Author's Note: Hooray! Over 250k words! I hope you're all enjoying reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Meetings Part 1
While all the students were going to sleep, their families were either taking the large steamship back across the lake to the Hogwarts Express or waiting to take carriages to Hogsmeade to depart through either floo travel, apparation, or portkey. Near the carriage station, the visiting Weasleys were waiting patiently for their son Charlie's friend to meet him.
Charlie continued to look around to try to spot Tristan and eventually saw him coming down the hill from the castle. As he got closer, Charlie closed the distance and embraced his friend with a hug.
"You survived your training!" Charlie smiled broadly.
"Just barely though," Tristan responded with a smile of his own. "Take a look at this!"
Tristan pulled up his hair on the side of his head to show the burn scar running down the side of his head.
"Wicked, man! Did Mad-Eye do that to you?"
"Nah, I was exploring around a hoohoo nest, and their keeper convinced me to pick up a chick. Though the chick's dad didn't like it and burnt all my hair off. I went nearly a week without any hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes."
"No way!" Charlie rolled up a sleeve on his heavily muscled right arm to show a deep red burn the width of his hand that ran along the side of his bicep. "I got this beauty from a Romanian Longhorn."
"Well, I guess we were both nuts for our choices. Though, I'm happy with it. How about you?"
"Totally, I can't imagine doing anything else. Dragons are the most beautiful things in the world," Charlie smiled wistfully.
"I'd have to disagree, I spent the last year in the Philippines, and the beaches there had some incredibly beautiful creatures lying about them. I'm using my vacation this summer to go back and enjoy it off the clock."
"That's where the hoohoo was? How'd you get your hair back anyway?"
"I almost didn't, and I was afraid to tell my mum that my golden curls were gone for good. However, I got an experimental hair growth treatment that turned me into a yeti overnight."
Seeing his friend's disbelieving face, Tristan pulled a photo out of his wallet that had him as a hair monster dancing around and waving his hands.
Charlie broke down laughing, every time he was about to respond, he looked at the picture again and started laughing more. "Do you have extras? Can I keep this?" Tristan shrugged and nodded. "This is incredible, is there any more of this stuff? There are a dozen keepers on the reserve that have had hair burned off from dragon fire."
"I'll have to ask the brewer, but I'm pretty sure he'd do it."
Tristan was about to ask more about the reserve when Alastor Moody walked up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Good evening lads, this is the dragon wrangler I heard so much about in your training?" Getting a nod from Charlie, he continued, "Tristan, I'm going to need you not to get involved with what's about to happen."
Of course, when it came to Moody, a statement like that put him on alert and he looked around quickly to see a man with a bushy brown beard approaching the three of them. Charlie looked a bit confused as well as the man walked right up to him and stared him in the eyes.
Then in a young woman's voice, the man said, "Good evening, Chuckles."
It only took Charlie half a second to figure out the situation before terror grew in his eyes and he turned to run. The bearded man raised his wand and a rope lasso sprung forth snagging Charlie and toppling him to the ground. The man grew a little taller, his beard vanished, his skin darkened, with his features and body became more feminine. As the change was completed, her hair sprouted up bright red with yellow highlights to make it look like a burning fire.
Tristan knew who this was now, and yelled, "Tonks!"
Charlie's parents and aunt had started to rush to his aid, but when Bill saw who it was he grabbed them and held them back. Tonks kicked Charlie's wand to the side and put her boot on his stomach.
"Hey there Nymmie! Fancy seeing you here!" Charlie looked terrified as he spoke, tied up on the ground.
"Strange how your first instinct is to run, have you done something you would need forgiveness for?" Tonks spoke sweetly but with a sharp edge to the young dragon keeper.
"Well, I, um… maybe it would be best for you to tell me why you're angry?"
"You told the twins about the dragon!" She roared at him. "I've already put the fear of Tonks into the two of them after they blackmailed me, now it's your turn, and I think I'll use the dragon to do it."
Charlie's eyes went wide as Tonk's face started to change so it appeared to be covered with green scales. Her nose and mouth elongated until it was at least a foot long. The red hair on her head vanished and was replaced with what appeared to be leathery quills that went down her neck. Next, the boot on his stomach burst open to reveal a taloned foot with the same green scales on her face. She placed her wand by her mouth and opened it to show many rows of sharp teeth inside. A blue flame lit up on the tip of her wand and she blew on it to create a spout of cobalt and cerulean flames that enveloped Charlie's head and torso on the ground.
