It was finally time for break after McGonagall had dismissed her students , but Hannah didn't have relaxing in mind as she hurried down the halls towards the Hufflepuff tower. Towards the kitchens.
"Jeez Hannah slow down , break lasts for almost an hour so walking won't kill ya" exclaimed Susan as she ran after Hannah.
If Hannah heard the short blond then she made no indication of it as she continued to run down the halls in search of the kitchens.
"What are you looking for Hannah?" Huffed Susan as Hannah stopped briefly in a corridor to catch her breath.
'The kitchens " Hannah replied "I need to find the house elves and ask them for a favour "
Susan merely levelled Hannah with a look and started to speak in such a serious manner that Hannah almost thought that she was someone else entirely , not the grinning girl that she had first met at the feast.
"Look Hannah, I'm okay being part of whatever harebrained scheme you have cooked up , mainly 'cause I know I'll drag you into worse but please for the love of god , no running" Susan said between harsh wheezing breaths.
"Okay" Hannah said with a slight smile that Susan was quick to return.
"So how do we find the kitchen?" Susan asked as the girls walked past the entrance to the hufflepuff dorms.
"We need to find a painting of a fruit bowl first"
Deciding not to question the bizarre answer to her question, Susan just rolled with it and started asking the nearby portraits if they'd seen the so-called fruit bowl; it only took five minutes for them to find it thanks to the detailed directions given by a portrait of the former herbology professor , Herbert Beery.
"So what do we do now?" Susan asked giving the painting a deadpan look.
"We tickle the pear" Hannah replied seriously
"Are you shitti-"
Susan never got to finish her sentence since Hannah had already started tickling the pear and the secret passageway that revealed itself after was more than enough to grab their attention. The entrance to the kitchen was an archway that appeared in the same manner as the entryway to Diagon alley, in a shifting haze of stone. However the key difference would have to be size , the entrance to Diagon alley was tall enough that Hagrid didn't have to bend over to pass through while the entrance to the Hogwarts kitchens was barely one metre high, the perfect height for its small enslaved inhabitants.
Getting on all fours ,the girls crawled through the entrance and were soon accosted with a mouthwatering scent . Hannah's nose twitched. She could smell something divine. She started drooling (not that she'd ever admit it).
"Oh what brings the mistresses here?" asked a squeaky voice , snapping Hannah out of her food induced stupor.
Big blue eyes met green ones as a house elf stared up at her , wearing what looked like a white hospital gown. 'Step up from a dirty rag ' Hannah thought dryly before her eyes quickly scanned the kitchen . It was a large room,
(40 by 10 metres to be exact) , in the centre was a long wooden table festooned with various ingredients, along the edges of the kitchen were rows of ovens, stoves and counters where 30 or so elves were stationed , hard at work.
(It made Hannah sick to her stomach)
"Woah" breathed Susan , her voice portraying the magnitude of her shock, before a plate of cupcakes caught her eye and she ambled over to the other side of the room.
Hannah's eyes eventually settled on the small house elf in front of her , who was doing everything short of buzzing with excitement.
"Hi my name is Hannah and that's Susan " said Hannah gesturing to the other blond. "What's your name ?".
"Mippy , mistress Hannah " the elf said in a high pitched ,bubbly voice.
"Well Mippy, I have a rather odd request for you."
"Mippy is happy to help mistress " the elf replied cheerily.
Wary of being overheard , Hannah looked around surreptitiously to check no one was near. She let out a relieved sigh when she saw Susan munching on cupcakes surrounded by five house elves while the rest of the kitchen's staff was busy preparing lunch for a bunch of ravenous children.
"Mippy , it's important that you don't tell anyone what I'm about to tell you, even the headmaster"
Mippy gasped, scandalized and apprehensive before she eventually nodded ,leaning closer so Hannah could whisper in her ear.
" One of the students , Harry Potter, is malnourished, his relatives at home barely feed him , beat him and force him to sleep in a cupboard" Hannah whispered, satisfied to see Mippy was understanding the horror of the situation if her mortified expression was anything to go by. Glad she had the house elf's undivided attention Hannah continued.
