Avoidance
The next week was long for Harry, primarily because he was doing his best to keep clear of both Cedric and his sister who seemed intent on getting him to talk about the quidditch team. Keeping clear of Cedric wasn't a problem as whenever he thought the boy was trying to corner him somewhere, he would just duck out of sight, then turn invisible. He found a lot more secret passages that way, as Cedric would reveal one when trying to follow where he thought Harry disappeared.
Each day did have its own little events though.
On Monday, Professor McGonagall added a new element to their transfiguration work, bringing them back to their very first lesson. When they got to class, there was a match on each of their desks. When everyone had entered and seated she began her lecture.
"Today we are going to introduce an element into your lessons that will be part of every future assignment you do, and most exams for the rest of your time at Hogwarts. Part of advanced transfiguration involves a lot of what is called 'Shaping.' Shaping is something that involves using your willpower and imagination to add little extras to your work. It's also one of the reasons I always start students with matches to needles as their first assignment."
She paused for a moment before continuing, "When most elemental transfigurations are performed, such as wood into metal, there is a direct change in form, like a stick to a stake, same shape and size. However, when you all turned a match into a needle, you converted the match head into the eye of a needle and created a pointed end. You did all of that with your willpower, and because I told you that you could do it."
She picked up a match from her desk and waved her wand, making it grow until it was the size of Harry's staff. With another swish of her wand, it transformed into a needle of the same size. However, it wasn't silver in color, it was tarnished gold and covered with a spiderweb design, the eye became shaped like a sunburst with tiny protrusions around the outside edge.
"If I told you this is what a needle was, I would expect you to be able to transfigure your match into something like this. However, in your mind, it probably still looks like a plain silver needle, so this level of sophistication would be very difficult. This goes along with your lessons for the bird transfiguration and the object to matchbox. This is about overcoming the preconceptions in your head of what a bird looks like and what a matchbox looks like."
To demonstrate, she transformed a candle into a matchbox that was decorated with pink sparkles, then turned that into a small hawk with orange and purple feathers, which glared at the students around the room.
"I have records of what all of your bird transfigurations produced from your first attempts, and what your matchboxes looked like as well from last week. We will start today on basic color and design changes to your needles, and once you have completed that, you'll move on to the transfigurations that carry incantations."
By the end of the class, nearly everyone had made some changes in the final design of their needles. However, most of them no longer looked like needles, but at least they were metal. When they were dismissed, Harry hung back to talk to his professor.
When the others had gone, McGonagall looked up from her papers, and addressed him, "What can I help you with Mr. Potter?"
"I was hoping you could send a letter for me," he responded.
"To Mr. Balindong? You could have just sent it to me by owl."
"No, it's to Uagadou, in Africa."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Why Uagadou? What do you know?"
"What?" he was confused.
"Did Arcturus tell you something?"
"Huh?"
"What are you sending a letter for?"
"I met a boy over the break who goes there, I wanted to send him a letter."
"Oh, that's fine," she relaxed a bit. "You can just owl me letters that are going anywhere out of the country, and I'll pass them on. Though some of the larger birds in the owlery will go to the continent without needing to go through me."
"Why were you asking me about Arcturus?" Harry asked as he passed her the letter he wrote.
"My apologies, Mr. Potter, I was just remembering your father, he was always up to something, and I assumed you were doing something you weren't supposed to. Run along now to your next class."
With a little hesitation, he left the room.
Tuesday evening, while avoiding Cedric, Harry ducked into the common room greenhouse to avoid the older boy. There he found Greg, Neville, Milicent, and Megan tending to the plants there. They were doing a good job organizing them from the mess that the blessing had made. Nearly half the room had been cleaned up and organized with labels. He watched them work for a moment, remembering his garden back on the island before speaking up.
"Can I help?" he asked, as all four of them turned to look in his direction.
They all turned to Neville, as it seemed he was organizing the effort. He looked a bit nervous, being on the spot, but nodded and pointed towards one of the planters where Greg was working.
Greg gave him a pair of trimmers and a bucket to trim the mess of vines and white flowers down to a manageable size.
The flowers smelled nice, so he asked, "What is this?"
Before Greg could answer, Neville did, "It's Jasmine, primarily used for tea and perfumes, but also can be used for hair potions and some variations of love tonics. I wanted to grow it here for the first two." He paused for a moment, then turned back to his work, as if he had interrupted himself with the answer.
Greg shrugged, then asked Harry, "The present you gave me, the gloves, Brandt told me they are for muggle dueling. It sounds like fun, do you want to give it a try?"
That was what he wanted, to spend more time with Greg, so he nodded and started to put away his tools.
However, just as they both stood up, Neville stopped them and said in a serious voice, "Finish your work before you go play." He glared at them, startling them before his expression grew spacey before continuing to work.
A little bit spooked, Harry and Greg kneeled back down and continued to work on the jasmine. Neville continued to work on the box he was currently on, untangling the mess of weeds like magic before helping out Megan and Milicent with theirs. By the time he finished working with the two girls, Harry and Greg had finished their work as well.
"So you two are going to do some boxing?" Milicent asked, with Megan smiling next to her. "Can we join you?"
"Where can we do it?" Harry asked.
Greg looked at Neville, "Can we use your climbing room?"
Neville seemed to think about it for a few moments before nodding. Greg ran off to get the sets of gloves then Neville led the group towards the maze and checked the directions to the room he had posted on the bulletin board before taking them the rest of the way to the room.
The walls were covered with fake rock formations with different types of handholds in various places. There was also some kind of structure in the center of the room with ropes hanging down to climb up. What made the room particularly interesting was that the entire floor seemed to have a permanent softening charm, which was slightly bouncy as they walked on the floor.
Neville stood to the side with the girls as Harry and Greg put on their gloves and stood facing each other.
"Now what?" Harry asked.
"I guess we hit each other?" Greg said. "I don't think I've ever asked permission to hit someone before."
Megan told them, "You're supposed to touch gloves. It's like bowing before a magic duel. Then hit each other."
The two of them approached each other cautiously and touched their gloves together. After a few seconds of waiting, Greg swung a wide punch at Harry's head. He instinctively ducked and swung for Greg's chest. His punch connected, but it felt like punching a wall. Greg was surprised that he had just been punched but then took another big swing which Harry also dodged.
They took turns like that, with Harry dodging and landing small punches that did nothing until Greg connected one of his punches. The hit caused Harry to do a half spin and land on his stomach. Greg immediately checked to see if Harry was ok.
"That was strange," Harry commented as he rolled over to see Greg looking incredibly worried. "I felt the punch, but it didn't feel like a physical impact."
Greg looked thoughtful for a moment, then said, "Take off your glove and punch me in the stomach."
Harry looked confused but complied. When he connected, Greg made an 'oof' sound, then stood back up straight.
"Why did we do that?" Harry asked.
"The gloves are magic," Greg told him. "It's like the sleeping spell Mr. Stevens used on me."
That made sense, when Harry used his fists on the boy, it would hurt him more than if he used the magic boxing gloves. Greg could just absorb the magic, for whatever reason he could with the sleeping spell.
"Can I try?" Millicent asked. Harry nodded and started taking off his gloves.
Greg looked a bit pale, "I can't hit a girl."
Harry faltered with his gloves, "Why not?"
"You're not supposed to hit girls," Greg told him.
"Why not?" Harry repeated.
"Because they're girls!" Greg said defensively.
"What if I hit you first?" Millicent asked Greg, but he shook his head no.
"I'll hit a girl," Harry said with a shrug. "Give her your gloves, Greg."
He hesitantly passed her his set and helped her lace them up. When they were secure, she approached Harry and they touched gloves. Though instead of pausing, as Harry and Greg had done, Millicent just slugged Harry straight in the stomach. He wheezed, before standing up and connecting a glove to the side of her head. That one felt like it connected, much more than it had with Greg, and caused her to stumble. From there, they traded wild swings until Harry was on his back gasping and Millicent was running circles around him with her hands in the air.
