A/N I got a lot of positive support for the last chapter, and I would like to say thank you.
A I have also gotten several people say that "Calypso" isn't a very common British name. And this is absolutely true, but I really like Harry Potter and the Boy-Who-Lived by TheSanti so I went with Calypso.
The next few weeks fell into a routine for Harry. He would get up in the morning, take a shower, and head down to breakfast. There, he would maybe talk to his sister, chat with Tracey, or try to find ways to annoy Daphne. Then he would head to class.
History of Magic was pointless and boring. Two weeks into class, he tried not turning in an essay and Professor Binns didn't say anything, and he didn't grade any of the essays anyways. How could he? And instead of listening to his boring lectures, Harry would just read from the textbook. It was more entertaining and he learned the exact same amount.
Astronomy was interesting, but Harry really only cared about it because it lead to some advanced magic in later years of learning. For example, rituals. While rituals were illegal to practice without Ministry permission, there was a list of approved rituals that could be performed if a Ministry official was on-site the entire time. However, the Department of Regulation and Control of Rituals was really only used by athletes. Virtually everyone else either wanted to do illegal rituals or stayed away from them. Anyways, basic Astronomy had little to no practical application so Harry did the class, but didn't put in much effort to go above the rest. Instead, he focused on more important subjects.
He was pretty good in Herbology, in the top quarter of the class. He found that being stung, stabbed or grabbed by plants wasn't very fun so did his best in the class to avoid injury. First year didn't get into anything very dangerous, but virtually everybody ended up going to the Hospital Wing at some point for a minor injury or two. Harry noticed that this was the one class that Neville did very well in, so whenever he did his Herbology homework he tried to include Neville. At some point Tracey started joining Harry's Gryffindor friends for Herbology homework, and when Daphne saw her grades up she joined as well. Daphne wasn't a people person, but she was put in Slytherin for her ambition. So, if it helped her grades she could act civilly. This study group had two benefits. One, it helped everybody's Herbology grade improve. Two, it gave Neville a confidence boost.
Potions never really changed. Snape just put instructions on the whiteboard and told everybody to get started. Then he walked around taking as many points away from Gryffindor as possible (A/N If you think this seems like Snape bashing, this is literally exactly how Snape taught). Harry was pretty good at following instructions, so he didn't have in problems in that class.
Transfiguration was a breeze. Harry was easily able stay several months ahead of the class and earned consistent praise from McGonagall. Draco was envious that Harry got so much attention from her, but most of the Slytherins didn't care because Harry brought in plenty of points for the House Cup.
Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts were the only two classes he had any real trouble in. It wasn't like he didn't have any trouble casting the spells, none of the first-year spells would exceed his wands limit. His grades in those two classes were just fine. It was just that compared to the rest of the class, he was just average. Able to overperform in some catagories, and underperform in others. In the end, he was an average student in both subjects. And average in important subjects like Charms and DADA was not what Harry was going for.
He spent countless (actually he did count it was thirty-four) hours trying to reach the center of his magical "core." And while traveling down the flows of magical energy got easier and easier, he could never quite make it to the end. Until he finally did.
October 14th
Harry was once again in the library concentrating. He could feel the edge of the "space" where his magic energy was most concentrated, but could never go any further. But practice makes perfect, and while Harry wasn't perfect yet he was improving. His consciousness went just a little further this time.
It settled into a place where Harry could see how he fit in the fabric of magic. It was if suddenly a switch was flipped and he could see the magic all throughout his body. It gathered in the center. There were strings coming off of it that Harry assumed went to other living things or powerful magical artifacts. He couldn't tell as he lost track of the magical flows as soon as they left his body. One more string flowed into Harry's wand. He could detect minuscule differences in that string compared to the rest. Harry assumed it was because it was an actual spell.
Harry opened his eyes and lost track of the map of magical flow, before pumping his fists in the air a little bit. He had done it. He could see all of his personal energy and how it flowed throughout him. Now he just needed to be able to see the magical energy outside of his body and learn to channel that. He opened his wand book, still to Chapter 3.
Once you can see your own magical energy, you have to learn to see beyond yourself. Magical energy that isn't attached to a living thing or magical item is much less concentrated, more spread out, and therefore is harder to see and feel.
My friend taught me that to control this energy you can't try to "see" it, you must feel it with your mind. He said that magical energy is different from person to person and spell to spell. Learning the differences gave him the ability to do many miracles with magic.
