The Steward of House Black
The next day was slow in the morning. Everyone was tired from the party the night before. Whispers had fallen asleep in his room, so Harry took the little guy with him for a nice hot bath before meeting with Lyra for breakfast. Many people from other houses came over to their table to thank them for a fun night.
When they got back to their common room, Brandt was leaning against the wall out front. His dark hair was perfectly groomed but this time he had a thin goatee framing his mouth. The last two times Harry had seen the man, he had knocked him into a wall and then seen Alastor knock him into another wall. They hadn't actually spoken with him before, so Harry thought there wouldn't be a better time than now to start.
"I wanted to introduce myself properly," Harry stood up straight and extended his hand. "Harry James Potter."
"Brandt, Steward of House Black," he responded simply, "no last name." Turning to Lyra to continue the game, "And who do I have the pleasure of meeting here?"
Lyra hesitated for a moment before responding, "Lyra Cassiopeia Black." She extended her hand as Harry had done to shake Brandt's.
He shook it, "Later in your lessons, you will both be taught formal introductions, neither of yours has the proper form but, at least, we're not starting with nothing. Can you lead me to your room or somewhere we could have a private discussion?"
Lyra opened the door and showed Brandt how to get through the maze. Brandt commented on the ingenuity of it and they went to one of the unused dormitories to sit.
"Your uncle received your letter late last night. I need you to tell me every detail that happened, so I can decide on a course of action."
Lyra began, "On the train ride over, Greg Goyle delivered a letter to me that stated how Draco wanted to meet with me after the sorting, but then I stopped the sorting. Before the second sorting, he sent another letter. I didn't want to meet him, so Harry told me he would meet him for me."
Harry took over, "I didn't like him already, for the reasons Lyra had told me, and then he also laughed at a girl with a fake arm who was pushed over by one of his friends. I had a friend help me find a room for the meeting and Lyra told him to meet there. I arrived early and waited for him. When he arrived, he was angry that Lyra wasn't coming but I told him if he wanted any chance at lifting the prohibition from his uncle, he'd have to speak with me first. He didn't like it but stayed. He was rude and annoying from the beginning. He wanted to know how I knew Lyra, and I asked him to make a blood oath for secrecy. He refused and took a magical oath instead." Brandt shook his head ruefully.
"So I told him the basics of how we met, but nothing more. He's convinced that his father gave Lyra to the orphanage and they sold her away. Also that the trial was a sham in some way or another. I told him why Lyra doesn't want to meet him and why I don't like him either. He always had some reason why everything he's ever done was justified, so I told him that I didn't want him spending any time near my sister." Harry took a breath before continuing.
"He got angry and tried to cast spells at me. I didn't know what the first few did, but the last one was the fire-making spell. My shield held, but it started shrinking, so I blasted him across the room and knocked away his wand. Then I stood on his chest and told him to keep away from us, and for good measure, I stabbed him in the shoulder with my staff." Brandt looked impressed.
"I sent Draco to the infirmary, cleaned up all the blood with a towel, came back to the common room, and tossed Draco's wand towards the Great Hall on the way. When I got back, we used a protection spell that we were taught, and enchanted an amulet that makes Draco feel the same pain as when I stabbed him if he gets too close to her."
"That sounds like blood magic," Brandt said with a grave tone to his voice. "Tell me how you made it."
"When we were on the island, a pig with horns tried to attack Lyra one day while she was at the hot spring. I managed to stab it with my staff, but it came back the next day to try to attack her again. Our tutor on the island taught Lyra how to make an amulet using the blood that was still on the staff to make it feel pain if it got close to her," Harry explained.
"Harry soaked hoohoo feathers in Draco's blood from the towel. Then he activated them by pushing them with his staff into a ball of clay. Then I ran a string through the clay and heated the clay with another feather and then activated the ones in the amulet with my magic." Lyra pulled the amulet from under her robes to show him. It wasn't fancy, just a brownish-red lump with some stray feather pieces sticking out and a string running through it.
"You need to be careful in the future. I need you to tell me exactly where is the room you had your meeting. I can't fault you for anything you did, but part of what you need to be taught is how to deal with situations like these with minimum risk."
Harry told him where the room was and how to enter it. Brandt disillusioned himself and left. Thirty minutes later, he returned. He handed Harry a small orange and black feather, "I'm assuming you left this under the table?" Harry had forgotten all about it, he looked ashamed. "Do not worry, just don't do it again.
"The next thing is the blood, you did a good job wiping it up, but if you get into an altercation like this again, you need to remove all traces of it this goes double for your own blood because it can be traced and used against you, like the amulet you made." With that said, Brand plucked his finger with his wand. As he shook a drop of blood off the tip of his wand, he incanted, "Gemino!"