The torrent of blue flames let up after ten seconds to show Charlie just laying on the ground with wide eyes and a huge grin on his face, staring at the dragon lady standing above him. Tonks the Magic Dragon looked confused and let out a roar blowing more blue flames onto him. He was still smiling and even licked his lips afterward. Tonks looked down towards her foot and jumped back off of him, her features turning back to normal with pink hair, though now one leg was barefoot.
"Merlin, are you serious? I was trying to terrify you!" Tonks yelled at him.
Charlie shrugged off the loose ropes, grabbed his wand off the ground, and stood up slowly, making sure to adjust his pants, in the front, a bit before speaking, "There's this Jewish guy who works on the dragon reserve, he has an expression he likes to use in situations like these; 'Al t'faheed zonah eem zayin.' I'll let you look that up later, though next time you should try becoming a niffler, those things are creepy." He started to back away slowly, "I should get going now but it was great to see you! Tristan! Let me know about the hair growth stuff!"
With that, he turned and ran back to his family who jumped in a carriage immediately as it took off. Tristan was looking on in shock, Alastor just had a smile on his face.
"I always knew Charlie liked dragons…" Tristan began as Tonks spun around, her hair turning red again. "So you're Moody's new victim?"
Her hair softened back to light pink, "Yeah, he's a fun old grump."
Tristan looked a bit shocked at her candor and stepped out of the way in case Moody wanted to hex her, but his old trainer just smiled. He was confused, there was no way he would have gotten away with a comment like that, particularly so early in his training.
"Don't worry, Tristan," Moody grinned, apparently reading his thoughts, "she's got a full weekend in the dueling chamber coming up."
Wanting to get out of there before his name was added to the roster for whatever reason, he started to back up towards a waiting carriage, saying, "Well, it was good seeing you, Tonks. I need to go make a report for the evening, have a great weekend!"
"Come on Nymphadora, your evening isn't over yet. You've got to file all of our reports too." Moody pulled two brooms out of a pouch on his hip and tossed her one. "Time for you to practice evading spells while airborne. I'll give you a headstart of two minutes."
She didn't need to be told twice and jumped on the broom, rocketing south as fast as the broom would allow. After thirty seconds, Alastor chuckled and took off after her.
All the way up the hill, back on the parapets surrounding the courtyard of the castle, Arcturus Black stood with Augustus and Brandt. All three of them had been observing the scene at the carriages through devices that looked like silver opera glasses.
Arcturus put his away and smiled, "Incredible, absolutely incredible. Brandt, put on my schedule for this weekend to fire-call Andromeda. Pull all the files we have on her mudblood husband. If anything is lacking, hire someone to find out the rest. I want to know everything about him and where his family comes from."
Harry woke up the next morning and rubbed his eyes. The sun was coming in through the window at a high angle and he panicked for a moment before remembering that Charms was canceled in the morning. After using the bathroom and getting dressed, he ventured out into the common room. Most of his housemates were hanging around the room. William and Arthur were playing Exploding Snap, Neville and Greg were climbing the trees, and Daria, Meli, Millicent, and Megan were in the corner with the portrait of Liborio Montessi working on homework.
Luna was in the grove of mango and banana trees with Whispers picking fruit. Harry walked over to the two of them. Whispers hadn't seen him, so he turned invisible and snuck up on the little guy. Just before he pounced, Whispers's eyes glowed and he started to jump out of the way. As soon as he was airborne, Harry pivoted on his foot and lunged towards the Hidden child grabbing him out of the air and turning visible at the same time. They collapsed on the floor and Harry gave his hair a ruffle.
"Nice try, Whispers," Harry remarked.
"Nessst tiiime," Whispers growled back.
Luna was staring at the two of them and eating a banana. She didn't say anything, just observed their interaction.
"Good morning Luna, how's Lyra doing?" Harry greeted her as he got up off the ground.
"Good morning, Harry Potter. She was starting to move a few minutes ago, so Whispers and I came out to get some fruit for her."
"Thank you for looking after her, I won't keep you. I'll be here when she comes out."
Luna smiled at him, passed a few bananas to Whispers, and then led him back into their dormitory. Harry proceeded to go over to Neville and Greg to climb a tree. He felt stronger than he did yesterday and effortlessly swung up into the trees without pausing to even look for hand and footholds. Resting in the canopy of one of the larger trees, his stomach growled a bit.
