Chapter 3 Back to School
After introducing Harry to his heads of houses Professor Fontaine then summoned the rest of his faculty and informed them of the situation. The Headmaster held back two of his teachers and introduced them to Harry, Ron and Hermione, Professor Reneta Rowand was the schools Charms professor who Harry recognised as the Witch who Fontaine had rebuffed earlier in the day and Professor Mutare Mutatio a burly Wizard a blonde comb over that didn't quite hide the bald spots on his head was introduced as the school's Transfiguration teacher. "Professors Cage, Mutatio and Rowand will assist me in preparing you three for what is to come" the Headmaster said with a small grin. "Professor Fontaine where will we be staying?" Asked Hermione "there are old classrooms that can be of use and a few charms should be sufficient to hide the room as a plain wall. Professor Rowand could I ask that you prepare one of the old classrooms on the second floor that aren't used anymore?". "Yes Headmaster" Replied the witch and in a flurry of robes turned and left the office. "As for tonight" Professor Fontaine flicked his wand and conjured three sleeping bags "you shall sleep here, I will return in the morning I am going to inform MACUSA as to the fate of Wizarding Britain and to warn them to prepare it, He will turn his eye here eventually" everyone present understood 'He' meant Voldemort.
"Legilimens " Harry saw Severus Snape standing before brandishing his wand "you are not trying hard enough". Harry's knees had crashed to floor in the dungeon of Hogwarts castle and as Snape ridiculed him more about his lamentable Occlumency ability Professor Fontaine retreated from his mind. "You do seem to have trouble with this branch of magic don't you Harry?" Harry said nothing it was blatantly obvious he was no good at it, why didn't he just teach Harry something useful like master level defensive magic. This Occlumency lesson wrangled Harry having watched Hermione successfully repel the professor on the 7th attempt. "Prepare Potter I am going to go again" shit! Harry thought I am going to need to master myself I can't keep relying on Hermione in every difficult situation "legilimens!" visions came flying from the deepest recesses of Harry's mind, he was fighting the Basilisk, the lynx was giving him a riddle, Sirius' bark of a laugh as a jet of green light his chest. Come on Harry your better than this, now close your mind! He tapped into every little drop of mental power he possessed and the visions slowed, Dudley didn't think he was a waste of space, he has just unwrapped his Firebolt, Hedwig was lying lifeless in her cage. Harry braced himself for one last effort and finally the visions froze still as if a video tape had been paused, his vision now split between the office and his mind. With immense disappointment the visions had resumed and he could hear Hagrid knocking down the door of he hut on the rock. With a sharp stab of pain Harry hut the ground as usual as Fontaine lifted the spell "that was better, you can rest for now Harry. Now Mister Weasley I shall try to invade your mind". Ron had fared better than Harry but couldn't fully repel Fontaine. They had been at it all morning since 7:30 am and Fontaine relented shortly after 11:00 am. "I know you'd rather be back home fighting and marshalling resistance but I fear the last of any resistance fell with Hogwarts" Professor Fontaine noted sympathetically "I won't be teaching you anything further today however Professor Cage will be testing your duelling abilities later on this evening so rest for now and I shall send for lunch". As soon as he left Ron and Harry launched into moans and insults regarding the mornings lesson and Fontaine, Hermione Scowled "you do realise he is trying to help us by arming is with a better magical arsenal don't you?" Harry ignored her but Ron but back "so what! I'd rather he back home fighting than sitting in school" Harry decided to interrupt before a full scale row erupted "enough you two, Hermione you're right it may just be us left to stand against Volde-" "the taboo Harry" Ron warned "anyway I was saying it may just be us left and we will have be ready, do you think the taboo would apply here?" Harry looked at Hermione his usual source of answers "I don't know, it's possible I wouldn't risk it anyway Harry".
