Chapter 3: A Turn to the Difference
They'd spent the first few classes in the greenhouse, and Professor Sprout finally took them to the forest: the part, she repeatedly said, which was hedged, and safe, and not technically forbidden, though still forbidden to them without supervision.
She told them the names of the trees as they went, some of which Harry was sure were magical, and some mundane, but he couldn't guess which were which, and told them to get looking for black-speckled silver acorns.
It occurred to Harry that the purpose of the class might be to provide the Professor with ingredients she needed, but she could probably get them more efficiently with magic than with first years.
They had Herbology with Hufflepuff, and most of the students started poking randomly through the undergrowth.
Harry looked for Hermione, saw that she was with Lavender and Parvati, the three of them already moving toward the nearest oak, so Harry looked for his own oak tree. Ron, as had become typical, tagged along.
They found an oak tree not far off, and rooted through the undergrowth there, finding lots of acorns, but none of them silver speckled with black.
Harry went back to Professor Sprout. "Is there a particular kind of oak tree that has silver acorns with black speckles?"
Sprout raised her voice. "Did everyone hear what Potter just asked?"
Other students turned to look.
"Potter, ask that question again, louder this time."
"Is there a particular kind of oak tree that makes silver acorns with black speckles?!"
Students who had hitherto been looking for acorns under willows, birches and whatever else had been nearest when they'd received their instructions started asking each other what oak trees looked like.
Professor Sprout said, "An oak tree with silver bark. Not grey. Shiny silver. Like jewelry."
Harry figured half the students who'd heard his question didn't hear the answer, because they'd gone haring off looking for an oak tree.
"Can I just turn an acorn silver?"
Professor Sprout smiled. "It may not be silver when you find it, and must be silver when you bring it to me, but you can't turn it silver."
"Excuse me?"
"Transfiguring an acorn is not the answer," said Professor Sprout, raising her voice.
Harry walked back to Ron.
"Hear all that?" Harry asked Ron.
"Probably a fun puzzle," said Ron. "We should find the silver tree first."
Harry wished he had a broomstick. He could probably find a silver tree easily enough if he turned into an owl and searched from the air, but he'd been told to keep that a secret.
Ron jumped, got his hands around the lower branch of an oak tree, trying to pull himself up. "It's probably shiny, so if we look from a high place we should see it."
A large three-eyed raven fluttered down from higher in the tree, landing on a branch just above that which Ron was trying heave himself up by, and cawed.
"Uh," said Ron, still trying to pull himself up, shoes scrabbling for purchase on the rough bark.
The raven hopped onto Ron's branch, and Ron dropped to the ground as the raven's beak struck the bark where one of Ron's hands had been.
"Bloody hell. It tried to peck me."
"It has a nest or something up there. Something it's protective of. Doesn't want some big animal climbing up."
Ron said, "I'll try a different tree. Maybe."
"Wait." Harry had saved some rolls from lunch, and he took one out. He tocked his tongue at the three-eyed raven, and when it looked over, waved the roll.
It cawed. He tocked his tongue again and imagined a silver acorn with black speckles. That did no good, so he imagined a silver oak.
Its third eye focused on his two. For a moment, he saw the world from its perspective, knowing himself for a large and ungainly thing, then it took off from its branch.
Harry leaned against a tree to wait, and Ron said, "What was that?"
Harry shrugged.
After a minute Ron said, "What are we waiting for?"
Harry said, "For the raven to come back. Maybe."
"You think it will?"
Harry shifted his feet, took a sip of water from his bottle, and the raven returned, a silvery twig in its beak.
Harry tossed a chunk of the biscuit into the air. The raven caught it, dropping the twig, and Harry caught that. He bent the twig. "Real silver. Show me."
They set off after the raven, which would flap ahead twenty feet, land on a tree, and take off when they'd caught up.
They came around a rock, and there was the tree, bright silver bark, and not a single leaf, bare as it might be in the depths of winter. Hermione and her friends were already there, and Neville too.