Not wanting to climb down, he just said aloud, "Astray? Would you bring me a few scones?"
A few moments later, Astray appeared from behind a branch holding a plate with a few pastries on it.
"Thank you, would you like to join me to eat?" Harry took the plate and put it before him.
Astray stared at him for a moment before walking behind a limb of the tree and vanishing. A moment later, he reappeared with his yellow plate of cheese, then sat in front of Harry, placed a little of the soft cheese on a cracker, and took a bite. As he bit into the cracker, he closed his eyes and Harry could see the traces of a smile appear on his face. Harry picked up his scone and ate it as well. The two of them ate in silence for a few minutes before Astray looked up and to the side like he had heard something.
He picked up his plate and said, "Thank you," before disappearing in his usual method.
Harry sat at the edge of the canopy of the trees and watched everyone below. Everyone seemed to be having a good time. He felt a little bit envious of their lives, they didn't have the crazy family dynamics that he and Lyra did, nor did they have any binding magical promises they needed to fulfill. They were here just to learn magic and make friends, Harry and his sister were here for that too… but that came second.
He was shaken from his thoughts by Luna and Lyra exiting their common room. He jumped from the tree and caught a lower branch on another tree that bent under his weight so his fall was slowed before he released and dropped to the ground in a crouch.
Running up to Lyra, he gave her a hug, "How are you feeling?"
"I'll be ok, it's nothing new. What happened after I ran out? Did you hurt her?"
"Brandt and Arcturus stopped me," Harry said with annoyance. "I gave her a chance though like I did with Draco. She won't get another."
Lyra nodded and took a bite of a banana, looking up at the mango tree she said, "We need to get Brandt to teach us that mango juice spell."
Seeing that she had changed the subject, Harry didn't push her and just sat with her while she ate her banana, then started getting ready for Transfiguration. Just before they were going to leave, Tina Scamander came into the room and approached Lyra.
"I heard what happened last night, are you ok?" Her eyes were filled with sorrow.
"I'm fine," Lyra said simply. "I've lived without her for years, I will continue to do so now," she said with an edge of anger.
Tina looked like she was about to hug Lyra, but Harry interrupted, "During the party, we had a meeting with the druids, they're going to let us perform the blessing on December 21st at midnight."
"I heard, we will need to work on your plans for the break."
"They also told us that the blessing would cause rapid growth of all the plants in the room, so I was hoping we could call a meeting tonight to see if anyone wanted to have anything planted before the blessing was performed."
"That's a good idea, I'll put it on the board before I leave. It will be tonight just before the curfew. Please also meet me and Newt before that in the empty purple dorm to go over your plans for the break."
Both children agreed.
When their class arrived at Transfiguration, all of the desks had colored balls on them. Harry picked up his and found it was soft and squeezable, but would return to the same shape after he was done squishing it in his hands. Professor McGonagall waited patiently at her desk observing the students experimenting with what she left them. A minute after the starting bell had wrung, she stood up, silencing the classroom.
"By this point, all of you have managed to complete your free transfiguration of turning a match into a needle." She looked satisfied at the statement. "This is an important first step in your transfiguration education and a week earlier than last year's class. Now that you have the focus needed to perform a transfiguration without an incantation, we are going to learn one that does."
She picked up a red ball that was on her desk and moved her wand in a half arc and another small movement, incanting, "Avifors!"
The red ball changed quickly into a yellow canary which jumped up out of her hand and started to fly around the classroom.
"The Avifors transfiguration will change an object into a bird. The wand movement is half a circle followed by a squiggly line toward your starting point. You will need to do more than two ups and downs, but there is no real maximum number, and it won't give you extra power to do more than two." She waited while the class scribbled down the information.
"When considering the transfiguration equation, you don't need to concern yourself too much with the concentration as the incantation and wand movement make up for that. You need to concern yourself with the power put into it. You should use too much power when practicing, as right now all that will happen is the ball will explode. Later, you will add concentration to the spell to adjust what type of bird your transfiguration will change into. For now, the spell will just use your subconscious mind to determine the species."
With a smile on her face, she continued, "While turning matches into needles doesn't hold much real-world benefit, this spell does."
Holding out her hand the little yellow bird flying around landed back in her hand and with a swirling motion, it turned back into a red ball and she placed it on the desk. Next, she picked up a piece of paper on her desk and crumpled it into a ball, then used the wand movement and cast, "Avifors!"