Unfortunately, I was never very good at this form of magic, so this dear reader is all the advice I can write down here. However, I can direct you to The Book of Magical Forms by Andrei Marcu. His wisdom may be able to guide you further than I can.
Harry closed his book, and went to find Madam Pince. When he did, he tried to ask approach her in a way that wouldn't get him yelled at. "Excuse me ma'am, but do you know where The Book of Magical Forms is? By Andrei Marcu?"
"You do realize that the instructions within that book aren't learned without extreme levels of practice and dedication?" Madam Pince was a little surprised by the request. While The Book of Magical Forms was well known within scholarly circles, it wasn't something the average schoolboy asked about.
"What do think I've been spending so much time in the library with my eyes closed for?" Harry challenged.
Irma Pince slowly nodded her head. She had come across Harry sitting with his eyes closed and sometimes a lumos cast several times and wondered what he was doing. This was interesting. "Very well. I see no reason to deny you the book. Whether you can use it or not will be a different story." With no other words she set off into the library. She lead Harry into an area of the library he hadn't had much reason to go into before. It was on advanced dueling styles and wandless magic. She grabbed a book of the shelf and handed it to Harry. "You tear a single page on this book and you will rue the day you ever asked me for it. Do you understand?"
Harry gulped a little, nodded, and left as soon as he could after that. He was planning on starting the book right away, but looking at the clock showed him it was 5:15 and there were only a few minutes until dinner at 5:30. Besides, while Harry loved to learn he had to relax a bit as well. He returned to his dorm quickly to put his books and school materials away (still in a locked trunk) and started to head to dinner. But along the way he bumped into his sister and Ron, accompanied by the Weasley set of twins.
"We need your help Harry," Calypso said.
"Pranking."
"Is."
"Ahead," the two Weasley twins said. Harry had no idea who was who.
Immediately, Harry was all business. Pranking was serious stuff. "Who's the target? Slytherin?"
"Draco Malfoy," Calypso answered.
"The little git has been driving us crazy," Ron said with a frown.
"And you've said that you and Draco Malfoy don't like each other," Calypso said. "We thought you would want in."
Harry was down for that. He agreed with Ron, Malfoy was a git. "What do you need?"
The twins took over. "We have."
"Been inventing."
"Something that might."
"Just work."
"What is it?" Harry asked. The twins didn't do well in school. But that by no means meant they were stupid. They just put all their efforts into things besides school. If they invented something, it was sure to be good.
Fred (or was it George?) held up two wands that on closer inspection turned out to be nearly identical. "We found a way to replicate a wand."
"Everything except the magic inside of it," the other twin added. To prove their point, the twin holding the wands cast a lumos but only one wand lit up.
"And you want me to steal Malfoy's wand so you can replicate it? That would be tricky. How long would you need the wand for?"
Ron stepped in at this point. "Percy got a camera during the summer for some reason. They can get it to you tonight and you just need to take a few pictures of the wand."
"We can."
"Take it."
"From there," the twins pledged.
"Then when they finish the fake wand, you swap it with his real one and place it somewhere else around his bed. That way nobody could say it was stolen even if it was traced back to us."
Harry had to admit it was a good plan, and if it worked. And there wasn't anything super complicated He would just have to stay up past Malfoy a few nights. No biggie. "All right. Get me the camera after dinner, and I'll get you the pictures.
That night at around 11:00 Harry got out of bed quietly and moved towards the foot of Malfoy's.
Harry always slept with his wand because he was a little paranoid about his House, and for good reason. But nobody ever challenged Malfoy, so he kept his in his unlocked trunk. Harry quickly opened his trunk and snapped two fast photos before quickly rushing back and diving into his bed. A minute later it sounded like Blaise might have gotten up to see what the flash was, but by then Harry was safely behind his curtains like always and Blaise just went back to bed. Probably thought it was a dream that woke him up. Harry thanked Merlin that the rest of his dorm were very heavy sleepers.
The next morning Harry handed the twins the camera at breakfast. They thanked him and said that it would take a few weeks to make the fake wand.
