Chapter 4
Halloween
08:47 pm 31st October, Girls Bathroom 2nd floor, Hogwarts.
Minerva Isobell Mcgonagall will probably never going to forget the scene that was transpiring in front of her eyes, probably neither would anyone else who was with her, not her half goblin friend nor her former student turned colleague, there were four children and one dead troll with its head burned, quite possibly from inside out if her knowledge of pyrokinesis was anything to go about, inside a now destroyed bathroom, four eleven year olds who were from her house, and probably one of the biggest trolls she had ever seen, with the exceptions of some chief trolls she had seen during the war, 3 of them were huddled not far away from what was the head of the aforementioned troll, and the enigmatic boy who was standing near the troll's legs as expressionless as ever.
First she looked at the three who were looking as shocked as she was feeling, she could see ms Granger had a few scratches and she probably had been crying, but aside from that she looked fine, nothing a few spells here and a few potions there couldn't fix, then she looked at the youngest Weasley boy and the Longbottom heir both looked fine, shocked ofcourse, but not injured in any way not even the few scratches ms Granger had.
They would need a few calming potions and a few dreamless sleep potions but they'll be hopefully fine. she looked in their eyes and she could feel their terror, confusion, and the adrenaline rush in them she empathized with them having experienced it, the first close brush with death, how it uproots our illusion of our safety, makes us realize our mortality, and makes us more determined to survive.
Then she Looked at the green eyed enigma, he looked the same way he looked like in her class absolutely expressionless, he didn't look affected by the chaos surrounding him even though he seemed to have caused a good part of it, he wasn't injured just like the other two boys in the bathroom, but when she looked in his eyes, what she observed terrified her more than she previously had been when she saw the dead troll, he looked like it was absolutely normal to come so close to dying and escape due what was probably a lot of dumb luck because she couldn't imagine any other way 4 children, no matter how prodigious, could take on a fully grown troll, then the sight of the dead troll brought her back to the reality and made her wonder just one thing having abandoned all other thoughts, 'just what is this boy?'.
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a few hours ago….
01:55 pm 31st October, First Year Gryffindor and Slytherin Charms Class
"...it's leviOsa not leviosA, honestly you'll poke someone's eye out" ranted Hermione to Ron, he in turn grumbled something that she couldn't make out. Neville was ruefully shaking his head exparsated at how, ….strict, his friend was. Harry on the other hand was busy reading an old tome, its title had faded out, he had simply come in the class at the last moment, again, taking his seat at the back of the class and like his peers he paid attention to the professor's lecture, then when they began the practical part of the lesson he simply removed the tome and began reading it as per his arrangement with professor Flitwick, and Mcgonagall after his demonstration in the first class.
As the class came to an end,signified by the ringing of the bell he quickly packed his things and left the class quickly as usual. As soon as he was alone he cast a disillusionment charm on himself to maneuver within the castle unseen and unstopped by anyone, at a far more sedate pace compared to others,he did over hear Weasley ranting about Granger and then Longbottom getting angry at him for it.
He also did saw Granger rushing past him, on the 2nd floor stairs, though she didn't see him, of course that had less to do with her current hysterical state and more with his charm which was quite different compared to an average person's cast, the disillusionment charm of the average witches and wizards was more like a chameleon changing color to fit into the background though this left a lot to be desired when moving around as it wasn't all that discreet due to the visible ripples it made. Another reason was that unlike them he understood how the charm worked, a scientific approach to be accurate, he was mindful of the fact that it simply dispersed the light around them in such a fashion that they were rendered invisible.
If you asked an average wizard how disillusionment worked, they would reply by showing the wand moments, and proper spell pronunciation, when you asked them for a deeper explanation all they'd be able to reply is "because your magic willed it so", while this wasn't a wrong answer, it was incomplete, so when they cast the spell their magic was picking up the slack of their understand of the mechanism of reality so to speak, and that created a strain on it causing every spell to be at least 3 times as costly in terms of magical expenditure.
For instance an easier analogy to understand would be that under a neutral environment if a person who didn't understand how heat and fire worked whom we shall call subject 'A' used the incendio charm they would use around 6 MP (Magical Power) but someone who did understood this; also known as subject 'B'; would only be using 2 MP, similarly when placed in a cold environment subject 'A' would be using 12 MP for using the same charm to the same degree of efficiency because they'd have to combat against the nature, while subject 'B' would only have to use 4 MP because even though they'd be in the same circumstances as their fellow wizard they'd be armed with the knowledge that others do not, though of course subject 'B' methods also came with downside like requirements for heavy concentration and attention which was mentally taxing and not possible for everyone hence why it had fallen out of favor, people had traded higher magical consumption in exchange for less stress on their mental faculties.