The crumpled ball of paper changed into a small hummingbird which darted around the room before landing on William's desk and then changed back to a crumpled paper.
"With the right amount of concentration, you will eventually be able to use this spell to send messages. It is good for passing notes to people, but they won't travel as far as you would for sending posts as with an owl. Additionally, it can be used for defensive purposes." McGonagall turned to her desk and transfigured it into a rug, then stepped over it towards the board at the front of the room.
Turning back to the students, "I want all of you to throw your balls at me. I am giving you complete permission to do so." Their professor turned sideways and raised her wand in a dueling posture.
Everyone was very hesitant, but then a Hufflepuff boy stood up and threw his green ball at their professor. When it was halfway across the room, it was intercepted by a yellow light, then burst into a red robin, and flew to land on a coat rack in the corner. This started everyone to throw their balls towards their teacher, with every one of them getting intercepted, turned into a different type of bird, and roosting on the coat rack. When everyone had thrown their ball, McGonagall stood up straight, as she hadn't even moved her feet during the exercise, and straightened her robes. With another wave of her wand, every roosting bird flew back to each student's desk and changed back into a colored ball.
"Two points to Mr. Jones throwing the first ball. Everyone begin practicing, I will walk around and assist."
Harry was impressed, he had seen her show them bits of magic on the island, but that was probably the most he had seen yet from anyone outside of the dueling room. He turned to Lyra to see a similar appreciation for their professor on her face. Some of the other students had it as well, when he looked toward Greg, the boy was already focusing on his ball, but he noticed Harry watching and looked up. Harry just made a fist and tapped it on his shoulder.
Greg looked back at his ball and yelled, "Avifors!" His ball exploded scaring everyone in the room, he started to panic and pick up the pieces.
"Excellent! Three points to Mr. Goyle for putting in too much power. Like I said, in this case, too much is better than too little." Then with a wave of her wand, the pieces of the ball flew back together and repaired themselves on his desk, Greg looked relieved.
The rest of the class went well with the occasional ball blowing up. By the end of class, Harry's ball had the face of an owl with blinking eyes. Lyra's ball had a beak, legs, and a few feathers on top of it. Greg continued to make his ball explode but got less frightened of the reaction each time. Other people had smaller changes, though the best in the class was Luna who had some sort of strange creature with a furry body and tiny legs with a long beak. It didn't look like a bird at all and it was still the same blue color as her ball. The students were advised not to practice the spell outside of class without an older student supervising, in case their ball exploded and needed to be repaired.
After dinner, Harry and Lyra went to meet with the Scamanders in the empty dorm. They were excited to go back home for the break and see their family and they had other responsibilities to take care of as well. Dougal was waiting with them, and Whispers ran over to him to have a staring contest. He had been getting better, but still couldn't outlast the elder Hidden.
"Good to see both of you," Newt began. "I'm sorry for your experience at the end of the party last night with your mother, Lyra."
Lyra just sat up straight and nodded, there was some sadness in her eyes, but there was also strong determination.
"Moving on," Tina jumped in. "School will be letting out on the 18th of December and will be restarting on the 4th of January. You have a holiday party on the 21st in the evening and your blessing is to perform at midnight afterward. I imagine later you will be quite exhausted?"
"We slept a lot with the last one," Harry informed them. "Can we take a portkey right after?"
"That's what we wanted to speak to you about," Newt rejoined the conversation. "First we would like to know if it would be alright to join you and visit your home. Dougal has been enjoying being around Whispers and it would be great for him to spend time around an entire tribe."
Harry and Lyra exchanged a nod, "That would be great, but he shouldn't do any staring contests with Charlie unless he wants to be the new village leader. He might be doing it for fun with Whispers right now, but the leader only does it with those who might replace him or those that need to know their place in the tribe."
"Good to know," Tina said.
"That brings us to our next item of concern," Newt continued. "Dougal does not do portkeys. He has refused to even touch an inactive one for the last twenty years. Whenever we travel with him, we do it on a private muggle jet that we purchased and learned to pilot. So there will be no spinning and probably no vomiting, but the flight will take an entire day, and then we will be able to travel to the island from the mainland. Would that be ok?"
Harry and Lyra looked at each other and had an accelerated sign language conversation. They didn't appear to be arguing, just having a discussion. From what they had seen of the two children's rudimentary language so far, they were able to recognize the words for [Bag], [Snake], and [Travel] appearing regularly in the conversation.