From there, they traded off with each other, though Neville and Greg refused to fight either of the girls. Megan was the weakest of the group, but she put in the most effort. Neville on the other hand seemed to dodge punches like a tree swaying in the wind. He rarely landed a punch, but he could dodge better than any of them.
Eventually, they were all exhausted and needed to clean up before dinner. However, Harry stopped Greg before he left, so it was just the two of them in the room.
"So why is it that magic doesn't work on you?" Harry asked.
"My dad says I'm not supposed to talk about it," Greg responded.
Harry was curious, but didn't want to push him, "Stevens said that Brandt was training you to do whatever you do, what is your training?"
"He's just casting the sleep spell at me over and over until I pass out. It takes more spells every week for the spell to work."
Harry thought about that, before thinking of something. He started to put the gloves back on, and said, "The gloves are magic, I can help with your training."
Greg understood immediately and placed his arms to his side as Harry took a swing straight for Greg's stomach. It felt like punching a sandbag, and the larger boy barely flinched.
"Do it harder," Greg said with a smile.
Harry took another few swings, achieving the same results. Greg just smiled, like he was being tickled. Harry took the next two minutes punching as many times as he could before Greg made another 'oof' noise and Harry stopped, exhausted.
"I felt that one, maybe we should stop now," his stomach growled. "My stomach agrees."
Both boys laughed and headed off to the dorms to clean up and then go to dinner.
Wednesday morning, a package arrived for Harry and Lyra at breakfast. They opened it up to find the set of four Yeti gloves for Whispers. Of course, they tried them on themselves, but their palms and fingers weren't the right sizes in comparison to the anatomy of a Hidden, so they gave up as other people were asking to try them on as well.
Forgetting about the rest of breakfast, they went back to the common room to present the gloves to Whispers. He examined them in great detail, touching them all over, sniffing them, and running them over the skin on his face. Finally, he put them on. They went all the way up to his knees and elbows and immediately ran out to the stone floor of the hallway to test them out. Harry and Lyra caught up to him in the hall as he was touching the floors and walls with the gloves.
He took one glove off and touched the floor before saying, "Cold." He put the glove back on, and said, "No cold," then gave a big smile.
Harry and Lyra followed after him as he ran out into the snow of the courtyard and started throwing it in the air, now that the cold didn't bother his hands and feet. They proceeded to have a thirty-minute-long snowball fight with their little brother before realizing they were late for Transfiguration.
McGonagall docked them five points each for being late.
Thursday morning at breakfast, a letter was delivered to Harry from a regal-looking owl with a vest containing the seal of the Ministry of Magic. As soon as he took the letter from the owl's pouch, it took off again, leaving Harry and Lyra with the letter as they ate. The letter was addressed to Harry, but that didn't stop Lyra from looking at it as it said it was sent by Amos Diggory.
Harry took a glance down the table towards the boy he had been avoiding the last few days, then broke the seal and pulled out the parchment.
Dear Mr. Potter,
I am writing to you today concerning a letter that my boy, Cedric, sent home to me earlier this week. He is unaware that I am writing to you directly and I used an owl from work so he would not recognize our family carrier.
I was very impressed with my son's initiative to commission a project to have new helmets designed for the quidditch teams, to accommodate the need for additional protection for yourself and your sister, if you were to play on the house team. So I was very disappointed to hear that you had still rejected his offer when the project was complete. I have very high hopes for where my son will go in life, and it would benefit him greatly for you to join the team he intends to be the captain of.
He mentioned to me that you seem to have many other members of your house that may not join the team if you do not join yourself. So I am asking, as a return on the favor I did for your sister, to do this favor for my son.
I look forward to good news from Cedric in the near future.
Amos Diggory
British Ministry of Magic
Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures
Head of Records - Beast Division
Harry took another glance towards Cedric who was finishing up a glass of pumpkin juice, then passed the letter to Lyra so she could take her time reading it.
When she was finished, she looked at Harry with a mixture of worry and expectation, "So does that mean you'll join the team?"
Harry didn't know what to do, he had been told that Cedric's father might ask for the return of the favor he had done for them, but he didn't expect it to be something he had such an adverse opinion of.
"I don't know," he told his sister. "I wrote a letter to Brandt already, on Sunday, but he hasn't responded. I'll send him another before class."
"Then do it now," she told him. "So we don't lose points like we did yesterday."
Harry took her advice and ran off to the owlery. Hermes seemed to have anticipated his arrival and was sitting at the writing desk, flexing his wings in preparation for the urgent delivery. He quickly wrote his note asking for advice and included Amos's letter in with his. The speedy owl didn't even wait for Harry to promise a treat before speeding off through the open window.
Later that evening, after dinner, Harry and Lyra were sitting on a couch in the Ravenclaw common room, reading Mattimeo from the Redwall series. Even though Harry had his own copies now, it felt better to read them in this common room, where they had started them. Hermione was sitting on a chair near them, but she was engrossed in schoolwork and was surrounded by books for reference.
The door out of the common room opened and Penny came in, looking quite happy. She immediately ran over to where Hermione was sitting, and grabbed her by the hand, pulling her to her feet and knocking some paper and books onto the floor.
"You've got to come and see this room that Ollie found!" she said excitedly.
Harry and Lyra had stopped reading to look at the two girls, as Hermione responded, "This was on your date? How was it? You missed dinner."
"The room was amazing! I'll show you, come on!" she started to drag the younger girl off.
Hermione looked back at Harry and Lyra, "Can they come too?"
Penny looked back, noticing Harry and Lyra for the first time, "Sure, come quick."
They followed quickly as Penny led them, not to the main door, but down a long corridor past some dorm rooms and into a back room with a long pole in the middle of the room. Hermione just jumped on the pole and slid down through the floor, with Penny waiting a few moments and following her.
Harry approached the pole hesitantly and placed one hand on the pole. He felt some kind of spell hold his hand in place, but he could move it freely up and down the surface. Carefully, he placed another hand on it and wrapped one leg around as well, feeling them attach securely to the metal.
"It feels safe," he told Lyra. "Wait a few seconds and then follow."
She nodded and he wrapped his other leg around the pole and slid through the floor just as the two Ravenclaw girls had. He proceeded to fall for what seemed like thirty seconds as he could feel the air rush by him. He slowed down as he reached the bottom of the tunnel and carefully pulled his legs from the pole and put them on the ground. He could hear a squeal of excitement from Lyra above, so he stepped away quickly before she arrived and jumped off the pole. Both of them turned around to see Penny and Hermione waiting in the small room they had arrived in.
Penny opened the door on the side of the room and a large statue shifted out of the way to reveal they were now in the library on the first floor. As they entered and the statue of a large eagle moved back into place, Harry recognized the location as about a hundred yards to the left side of the circulation desk.
Lyra looked around at where they were, then back to Hermione, saying, "Of course, Ravenclaw has a secret entrance to the library."
"It's not a secret," Penny said, "You must not have seen the sign outside the door that says - Library Shortcut."
"But you need to be in the house to use it?" Harry asked.
"It's just like the common room," Hermione answered. "You just need curiosity and a desire for knowledge." Turning back to Penny, "So where's this room?"
Penny led the group back to the circulation desk and across to the other side of the library. They walked until the floor started to change to dirt and the books became more obscure. After they got to the section with the extra-large books, Penny pointed to the shelf near the ceiling which contained a five-foot-tall, blue book with the cover facing the front of the shelves. The title of the book was, "A Treatise of Language."
"Drat," Penny said. "Ollie had his broom to get us up there when we were here. The entrance to the room is inside the book."