The single drop multiplied into a pool of blood which splashed on the floor in a big puddle. "I'm going to teach you a spell now to vanish blood. I hope you don't need to use it often, the incantation is 'Sanguinesco,' san-gwin-es-co. The wand movement is to create spirals with your wand as you pull it back towards yourself."
Pointing to a corner of the blood puddle, he twisted his wand with a pull and said, "Sanguinesco!" A patch of the puddle vanished.
They worked for the next hour until the crimson ichor fully vanished. Harry also retrieved the towel and they vanished the blood from it too. That was harder, Brandt said it was because the blood had been absorbed and dried out, so it was always better to clean blood sooner rather than later.
"The next part you're not going to like. Lyra, you can't wear the amulet, blood magic does not go over well in this country. Keep it in your dorm if you want but you cannot wear it. Your father accused you of performing dark rituals to get your magic. If it comes out that you have performed blood magic, then he might be able to re-establish the case. Finally, Harry, you will need to release Draco from his oath. We can't risk him losing his magic."
Harry and Lyra both tried to object, but Lyra relented first as she didn't want to hand a case to her father. Harry demanded to only release him from telling about the attack, that he wanted to keep the information about his uncle private. He also wanted to face Draco when he did release him, to which Brandt agreed. Lyra stayed in the common room while Brandt and Harry went to see Professor Snape.
They found Snape in his office. He nodded as they entered, "I figured I'd be seeing you or Arcturus soon."
Snape knew Harry's staff had hurt Draco but didn't want to push the issue because of the oath Draco had implied that he took. That reminded Harry of the issue with Blaise, but this wasn't the time. Brandt told Snape that Harry wanted to speak with Draco before he released him from the oath. Snape agreed and went to fetch Draco from the Slytherin dorms. When they reentered the office, Draco saw Harry standing there with his staff and let off a small scream before drawing his wand.
Snape simply reached over and plucked it from his fingertips. "You seem to be looking to get stabbed again," he told his godson.
"You don't understand!" yelled Draco, "He…"
"Shut up Draco!" Snape interrupted.
"You don't understand, he…"
Snape hit him with a non-verbal silencing charm.
"No, you are the one who doesn't understand!" he yelled at the silenced blonde child, "you were about to break your oath by speaking to us without Harry's permission!"
Draco panicked and placed his hands over his already silenced mouth.
Brandt approached Draco, "Harry is prepared to release you from your oath, though he wants to speak with you first. However, before he does so, you are going to agree to make a full statement under veritaserum that you attacked Harry, unprovoked. It won't be shared unless it needs to be. Do you understand?" Brandt canceled the silencing charm.
"You just wait till my father hears about this!" Draco yelled at Brandt close to his face.
"Do you want to tell him? Your uncle can send a post to Azkaban, we can tell your father that you went to a meeting alone with no backup, at a location you hadn't investigated first, swore a magical oath without a lawyer present, and got stabbed in the shoulder like a muggle." Brandt pulled out a fountain pen, "Use my pen."
Draco tried to stare down Brandt, but he didn't succeed at the weak intimidation attempt, so he just opened his mouth and stuck out his tongue. Brandt pulled out a small crystal ball and tapped it, making it glow blue, and placed it in front of Draco. Then he pulled out a small crystal vial and used the dropper to put three drops on Draco's tongue.
As Draco appeared to relax and his eyes went unfocused, Brandt turned to Harry, "You can release him from his oath now."
Harry didn't look happy but said, "Draco, I permit you to tell people you met with me about an issue with my family and to speak about everything in our meeting from the moment you cast the first spell. Everything else remains private." He saw Draco's face shiver as the magic of the oath released him.
Draco gave a full account of his attack on Harry and how his injuries were a result of Harry defending himself. When he was finished and the antidote given, Draco backed himself into a wall as Harry approached him, his staff out in his hands.
"Let's start where we left off," Harry leaned the tip of the antler on Draco's throat. "You stay away from me, and you stay away from my sister. Do you understand?" He moved the point to where he had pierced the boy's shoulder, his eyes showing that he would not hesitate to stab him again.
Draco seethed, "Yes."
"I did mean it though," Harry added, as he lifted the tip of the staff, "if you can learn to show compassion for others, you may have a chance to speak with her."
Brandt and Harry left the office.
"Do you understand why that was necessary?" Brandt asked as they were walking.
Harry nodded, "I think so, he would have slipped up and lost his magic. I really wouldn't have had a problem with that but I'm guessing other people would. I will stab him again if necessary though."
"You need to learn to fight like a wizard, I will arrange for a tutor to come here. You and Lyra can assume that most of your Sundays will be taken up by lessons in history, etiquette, and self-defense."
Harry didn't like that his free time was being eaten up, but he did need to learn to fight properly, especially against someone like Draco who was just a year ahead of him in education. Thinking about other Slytherin threats brought him back to Blaise.