That day was Friday, so after brewing a Sleeping Draught with Calypso, Harry had a free afternoon. Actually, he had an essay for Charms but it wasn't due until Tuesday so it could wait. Harry headed to the library and started reading The Book of Magical Forms
Introduction
My name is Andrei Marcu. Maybe you know me, maybe my name has been lost to time. For those that don't, I co-founded Durmstrang Institute. In my many years of learning and studying magic, I have mastered many forms of it. I have written several books before. But now, in my waning years I document my greatest achievement.
Many have asked how I duel so easily. How I can tell what my opponent will do seconds before he does it. Many have wondered how I can detect things no others can. And many have puzzled over the reason no ward can stop me forever. The answer is I have mastered the art of feeling magic.
Yes, many can feel the flow of magic both within themselves and others. But few have the dedication to learn how to command external magic at will. Fewer still practice to detect the minuscule differences in its flow that tell me if it is a person under an invisibility cloak or a concealment charm covering a lost treasure in front of me. And none have learned to feel the magic within others and see their magic building up for a spell before they cast it. It is for that reason that I remain the sole bearer of this knowledge.
To travel down the path I have, you must have the dedication to last decades. It was over twenty years that I practiced every day to get to where I could call myself one of the greatest wizards in the world. And fifty before I reached my peak. This is not an art for the fickle.
But if you think that you can follow in my footsteps then keep reading. Find how long it takes you to quit.
Harry was excited. This seemed like very difficult and powerful magic to learn, but not very advanced to start. He just needed to know where to start. The first few pages taught the first step; going within yourself. Harry had already spent the past few weeks learning this so after skimming through that part he moved on to the next. The next bit was on how to gain better control of your personal magical energy. That would be useful, but it wasn't what Harry personally needed right now. Instead, he flipped to the part about sensing magical energy outside of himself.
The magic within yourself is easy to see. It is like a pulsing mass with thick ropes coming off of it going to every corner of your body. The only tricky part is following it. Magic outside of yourself is much harder. There is no central mass to locate. And instead of thick ropes that are easy to grab onto, imagine thousands of silvery strings. Not only is it harder to travel along, it is harder to see.
To start, I found where one of my ropes left my body and concentrated on where I knew it transitioned. Try to expand your consciousness beyond a single string. Try to locate a whole bundle of them.
It continued, but Harry figured it was best to take this step-by-step. He took a deep breath, cleared his mind, and was once again able to get to the center of himself. It was easier this time.
From here, things were much easier. He could quickly travel to where his magic was flowing out of his body, probably to connect to another student. From there, it seemed to just disappear, but on closer inspection he could feel a tiny wisp of energy extending past himself. He tried to sense more, but as soon as he felt another one, his grip on the first faded. After what turned out to be nearly an hour, Harry finally had two tiny strands under his control at the same time. He was about to stop, but decided to try something first. He tried to bring the strands into his wand, but when they kind of merged with his own magic they broke and re-formed a second later, this time without his grip on them. Harry opened his eyes.
It was always kind of weird to go from looking at magic to looking at the corporeal world. When looking at the flow of magic, he could see roughly where his body mass was, but couldn't actually see himself. But when he opened his eyes, it was like the outline his magic made suddenly filled into a person, and the rest of the world existed again as well.
Harry looked at the clock. He had spent a lot of time for very little progress, but it was something.
October 29th
A few weeks later Fred and George finished the fake wand and passed it on to Harry. Now it was up to him to finish the prank.
Harry was really hoping he could pull it off. To purebloods, the only thing that really mattered in the world was magical power. It was why the Wizarding World (at least in Britain) was so lacking in culture. Sure, there was some music. But there were no plays, no museums, no famous paintings. People painted, but the majority of wizards didn't really care. So if Malfoy thought for a few hours that he lost his magic somehow he. Would. Freak. It would be amazing.
That night, Harry once again snuck out of bed after. It was easy because everyone had just gotten back from Astronomy and crashed pretty quickly. Harry only needed to stay up a few extra minutes. He went over to Malfoy's trunk and opened it where once again his wand was on the very top. Without messing everything up because that would be suspicious, Harry put Malfoy's real wand as far towards the bottom of the trunk as he could. Then he put the fake wand almost exactly where the real one was and closed the trunk. Then he went back to bed to eagerly await class the next day.
That morning at breakfast Harry informed everyone who knew of the prank that it was a success. He had seen Draco grab the fake wand with no clue that it wasn't his real one. After a few high-fives he headed to Double Charms.