Harry and Lyra just shared a look and jumped onto the shelves, racing each other up to the top. Lyra got there quicker, but only by a couple of seconds, and opened the cover of the blue book to reveal a corridor. Lyra jumped in and held out her hand to Harry who grabbed it and jumped inside the corridor. They looked back down at the astonished looks on the faces of the girls below.
"I don't suppose you have any rope?" Penny called up to them.
Harry dug around in his pouch until he found a long coil of rope from the hair of the Hidden. Feeling around in the darkness, he found an unlit sconce for a torch and tied one end around the holder, then threw the rest of the rope out the front of the book to the girls below.
Both girls took a while to climb up to the entrance, occasionally losing their footing and swinging back and forth to regain their hold. Eventually, they made it, panting with exhaustion and relief at making it up.
"It was so much easier with Ollie and his broom," Penny commented.
"We have brooms," Lyra mentioned, pulling hers out of her pouch.
"What?" looked a bit annoyed. "Why didn't you say so?"
"You asked for rope," Harry looked confused.
"Because you climbed up," she responded.
"That was easier than taking out our brooms," Lyra said innocently.
Hermione just rolled her eyes and lit up her wand in the dark tunnel as Harry gathered up the rope. At the end of the corridor, an open doorway revealed a hexagonal room with a ten-foot-high ceiling. In the center of the room, there was a table with six sides, lined up with each side of the room, with a red stone, shaped like a teardrop in the center. On the walls of each side of the room was a small bookcase, anchored onto the wall, but most of the wall was just the dull gray castle stone.
As they were examining the room, Penny told them, "Look at the books."
The three of them each took a wall and examined the books, turning back to Penny almost immediately.
"I can't read this," Harry said.
"Is this Russian?" Hermione held up one of the books.
Penny nodded, pointing to each set of books on each wall, "English, French, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, German." She gestured to the seats, "Go ahead, sit down."
The four of them sat down with Penny sitting in the spot by the English books. She began to speak, but Harry only heard a whole lot of words he couldn't understand.
Hermione spoke excitedly, "It's translating what you say? I can't understand any of it but I've heard Russian before. That's what's happening, right?"
Penny nodded, "Do any of you speak another language?"
Harry perked up, but stayed silent, so as not to reveal his language skills.
Hermione said, "It's not perfect, but I know French…"
Penny pointed her to an empty seat, and called Harry and Lyra over to her position, conjuring two extra chairs on her side of the table.
When Hermione sat down, Penny told her, "Go ahead, say something in French."
Hermione's eyes widened and said slowly, "I hear you say French. I mean, you spoke French!"
It was strange, as even though they heard her speaking English, her lips weren't matching what she said out loud.
"We're just hearing English on this end," Lyra said excitedly.
"And I'm listening to French in this chair!" Hermione told them, though her lips didn't match what she was saying again.
Penny got up and gestured for them to move back towards the entrance, then told them, "Ollie and I had such a great dinner down here. If you take the books on the shelves and move them to different positions, it changes which languages are translated in each spot. The books don't matter, as long as there are enough of them in each spot. The magic is matching words from each book and translating them for the people sitting in each spot. So, if you take off enough books, it can't fully translate what each person says and some words slip through the cracks."
"So, if you brought other books, in other languages, you could replace the ones that are here?" Hermione asked.
"That is what Ollie thought," Penny told them. "Though, you would need many books from that language so the room would be able to make accurate translations."
"What about a language like Dwarven?" Harry asked.
"I don't see why not," Penny said with a shrug. "I've never seen a book in the language of another creature like Dwarven, Gobbledygook, or Mermish, so I can't be sure."
"How would you even have a Mermish book?" Hermione pondered out loud. "Paper and water don't mix too well."
The group continued to play with the room, mostly repeating whatever Penelope had done with Oliver until Lyra let out a yawn, signifying they had probably spent at least a couple of hours in the room. To get back out, Harry and Lyra shared their broomsticks with Hermione and Penny, while they just climbed down the bookcase themselves. Unfortunately, the passage from the Ravenclaw common room didn't work both ways, so they all just said goodnight as the older girls walked back upstairs to their dormitories and Harry and Lyra just navigated the first floor to get back to theirs.
Friday morning, Harry received a response from Brandt. It just said:
We will speak about it on Saturday before your dueling practice. Also, make sure to clear your schedule for Sunday.
-Brandt
When they were done eating, Harry led his sister over to the Slytherin table, not noticing the sinister smile that Draco gave him as he passed. He found Gemma sitting with the other prefects and after waiting for her to acknowledge them, confirmed that she would be able to help them in the dueling room after breakfast tomorrow morning. On the way out of the hall, he exchanged a look and a nod with Blaise to confirm that he would be there as well with Tracey and Daphne.
Friday was their long day of DADA and they spent it listening to Lockhart tell them more about his experience with the Yetis, though today also focused on an incident where he had driven off some poachers, creating an avalanche that exposed an ancient cave system that had been unused by the yetis for over a century. He showed a few more pictures of himself in flamboyant outfits on snow-covered mountains in heroic poses, some with yetis in the background, others just himself.
After dinner, Harry and Lyra started to read through the book that Severus had given them as a present on cantrip spells. They grew excited to learn more as they read through the introduction.
This book is a handy guide to spells that seem useless but are enhanced by the creativity of the caster. In your journey to be a powerful witch or wizard, you will find that sometimes it is the simplest spells that will amaze or distract the people around you. While you may not be able to use a disarming hex to kill a Dark Lord, you might be able to use it to have him relinquish his hold on your one true love before casting something more powerful.
One of the first charms you probably learned in school is the one to make light, but think about how it could be used other than just having it come out of your wand. Maybe you want to attach an orb behind your head or back to create a silhouette of your body? How about using it in an enchantment linked to your pillow so it turns on if you wake up in the middle of the night? Or why not throw every color you can think of into your mouth, so you vomit rainbows? There is no limit to what you can achieve in a creative mind when it comes to magic.
This book will give you some basic spells that even a pre-teen can perform. However, even the oldest and most powerful warlocks can still make use of these in their everyday lives or in a professional dueling environment.
Good luck, and remember… be creative!
Harry waited until Lyra had finished with the introduction before they turned the page to the first spell. The picture showed a person's head with a glowing halo around it. Below was an animated picture of the casting movement. One needed to circle the target with their wand and then tap the body part while incanting "Coronus Lux." The 'lux' needed to be timed with the tap at the end of the spell. If everything was done correctly, it should create a ring of light around the target.
Since Harry's element was light, he gave the spell a try first - circling his head was easy, but timing the incantation was a bit harder. The first time did nothing, the second he got a fizzle of light around his head, then the third time, a glowing white halo appeared creating light all around them. Lyra tried it on herself, but hers came out like her Lumos spell, which had a slight tinge of orange to it.
From there, they continued to practice the spell for the next hour, trying to work with the intensity of the light, the size of the ring around their heads, and eventually changing the color like they could do already for their light spell. When they had figured all of those out, Lyra also found out that it worked on any body part, as well as objects too. They were currently sitting in their favorite tree, so casting it around the branches provided them with extra light in the darkened room.
Luckily, when it was time to go to bed, a simple 'Nox!' spell got rid of all of the halos they had cast on themselves and the objects around them.
When Harry woke up on Saturday, he found Brandt waiting in the common room when he went for breakfast. Joining him and accepting a glass of mango juice from him, they sat in silence for a moment while he took a few sips.
"So, regarding your quidditch situation," he began, "what is it that makes you not want to play?"
Harry thought about it for a moment before responding, "It's violent. I don't like to be violent when I don't have to be."