"There's one other problem," began Harry, "a boy in Slytherin approached us at the party last night and offered us a way to teach Whispers how to speak properly. He had figured out that I attacked Draco and said he thought Lyra and I were interesting people to know."
Brandt nodded, "I'll speak to both of you about this when we get back to the room. I have to ask though, we've been walking for five minutes and it's a weekend, where are all the students?"
"It's only my second weekend here, but it seems that everyone just hangs out in their common rooms or goes to play quidditch when they have nothing to do." Harry looked around to admire the lack of people, "It doesn't bother me, places with too many people make me nervous, and double that for Lyra."
Back in the common room, Brandt sat down with them again.
"Harry told me about the boy, Blaise," Brandt said to Lyra. "His offer, in a strange way, is an attempt to make friends." At their confusion, he continued, "I understand as the school I went to was made up entirely of Slytherins. If he didn't directly threaten you, then he was just trying to justify making friends by adding a bit of blackmail. He probably wants more friends but he lives around people that will take advantage of any vulnerabilities. So for him, he feels he needs to have something to hold over you so he has some power in your alliance or friendship."
"That's dumb," Lyra replied.
"For you, maybe. Not for him."
"How do you think we should handle it?" Harry asked.
"You should appeal to him in the form of a meeting or request information. I think it would be good to know what Draco is saying about you right now in his common room. Have one of the girls who introduced you pass on the message, even invite them along, as Draco will probably be telling the whole house right now to avoid meeting you alone in a dark room somewhere. He doesn't have the attack to hold over you now, so think of something you can offer him in exchange for friendship or an alliance. I won't help you there, you need to figure it out for yourself." The kids seemed to think hard about what they could offer. "The last thing I need to do before I leave for today is to see what you can do in a fight. Do you know where the dueling hall is in this school?"
"We are going to try to get one here in the room. Cedric told me that there is one in the Ravenclaw and Slytherin dorms," Harry informed Brandt.
"Well, the Slytherin dorms are out, do you have any friends in Ravenclaw?"
"I do!" Lyra called out with pride. "I wanted to see her today too since she didn't come to the party."
Lyra led them up to Ravenclaw Tower. Brandt complained a couple of times about the ridiculous staircases. When they got to the door, Lyra used the eagle knocker.
The eagle turned its head to look at Brandt and intoned, "The person who makes it has no need of it; the person who buys it has no use for it. The person who uses it can neither see nor feel it. What is it?"
After a moment, he replied, "A coffin." As the door opened, he remarked, "That's the worst security I've ever seen."
Professor Flitwick was standing on the other side of the door with his arms crossed. "It's not designed to keep people out, it's designed to keep the less intelligent from trying to get in." He showed his teeth a bit, which were not quite jagged, but not straight either. "I do not know you, even if you come here with Mr. Potter and Miss Black. What is your purpose in my tower?"
Brandt gave him an irritated look but responded with courtesy. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am known as Brandt, Steward of House Black. I am tutoring the children here and need a dueling room. I was informed that you had one in your tower. Lyra also wanted to visit a friend."
"I am Filius Flitwick." A spark of recognition appeared in Brandt's eyes. "Yes, that one. I am the Head of Ravenclaw House and Charms Professor. The first-year children here have not yet learned any spells for duels."
"I am aware, though Harry and Lyra had a different pre-education than other Hogwarts students, and I need to evaluate it."
Flitwick stared at Brandt to consider the request. A few students sitting in the common room had started to stare at the confrontation. He nodded to the group and walked them up to the room with the brass plates. The lever was higher than his head, so he used his wand to adjust it to the dueling room position, and opened the door. Inside was a large square platform made from stone. On one side was a small set of elevated seats.
Brandt walked up onto the platform and drew his wand. "Harry, let's start with you."
Harry walked up to the platform while Flitwick and Lyra sat in the seats to one side.
"I want to see the shield you were talking about first."
Harry pulled out his staff. Flitwick gazed at it as if discerning what it was made of. Harry concentrated hard and slammed the base of the staff into the stone floor. A bubble with a white tinge burst forth to cover himself about ten feet in every direction.
"Hold the shield as long as you can, I am going to toss some spells at it."
Without any incantations, he threw almost a dozen small spells with lighter and translucent tones to them at Harry. Each one seemed to dissolve into the shield, like ink into water as the color of the spells faded away.
"I'm going to take it up a notch now," Brandt told Harry who still was focusing on the shield but with a bit more effort.
The spells he threw next had darker and more opaque colors. Each time they impacted the shield, they behaved the same, but the shield shrunk on impact. Harry was focusing very hard on the spell now, with sweat coming down his face. When the shield had been reduced to a mere three feet from him, Brandt stopped. Harry dropped his shield and sank to his knees.