After a rather good lunch of chicken noodle soup, sandwiches and pumpkin juice Harry, Ron and Hermione spent the afternoon amusing themselves. As always when confronted with spare time Hermione's nose was wedged firmly in a book, Ron was messing around with a wizard's wireless hoping for news from home and Harry spent his time attempting to close his mind in preparation for further Occlumency lessons. He was doing rather well until Voldemort started creeping into his thoughts. His scar had been prickling since the morning, it wasn't at the stage where he had to succumb and enter Voldemort's thoughts although he felt it might come to that . The afternoon had passed and his scar had stopped annoying him. Professor Fontaine entered the trio's make shift dormitory "Professor Cage expects you three in his classroom this evening to test your duelling skills, I shall be in attendance and will escort you to his class" the three friends nodded and the Professor left the room. "how good do you think Clipeum Cage will be at duelling?" Asked Ron "well he should be excellent being a defence against the dark arts teacher" Hermione noted, Harry didn't join in their conversation he was still attempting to empty his thoughts and close his mind.
Around 8 pm Professor Fontaine called upon Harry, Ron and Hermione and led them whilst they were under the cloak to the fourth floor and into a large plain classroom that had 5 rows of benches where students would sit and an area for practicing spells. "Good evening Headmaster" Professor Cage called out from the front of the classroom "are you three ready?" he smiled at Ron, Hermione and Harry they all nodded. "Well how about ladies first, then Ron and we will finish with Harry?" they all nodded again. Professor Fontaine moved to the back of the room and conjured a comfortable looking chair and waited. Cage was excellent he had made short work of Ron and Hermione hadn't faired much better. His spell work was fantastic and he moved so fast not giving them any opportunity to mount any sort of defence. As Harry prepared to face off against him he thought finally playing to my strengths "ready Mister Potter?" Cage asked, Harry nodded, they bowed toward each other and began. Harry began by casting the shield charm which barely withstood the strength of the spell Cage had cast toward him knocking him back several feet. Cage was casting his spells non verbally meaning Harry had little time to respond, thinking of how to turn the tables after Cage had blocked all of the stunning spells he cast he decided to use a little non-verbal spell of his own. Harry thought "Levicorpus" flicked his wand and had caught Cage off guard. He had managed to deflect the jinx at the last second but this gave Harry time to act "Impedimenta" the jinx hit home and Cage jutted still. Breathing heavily Harry raised his wand "stupefy" he had him he was sure of it and was instantly crestfallen Cage had cast his own shield charm before Harry had begun to press his advantage. "Serpensortia, Serpensortia, Serpensortia" three snakes shot from Cage's wand the first spell he had verbally casted Harry lowered his wand watching the look on Cage's face when he yelled "ssssstop!" in Parseltongue the snakes obeyed and Harry ordered them to attack their conjurer. Cage vanished the snakes and with a speed Harry couldn't believe called out "stupefy" the spell caught Harry in the chest completely off guard and sent him sprawling.
"He is rather talented Headmaster" Professor Cage said with a smile as he helped Harry to his feet "agreed Clipeum" Fontaine replied. Harry stood looking at the wand he took from Draco it felt friendly in his hand but it didn't fell right like his holly and phoenix feather wand. "Is there a problem Harry?" Fontaine enquired "No professor" "that's not your wand is it?" "no we all lost our wands back home" "we can easily remedy that" Fontaine remarked "the students will all be in their dormitories follow me to the great hall".
Under the cloak Harry, Ron and Hermione followed the two professors to the great hall and were led to the two stone pillars where Ilvermorny students either select or are selected by a wand. "you have a choice before you, you may either select a wand or be selected by a wand" Professor Fontaine instructed. The three friends removed the invisibility cloak and approached the pillars. As the three lined up Harry remembered Olivander's words "The wand chooses the Wizard Mr Potter, it is not always clear why" as Harry remembered this he wondered if the other two would opt to be chosen by a wand. Hermione stood before the pillars first and as though she was having the same thoughts as Harry she opted to be selected by a wand. A small voice the trio couldn't identify called out "Hornbeam and Dragon Heartstring wand ten and one quarter inches, rigid" Hermione moved off to the side and started casting simple charms and appeared delighted by the effects. Ron went next and the voice called out again from seemingly no where "Holly and Unicorn Tail Hair Wand 13 inches, nice and supple" Ron put his wand through the same tests as Hermione did and again seemed delighted. Harry was slightly nervous he knew why the holly and phoenix wand chose him, destiny the connection between him and Voldemort was further exemplified through their wands. Harry stood in front of the pillar for roughly fifteen minutes and his nervousness increased dramatically. Ron and Hermione were granted new wands almost instantly, at last a wand appeared in the small pod on the pillar and the voice called "Birch and Phoenix Feather wand, eleven and three quarter inches, very bendy". Harry picked up his new wand and instantly felt the connection between him and his new wand and he wondered if Fawkes had given this feather too. "Professor Fontaine, where did the phoenix feather come from?" "I don't rightly know, I doubt however that this one came from Albus' Phoenix Fawkes if that is what you are thinking given that the bird had never accompanied him on his four visits to this castle". Pleased with his new wand and that Fawkes hadn't likely provided this wands core he casted a few basic charms. He could feel it, this wand was either very powerful or very receptive to his magical ability.