Brandt couldn't deny the violence inherent in the sport, but he needed to find a way around it for Harry. Primarily due to Amos Diggory calling in a favor, but also because it would help to advance Lyra's position in the wizarding world, with her desire to become a seeker for the team. Harry was already a well-known figure, but Lyra needed to do more to get her name and face out there. Being the seeker on the new Scamander quidditch team would be perfect for her right now.
After thinking for a while and taking a sip of his coffee, he asked Harry, "What about when you play with the Lampong? Isn't that violent? When it threw you, you could have been seriously injured if Mrs. Scamander did not cast that softening charm on the ground."
"We were just playing! I did that for years with him, and never got more than a few bruises."
"Then you were very lucky," Brandt told him with a serious tone. "You were 'just playing' with a Four-X magical creature. People don't do that and not get injured."
"Well neither of us was trying to hurt the other. In quidditch, you're always trying to injure other players."
"Same with dueling," Brandt reminded him. "You got those gloves for Greg too. Have you done any sparring yet?"
Harry still didn't want to give in, but latched on to changing the subject, "We played with them yesterday, with Millie, Megan, and Neville. Then he smiled a bit and said, "Millie can punch really hard."
Brandt raised an eyebrow and smirked, "You fought with girls?"
"Neville and Greg had some problems with it, but they wanted to play too. Wouldn't it have been worse to just make them watch?"
"So, what you're saying is that if other people are open to playing with you, you're ok with being a little violent as well? Even if they are girls?"
Brandt could see that Harry was agreeing with him, but also for the first time realized that Harry could also be just as much of a stubborn twelve-year-old as any other child he had met before. Before, he had only seen Harry's stubborn attitude when it came to protecting Lyra. As frustrating as he was right now, it was nice to see Harry acting like a normal child for once.
Stubborn children don't respond well to being pushed, so he had already prepared a bit of a carrot to offer, rather than a stick.
"So you know how I wrote that you should clear your schedule for Sunday?" Harry nodded. "I managed to get private seating for us at a professional quidditch match. I'm not sure you know any of the local teams yet, but it will be the Tutshill Tornados against the Holyhead Harpies."
Harry risked a smile through his stubborn face.
"Good," Brandt gave a small smile, as well. "I'm going to grab a seat at the professor's table for breakfast. Stevens is already there, and after breakfast, we'll take Greg and your friends in Slytherin to the dueling room to practice."
Without waiting for acknowledgment, Brandt took his cup of coffee and left.
Harry sat there and drank his mango juice as he waited for Lyra and others in the house to come out of their rooms. He saw Cedric and made eye contact with him for a moment, but the boy just sighed and walked away. It made Harry feel guilty, but he was still feeling stubborn. When Lyra came out, he told her about the quidditch match on Sunday, and she was nearly bouncing with excitement.
They made sure to eat a hearty breakfast, knowing that they would be getting a workout in the dueling room afterward. Blaise, Tracey, and Daphne were staring at them and smiling through the whole meal, and even Gemma seemed excited too, but she did a better job containing her excitement.
When the group was all finished, Brandt and Stevens walked the group of seven children back to the common room to find Tonks waiting outside wearing a long leather trench coat and combat boots.
Brandt looked a bit surprised, but Tonks just said, "Remember, you said I could join you this week."
Brandt squinted his eyes at her and looked to the dueling champion next to him, "Augustus, please stun her."
Without missing a beat, Stevens drew his wand and unleashed a flurry of red and yellow-tinged spells at Tonks. In response, she jumped out of the way from the first flurry and let a stream of blue and orange spells fly towards him, moving in such a way that Brandt needed to shield himself from the ones that Stevens dodged. All of the students jumped back to avoid the firefight.
A suit of armor lunged from the wall to attack Tonks, but she leveled a kick at its midsection, causing it to collapse, and then launched its sword at Stevens. The sword was almost upon him when it exploded into confetti. Under the guise of the confetti, Tonks shifted into a clone of Arcturus, though she was still wearing the same clothing. Stevens hesitated for just a second before transfiguring the confetti into a swarm of roaches which proceeded to fly and crawl at the young auror. Tonks jumped backward and let out a stream of fire to burn all the insects, but a stunner burst through the fire and knocked her down.
Stevens summoned her wand and passed it to Brandt, then cast a waking spell on her. Not just Harry and his friends started to applaud, but several other Scamanders on their way back to the common room and a few other students who were probably on their way out to the courtyard. Though there was also a very slow clapping from Albus Dumbledore, standing among the rest.
The old wizard casually strolled by Brandt and plucked Tonks's wand from his fingers and passed it to her as she stood back up.
"Miss Tonks," Dumbledore began, "It has not been very long since you attended this institution, but I don't think you would have forgotten that there is to be no magic in the hallways, and particularly an unsupervised duel. If you still attended this institution, I would deduct points from Hufflepuff. However, since you are an Auror now, I will just ask for an explanation."
She just pointed at Brandt and Stevens, saying, "They started it!"
"I guess that even outside of school, some people are still just children," the headmaster sighed. Turning back to Brandt, he said, "Can you explain what we just saw?"
"Alastor Moody attacked me inside a Black property last weekend, disguised as Miss Tonks. I was just making sure it was her," Brandt said, trying to stand tall in front of the powerful wizard before him.
"Ah, that," Dumbledore sighed again. "I will excuse your behavior today, but I will be writing to Arcturus about the incident." He turned to Tonks, "And to Alastor." He looked around at the assembled students watching him admonish adults like they were his students, then just said to everyone, with a wave of his hand, "Carry on then," and walked past Tonks out into the courtyard.
The other students started to disperse and Brandt led the group into the maze and to the dueling arena. Once inside, Stevens hopped across to the platform while Harry, Lyra, Greg, Daphne, Tracey, Blaise, Gemma, and Tonks sat in the seats together. Brandt stood before them and waited for them to get settled.
Brandt addressed Gemma, "Thank you Miss Farley for agreeing to assist with Harry and Lyra's training when Mr. Stevens can't be around to help. The dueling circuit is about to start for a few months and he will not be able to be here for the next few weeks. However, before we start for the day, we need to be a bit serious." He paused to look at all of them, "Harry, Lyra, and Greg all have specialties for their magic and their dueling techniques. As Stevens works with all of you, he will also be attempting to determine if you have any specialties as well. I have a contract here that I want you all to sign that states that you will not share any of the styles of each other to anyone who is not signing."
"Let me see the contract," Gemma demanded. Brandt took out the rolled parchment and tossed it to her. Looking at the Slytherins, she asked, "Do all of you know how to examine a contract for curses?" Blaise and Daphne nodded, but Tacey shook her head. "First of all, see the silver runes on the edge when I tilt the paper to the side?" Harry, Lyra, and Greg looked on with Tracey as Gemma tilted the contract back and forth and tiny runes could be seen around the edges. "Never sign a contract that doesn't have these runes. They keep you from putting quill to parchment if you don't understand the terms. The incantation to reveal curses is - Revalio maledictum." She pointed her wand at the paper and cast the spell, which caused the paper to turn blue for just a moment, then the glow vanished.
Looking back at Brandt, "There are no curses on this document, how do you plan on enforcing it?"
"One of the nice things about being a Black is that we don't need to make threats, the name itself carries the warning. You will all sign the contract and if someone betrays another's secrets, a line with an arrow will be drawn from one name to another showing who betrayed whom. Any further action can be taken after that."
Gemma reread the contract and then signed her name, passing it to Daphne. All of the children, plus Tonks signed, then passed it back to Brandt who added his name. From there, Stevens called each of the Slytherins down to the platform for a quick evaluation. None of them were able to touch them with any spells, but he did get to see the power of Daphne's ice spells up close. He wasn't able to identify anything special for Blaise and Tracey, but Gemma was a different story.