"That is an interesting shield, Mr. Potter," commented Flitwick. "It doesn't seem to be particularly affected by different spell types, though they weren't terribly powerful. It started to collapse around third-year spells."
"Second-year for Durmstrang," Brandt commented. "While Harry rests, let's see what Lyra can do." Harry went to Lyra and walked her to the platform, he stood with her while Brandt asked, "Can you do anything defensive like Harry?"
"Not really, no," she said with a frown. Though Harry whispered in her ear something and her face brightened. Lyra pulled out her staff and held it with two hands slightly diagonal in front of her body.
Harry took a few steps off the platform. Lyra focused and the black hair wrapping her staff began to shift with an invisible wind. He looked to Brandt, "You can start now."
Not seeing a shield, he cast a light yellow spell at her. It missed her by a few feet to the side. Brandt looked befuddled and cast the spell again, this time striking a few feet to the other side. He braced his wand arm with his other hand and pointed it directly at Lyra's chest. The spell he cast went a few inches above her head. Flitwick was spinning his wand in his fingers and muttering.
"Your turn Lyra!" Harry shouted happily.
Brandt was standing around thirty feet from Lyra. When she started running towards him he moved into a defensive posture, but he barely had any time as somehow Lyra took two steps and was right next to him with the bottom of her staff pointing at his chest. Brandt stared at Lyra in confusion.
"I have no idea what just happened," he commented while looking at the blonde girl in front of him.
Flitwick spoke up, "I can't tell how it was done, but she cast something similar to a muggle aversion ward. It made you unable to target her with your magic or focus on her position. It also gave her time to move without you noticing. I would assume that occlumency would be able to counter the technique to some degree."
Brandt still looked a bit confused but nodded along. Turning to Harry, "Time to see what you can do offensively." He and Lyra switched positions as Flitwick called an elf for snacks and tea. As Harry stepped up on the platform, "I've already seen how you can push everything around you like with your shield, show me what you told me you did earlier." He conjured a large stone pillar where he was standing and stepped off the platform.
Harry concentrated on his magic and the tip of the antler and after nearly thirty seconds he launched a pulse at the pillar. The pulse cracked the pillar and pushed it back a little before the whole column leaned backward and fell over. Harry was breathing heavily and leaning on his staff so he didn't fall over.
Brandt stepped back up and vanished the rock, conjuring a large wooden wall. "Can you do it again? This time, don't build it up for very long. Take as little time as you need, and fire a few at the board."
Harry focused again, it took him about three seconds to feel the pulse building before he let it go. A small impact mark appeared on the wood. He did that five more times before his body began to feel immense exertion and his knees became a bit wobbly again.
"Good!" Brandt told him. "Try to work on getting more power in shorter amounts of time. Now let's see Lyra."
They switched out and Harry sat down to eat a sandwich. Lyra got up on the platform and Brandt conjured another stone pillar. After he got out of the way, Lyra pointed the bottom of her staff at her target and concentrated. After about twenty seconds, heat waves started to rise off her hair as she twisted and pushed the staff forward creating a vortex of orange flame that shot out towards the pillar. It almost completely missed but blackened the side of it. She had nearly fallen over after her spell but caught herself with her staff first.
Flitwick nodded, "This is one of the reasons why we teach the fire spell in the first year. It takes a lot of practice to channel and control fire. Starting early is key to the development process. The amount you can channel is impressive, but you need to focus on the time and the amount. I'm guessing you haven't figured out how to cast with less power than that full burst either. You should first learn to light a candle before burning down a forest."
Lyra nodded, agreeing with the analysis. She picked up her staff and tried focusing on casting a small flame but instead, a large burst popped out and almost burned her feet. She put her staff away after that.
As they exited the dueling room, Lyra saw Hermione sitting at the window balcony on the floor above them and went up to her. She was sitting and reading a coursebook with the sun coming through the window and making her hair glow in the light. Brandt stayed back a bit as the children spoke.
"You weren't at the party," Lyra said with big eyes staring at her.
"I prefer to stay by myself and read, I'm sorry," Hermione replied, though it seemed like she felt remorse for not attending.
"You should come another time, by yourself. There are plenty of nice places to read," Lyra was almost pleading with her.
"Could I?" asked Hermione, "I heard about the sunset and the trees from other students."
Harry approached, "Of course, though we will still come here to read too. I was hoping to read Redwall with Lyra today."
Brandt watched the three children speak from a distance. This girl seemed to be important to them. Arcturus had told him to do everything and anything he could to improve their standing with the two children. So, as he watched their interaction, he noticed the girl was hiding one of her arms and when she moved it made the clicking noise of a low-end prosthetic. Harry had told him about Draco laughing at such a girl. After a few more minutes of them talking, Lyra waved Brandt over to them.
"Brandt, this is Hermione Granger, the top student of her year," Lyra introduced them. "Hermione, this is Brandt, he works for my uncle."