Working on this explanation Harry entered into his room on the 7th floor, where he would study everyday after classes, he never wasted time doing anything else for he had a goal to achieve and everything else were just things he didn't bother with, so he read and practiced magic as much as he could when he wasn't in class listening to the professor's lectures for he believed that their different point of view could help him learn something he'd have otherwise missed, it was all so simple, all for their sake, soon he would be able to do it.
08:35 pm 31st October, 4th floor stairs, Hogwarts.
Harry was descending the stairs at a fast pace, almost similar to how he left the classes, without any disillusionment cloaking him, this was not something he did, ever, since the day he came to hogwarts he left the sanctuary of his room only when he needed to for attending his classes after which he would simply shut himself back in it, after all he had no need to spend time in the outer world, he had no needs, no desires, only one objective and he'd fulfill it.
So why was he doing this again? Simply because he had been asked to. By whom? Hogwarts. Since the day he'd been there whenever he needed something Hogwarts would help him wherever it could, by tugging his magic in the right direction, on his first night in the school he needed a place to practice magic in absolute seclusion, he felt a tug on his person and he simply followed it, soon enough he found the room which became his sanctuary, then again when he needed any tomes on transfiguration he received another tug on his being which led him to a particular section of the library, and he found his needs met, by now even though he had only experienced this phenomenon twice he'd understood,what it was, it was hogwarts, helping him, why? He didn't know. How? He didn't know. But somehow he knew it was Hogwarts. And now Hogwarts was asking something of him, it needed something to be done, was this the price of all the help he had received thus far? He was willing to pay as long as he could achieve his objective no price was too big.
And this was how he found himself standing inside the 2nd floor girls bathroom, with Granger sprawled on the floor with Weasley and Longbottom standing besides her all 3 of them screaming, and a huge troll which was inching towards them slowly but steadily, he also observed the remains of what looked like a wooden club, mentally reviewing what he knew about trolls he came up with a plan in 2 seconds, he ran up to it and jumped on it's back which might have caused his fellow students to increase the volumes of their screams, then he proceeded to poke his wand within the troll's nose and then just as he planned he used a powerful incendio charm to burn the troll from inside. As soon as he was sure that the troll was dead and had started to fall towards the ground he jumped from the troll's back on to the ground and as soon as he had done standing up right professors Mcgonagall and Snape barged into the bathroom stall, followed by professor Flitwick.
He saw them assessing the situation for what it was, he saw how his classmates were still shocked he rightly assumed that it was their first brush with death, moving on he met Professor Mcgonagall' scrutinizing eyes with the same calm he displayed in her classes, because really there was no reason to panic, the threat had been neutralized, but when he did look in her eyes he saw something, what he didn't know, if someone asked him he wouldn't be able to put it into words, though whatever it was didn't bother him, if it couldn't help him achieve his objective then it was not of use to him.
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"is everything alri…." The voice of Pomona brought Minerva out of her thoughts, she turned to see the shocked expression of her longtime friend, she could understand what she was feeling, the utter… confusion this scene in front of them brought them was quite an experience. Taking charge she called out "miss Granger, misters Longbottom and Weasley are you alright?" of course she knew they weren't but it was important to know just how coherent they were, soon she received a nod from Longbottom followed by Weasley and Granger, "very well can you all follow me?" upon receiving nods once again she signalled for them to stand up and come near her. Once again she turned towards the raven haired enigma to find him as expressionless as ever, she called out to him "mr Potter the same goes for you" She received the expected nod from him, and she turned and started marching towards the infirmary, but not before turning towards the last of the entrants in the room and requesting her, "Pomona can i depend on you to inform the headmaster of this situation?" This seemed to bring her out of her stupor as she nodded not unlike the three who were earlier frozen at the head of the troll.
As soon as they had departed the bathroom an ethereal looking cat was shot out of Mcgonagall's wand which bounded ahead of them, the rest of the walk to the infirmary was short, silent,and uneventful. They encountered madam Pomphrey as soon as they entered, she got them to lie down on the first available beds and started running diagnostic charms on them starting with ms Granger, then soon when she had all the available information she started murmuring spells to fix her scrapes and scratches while fetching the required potions for all of them one Dreamless sleep and one Calming draught per head for ms Granger and misters Longbottom and Weasley. And even though she wasn't able to detect anything wrong with mr potter she instructed all four of them to stay for the night, to which they nodded, with her patients dealt with for now, she went to talk with the head of the lions to talk about her charges in the privacy of her office.