Because she was older and knew more offensive magic, he opened up a bit more with a wider range of spells. As she dodged and parried his spells, it became obvious that she had some kind of grace that wasn't normal. When she jumped, she almost floated. When she dodged, she seemed to glide from one spot to another. Even when Stevens covered her entire side of the platform in ice, she never lost her footing. Because she appeared to float when she jumped, he eventually tagged her with a stunner in mid-air, then cushioned her, as she fell to the ground.
"Well, that's a bit interesting," he told her after waking her up. "I didn't detect any magic in your dodging from a spell or enchantment. Do you know the secret to your movements?"
Gemma blushed a little, then said, "Well I grew up learning to dance ballet with my mother. That might be where it is from."
Stevens shook his head, "You probably excelled at dancing because of this, not the other way around. Keep practicing, have your students run you through dodging drills, and see how far it can take you."
"Is it my turn?" Tonks asked.
"You already had your turn," Stevens told her. "I'll give you an evaluation at the end." To Greg, he asked, "Mr. Goyle, have you been keeping up with your practice?"
Greg nodded and said, "Harry found a new way to practice with me. He gave me a Christmas present of magic muggle dueling gloves."
Stevens nodded in understanding, "Keep at it, try to cast spells while you're being hit."
Brandt asked, "Harry, Lyra, have you done the homework I gave you?"
Harry answered, "I couldn't find anything my staff could do while inverted, other than make the ground glow, but Lyra found something with hers."
Lyra smiled, and asked, "Can Harry fight with me? It works better with the two of us."
Brandt looked at Stevens, who nodded. Harry and Lyra entered the ring and Stevens activated the wards. Harry took out his wand, while Lyra readied her staff, inverted so the sigbin fang was pointed down. When Harry realized that Stevens was waiting on them, he brandished his wand and cast the first spell.
"Lumos Solem!" He cast the sunlight orb they had just learned in Herbology as Lyra lifted her staff above her head like a spear.
The orb flew towards Stevens who looked at it funny, as a ball of light wouldn't do anything to him. Regardless, he still leaned out of the way as the ball of light stuck to the dueling wards behind him without vanishing. As quickly as she could after he had dodged, Lyra slammed the fang of the sigbin into the ground in front of her. Harry followed up her action by casting five pulses of magic at Stevens who appeared to panic, but didn't dodge, just yelling out "Protego Maximus!"
A large yellow shield appeared all around him as Harry's bolts impacted the shield. Frustrated, Harry started to cast as many more as he could in a row toward the shield as Lyra held her staff in place. Spell after spell from Harry splashed on the yellow shield, but it didn't fall. Even though it wasn't breaking, Stevens was still looking around with a panicked look in his eyes with each impact.
Lyra held onto her staff with one hand and pulled out her wand with the other. After casting a sticking charm on her staff in the ground, she let go of it and ran around to the side of Stevens, bellowing out, "Incendio!"
A raging orange flame escaped her wand and crashed into his shield, along with Harry's repetitive bolts of magic. She held it for nearly twenty seconds before Stevens called out, "HALT!"
Lyra and Harry were breathing heavily as they stopped their spells. Stevens was still standing in the same place, with fractures running through his yellow shield and Harry's light creating a silhouette around him.
"Why can't I move?" Stevens asked. "This isn't petrification or a bind of some kind. I can't break it at all."
Before Harry or Lyra could respond, Brandt spoke up, "Well, that's twice that Harry's got you. Look at Lyra's staff." Now that everyone was still, they could see that Lyra's staff was stuck into the ground in the middle of the dueling champion's shadow, projected from Harry's light spell.
Stevens called out, "Lumos Totalis!" causing a bright white light to envelop the platform and erase the shadow in front of him, which let him step away from the light stuck to the wards behind him.
"Well, that was new," he told Harry and Lyra. "That's the sigbin fang that I heard about?" Lyra nodded. "Well, all I can think of is to tell you to keep practicing that combo move and for Lyra to see if she can cast the light spell with her wand and then follow it up with the staff. Now we should all practice," he deactivated the dueling wards and gestured for all the children to come down to the platform.
"I know everyone else knows basic dueling spells, but Harry and Lyra don't. So we will go through the most basic dueling spells and I will correct you all on anything to make these spells stronger."
Stevens repeatedly cast a spell at the green corner of the dueling arena and a total of fifteen golden balls, a little larger than a fist flew out, floating around the room at random.
"The first dueling spell everyone learns is the knockback jinx. The incantation is flipendo. The wand movement is two flicks, down and up in a V shape, followed by a squiggle towards your target. The incantation should match the movements in three syllables - Fli-Pen-Do. Miss Farley, please work with Harry and Lyra while Brandt, Miss Tonks, and I will work with the others who know it."
It took Gemma nearly thirty minutes to get both Harry and Lyra to start casting it on their own. Their lessons were interrupted every ten seconds or so with a *Ding* from one of the others tagging one of the floating orbs. From there Gemma and the other adults walked around giving extra pointers to the children. The wand movement for this spell was particularly annoying, so Lyra just started casting it over and over, without worrying about aiming it anywhere.
Augustus came over and stopped her, then said loud enough for everyone to hear, "I know this wand movement is difficult, but part of every spell is your intent. If you want to get yourself to the level where you can point-cast this spell, you need to treat every cast like you are intending to do something purposeful with it." Looking to everyone else who had stopped to listen to him, "There are no shortcuts to becoming powerful, anyone who tells you differently is either a fool. If there were shortcuts, we would all be Albus Dumbledore."
Lyra fixed her stance and cast the yellow spell at one of the floating orbs, missing it by inches. It took her two more tries to hit it as it moved around the room, but the *ding* of hitting it encouraged her to keep going.
Harry and Tracey were in their element. Harry picked up the spell quickly, as its nature was similar to the bolts of magic he was used to with his wand. Tracy's spell seemed to travel faster than any of the other students, so the only thing she was trying to work on was her aim. Because of the squiggle of a wand movement at the end of the spell, it was a particularly difficult spell to cast accurately. Between the two of them, they were having minute-long contests to see who could tag the most orbs.
When it was nearly 11 a.m., Stevens stopped everyone and told them to take a break. They sat down and Harry passed out jerky to everyone. As they were eating, Stevens motioned to Tonks to join him on the platform. She stuffed her face with a piece of jerky and excitedly jumped on. The dueling champion threw a spell at the obelisk at the top of the steps and activated the dueling wards. Everyone else sat up straight to watch.
"Before we start, let me just say you did an admirable job defending against my attacks earlier. I didn't expect you to last more than a few seconds, especially since I started the fight." Tonks smiled widely, but he continued with a serious tone, "That being said, I figure I was fighting at about 30%. While I know you weren't going for the kill, your skill is lacking in quite some areas."
Tonks nodded, which seemed to surprise him, "Good, you can take criticism."
"I'll have Moody come and duel with you sometime. Every move he makes is humiliation or criticism. He comes to my home and pretends to be my family to surprise me, poisons my food regularly, booby traps my office, and on a good weekend, I have to heal only five broken bones at the end of the day. But every bruise and every layer of skin I need to regrow is a lesson to learn… so… teach me something."
Stevens was a bit shocked, but continued, "So the first thing you need to learn is that there are no wasted movements. If you have a second to spare, use it to cast a protective spell on yourself. I didn't have to worry at all about the fire you cast on my transfigurations in our duel, because I had already cast a flame-freezing charm on myself. I didn't have to worry about you kicking me like you did that suit of armor, because I had a kinetic reversal shield from my knees to my neck. You lost the duel because you blinded yourself with your own fire spell and didn't put up a shield to block incoming attacks."
"I'll give that a shot," she said with determination.
Stevens raised his wand and assumed a dueling posture, "Come at me with intent to maim. I'll be fighting to stun."