Brandt shook her hand, "I am the current steward for House Black. May I ask you a very personal question, Hermione?" She looked very hesitant but nodded. "I would like to know what happened to your arm." Hermione stepped back holding the prosthetic under the cloak. Harry looked at Brandt with a little anger at such a question. "I mean no offense, I just hoped to find out if there is anything House Black could do to help."
Hermione looked very cautious but took the cloak off to show the arm prosthesis. "Last year, a troll broke into the school. I had been in the bathroom during dinner and didn't hear the warning. The troll found me in the bathroom. I tried to get away, but with one swing of its club, my arm was completely crushed." Lyra leaned over to give Hermione a big hug as Harry would do for her when she was speaking about upsetting things. "I don't remember anything after that but apparently the teachers arrived immediately after and subdued it. They couldn't reconstruct my arm and they sent me to get this thing."
"Which shop did you get sent to?" he asked.
"Sticks and Stones. It's located near St. Mungos, outside of Diagon," Hermione told Brandt.
"You're a muggleborn, correct?" Hermione nodded. "Who gave you the recommendation for that shop?"
"My parents told me that the Board of Governors sent us there."
Brandt nodded and elaborated, "I think you were guided to a lower-end prosthetics company so the school would not need to pay much for your new arm. Definitely better than anything a muggle could make but there are much better magical alternatives. There are simple things that could improve it right now." Brandt pulled out his wand and asked, "May I?"
Hermione looked a bit angry and afraid but nodded to Brandt. A silver light glowed on the tip of his wand and he scratched a few sets of the same rune groups into different parts of her prosthetic arm. When he was done he nodded to her and told her to move her arm.
She waved her arm and exclaimed, "There's no clicking! How did you do that? I tried to put a silencing charm on it, but that didn't work."
"The clicking is part of how the arm works. I know it sounds the same but instead of silencing the clicking, I made it inaudible instead. So the noise is still created, you just can't hear it. Silencing stops noise from being made."
Hermione waved her arm around more with no noise coming out.
"I'm guessing your parents also signed something saying they considered the matter settled," Hermione just shrugged, "They probably did, though, with your permission, I can start investigations to see if Lyra's house can assist you in any way or provide you with an alternative."
Hermione nodded, with a few tears in her eyes.
Brandt turned to Harry and Lyra, "I do need to leave now. I am leaving you with books on techniques to focus your magic and wizard history books. Please read them when you can." He pulled three books out of his belt pouch. He noticed Hermione staring at the pouch with envy in her eyes. He gave a nod to Hermione and said goodbye to Harry and Lyra.
After he had gone, Hermione hugged Lyra, "Thank you, I need to go write a letter to my parents, but stay here as long as you would like." She walked away down a hallway, the fingers on the prosthetic arm wiggling as if she were playing an invisible piano until they couldn't see her anymore.
Harry and Lyra went down to the main part of the Ravenclaw common room to retrieve Hermione's copy of Redwall and read the first chapter together.
Dinner that evening was interesting as most of the Slytherin house was staring at Harry the whole time. At the end of the dinner, Lyra was able to slip a note to Tracey about meeting with Blaise.
Back in the common room, Newt approached Harry with a sense of urgency.
"We need to talk," he began. "There's a pretty solid rumor going around that you stabbed Draco Malfoy with your staff. I wanted to hear your side of the situation before I take further action."
Harry explained the situation and how the meeting went along with that Draco cast the first spells.
"I understand," Newt told him, "but couldn't you have let him go after knocking him over? You could have kept his wand for proof of his actions."
"No, that wouldn't have been enough," Harry explained, "He is like a snake, he needs someone to knock him around to remind him he isn't in charge. There is a recording of him admitting to starting the fight and he's already spreading it around that he is the victim. He will need to be put in his place again sometime soon. I don't want to have to do it but I will."
"If you do it again, there will be a punishment for your actions," Newt said sternly.
"If Lyra or I have a chance of getting hurt otherwise, I'll accept the repercussions. I hope Draco will also face some kind of judgment whenever he decides to come after me again."
"I suggest you focus on strengthening your shielding spells. If your shield never falls, you never need to attack."
"I'm planning to do at least that much but to do so, I hope we are able to get the dueling room from the request sheet, and personal project rooms as well."
"I am reviewing all the suggestions, and many of them will be added. As far as the current situation, even though you weren't the aggressor in the situation, you still did the most amount of harm. I will wait to see if Professor Snape assigns any punishment for his student and then determine if I want to do something similar for you. If he receives no punishment, neither will you."
Harry was shocked. He remembered the times he got blamed for Dudley's actions and how nothing he could say would change how people looked at him. Now he had someone who not only believed him but wouldn't unjustly punish him either. It would take some getting used to.