They had gone over the theory of Mending Charms earlier that week and class for that day was practical. Everyone was given a ripped piece of parchment, a broken branch, a broken telescope lens, and a small shattered pot and told to mend as many as they could during that class period. Mending Charms were something Harry had practiced quite a bit and were therefore one of his best charms. He was able to fix the parchment, mend the broken branch, repair telescope lens, and got about half of the shattered pot together before class ended. But the real enjoyment came out of watching Draco.
Everyone managed to at least fix the parchment that period. Everyone except Draco. As class went longer and longer he got more and more visibly frustrated. Harry and Calypso were disguising their laughs as coughs. More people, mainly the Gryffindors, started having to hold in laughs at seeing Draco Malfoy fail so hard. At one point Flitwick came over to try to help, but of course it didn't do anything.
At one point Tracey leaned over and whispered to Harry. "Do you happen to have anything to do with Draco's current struggles?"
Harry just grinned back. "I have no idea what you are thinking. I would never."
Tracey was not fooled in the slightest. Neither was Daphne, who was listening in. "Well however you did it, good job."
"Actually the Weasley twins did all the magic."
Tracey wasn't very surprised by this. The twins were pretty infamous at Hogwarts, but it was for cleverness at pranking, not stupidity. "I assume there is a way to fix his wand?"
"That's the point," Harry whispered. "It isn't his actual wand."
Tracey and Daphne were surprised by that. "You stole his wand?"
"Nope. Still in his trunk."
Tracey was just confused at this point but didn't press the matter. Instead she went back to practicing her Mending Charms and subtly laughing at Draco.
By the end of class basically everyone was laughing at him behind Flitwick's back, except for his die-hard Slytherin followers. He was given extra homework by Flitwick and rushed out of class with his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Everyone continued laughing at lunch. The reason this was such a big deal was basically that Draco Malfoy was a bully. He routinely made fun of people like Neville that struggled with wand-work and put others down for being "less magical." The really sad thing was he was able to get away with it.
Anyways, the Gryffindor first-years especially loved to throw all those words back in his face. Some of the Hufflepuffs even joined in when they heard what happened. The Ravenclaws were to studious to really care about the insults Malfoy threw. They knew he was wrong and left it at that.
Sadly, Transfiguration that afternoon was all theory, and Potions the next morning didn't require wand-work. Harry and his friends knew Malfoy hadn't found out his wand was fake because if he did he would have been telling everyone who would listen. And it would take a little while to talk to a teacher who would easily tell the "wand" wasn't magical. But pure-blooded arrogance and the fact that Malfoy wouldn't want the knews getting back to his father if it turns out it was just a problem with Draco ensured that it would probably take one more class.
Meanwhile, Harry hung out with Calypso one-on-one by the Black Lake during their free afternoon. They hadn't had some pure sibling time in awhile and took the time to just talk. Calypso talked about Ron and Neville. Apparently Ron had insulted Hermione and she had gone into the girl's bathroom to cry. Harry shook his head. Ron had a tendency to not watch his mouth. At the same time, he was secretly thinking that the Sorting Hat was beings stupid placing her in Gryffindor. There was a reason she had no friend there. In Ravenclaw she would have been much better off.
Harry was also very interested in how Quidditch was going for his twin. She had been very lucky not to be expelled their second week of class during their first flying lesson when Calypso got on a broom without a teacher to get Neville's remembrall from Malfoy. However, instead of being expelled McGonagall offered her the position of Seeker for Gryffindor. Their dad and Sirius had been so proud and sent her a Nimbus 2000. In the letter their mom expressed less enthusiasm.
Harry in return told Calypso about his time spent feeling magical flow. She thought it was very interesting, but when she heard about the amount of time it took Harry to barely get started she decided not to herself. There was a reason Harry was put in the House of the ambitious, not Calypso.
That day was October 31st and therefore the Halloween Feast. The Great Hall was redecorated. Instead of candles there were jack-o-lanterns and a swarm of bats by the ceiling.
The feast was nice. It was good to have some extra variety but the whole thing was nothing really special. At least until Quirrell burst into the Great Hall. Daphne had pointed out earlier that he wasn't at the Staff Table, something that Harry found odd.
"Troll! Troll in the dungeon!" Everybody stopped to stare at Quirrell. "Thought you would want to know." And with that he fainted.