"Mippy , what I need you to do is to take some nutrition potions from the medical wing and give them to Harry when he is asleep and please give him a general restoration potion for the first three nights because I think he has some injuries right now. Remember Mippy, it is imperative that no one sees you do this and that Harry ,his roommates and the staff have no idea this is being done. Can you do that for me Mippy
, please " , Hannah asked , her words turning into a plea near the end.
All of a sudden Mippy burst into tears. It was
rather alarming, at least Hannah thought so , no one else batted an eyelid.
" Of course Mippy will help mistress Hannah and Master potter ! Oh how kind mistress Hannah is! Mippy promises , no person will see Mippy, not even master Dumbledore! " . Mippy exclaimed through waves of big fat tears.
Overjoyed that her idea had worked Hannah gave Mippy a huge grin before enveloping the small elf in a hug which got Mippy to stop crying ( out of shock if nothing else), she pulled away to flash Mippy a bright smile before dragging off a miffed Susan from her precious plate of cupcakes .
Once they were finally out of the kitchen and Susan had stopped bemoaning her loss of free food, they started to walk to their next class , Charms.
_47 minutes of confusion later _
Hannah's POV
I think Charms may have broken my brain , lots of things in the textbooks and the lesson were really vague, they went into detail about wand movements and incantations but not why or how they worked. And from the studying I did during the summer, I have come to the conclusion there are different types of charms.
Some seem to fit the definition of enchantments like the spell Molly Weasley uses to wash the dishes but other charms like 'Orchideous' seem to be a form of conjuring.
Yet both have similar wand movements . I think the bit that bothers me most is the fact I still don't know why wand movements are important. I asked Professor Flitwick but he refused to tell me because it's NEWT level material. I understand that he's looking out for my best interest by trying to ease me into the subject and he's the expert in this scenario but—actually I think I'm just miffed that I didn't understand what he was saying, I just felt like I was on a roll with what happened with Mippy so it knocked the wind out of my sails to have my Charms class go poorly. On the bright side it's only my first class , the second one could be better.
There is one thing I can say for sure though , there is no way charms can be worse than the lesson I have next.
Stupid Defense against the Dark Arts
Stupid Quirrelmort
And his stupid ,bloody murderous tendencies.
—-/—-
As soon as it was time for their Defense lesson, Hannah grabbed Susan and ran like a madman so they could secure seats at the back of Quirrell's class.
Thankfully when they entered said class , Quirrell wasn't present neither were any of the other students.
"Seriously Hannah, I thought we talked about the running?" Susan wheezed before plopping down onto a wooden bench -at the back of the class- next to Hannah.
Hannah mumbled out a sheepish apology which a good natured Susan accepted (after telling Hannah she planned to visit the forbidden forest that week, much to Hannah's dismay)
A few minutes passed before the rest of the class began to filter in , it was even longer before Quirrell deigned to grace the class with his presence , stuttering an apology before walking up to the chalkboard at the front of the class.
HANNAH's POV (present tense)
This class is painful awkward between the cloying scent of garlic in the air, Quirrell's stuttering and the tense silence between the students. It'll be a miracle if we learn anything,
especially if Quirrell keeps going on about vampires. I think his plan is to be an incompetent teacher so Harry won't be able to defeat him down the line so I'm working with the assumption that everything that comes out of his mouth is bullshit.
I refuse to even pretend I'm paying attention to whatever he is saying , so I pull out my copy of an Introduction to the Art of Healing and start reading about diagnostic spells (while ignoring Susan's questioning stare).
They were fascinating. According to the book , the two main ones are 'viso corporea' and 'mystica verum'. The first one is used to diagnose physical injuries like broken bones or internal bleeding while the second helps show what magic has been used on a patient.
There are (thankfully) detailed instructions on how to cast them, both require the caster to have a good understanding of anatomy to work properly. The spells seem to behave like a magic X-ray or sonogram , the information they collect is encoded into a magic format that is sent back to the caster but that knowledge can only be understood if the caster has an understanding of anatomy otherwise it's just medical magic gibberish. Officially the spells are considered charms which doesn't exactly bode well for me but I'm nothing if not determined.
After diagnostic spells I plan on studying how to better care for malnourished people in preparation for the next part of one of my plans.