In the morning, there was a new message board on the wall by the common room exit with a single announcement on it:
HOUSE MEETING, TONIGHT AT 7:45 P.M.
At breakfast, Lyra received an owl from Tracey. It said that no one in Slytherin could be seen talking to them right now, but she, Daphne, and Blaise would be in the library during the hour before dinner.
Harry and Lyra were still trying to figure out what they could give to Blaise to balance the scale, so to speak. In discussing that particular phrase they figured out they could give him a bit of the shed from the Usurper. If it helped Professor Snape keep the snakes in his office in line, Blaise could do the same thing with the ones in the Slytherin common room.
The day progressed as a school day should. In Charms, they had a half period so Flitwick introduced them to the ten standard wand movements and assigned that night's homework to practice said movements. Herbology introduced them to a magical plant called Dittany that could perform basic healing through consumption or inhaling burnt vapors. Students were advised to grow some in any home they lived in.
For Transfiguration, they continued with their attempts to turn matches into needles. Almost all of the class was able to perform it now except for Lyra and Greg. Greg just seemed like he wasn't focusing, so Harry punched him in the shoulder as he did with potions. When he channeled his annoyance onto the match, he was able to transform it into a needle. Lyra still caused hers to burst into flame. She would have her first meeting with Seamus Finnegan after their Defense class. She was given toothpicks instead of matches, but they would start smoking for a few seconds before Lyra completed their transformation into needles.
For Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor Lockhart seemed to start taking his job seriously and told them they were going to learn how to defend themselves from household pests for the next couple of months by going through his book on how to do such.
"You may never have a life of defeating banshees and werewolves," he said with a swirl of his yellow cape, "but you will need to learn how to deal with the monsters that live in the nooks and crannies of your own houses. Behind curtains, inside fireplaces, and that old chest in the attic? Dark creatures will await you at every turn. Magic begets more magic, and many creatures will come to feed on that, as well as on you and your families. With my expert tutelage, you will keep the people you love safe and sound."
They spent the next twenty minutes discussing ashwinders, which were a type of snake that manifested themselves if a magical fire was left to burn too long. He read from his book, "When lighting fires for your kitchen or potions, it is advised by yours truly, that it should be done without magic and with matches or oil. A fire-making spell has the potential of spawning an ashwinder even after it starts burning wood. Using a non-magical flame does not have these risks unless you are burning magical wood or other magical fuel. Keep day-to-day life simple and you lower your risks of spawning this dreadful creature."
He continued reading from his book while the students in their class took notes. Harry was very curious about the ashwinders, they and their eggs were very dangerous but also tremendously useful as potion ingredients. He also thought that Lyra would have a great time playing with them and their fire-related powers. It was strange how they were created and that they naturally took the form of a snake. Maybe he could speak to one and learn about why.
After Defense, he walked Lyra back to the Transfiguration classroom. Professor McGonagall was there grading papers and they had to wait a few minutes before Seamus arrived.
He took a wary look at Harry and then towards McGonagall. With his back turned to her, he gestured towards his shoulder with a tap and then gave Harry a thumbs up.
Harry didn't like that someone was congratulating him for hurting another student but at least he was being discreet about it. He nudged Lyra to make introductions and once those were done, Seamus sat down with Lyra to work. Most of his explanations didn't help, he talked about controlling her magic like lighting a candle, but they hadn't done that spell yet. Seamus asked permission from McGonagall to teach both of them the fire spell, and she stopped what she was doing to supervise.
"OK, so this is a fun spell," started Seamus, and after getting a stern look from the professor, he continued, "Because the spell is continuous, it is a good spell to demonstrate control. The incantation is 'Incendio,' in-SEN-dee-o. The wand movement looks like a flame if you draw it." He put down his wand to draw it, "Your first attempts will probably come out way way way too strong, so make sure anything in front of you isn't flammable or have an older student cast a flame-freezing charm on it."
He raised his eyebrows at the Professor who cast a shimmering spell on many desks, the floor, and the wall.
Seamus turned to the desks and the wall and incanted, "Incendio!"
A spout of flame shot from his wand, and while it was intense at the start, he reigned in the fire until it was only about three inches long from the tip of his wand. After a few seconds, he just blew it out. Harry recognized it as the spell Draco had used on him.
Harry tried it a few times before he got a couple of hiccups of flame.
Lyra stepped up and as soon as she got the wand movement right, completely bathed the wall in flame. She ended up just dropping her wand to make it stop. Luckily nothing had caught fire due to the flame-freezing charm.
Seamus stared in shock, "And I thought I was bad… that was incredible!"
"It was certainly not, Mr. Finnegan," said a very stern Professor McGonagall. "Miss Black, do not perform this spell unless you have a teacher nearby. Try it again but think of your magic like a whisper, imagine there is something in front of you that you don't want to be destroyed. Don't drop your wand, if it gets out of control, I will stop it."