"This is boring" Moaned Ron "I wouldn't mind it so much if we weren't confined to this room". "Cabin fever building up?" Hermione's voice drifted over from the top of a book "Harry why don't we get the cloak out an do some exploring?" Harry hadn't been listening he was still practicing emptying his mind l, it was only when Ron threw a scrunched up copy of 'Transfiguration Today' at his head did he realise he was being spoken to. "Ron! Don't throw things at him like that" "what? I was only trying to get his attention. So what about it Harry? Go and explore our new surroundings" "yeah why not I can't seem to empty my mind without an interruption" smirked Harry. "I don't think you should" the two boys looked at Hermione ready for the same rants as usual when they wanted to go sneaking about Hogwarts after dark. They let Hermione drone on and snuck out the room in the midst of her rambling "good thing she doesn't look up from her books while telling us of eh?" Harry gave a little nod of agreement and they set off. Simultaneously the castle reminded them of Hogwarts and was completely different. Ilvermorny had the moving staircases, moving portraits and ghosts just like Hogwarts but they couldn't recognise any of it. They were walking up a set of stairs they were sure would lead them too the fourth floor when a ghost floated right through them, the icy sensation sent shudders through the spines of both boys and the ghost had noticed it had passed through someone. "Students out of bed eh?" "the Headmaster will hear of this it would be much easi-" the ghost's speech halted Ron had taken out his wand and muttered "Lang lock" towards the ghost and it's tongue had been glued to the roof of its mouth and with a look of utmost fury floated through the ceiling. They rounded a corner and saw that a couple of older students were wondering around as well a girl and a boy "they must going out" said Ron "wanna mess with them?" Harry chuckled "nah we shouldn't, it's not as if we go to this school and know who they are besides no one is supposed to know we are here, remember what happened up at the Shrieking Shack?" They wondered around for a few hours more and were surely lost when they reached the door to the grounds. "Have you heard anything else from Britain Headmaster?" Professor Poole's voice was coming from the Great Hall and the boys moved closer. "Some rumours have reached my ears yes" Replied the Headmaster "it appears that the Dark Lord is turning his attention to other Ministry's in Europe before conquering the Muggle world, although Him and his Death Eaters are still killing muggles for sport and no word of any resistance has reached me". The two professors exited the Great Hall heading towards the stairs, Ron and Harry followed but only caught small glimpses of Fontaine's commentary "sure to target here eventually" "conquering the muggles now might bring about retaliation from other wizarding Governments around Europe". "You're taking quite the interest in the Potter boy sir if you don't mind my saying" "not at all, he is quite intriguing but that's not why, I wonder if you had read Dumbledore's biography?" Poole shook her head "well there was a full chapter dedicated to the relationship between Potter and Dumbledore if the book can be believed was a lot more than teacher and pupil which leads me to believe Dumbledore had a plan for defeating The Dark Lord and it may have centred around the boy. Better to train him and his friends and see if he can before we have to act ourselves". The Professors were now out of earshot and reeling Harry thought so that's why you brought us here better if the strangers die rather than risk any one else without talking Harry and Ron headed back to their dorm to inform Hermione of what they had just heard. To Harry's dismay Hermione didn't seem at all surprised or angry at this news stating "well of course Harry, Professor Fontaine has no loyalty to you or us, but we could use some training up it benefits us both we would be wise to use it as we are on our own now and if you don't remember Dumbledore had sent you out to destroy You Know Who on your own and with not even having finished school. I wouldn't be too angry. Harry had to agree with Hermione but she didn't know what it felt like to be the one that was counted in to act with no support other than her two best friends against Voldemort's army. Harry struggled to sleep and felt like he had just shut his eyes when Fontaine came for their morning Occlumency training.