, perception, and understanding. For this circle, we will use the feathers of a strange bird with a large mouth and feathers that look like moths. It is incredibly hard to spot and blends in with almost anything.
Eight represents the possibility of great success, in business, finance, and politics. It is tied to ambition and hard work. We asked Newt to bring us eight wing feathers from a golden snidget for this circle.
Nine represents completion and achievement. It is the number of teachers, scientists, and people who do selfless work for others. For this last circle, we will use nine yellow feathers from a hoohoo."
Lyra had been staring at the paper, reading off their notes the entire time she had been speaking. Harry, who had written everything down, had been watching Newt and Glen for their reactions. Newt seemed incredibly interested but was mostly impressed by their level of interest and dedication to the task. Glen on the other hand seemed to be going over checklists in his head and even summoned a book from a bag in the corner to look something up as Lyra continued to read.
His eyes grew wider at each new ring. "So far, I can't find any fault with any part of your blessing. Tell me how you plan on setting it up and how you plan on activating it."
Lyra looked a little worn out from the reading, so Harry took over. "I will use the protection magic in my staff to draw the circles, from the largest to the smallest. Then we will place all the feathers and objects in their places. Lyra will use her staff to ignite the first feather.
"For the second ring, we will stand opposite each other and activate the next two feathers, which will make it so no sound will penetrate the room from outside. Then we will both walk around the circle to the right and activate the feathers again which will silence all noise inside the room as well.
"In the third ring, we will both stand at the eggshell and activate its magic, then proceed to the chick down, and activate that, which will cause it to burn slightly and emit sparks, then proceed to the adult tail feather which will catch fire when activated. Then we will return to the egg and use its magic to complete that circle and repair the egg to being uncracked."
Harry took a deep breath and continued, "In the fourth circle we will need to run together to the right while activating each post owl feather as they should rise from the floor and fly in their circle repeatedly.
"In the fifth circle, to counterbalance the right movements we've done so far, and to reverse the instability and negative elements of this number, we will walk to the left for two rotations activating the feathers in this circle as we go, which will make them glow brightly in their own colors.
"The sixth circle, after each activation, we will walk to the third ring before walking back to the next activation point in the sixth ring to the right. We will each only do three activations in the sixth ring, only doing half of the circle each.
"The seventh ring will be the most difficult, as Lyra will need to stand at the anchor point in the center and I will connect my magic to hers from each point on the ring in a rotation to the right."
Harry took another deep breath. "The eighth circle will be similar to the fourth, though we will run together and make sure that each feather is activated one second after the next. They should also orbit around their ring. From what we've read about the speed of a golden snidget, this should be particularly interesting."
"Finally, from opposite sides of the ninth ring, we will activate all the feathers once around to the right, then reverse course and activate them again to the left. This will symbolize the completion of the blessing. The yellow feathers should glow and create a golden light that fills the room."
Glen was speechless for a minute before saying, "Extraordinary, and you've done this before? What were the results?"
"Well we can't be sure, if it was due to our blessing or just other changes we had made recently," Harry began, "but after the blessing our crops and trees grew faster, and there was a huge population boom in the village, and those already living, even the adults seemed to grow larger."
"How did you learn all of this?" Newt asked.
"The Giver taught us about numbers and we experimented with different feathers until we found some that would work properly. There were a whole lot of feathers that we tried that gave us results that we would not have wanted to be permanent," Lyra told them.
Glen still looked astonished at all of this, "I can't find any fault with this, but from what you've said, it sounds like the last time this was performed it was outside; and even though you are using base numbers, I would consider this to be advanced arithmancy. I would ask that the Druid Council, the Headmaster, and your arithmancy master look over everything before it is performed. Is there any reason why it should be done tonight?"
Lyra looked a little disappointed that they wouldn't be doing it right away but after sharing a look with Harry she realized that there wasn't any reason it couldn't be done later. They had done it in the Hidden Village after everyone was already living there, they just had to clear everyone out for one night.
"No, I guess not," Lyra said a bit despondently. "I just thought we could do both blessings at the same time."
"Your blessing sounds incredible, we just need to make sure it will have comparable results on this side of the world when it is also indoors at such an incredible magical nexus like Hogwarts."
Harry was also disappointed but changed the conversation. "What will your blessing do?" he asked Glen.
"Nothing as special as yours, mine will make the trees and plants grow stronger and faster and give a minor feeling of protection to all who seek shelter here. I perform this one at least a dozen times a year around the country."
Tina could see the glumness in the children so she tried to cheer them up. "I'll go see the arithmancy professor now to pass off your notes, and Newt will go to Dumbledore. Glen will perform his Druidic blessing, and tomorrow afternoon, you can come back to see the results of the blessing. How about that?"
Both children just kind of shrugged and left the room along with Whispers, Dougal, Tina, and Newt. When they got back to the common room, Gemma had returned to switch off with Percy for the last day. She greeted Harry and Lyra, "Welcome back, I have letters to give both of you." She pulled out two envelopes for them.
Harry opened his letter, "It's from Miss Greengrass, she is making a request to meet with me tomorrow by the greenhouses before lunch, she wants me to bring Whispers and says she has a surprise for me. Do you know what she wants?"
Gemma looked uncertain, "I know she couldn't stop talking about Whispers the past few days, but I don't know what the surprise could be."
Lyra hadn't spoken after reading her letter, after Harry glanced at her, she pulled him away from Gemma. "It's another letter from Draco, he says he was offended I didn't respond to him before and would still like to meet with me."
"I don't like that," Harry responded, "We've been busy and he did request to meet with you after the sorting, which hasn't happened. Do you want to meet him?"
"Not really," said Lyra. "I just don't see what we would have to talk about. We aren't family."
"Would you like me to speak with him?"
"Would you? I don't want any problems."
"Send a letter back with Gemma asking to set up a meeting on Friday evening and you will update him with a location."
"Can you help me with the writing?"
"Of course."
They sat down to write the response to Draco before going to sleep.
Author's Note: The arithmantic components I pulled from The Sorcerer's Companion. It's an encyclopedia of sorts for all things Harry Potter.