Lyra tried again, "Incendio!"
Fire exploded out of her wand again covering the area in front of her. The flame continued to come out as she stared in shock, but slowly took a deep breath and it started to get smaller. It was only covering the desks in front of her before she fell backward, Seamus reaching out to keep her from falling.
"You used too much magic, Miss Black," McGonagall told her. "This spell will continually drain your magic until you stop it. When you perform any spells, try to think of cold weather, snow, water, and ice, and if you are doing something with fire, pull it back. You'll need to come back here and work on it with Mr. Finnegan every week at this time. Five points to Gryffindor for your assistance."
Harry thanked both of them and walked Lyra back to her dorm and told her to get into bed. Whispers joined her as she went into her dorm.
"I will come back for you before dinner, I need to meet with Blaise in the library now."
As she wandered towards her bed, Lyra murmured, "What's snow?"
Harry went to his room to retrieve some of the Usurper's shed and then hurried to the library. After looking around for a bit, he saw the three Slytherins sitting around a table studying with no extra chairs. There was a table with two chairs directly behind where they were sitting. He wasn't too much of a dunderhead to understand the message, and he went to sit down.
"Where's Lyra?" asked Daphne while still looking forward.
"She had tutoring to keep her transfigurations from burning up with Seamus Finnegan and exhausted her magic when she nearly set the room on fire, twice. She needs to meet with him every week now."
"That boy is a menace," said Daphne. "Nearly every potions class he blows something up, almost like he's doing it on purpose."
"Lyra only has the problem so far in transfiguration, she's never blown up a potion in all the time I've known her."
"How long have you known her?" Blaise asked, but it was obvious he was digging for information.
Tracey noticed it too and changed the subject, "So you stabbed Draco?"
"Very subtle Tracey," Daphne chuckled.
"Yes, he deserved it, and I will do it again if I need to," Harry said sharply. "What does he say happened?"
"He says he arranged a friendly meeting to discuss family affairs and that you took offense at something, knocked him down, and stuck your staff through his shoulder," Blaise explained. "He's got a scar now, not a very noticeable one, but it's there."
"Well, everything he said is true but he left out that he attacked me first and I held a shield for three spells before he cast a fire spell on me which I held with my shield for about ten seconds before casting my spell to knock him across the room. I then threatened him and stabbed him in the shoulder as a warning, laced with pain." Harry could feel a shiver from the Slytherins behind him, before continuing, "The Steward of House Black has a recording of him after taking a truth potion admitting to everything. Professor Snape was there too."
"Idiot," Blaise muttered.
"Well, I'll whisper all those things in the right ears." Daphne added, "His head is big enough already, it needs to be taken down a size or two."
"I also spoke to Lyra before I came here, she would like to take you up on your offer about your family's portrait. We would like to apologize for our reaction and thank you for the offer." Harry pulled the shed out of his pouch and handed it blindly over his shoulder to Blaise who eventually found his hand and took it. "This is shed from a powerful magical snake, the same kind as on my staff. Any snake you are near when you are holding it will be afraid of you. Like the ones in the Slytherin common room."
"How do you know we have snakes?" Tracey asked.
"It's a secret," Harry responded.
"Well, this is pretty cool, if it works. I'll ask my mother to send over the portrait next time I get a chance," Blaise said in a satisfied tone.
Just then, they all froze, hearing a chair being dragged across the floor to the spot right next to their tables. Looking over, Gemma was standing there and sat down to the side of them.
"You all might think you're being smart, but you're not. First of all, Potter, if you're going to pretend like you're in the library to study, at least take a book to pretend like you're reading something instead of sitting at an empty table. Secondly, if you want to pass something to someone, just put it in your book and leave it on the table when you leave." Harry was reminded of his mistakes during the meeting with Draco and felt ashamed all over again. But Gemma was giving him advice now, like Brandt.
"As for your meeting place, you chose a table in the main room. The library is literally endless, there are plenty of places at least half a mile down the stacks that would be better for a clandestine meeting where you could face each other. Another option is to find tables with a shelf of books between them." The Slytherin trio had their turn to be ashamed now.
"Finally, the older students were pretty sure that Draco was full of shit, but thanks for confirming it. Daphne, you can use this to help cultivate your status in the rumor mill, I won't corroborate anything for at least a couple of days to give you a chance at it."
After finishing, she got up and walked away.
"Well…" Harry started.
"Yeah…" Blaise ended.
They all went their separate ways quickly.
After dinner, all of Scamander House gathered in the common room for the meeting. Newt came a couple of minutes late with Dougal who was wearing a black hat with a large floppy brim and gold studs on the top. He immediately went to take a banana from a tree and sit in one of the high-backed chairs at the side of the room. Whispers was already in the chair next to him with a bowl of grapes looking through a children's book with thick cardboard pages. Aside from the quick glance towards them as Dougal settled in, no one paid them much mind. It was amazing how quickly you could get used to something that a week ago you would have broken your neck to take a second look at.