Tonks raised her wand and called out, "Chaos Sphere!" A glowing ball of rainbows jumped out of her wand towards the top of the arena. When it got there, it exploded into close to two dozen colored balls that seemed to bounce randomly around the platform. Stevens cast a standard shield around himself and started casting spells at Tonks who had used the few seconds after casting her spell to put a few protections on herself. None of the balls seemed to bounce towards her, but occasionally one would lunge straight for Stevens but they just fizzled out on his shield. The two duelists continued to cast spells at each other, occasionally hitting one of the balls while they dodged and parried each other's spells. After about half a minute one of the blue balls jumped towards Stevens and fell right through his shield, landed on his foot, and began to melt.
The melting ball had his boot stuck to the floor, and now Tonks started to unleash a flurry of other spells, faster than she had before, as if she broke his shield, he wouldn't be able to dodge. Stevens just smiled as he continued to rapidly cast spells back. He seemed to be looking at the remaining balls, and shouted out loud, "Protego Maximus Progresso!"
A second yellow sphere grew around him and as soon as it was complete, it expanded rapidly pushing all the balls toward the dueling wards. The ones on his side impacted and vanished quickly, but Tonks was able to see the advancing shield coming at her, and respond before it hit her. Gripping her wand with both hands and pointing it forward, she called out, "Lagaan!"
A conical dark green light appeared in front of her as the advancing shield impacted it. There was the sound of broken glass and what was left of his shield shattered. Tonks pointed her wand at him again and cast that spell another two times along with three slashes of red, coming in from different angles. Stevens responded by conjuring a large slab of granite under his shield, so when it broke, the spells impacted the stone wall and exploded, creating a huge wall of dust and debris.
Unable to see through the dust, Tonks just resorted to casting dozens of wide-area cutting curses mixed in with a few explosive curses, which kicked up even more debris and the crimson spells impacted the floor and wards on his side of the arena. She paused for a moment to cast a flame-freezing charm on herself but felt a wand poke into the side of her head.
Stevens faded into visibility next to her, his wand on her temple, "Yield," he said firmly.
Tonks did not, and immediately shrunk her size by about two feet to get under his wand. However, as she shrunk, the floor glowed orange under her feet and exploded, popping her up in the air, where Stevens tagged her with two stunning hexes and caught Tiny Tonks with a levitation charm. When she was on the ground, he woke her back up, then threw a spell through the wards and deactivated them.
All of the students applauded as he helped Tonks to her feet, and she began to regrow the two feet she had shrunk earlier, though Blaise was waving his hand in the air like he wanted to ask a question.
When he had the man's attention, he asked, "How did you just do that?"
"Well, before I put my wand to Miss Tonks's head, I placed a mine at her feet."
"Not that," Blase said quickly. "You shot a spell through the dueling wards."
"Ah, saw that, did you? I won't tell you exactly, but I will give you some hints. The first one is: Do you need a specific spell to activate the wards? The second hint is: What can penetrate a standard shield spell without breaking it? Work that out on your own and let me know the next time you see me. For now, come back down and stand across from each other in pairs. You're going to take turns hitting each other with the knockback jinx. You need to know what it feels like to be hit by it."
They hesitantly came down and paired off. Harry with Greg, Tracey with Lyra, and Blaise with Daphne. Greg went first and cast the spell at Harry. It hit him right in the chest and pushed him off his feet and straight into the wards, falling forward but catching himself before his face hit. Harry responded, but he just made Greg stumble backward without lifting him off the ground. He was able to stop himself from hitting the wards by putting a hand behind him. The others began taking turns firing the spell at each other, getting similar results to when Harry got hit. After a few rounds, Stevens stopped them.
"Now I want each of you to take turns casting the spell at Greg," Greg looked a bit scared of five people targeting him. "Tough it out, go as long as you can."
Tracey and Blaise came across the area and stood in a line with the others. Each time the spell hit Greg, it made him stumble until Tracey at the end of the line hit him with a particularly speedy jinx which did lift him off his feet and fall into the wards as it had done for everyone else.
"Good!" Stevens told the bulky boy as he helped him to his feet. "Keep training with Harry and you'll get even stronger in no time at all." Looking at all the young children, then at Tonks and Gemma still sitting in the stands, "You all have your assignments, and I will be sending an owl to Miss Farley on what to do with you in the next few weeks while I am unavailable to visit."
The group split up with the Slytherins heading back to their dorms, Greg went to tend to the greenhouse with Neville, and Stevens left the school with Tonks running after him to plague the man with questions about dueling. Brandt, Harry, and Lyra relaxed in the Scamander common room with some fresh juice. Over the last two weeks, they had observed one of the results of the blessing was that the fruit trees produced ripe fruit much faster than what should be possible. However, that also meant that they would fall from the trees and rot on the ground if not picked and used.
Dumbledore had asked Astray to add fruit picking to the urisk's duties. He was seen more regularly now as he would pick ripe fruit during the midday so that students could have their first pick of fruit in the mornings. Now they also had more fresh juice in the Great Hall at mealtimes as Astray delivered all the fruit to the kitchens for the elves to prepare and use in their meals.
As they were drinking, Minerva's feline Patronus appeared next to them, and said in her voice, "Steward Brandt, you have a visitor, please meet me by the gate to the school." The cat dispersed in tiny globes of light when it finished speaking.
"That would be Mr. Slant's apprentice, Mr. Potter," Brandt told them. "I will go fetch him." Brandt stood up and pulled a tiny broom from his coat, shaking it until it grew to full size.
After he had gone, Harry also ran off, realizing he was sweaty and in casual wear which would be inappropriate for meeting for business purposes. That left Lyra sitting by herself. Though after a minute, she looked up and to the side and just said, "No."
Whispers appeared next to her and gave her a dissatisfied grunt, saying, "Noo fun." He sat down in Brandt's spot and proceeded to drink the remainder of his pomegranate juice, then vanished and ran off to find someone else to play with. Lyra just pulled out Snape's book of cantrips and started to skim through it while she waited for everyone.
Harry managed to get back, nicely dressed about thirty seconds before Brandt re-entered the common room with a young man following him. He stopped dead at the entrance of the room and stared at the high ceilings and natural motif of the room. He was younger than Brandt by a few years and wore a jet-black coat that went down to his feet, and pointed leather shoes. His face had hardened features, a square jaw, and his head was shaved with just a bit of stubble poking through. It made him look like a muggle infantryman.
Brandt gave him a moment to admire the room before escorting him over to the table with Lyra and Harry, giving him a small nod of approval in his change of attire.
"Mr. Potter, I would like to introduce you to Mr. Chester Bulwark, Apprentice Solicitor in the Slant Firm." Turning back to the man, he introduced him to both Harry and Lyra. Mr. Bulwark shook Harry's hand and took less than the average person to glance at the scar on his forehead.
"Steward Brandt informs me that you are working on a partnership agreement that requires a contract," the young man told Harry.
Brandt looked to Harry to continue the conversation, he hesitantly responded, "I need someone to help me duplicate the magic I can do on my own. We know a girl who did it for something my sister can do, so I hoped she could help me too. I asked her for help last week, but she said that since I'm getting paid, she would need to get paid too and we'd need a contract."
"She's right," Chester said firmly. "Since you are already being paid for your work, I assume you have the details of that agreement that I can look over?"
Harry didn't have anything for that, so he frantically looked to Brandt who pulled a series of papers out of his coat. "In the future, Mr. Potter, when you have a solicitor of your own, they will be in charge of all of your business dealings and manage your paperwork." He passed the stack of papers to Mr. Bulwark.
"I'll need time to look this over, can we reconvene in a few hours?"
Harry was still a bit unsure about what to say, so Brandt filled in for him again, "We can get lunch now, and then I have a meeting room prepared. We will meet there at 1:30." Looking at Harry, "It's the second floor, east wing, next to the tapestry of a small city on a hillside."