Harry turned back to the two older wizards, "What would we be allowed to bring with us? Hermione has told us that magic doesn't do well with muggle stuff."
"As long as you don't have any active enchantments or you cast magic with your wands or staves, it will be fine," Tina said seriously.
"We can schedule the plane for a few hours after you are done with your blessing," Newt said. "You'll probably sleep all the way to the first stop before we continue to the next one. The three days before our flight, Brandt will be looking out for you. You will need to speak to him about any plans for those days. When you return to school, the three of you will take a portkey. Tina and I will remain in the region to investigate a few rare magical creature sightings in the region that have been reported to our office but haven't had the time to investigate yet. We should be back in a week or two after school resumes."
They were finally going home, Harry and Lyra both smiled at the confirmation that they were going back. They waited another minute for Whispers to lose his staring contest with Dougal before heading out to the common room for the house meeting.
Everyone had already gathered so they were able to start early. Newt smiled at one of the perks of having a small number of students before speaking, "Mr. Potter had called this meeting, so I'm going to pass this over to him."
Everyone turned to Harry, "This is actually Lyra's meeting, so I'll pass it to her." A few people chuckled.
Lyra looked a bit nervous but started slowly, "After school gets out for the break, Harry and I are going to perform a blessing in the room..."
"Like a ritual?" Patricia interrupted with a little bit of fear in her voice.
Lyra was a bit confused, so she looked to Newt, "No, a blessing," he clarified. "A ritual converts and amplifies magic through a sacrifice for a specific purpose while a blessing uses the caster's magic and natural elements to enhance and develop something in a more general sense. Traditionally, they are also used to provide luck and protection to certain broad areas, though the amount of luck or protection provided has never been able to be measured successfully. The blessing that Miss Black and Mr. Potter will be performing has been studied and determined to be safe by the Druidic Council of the British Isles, Professor Vector, and Headmaster Dumbledore."
With a nod back to Lyra, she continued, "One part of the blessing will provide a large amount of growth to the plants in this room. Since we planted everything in the common room ourselves the first time, we wanted to see if everyone else had something they wanted to grow in the room. We will be performing the blessing after school is out for the break, so everything needs to be planted with the proper fertilizer a week beforehand. We will put a list of ideas on the board for people to fill out, and we can talk to Professor Sprout about the planting. Does anyone have ideas now?"
Neville immediately raised his hand, "Dittany!" he nearly shouted. "It takes a while to grow and Professor Sprout says you need it in every magical household for treating injuries. If we can speed up its growth, we could have an entire garden of it."
Newt nodded his head and looked pleased, "That's a very good idea, Mr. Longbottom, three points to you. Anyone else?"
A lot of others tried to think of something deserving of points but came up empty. Su Li asked for a lemon tree near their small kitchen which prompted a few other ideas for fruits. Newt told them to put all of the ideas on the parchment attached to the message board.
With a lot of new ideas buzzing around, everyone headed back to their dormitories to sleep.
The first-year students headed out at curfew for their astronomy class. After the rest of the dorm was quiet, the door to the upper boys' dormitory opened and Cedric snuck out of the common room. As he exited the maze, he placed a silencing charm on his shoes, then a supersensory charm on himself. He snuck through the hallways effortlessly, avoiding the prefect patrols, and Mrs. Norris. Upon reaching the fourth floor, he approached a statue of a wizard in quidditch robes standing regally next to his broom.
Smiling briefly, he elbowed the statue in the chest. The statue cried out, "Ahh, Foul! Excessive Cobbing!" Then the wall next to the statue vanished to reveal a secret door.
He winced for a moment at the shouting of the statue and canceled the supersensory charm, then lit his wand and headed down the dark corridor, the wall reappearing behind him. After a bit of a walk and a flight of stairs going up, the hallway opened up to reveal a small room with a square table. Around the table were four other students from the other houses wearing their bronze quidditch captain badges on their uniforms. They each had a bottle of butterbeer on the table and a broom leaning on their chairs. They must be in one of the smaller turret rooms as all the walls except the one he entered from had windows overlooking the grounds.
The Slytherin present, Marcus Flint, stood up, "Welcome Mr. Diggory to the Council of the Quidditch Captains. You had expressed the desire for a meeting, so here we are."
There wasn't a spot for him to sit, so he just canceled his Lumos spell and stood where he was at the entrance to the room. "Next year, I will be the captain of the Scamander Quidditch Team," he stated firmly. "However, I am having trouble with recruiting and I need your assistance."