The entire Great Hall erupted into chaos. Harry didn't understand it really. They were surrounded by some of the best witches and wizards in Britain and Europe, and everyone was losing their shit over a single troll. Sure, a troll was a serious threat, but not to a prepared group. Dumbledore used some sort of firecracker spell to get everybody's attention. Everybody stopped and looked to him for guidance. "Prefects, lead your Houses to your dorms."
Three Houses started to follow his directions. Slytherin didn't really know what to do. "Idiot," Daphne said. "Our dorms are in the dungeons. And why would they have us split up into several groups and travel through the corridors? Is Dumbledore trying to get somebody killed?"
Usually Harry didn't hate on the Headmaster like that, but he agreed. Dumbledore's directives didn't make any sense. As the rest of his House kind of just stood there, Harry noticed Neville Ron and Calypso run off in a different direction than the rest of Gryffindor. Harry debated with himself for a few seconds whether he should make sure everything is ok before cursing himself and running after them. Several people yelled at him but he ignored them.
He chased Calypso and their friends but they were going pretty fast and he was barely able to see them turn around corners, out of earshot. When he finally did get their attention, they stopped. "What are you idiots doing?" Harry asked, hands on his knees. The Gryffindors were similarly out of breath.
"So Ron opened his mouth today," Calypso started. "And was making fun of Hermione for having no friends and being better at school than him." Ron just turned red and suddenly found the ground very interesting. "Anyways, we heard she was still in the girl's bathroom crying and we need to tell her about the troll."
Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose in exasperation. "Two things. One, Ron you are a good friend but you need to watch your mouth. Two, you didn't think to tell a teacher this instead!"
The three Gryffindors looked a little embarrassed at this. "Well we wanted to warn her as soon as possible..." Ron started lamely. Just then they saw a shadow on the wall and heard a grunt from the other end of the hall. It was clearly the troll.
"Aren't the girl's bathrooms right there?" Harry asked. Calypso nodded. "No time for a teacher now. Neville, go get somebody!" Neville, who was bone white by this point, ran off.
Calypso, Harry, and Ron arrived at the entrance to the girl's bathroom to see Hermione cowering under a sink while the troll stared at her. As they watched, it demolished the sink she was hiding under with it's club.
Harry was the first to act, quickly transfiguring two of the pieces of rubble into rats and levitating them into the troll's left ankle. The troll paused and looked stupidly at the rats, before shaking his legs to try to get them off.
"C'mon," Calypso yelled to Hermione. "Get out of there!" The bushy-haired girl quickly complied as the troll stomped on the two rats.
"Alright," Harry said. "Now we run." But Calypso being Calypso had already run up to the troll and started to climb up its back. "Calypso! You idiot, what are you doing!"
As they watched Calypso got to the troll's neck and had the bright of idea of sticking her wand up its nose. "Can you guys do something!" she shouted.
"What do you want us to do, make it angrier?" Harry shouted back as Calypso held on for dear life.
"Troll's hide is resistant to most spells," Hermione said, probably trying to be helpful. Harry just rolled his eyes. He knew that! As he watched, Calypso was thrown off and landed on the ground. Harry watched in horror as the troll raised his club to kill her, he raised his wand to try to hit the club with a blasting curse. He couldn't really do it, but it was the only option he could think of.
But Ron beat him to it. He levitated the wand and then let it fall, knocking the troll out. Harry clapped him on the back. "That's one way to beat a troll." Then he ran over to see if his sister was alright.
When Neville finally arrived with professors a few minutes later, they all explained the situation to them. Harry made it very clear he thought the smartest decision would have been not to (not in these exact words) be a Gryffindor.
"You would do well to listen to Mr. Potter in the future," Professor McGonagall said. "Five points to each of you four for shear dumb luck. Now go back to your dormitories and stay there for the rest of the night."
As the Professors talked about what they would do with a knocked out troll they heard the two Potter twins talking as they walked away.
"If you ever jump onto the back of a fully grown mountain troll again will kill you," Harry said.
"What if it is only half-grown?" The Professors could tell that was said with some cheek.
"Then I will send you to St. Mungo's."
There you go. The troll scene wasn't quite a good as I was hoping for, I just couldn't quite figure out what I wanted with it.
Some of you have been saying in reviews that Harry isn't powerful enough. Can you tell from this chapter where I will be going with his abilities? Trust me, he won't be this helpless against a troll again.
Leave a review if you have something to say, they give me a lot of motivation.