Lyra ran off to get Whispers while Harry left for the great hall. The hall was already filled with people eating and a few people glanced at his formal attire before going back to eating. He scanned the room and found Penelope eating with some of her friends and walked over to join her at the Ravenclaw table. She was wearing her school robes, but Harry could tell that they had been cleaned and pressed while her hair was done in a more stylish braid for their meeting. She gestured for some of the other Eagles to move so he could sit across from her.
"You're all ready for the meeting, and brought a solicitor?" she asked, while some of her housemates shared curious and interested glances.
Harry nodded, "He's an apprentice at the Slant Firm." That statement garnered a series of sharp intakes of breath from the surrounding students. "We set up a meeting room at 1:30 in a room on the second floor, east wing by a tapestry of a hillside city."
"Ahh, the Cinque Terre tapestry," said a random student listening in on the conversation. Penny gave a glare and he backed off.
A couple of the students around them tried to make subtle inquiries about what their business was, but seeing as Penny didn't want to talk about the specifics in public, Harry also kept his mouth shut. After a few minutes of eating, Brandt walked in along with Mr. Bulwark and sat at a few empty spots at the professor's table. The apprentice solicitor was introduced around and passed out contact cards to all the professors at the table.
When he was done eating, Harry found Lyra over at the Gryffindor table. She informed him that she was going to go play in the snow with them after lunch. Harry smiled as he walked away, for her playing in the snow and for making friends with more people. He wanted to make more friends as well, but the mission from the Usurper came first for him. He wanted to finish mapping the first sub-floor by the end of the month in alignment with that task.
Harry arrived at the meeting room ten minutes early. It was just an unused classroom, with no special way of opening the door. Inside, he found a long table with six chairs set up around it, two on each of the long sides and one at each end. Mr. Bulwark was sitting in one of the end spots and Brandt sat to the side. Harry started to sit across from the Steward, but he got up from his spot and told Harry to sit there, while he took the other spot on the same side. The apprentice opened a briefcase and took out the contract Harry had with the Knitter Critter, along with several blank and half-filled pieces of parchment.
Harry started to say something, but Brandt interrupted, "We need to wait for Miss Clearwater to arrive before we begin anything."
At exactly 1:30 p.m, there was a knock on the door and Penny entered. Following closely and hesitantly behind her was Hermione, almost peeking out from behind the older girl. She was also wearing her school uniform, but with no cloak, and a black glove over her prosthetic hand. Penny and Hermione sat down in the spots opposite Harry and Brandt.
Penny spoke up, "I am Penelope Clearwater, this is my apprentice, Hermione Granger of the Velasco line."
"I am Chester Bulwark, apprentice to Amicus Slant of the Slant Firm," he shook hands only with Penelope, but it seemed to only be due to the distance between him and Hermione further down the table. "Steward Brandt has retained my services to act as a mediator and to draft a contract between you and Mr. Potter. I am not representing either of you and am only seeking to create a contract that you will both agree on. Is that acceptable?"
Both Harry and Penny nodded.
"Mr. Potter already is aware of the agreement he has with the Knitter Critter garment shop, so I will explain it to Miss Clearwater and her apprentice. He and his sister have shown an unusual talent for being able to produce magical effects directly through animal parts related to the magic of the animal. I have been informed that you helped Miss Black with a project to analyze her ability to use post-owl feathers to locate objects already and it is why Mr. Potter sought your help with this project, correct?"
Penny nodded again.
"Mr. Potter's agreement with the Knitter Critter is that he or his sister will find additional uses for various magical animal parts, and once he has been able to replicate the feats, they will be sold for exclusive reproduction back to the Knitter Critter. If the store does not wish to purchase the findings, they may be retained by Mr. Potter or sold to any other interested party at his discretion. It is my understanding that you already have one project ready to be started?"
Harry shook his head, "Two now." Brandt looked confused, but then remembered. Harry explained to the others, "I found that the skin of a magical snake, called a chaincoil, will constrict when I put my magic into it. Alastor Moody expressed interest in buying the final product when Madison, from the Knitter Critter, wasn't interested in something that would kill people who wear it."
Penny and Hermione looked a little pale at hearing that.
Chester also looked a little surprised, but continued, "Because Mr. Potter is only being paid for the final product being delivered, I am proposing a contract between him and Miss Clearwater that she is paid 40% of the purchase price. Any costs spent during each project will be split 50/50 between the two of you. This includes any additional animal parts, crafting materials, or anything else that is not currently owned and won't degrade as a result of its use during the project. Research material must be first sourced through available libraries before being purchased directly. Upon the final sale of the formulas, enchantments, runic arrays, or other methods to activate the materials without Mr. Potter or Miss Black present, Miss Clearwater and any she chooses to assist her will be bound by the same exclusivity contracts that Mr. Potter and Miss Black already are. Is that acceptable?"
Penny shook her head, "Everything except for the commission, it needs to be split evenly. While Mr. Potter's magic is instinctual and natural, all of the work for the project is coming directly from me."
"Tradition dictates, as the one to initiate the project, that he is entitled to a larger share. Would you be willing to do an even split with all materials needed for the project being deducted from your share?"
Hermione suddenly looked a bit uncomfortable but tried to put on a serious face to cover it.
"That would be acceptable. Also, while Mr. Potter's deal was originally with the Knitter Critter, I want to be involved in any sale of our work that is not purchased by the garment shop. I don't want my work being used as an assassination tool or something similar. If I decide to work on a potentially harmful project, I'm sure we can figure out another use than killing people."
Mr. Bulwark looked to Harry to see if he would agree. Harry wasn't sure, so he asked, "What happens if we can't agree on someone to sell the finished project to?"
"Then we keep it to ourselves," Penny said. "We have to agree not to distribute the formula or method to anyone else without both of us agreeing on who will own it."
Harry was a bit disappointed that he might not be able to sell something to Alastor without Penny's approval, but he preferred to work with her, and Hermione, than anyone else… mostly because he didn't know anyone else. He nodded in approval to Mr. Bulwark.
"Then we agree on the general principles," he took out one of the parchments that were partially filled out and added in various numbers and dates. "The final thing that you need to be aware of, Miss Clearwater, is the time frame. Mr. Potter is currently under a deadline to have his first project completed by the end of the school year. If the first project is not completed by then, the contract will be voided and any additional work will need a new arrangement, however, any work you have already completed will be kept confidential until a new contract is signed."
Penny pulled a day planner out of her pocket and asked Hermione to clear her schedule of other projects until the end of the year. Then turned back to Mr. Bulwark and asked, "Anything else?"
"If your apprentice is working on the project, she will need to sign the contract as well. Anyone else you bring in will also need to sign, in my presence before they are allowed to work, and will need Mr. Potter or Miss Black's agreement. All payments made to your assistants will come out of your share of the final payment."
From there, Mr. Bulwark wrote up the completed contract and duplicated it four times, passing one copy to Penny and one to Harry. Each of them took a quill and signed in the designated spot. As they signed, they noticed that their signatures appeared on the other copies as well. Brandt took Harry's copy and Penny passed hers to Hermione to sign and keep safe.
Brandt smiled at the conclusion of the contract signing, "Thank you very much Miss Clearwater, and you too, Miss Granger, for assisting with this project. To celebrate the signing, would the two of you be interested in joining Harry and Lyra tomorrow at the quidditch match between Hollyhead and Tutshill?"
Hermione started to say, "I don't really like…" but was quickly elbowed by Penny who said, "We would be honored to join you, Steward Black."
"We can just leave school like that?" Hermione asked.
"You will need permission from your parents and Professor Flitwick, but yes, you can. I will speak to your parents immediately after this and send you their approval if they give it." Looking at Penny, "If you would provide me with your parents' floo address, I can contact them on your behalf."
"Could my parents come?" Hermione asked, with a pleading look.