Oliver Wood spoke up as Marcus sat back down, "What kind of assistance do you need?"
"My problem is Mr. Potter. He would make an excellent beater but has reservations about playing. Additionally, he has a hold over Mr. Goyle, Mr. Longbottom, and Miss Black. I don't think any of them will play without him on the team."
"Longbottom?" the Ravenclaw captain, Roger Davies, asked incredulously. "I've heard that he is a disaster on a broom."
"He seems to be emulating Mr. Potter in many things," Cedric informed them. "I feel that with Potter's support, he would do well as a beater or a center chaser."
"So what do you need from us?" asked Tamsin Applebee from Hufflepuff.
"Mr. Potter doesn't want to play unless everyone on the teams will wear helmets." The captains all muttered their objections to the idea. "I know the reasons why they haven't been instituted, but if we can find a way to get around that, not only will we have a better Hogwarts tournament with five teams, but we may also improve things for the national leagues. There are plenty of head injuries that could be avoided, not to mention the incident with your teeth, Flint."
Marcus growled at Cedric, showing his incredibly crooked smile.
Oliver chimed in again, "If we do this, I'd like to bring in the Weasley Twins on the project. If anyone can figure out a way to fix the helmet issue, it's those two."
"Why not use the Ravenclaw R&D team?" Roger asked.
"We can put it to a vote," said Tasmin.
The vote ended up being tied. Marcus and Roger voted for the Ravenclaw team and Tasmin and Oliver voted for the Weasley twins.
"What about Cedric?" Tasmin asked, hoping that the former 'Puff would side with her. "Shouldn't he get a vote as the new captain?"
"He's not a captain yet, he has no team," Marcus snarled a bit.
They put it to a vote for Cedric to get a vote. Only Marcus voted against it.
"So, what do you say?" Tasmin prompted Cedric.
"Well, I don't want to step on anyone's toes or upset anything before I'm officially a captain," he said as he gave a nod of recognition to Marcus, "so why not get two members of the Ravenclaw R&D team to work with the twins? That would make sure the helmet will get done properly, it will be interesting, it won't explode, give someone rabbit ears, or turn their hair purple when it's on their heads."
That idea got a unanimous vote in favor.
"Davies, you get two of Ravenclaw's best and set a meeting with Wood who can wrangle the Terror Twins. We can meet at the end of the first week back from break for an update. Make sure your people are working on this," Marcus ordered them. He then tapped his captain badge with his wand twice causing the windows to burst open behind them. He stood up, grabbed his broom, and lept from the window, the other three doing the same right after. After they were out, the windows shut and locked themselves.
Cedric smiled in amazement at the sight of the other captains diving out of the window, then pulled out his wand and tapped the table in front of him. It slowly grew to change from being four-sided to five. He then reactivated the supersensory charm on himself and walked back down the dark corridor he came from.
The next morning after sleeping in, they had their Friday triple Defense Against the Dark Arts class. They had exhausted Lockhart's book on household pests and were desperate to move on to something else. They still hadn't learned the freezing spell in Charms class, so they weren't allowed to have a practical lesson with ashwinder eggs yet.
Professor Lockhart flounced into the room in his typical style, today wearing a black cape and slacks with a silver vest over a white shirt. He gave a roguish smile to the students before launching into his lecture.
"After your lengthy studies in the dastardly fearsome creatures that live in the dark spaces of your homes, we are moving on. We will return as soon as your delightful Charms Professor teaches you the freezing spell. I could, of course, give you expert instruction on the matter, but alas, I have been told to stick to my curriculum." He gave his own 'aww' sound of disappointment along with a few other students who expressed disappointment.
"So today we are going to start a purely theoretical series of lectures on non-beings." He wrapped his cape closely around him before continuing, "Non-beings are neither alive, nor are they dead, so they cannot be killed. There is a reason why I haven't published a book of 'Business with Boggarts' or 'Discussions with Dementors.' The reason being that they cannot be defeated, only driven off." Some of the students in the class expressed shock at there being a creature that Gilderoy Lockhart could not defeat.
"Non-beings are created from and feed on human emotions, and new ones will always be created in places where those emotions are strong. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is your friendly school poltergeist, Peeves. He is a non-being of chaos that has been created through centuries of children roaming these hallways and getting up to all kinds of mischief. I can only imagine how strong he must be from a thousand years of feeding on the chaos that exists day-to-day at this illustrious institution." A lot of students developed a look of fear on their faces thinking about this.