Newt conjured a chair to sit at the edge of all the levels of the fire pit where the other students were sitting, "Tina and I have sat with the Headmaster and reviewed all of your suggestions for our common room. This castle has been around for a very long time and there are certain traditions that need to be held onto. So I need to apologize to Harry, Lyra, and the others who requested a hot spring or jacuzzi, we can't have any communal baths in the castle."
"What about the prefect bathroom?" Cedric asked.
"What prefect bathroom?" Newt responded.
"They all talk about it, it's some giant bathroom with a tub the size of this room," Cedric clarified as Lee seemed to nod his head in vague recollection.
"I was never a prefect, so I wouldn't know. I suggest you all work very hard then on your grades and your behavior if you want to have access to that bathroom. I've always thought the prefect system was a bit skewed toward house favorites. Even in Hufflepuff, where we would have a vote, the Head of House would make the final decision. I will do the same thing, but there will be qualifications before voting even takes place. Cedric, you are the only candidate for next year's prefect, however when I make the qualifications for the position, if you don't meet them by the end of the year, we won't have a prefect until the following year. That is assuming you want the position at all."
"I do," Cedric confirmed.
"Good, onto other matters, I'll start with the big ones and move on down. A dueling arena." Newt paused as a number of the children's faces lit up. "One will be constructed, no one will be allowed to use it without a prefect or teacher supervising. There were two suggestions I'm going to combine into one; a study room and a map room. While this room is a marvel of magic, sometimes students need somewhere that is more traditional for their studies. This leads to a request from Mr. Creevey - I am authorizing the creation of the Hogwarts Explorer's Club," Collin let out a shout of glee.
"My wife, Tina, will act as the supervisor. As part of the study room, there will be a large mapping table and a couple of dedicated bookshelves for you to write down all of the things you find around the castle. I warn you though, this has been attempted and given up many times in the past as people have found that it is impossible to discover all of the secrets of the castle. One might even say that the castle would stop you from discovering all of its secrets." He left that portentous message hanging for everyone to think about.
"We will also open up individual project rooms as well, please write a detailed request for what you want to do and pass it to me or Tina for review. All the rooms will be built into the maze. The dueling room will be left and straight, the study room will be right and straight. The directions will work from the hallway or the common room. If there is a particular pattern you want for a project room, please indicate it on your request forms."
With the meeting finished, Newt and Tina left but Dougal stayed to spend time with Whispers and snack on grapes. Harry and Colin sat down at a desk to start scratching out project room proposals. Harry wanted his fertilizer room, while Colin wanted a dark room even though he hadn't learned the potion yet to make his pictures move.
Neville also wrote up a proposal but wasn't very open about what it was. After he was done, he did ask Harry for help with climbing the easier tree again and was able to get a little higher before falling. Harry remembered all the bumps and bruises he got when learning to climb but he didn't have a choice. It would encourage Neville to keep trying to be able to do so with minimal injuries while working.
Harry tried to invite Greg to join them, but the boy seemed to be afraid of Harry. He assumed that since the boy used to be in Slytherin that he had been warned of Harry's proclivity for stabbing people. Harry needed to stop that kind of thinking quickly, so he grabbed a couple of bananas and went over to where Greg was sitting and watched the boy jump back as he approached.
"You know I'm not going to stab you, right?" Harry handed the banana to the frightened boy and held it there until he took it.
"Draco said you attacked him," replied Greg nervously.
"I did attack him. After he met with me and decided he wasn't getting what he wanted, he cast several spells at me. I knocked him down and stabbed him so he would be reminded of what he did later."
"That's not what he told me. He said that you attacked him and stabbed him before he could do anything."
Greg seemed to completely believe what Draco had been telling him. So Harry tried to switch tactics, "Greg, you're a member of my house, I won't hurt you. Take the banana, and eat it with me. I'm helping you in your remedial classes, right? Did Draco help you?"
"No… he didn't," Greg took the banana and started to eat it. "Draco would just tell me I'm good at pushing people around. I am good at pushing people around, but I want to be good at other stuff too."
"You will be, Greg. Stick with me and you'll be good at many things," Harry said soothingly.
Shortly before they left the island, Harry had to get The Giver to switch to a commanding role over the snakes that patrolled their fields. It took the snakes a long time to switch to a new commander and they found through trial and error that they would react with violence towards The Giver if he used violence to get them to obey, and quicker when he guided the transition peacefully. Ideally, it would be good for Draco to tell Greg to listen to Harry and take his advice but that wasn't going to happen. It might take a while to break Draco's command of this boy, but it would happen.