Brandt looked at Chester, and asked, "Can I bring muggles to a quidditch match?"
He seemed to think for a moment, then opened his briefcase and pulled out a thick tome that could only fit there if the case was magically expanded. He flipped through the book until he got to where he wanted to be and then scanned down to the middle of the page, tapping on it when he found what he was looking for.
"You will need to fill out a Secrecy Exemption Form, E45 - Sporting Event, and will have to get the muggles to agree to you as a temporary magical guardian for the time. They will need to be issued a Muggle Repellent Counter Charm Necklace that includes a tracking charm and which will be locked to you removing it as their guardian for the day. Any infractions they make on the statute of secrecy, at any future date, relating to their exposure at this event will hold you responsible."
Brandt looked back to Hermione, "Do you think your parents will be able to avoid talking about the game to anyone who isn't magical?" Hermione nodded enthusiastically. "Excellent, then I think we're done here." Penny scribbled her parents' floo address on a piece of paper and tore it off for Brandt.
The group dispersed, but Hermione hung back with Harry, "I can't wait for my parents to see more magic!" Hermione gushed. "They were amazed by the prosthetic shop, and while I don't like quidditch, I bet they would love to see it."
"I don't like quidditch much either, but everyone seems to want me to play," Harry told her.
"Why don't you like it?" Hermione asked. "I'm afraid of heights."
"It's too dangerous," Harry told her. "I don't like hurting people when I don't have to."
"Penny and I just finished a project with the Weasley Twins to make new helmets, they keep people from injuring their heads."
"That was you?" Harry asked, and Hermione nodded. "I think Cedric asked those to be made just so I'd play along with Lyra."
"He must really want you to play," Hermione mused.
"As I said, it seems like everyone does," Harry frowned. "The first time I saw quidditch, a bludger broke Arthur Bell's arm."
Hermione touched her prosthetic, and said quietly, "At least a break could be fixed, I bet it took less than an hour." Then she looked back at Harry, "Well if you think it's too dangerous, why not just make it safer?"
"How?" Harry asked skeptically.
"We made better helmets," Hermione explained, "I bet we could do a lot more with better equipment. None of the equipment has changed for 900 years. The only reason why keepers even started to wear helmets is that they get targeted so often and they don't move around as much as anyone else. They still just use compressed wooden bats for the beaters rather than any kind of composite or treated wood."
Harry stared at her, "For someone that doesn't like quidditch, you know a whole lot about it."
Hermione blushed, "I just did a lot of research during the helmet project."
They had been walking for quite a while now and found they were back on the ground floor near the Scamander common room.
Hermione looked around, realizing where they were, and asked, "What are you doing the rest of the day?"
"I'm mapping the first subfloor. I'm trying to find all the hidden rooms of the castle," he explained.
"Can I join? The twins have shown me a few on the other floors, and I've read about others in Hogwarts, A History."
"Sure!" Harry was happy to have assistance, then added, "There are some that are written down? I don't have that book."
"It was the first book I bought! It is in its 328th edition. Whenever new things are discovered at the school they need to print a whole new book!"
They started to walk towards the stairs as they continued to chat about the various things Hermione had found or heard about in the castle. When they got down one floor, Harry showed her the storage room with the gargoyles but noted that some boxes had been moved or were no longer there. Hermione also had no luck opening the barred stairway access at the back of the room.
Outside of that, Hermione was incredibly helpful on the rest of the floor. She had already mastered the Revelio spell, which uncovered hidden objects, messages, and concealments. When she first showed it to him, he let out a big sigh as he realized that he needed to learn the spell and then retrace his steps from the beginning all over again. The castle really didn't like to have its secrets found out.
They did end up finding five hidden rooms, two were empty and without windows, so they were probably just storage, one of them took almost ten minutes to get out of after they locked themselves in. Hermione ended up finding a tiny rune cluster under a fake stone which she manipulated in some way Harry couldn't figure out until the door opened. The last two rooms were offices of some kind and had false windows that showed bright sunny days outside that were not the snowy landscape of a Hogwarts winter.
As they started heading back towards the main staircase, Harry felt a tickle in the back of his mind and the hair on his arms started to rise. There was someone following them, he knew this feeling from when a rogue snake tried to attack him, back on the island.
Quietly he told Hermione, "Someone is following us, can you cast the revelio spell behind us?"
She looked a bit scared, but pointed her wand through her armpit and whispered, "Revelio."
Harry watched the pulse out of the corner of his eye go down the corridor behind him, but nothing lit up under the charm. They were almost to the staircase when they both heard a small noise behind them.
Harry didn't waste any time and drew his wand to fire two bolts of magic and a larger pulse down the corridor which knocked over a suit of armor. Way down the hallway at an intersection, they saw someone jump out of a hiding spot and run away.
"Get to the stairway!" He ordered Hermione and took off after the person who ran away.
Harry reached the intersection where the person had fled and turned the corner, wand pointing down the hall, and let off another large pulse of magic. This one didn't hit anything as it dissipated at the end of the hall. Seeing no one appear, he ran back down the hall and met Hermione at the stairs.
"I didn't catch them," he reported.
Hermione had her wand out and was looking around fearfully, "No one came by here either."
"We're going straight back to your dorm, you can come to dinner with your housemates later," he told her as if it were not a suggestion.
She nodded in agreement and followed him, both with their wands drawn, up to the ground floor and to the main staircase. However, instead of going to the stairs, Harry took her to the painting of Sir Daucourt.
Remembering Lee's greeting, Harry gave the portrait a large bow and said, "Sir Daucourt, we seek passage on a quest of great importance!"
The man in the blue uniform looked down on them and asked, "And what quest would you be on of such importance that you would need to travel so quickly through the castle?"
Hermione was looking confused at the interaction, but Harry continued, "Someone was following us, and I need safe passage to escort Hermione back to her dorm."
Sir Daucourt nodded his head and replied, "A noble cause indeed." He bowed to the two of them, and his portrait swung open, like a door.
Harry jumped in, followed by Hermione who asked, "What is this?"
As the door closed, Harry lit his wand and responded, "Lee Jordan showed me this room. It's like an elevator to get around the castle, but the portrait only opens if you're being truthful and are engaged in chivalrous pursuits." Hermione blushed as Harry led her over to the two dangling ropes. "Ravenclaw is on the fifth floor, right? You'll need to slip your hand through the loop and pull five times, like this."
Harry slipped his hand through and pulled five times, letting out a small yelp as the rope pulled him upwards. When the lift slowed down, he saw a handhold on the landing and reached out to grab it. He waited for another ten seconds with his wand lit and leaning over the side until he heard a terrified scream from below and shortly after Hemione flew up into view. Just as Lee had done for him, he held onto the handle on the wall and reached out for her to grab on. He ignored the pain in his hand as Hermione's prosthetic squeezed it too tight as he pulled her onto the platform.
Harry pushed open the door and led her out, gesturing with his hand that wasn't hurting, "Welcome to the fifth floor, other than that, I have no idea where we are."
Hermione looked around to get her bearings and said, "I don't want to do that again, the entrance is this way."
She guided him to the door knocker, and the eagle asked, "A word I know, six letters it contains, removes one letter, and twelve remains. What am I?"
Harry had no idea, but after just a couple of seconds, Hermione responded, "Dozens."
Harry thought the eagle actually smiled before the entrance opened.
Before she entered, Hermione turned around and gave Harry a big hug, then disappeared into the Ravenclaw common room.
Author's Note: Don't look into any interaction Harry and Lyra have with any named characters as potential ships. I have only one planned ship for Harry and it will be with an OC (Not Lyra), but it almost certainly won't be permanent and it won't be for another 2 years in story-time. Be patient, not even I don't know where the story will go in terms of romance… Well, no, that's not true. I do have one permanent ship planned.