Colin raised his hand and was called on, "You said they can be driven off? How?"
"Well, they need to be fought with energy that is contrasted or in opposition to their own. For example, a boggart, which is created and feeds on fear, needs to be fought with spells powered by laughter and humor."
Colin frowned for a moment before raising his hand again and getting called on, "So if you were fighting against a poltergeist, using flashing lights would be a bad thing?"
Lockhart thought about it for a moment before responding, "Almost certainly. I'm not aware of any spells that are powered by boredom or a sense of order that could be used to fight one."
"I've been fighting against Peeves for months with flashing lights. He gets blinded by them and runs away!" Colin yelled out.
Lockhart looked confused, "Well, I've never fought a poltergeist, so I couldn't tell you. How about for homework you all do a 20-inch essay on possible ways to combat a poltergeist and why one might flee from attacks of a chaotic nature."
Everyone groaned, but they had just come up on the first break in their triple class period so everyone ran out of the room for the fifteen-minute break. Harry decided to remain behind.
Seeing the boy at his desk, Lockhart gave a glinting smile and asked, "How can I help you, Mr. Potter?"
"Well, at the party yesterday, I had someone ask for my signature, and I realized that I've never signed something before." He paused for a moment, "But you're a celebrity, so you must sign lots of stuff, and I was wondering if you could teach me how to sign things."
Lockhart's grin grew even bigger, "An autograph! A celebrity autograph is certainly no trivial matter! It is excellent that you came to me with such an undertaking! Now, to do this right, we will need to have more than fifteen minutes to do it right. I will get together some materials now, and you can stay with me for lunch until we can create a signature befitting of the great Harry Potter!" With that, he rushed into his office, leaving Harry on his own until class began again.
The next two periods of the class went by slowly with discussions of poltergeists, boggarts, and dementors. Though their professor didn't seem keen on discussing dementors much. Luna Lovegood also brought up Nargles as another non-being and a spirit of confusion. She was assigned an essay on the creatures and their habits after Lochart ran out of ways to say he had no idea what they were.
Lyra left for lunch with Luna, Daria, and Meli when the final bell rang and Harry stayed for his meeting in Lockhart's office.
"Come in, come in!" he welcomed Harry.
The office was set up with dozens of books propped open to show the different styles the professor had signed his books, as well as numerous dedications. There were two large easels with black paper, paint, and many styles of brushes. Other pads of paper and rolls of parchment were stacked everywhere. On his desk were also quite a few cases of different different types of writing instruments, some looked very complicated or elegant while others looked just like markers for children.
"Sit down, this will be a great undertaking and something that will stay with you for the rest of your life. A good signature is something that properly tells people who you are. Not your name, though it should be at least a little legible, and show to others who… you… are…"
Harry was a little thrown by Lockhart's enthusiasm at such a basic subject but decided to take the subject as seriously as the man was making it to be.
"I remember the first time I gave an autograph, I wasn't sure what to do, but it was for a very pretty witch, and I knew it had to be perfect. Is yours, by any chance, for a pretty witch too?" Harry nodded and pulled out the photo of Lauren Davis with blue hair. "An older witch? Color me surprised, I think you should stick to girls your own age and leave the older ones to me."
"She was my teacher when I was five," Harry explained, not understanding what his teacher was referring to. "I refused to take a nap in class and turned her hair blue when I got angry."
"Astounding, well, let's get to it. Your signature should represent who you are. Don't worry about most of it being legible, mostly the first letter is all that really counts." He picked up a signed photo of himself sitting on a broom and passed it to Harry. "See here? Can you read anything other than the G and L of my name?" Harry shook his head, "But you still know that it's me, right?"
Harry nodded, "Because it's your picture."
"True, true. For your picture, you will also want to write some kind of dedication, since it is in memory of a specific event. So let's think about things that describe you first. What describes you the best?"
Harry had never really spent the time to think about what described him as a person, he just knew who he was, "I, um, like to climb things."
He thought about some of the more private things in his life. He had been advised not to tell anyone about being a parselmouth, and he wasn't going to reveal anything about the island or his scar. Thinking harder about a lot of his life, he realized he spent a lot of time protecting Lyra, but he also looked after Whispers, the rest of his family, and Arthur when the bludger was going to hit him. He absentmindedly pulled out his staff to look at the horn on top. Before he knew that it came from a Lampong, he just called it a guardian or a protector. That's who he was.