"Minerva your prognosis was correct as expected, all three of them were in shock and ms granger had only a few scratches, I've given them some potions and would like to keep all four of them here for now." Began Poppy, "all four?" questioned Minerva, "yes, even though mr Potter is not injured or in shock like the other 3 i would like to keep him under observation just in case he suffers from some sort of late post traumatic shock" Minerva's lips thinned, as much as she wanted to get to the bottom of the situation, not to mention this weird feeling she had about the raven haired boy's reactions, she couldn't deny what her colleague was saying, the risk with shocks was huge and not something she could ignore so she did the only thing she could, she sighed, deeply.
"You know it could have been much worse, and you don't need me to elaborate on the how" Began Poppy once again, "I know, merlin knows i know, but this whole situation is so… messed up" She sighed once again, "i had warned Albus against placing that damned stone in the castle, not to mention these protections, first that Cerberus and now this merlin be damned troll" Continued Minerva. "It's only a miracle that we have patients and not corpses, i hope we really don't regret keeping the stone here." And all Poppy was able to do was remain silent as she was in agreement.
"And the Potter boy, he also worries me for some reason" Began Minerva once again.
"what do you mean Minnie?" asked a confused Poppy.
"I mean the way he acts and the look i saw in his eyes he was totally unfazed by what happened today, as if nearly dying is not something to be concerned about, though i don't argue with you over how you treat your patients i don't think that mr Potter would need any treatment for possible shocks for there is none"she replied.
"Hmm…" was the only answer of the now contemplative mediwitch.
Both the colleagues spent some time in silence pondering on today's events and their own thoughts on them before bidding each other a good night.
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01:58 pm 2nd of November, 1st year Slytherin and Gryffindor Transfiguration class.
"I expect everyone will be handing in their assignments next week without failure", rang Mcgonagall's voice throughout the class clearly, and as soon as she spotted Potter packing his bag to leave as usual, she called out, "Potter a moment please." The boy in question simply looked up met her eyes and nodded once, then after everyone had left she spoke to him, "i would prefer if we took this to my office." To which he didn't respond but once she started to walk towards her office he simply followed, once inside, she shut the doors behind them and asked him to sit down, she noticed that unlike other students who whenever first entered her office were usually curious about it's layout he was entirely disinterested. She had received most of the story on what had happened from the other 3 so she wasn't going to ask for a recap.
She began "Are you doing fine mr Potter?", to which she received a nod as usual, "mr Potter can you speak?" she blurted out and before she could elaborate her reasons for asking such a question she received another nod, to which she continued, "so do you prefer not to?", another nod, "why?" he didn't react, nor did he nod nor did he shake his head. She expected him to remove a quill and parchment and begin writing down his reasons like he always did to communicate beyond nods and shakes of his head but he didn't. She frowned at this but there wasn't much she could do about this odd behavior of his, all magically strong people had their eccentricities, maybe this was his, so she changed her line of questioning, "mr Potter i hope you do realize that what you did that day on Halloween was really dangerous." another nod, "will you please explain to me why you did that?" silence, she sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose, "very well mr Potter can you at least promise me not to do anything like that or at least try to find an alternative?" At this she received a nod but having dealt with many mischievous students and his father along with his merry band of friends and now the Weasley twins she got the feeling it was more of a nod towards the latter half of her question than the former.
She sighed, deeply.
Then she once again changed her line of questioning, "I've never seen you in the great hall or interacting with your peers, i understand that you may not want to for whatever reason, as it's obvious that you have a really different mindset compared to theirs, but you need to interact with others, you can't live in isolation" to which first she received silence and then when she thought he wasn't going to reply his head cocked to the right side as if asking "why?", she wondered if he had added a new non verbal cue to avoid talking, but something was wrong, others would have missed it but she had spent years with albus and severus both of whom were master occlumens,his body had gone slightly stiff as if expecting a negative reaction. She carefully replied, choosing her words "Because mr Potter…." taking a deep breath she began again "Harry, may i call you that?" When he nodded she continued "Harry it is not healthy to stay so isolated, especially for one so young like yourself" She still saw the same expressionless mask on his face, but there was something in his eyes, a hint of confusion and incomprehension, she didn't know what to make out of that, so she tried to change her tactics, "i knew your parents and they were people who were quite social, and i know you're not them but you should try to at least make a few friends." something in his expression changed and she couldn't put her finger on it but it gave her the feeling that she should change the topic immediately, and if at all abort this conversation, "very well mr Potter, thank you for coming here, and once again be careful."
He took the dismissal for what it was and left after nodding once.
She sighed and vowed to visit his family once whenever she has time to ask a few things.
A/n : once again sorry for a late and short update, thank you for your patience and happy valentines day to all.