Harry won't be thin and short if I have anything to say about it !
—
As soon as the lesson ended, Hannah set about locating the library and a reluctant but loyal Susan followed, although not without complaint.
"Hannah, we need food, I'm all for adventures but not when I'm hungry " Susan said trying to appear stern .
Hannah didn't even turn around and just passed her the box of cinnamon rolls she saved from breakfast and continued down the hallway without missing a beat. There were more important things to her than eating right now.
Under the guidance of the portraits they quickly located the library and it was beautiful. A once cavernous place , the rows of bookshelves stretched so far that they blurred in the distance , Hannah couldn't help but gape at the enormity of it all as the scent of old parchment and ink mingled in the air , filling her lungs . It was all she could not do to let out a sigh of utter contentment.
She quickly set about visiting the necessary sections, it took a while to find the books she needed. There was a sign by the library that stated only 15 books can be borrowed at a time. In the end Hannah spent all of lunch perusing the shelves while a satiated Susan munched on the cinnamon rolls that Hannah saved from breakfast.
She eventually settled on 14 books to borrow, covering the following subjects.
A Guide to Magical Transportation by Artemis Blanc
The Conjectures of Conjuring by Marcus Creel
High level Transfiguration Spell Guide Volume III
Cruel Curses and Their Counterparts by Amelia Greengrass
The Dictionary of Charms by Enid Blaire
A Study of Morphology by Sumaiya Gacal
Goblin History and Culture by Cuthbert Binns
A Study of Global Magic Casting Systems by Anita Goldstein
The Mystic Arts of the Mind by Reginald Nott
Architecture in the Magic World by Thomas Vane
The Future Foretold by Adam Trelawney
(Hannah was again reminded of how overpowered the undetectable extension charge is when she easily fits the 14 books in her bag.)
By the time the task of retrieving the necessary tomes was completed , it was already time for the next lesson. History of Magic.
History is important but Hannah doesn't think it will be the thing that saves her (the folly of the young is that their whole existence has been the prologue to their future, and so they don't understand the importance of the past , of what came before them but they will learn , one way or the other.) .
So she sets about practicing casting spells out of view of the Professor even though she's pretty sure he doesn't care. The steady drone of Binn's voice filled the class, as Hannah focused on her self assigned task , it merely became a dim humming in the background.
Hannah had a lot of theories about magic. That is a material as well as an energy source, that it follows the law of conservation, that it is logical. She is wrong about that last part but she will learn in time the significance of having a soul but for now she plans to spend that hour twisting and forming magic into whatever she can imagine , testing what she can do.
Hannah drew her wand and pointed it at the pen in between her fingers.
She recalled the 3rd year transfiguration textbook had a page on transfiguring objects into flowers and vice versa , she remembered it vividly because she thought it would be useful for hiding objects and a useful spell to have under her metaphorical belt , plus who doesn't like flowers ?
(The answer to that last question is filch but that's irrelevant right now. )
She pictured the fine hairs on the stem, waxy leaves and the smoothness of the petals, vivid greens and pale blues bleeding into neon yellow.
"florafors"
Wisps of magic embedded themselves in the pencil and slowly expanded forming the base for the leaves and petals, while a thin layer of magic ran along the surface , shifting to different textures and colours. Twisting and turning , petals were slowly formed as the head of the would-be flower finally settled into place. Now in place off the pencil , was a blue iris with splashes of yellow bleeding out of its centre.
Hannah turned the flower over in her fingers, admiring her handiwork with a small smile on her face.
She pulled out a few more pencils and set about transforming them into different flowers.
By the time the lesson was over , Hannah had a handful of different flowers in her hand. There was a tulip, an iris, a rose and some chrysanthemums (it took her ten minutes to transfigure each one since chrysanthemums have an absurd number of petals) , all of which were in an array of blues.'
The best part , 'is that they won't wilt so I can keep them in the dorm as long as I want!' Thinks Hannah as she carefully places the flowers in her bag at the top of her bag so they won't get crumpled.
After that it was on to herbology which the Hufflepuffs had with the Gryffindors , Hannah realized as she looked over her timetable on her way out the classroom.
"Oh shit"
To say Hannah was nervous was an understatement.
—