He looked back at Lockhart and said, "I protect things, like a guardian."
His Professor smiled, "Good, that's a good start. Now look at my signature here, see the loops on the G? It looks like a heart on the side, but not exactly like one. And see the lines and the squiggles on Lockhart? I tried to make them look slightly like a key for a lock, but again, not exactly like a key. Your signature should symbolize what you think of yourself, but not be a perfect picture of it."
He picked up a book that had many symbols on it, "This is a book of symbology, it has thousands of symbols and sketches of various ideas in it." He flipped through it until he got to a page that said 'Guards' below were pictures of soldiers, dogs, shields, and all sorts of objects and creatures. "Take your time and look through the book and find anything you think fits your name and how you feel about yourself. You should also start to think about what you want to write to this lovely witch in the picture. Think about what inspired the photo, the color of her hair, and what it represents. Treat it like a homework assignment and we will meet again before class on Monday. Make sketches of the things that inspire you from the book and just write out as many things you can think of that relate to the picture and the event in question."
Harry stayed for lunch and continued to look through the book of symbols. He'd like to put his staff or the Lampong on his name, but he couldn't figure out how that would work. Professor Lockhart also let him borrow a whole box of fancy pens and warned him about using quills for autographs.
"You should only use a quill or magical ink for signing a legal document or an exam at school. When writing something as personal as your name, you will instinctively infuse some of your magic into it. So to avoid your magic being reused for something you do not wish for, it is best to use a muggle pen or if you must use one with magical ink, use one that doesn't channel magic. Muggles have made this amazing material called plastic, and the plastic markers and pens with magical ink work perfectly for this purpose. When you get a chance, get a good supply of muggle pens and paper for your schoolwork. Parchment for exams and special assignments should be provided to you by your teachers with anti-cheating spells already cast on them."
Harry wrapped up everything he was working on and started to head to his afternoon classes. He was amazed by the amount of information that Lockhart had just dumped on him. Normally he was only a good teacher when there was one of his books in front of him, but just now he was a fountain of useful knowledge.
Later that evening, at the Ministry of Magic in London, Ludo Bagman sat in a room where a six-foot-tall film projector was displaying footage from the 1956 Olympic Games in Australia. He had been watching the events and the games all day long. It had taken him a full day to hunt down the footage and someone to show him how to use the monstrous device he was viewing it on.
So... many… muggles. From all over the world. Since when had they gotten so organized to put together such an event? And they did it every four years? Dumbledore had been dropping hints that he wanted to revive the Triwizard Tournament to celebrate his 25th year as Headmaster of Hogwarts, but that was like his little cousin's dance recital compared to this undertaking the muggles did every four years. He couldn't call himself a wizard if the muggles could do something this grand on their own.
The Quidditch World Cup was always a spectacular event but had the League behind it backing it up. He needed something the British Ministry could take the lead on. Well, he wasn't the only person in the department, there was a reason he had other people and a secretary. He couldn't figure out how to turn off the projector, so he left it running as he left the room.
Arriving back in the office for the Department of Magical Games and Sports, he asked his secretary, Bertha Jorkins, to summon two of his people he thought were muggleborns, as well as Rolanda Hooch. Trying to put on a good impression for them, he put out a bottle of Flare Whiskey (a knock-off of Ogden's Firewhiskey) for the meeting. The four of them came in, looking a little leary at the late-night meeting on a Friday, and while drinking on the job wasn't uncommon, their boss wasn't the one who would provide it to them.
"Thank you for coming, Gabriella, Pete, and Rolanda. Bertha, you'll need to be on top of the scheduling for this. We have a great project to attempt." Looking at Gabriella and Pete, "Now, the two of you are muggleborns, right?"
Gabriella nodded uneasily, while Pete grunted, "Half-blood." Bertha had her quill and parchment ready for taking down any notes that were needed. Rolanda Hooch was eyeing her boss warily, this must involve Hogwarts, in one way or another, if she was called in.
Ignoring their reactions, Ludo asked, "What do all of you know about the Muggle Olympics?"
Author's Note: The expression in Hebrew that Charlie mentioned means "Don't scare a whore with a dick." A good translation for wizards of the expression might be: "Don't punish a house-elf with cleaning."
The Hebrew version is more fun though.