They turned as he and Ron and approached, and Harry tossed the whole of another biscuit in the air. The raven caught it, took off, and Harry said, "How did you find it?"
Hermione said, "I transfigured a twig into silver, and used it for dowsing."
He nodded. They hadn't learned that yet, but it was in their charms book. He probably couldn't have done it, but it should've at least occurred to him. "Neville?"
"I, I, just found it."
"How did you do that with the crow?" said Hermione.
"A raven." He shrugged. "Biscuits work wonders."
There weren't any acorns on the tree. The acorns he found among the twigs and leaves were perfectly normal.
"Found any?"
"No," said Hermione.
"Huh." Harry sat down to think, resting his back against the trunk.
"It doesn't look healthy," said Neville.
"Hmm."
"No leaves," said Neville.
"I suppose."
"Is it supposed to be silver?" said Neville.
Harry looked to Hermione. "Is it supposed to be silver?"
"I don't know."
"I thought you memorized the textbook."
"Not everything's in our textbook. I think we're supposed to figure this out."
"So you really did memorize the textbook?"
"Let me think."
Harry thought about his options. If one of the animals remembered how the tree had turned silver, that might help.
Neville said, "Pressing an acorn against the bark doesn't do anything."
"It's a good thought though," said Hermione. "I gave it a try. Do you think there's another silver oak tree? Maybe one that's still bearing acorns."
"It did seem like she was suggesting it would be bearing," said Harry. He closed his eyes to think as Ron and Neville messed around. He'd found the tree, but there weren't any acorns. No, there were, but they weren't on it, and they weren't silver. Hadn't Professor Sprout suggested that the acorns might not be silver at the start? If you put all that together... it suggested he ought to eat his last biscuit.
Chewing that over, he returned to the problem. Finding the silver tree was somehow necessary to make the acorns silver. Maybe the tree hadn't always been silver. How had it turned silver? If they could find what had turned the tree silver, they could turn the acorns silver too. Something in the water, maybe.
"Harry," said Ron.
"Leave me alone, I'm thinking."
"Harry, I've got it."
"What?" He opened his eyes. Ron and Neville were both holding black-speckled silver acorns.
"How?"
Ron said, "It was simple. Me and Neville figured it out. Sprout said the acorns would turn silver, but we wouldn't transform them, and she said we had to find the tree first, so either the tree would transfigure the acorns, or whatever transfigured the tree would transfigure the acorns. At that point, you might get a little stuck, if not for the other considerations. The Professors coordinate with each other a lot-they've told us that-so, if a spell is needed, it'll be one we've already learned. We haven't learned many. Transfiguring into silver comes to mind immediately, but Professor Sprout pretty much told us that isn't it, so of course, you think of Epoximise. Why would that be helpful, well, if the tree transformed all at once, it wouldn't be, but if you dig into the roots a little, you see some of the roots farther from the center aren't all silver yet, so the silver is definitely something that spreads.
"In that case, find a twig with a bit of stem attached, and use Epoximise to graft an acorn on. The silver should spread, so me and Neville tried it, and it spread, the girls are doing it now, it doesn't take long, maybe because seeds have a lot of energy."
Harry got up. Ron had beaten him. Ron. The three girls were about ready, and a pair of Hufflepuffs were advancing toward the tree, pointing to what the girls were doing.
Harry pressed the acorn he'd pocketed to a silver stem. "Epoximise."
Ron continued. "Bit of an underwhelming puzzle if you ask me, can't believe the first solution worked, it's the sort anyone can solve pretty quick just by messing around, you don't even have to understand it."
"Mhmm," said Harry. Silver was spreading down from the top of the acorn, where it met the stem.
"But it is the first time we've done this, I bet they take it easy at first, it'll get funner, I'm sure. Neville, where are you going?"
"I wasn't sure if-"
Ron said, "Wait a bit and leave with us, if you want."
Another group came up while Harry waited.
"No fair, it's already almost picked clean."
"That isn't it," said Ron. "Harry, ready?"
He undid Epoximise, and took the acorn.
"Sure."
"Tell us how you did it," said one of the others.
"The tree was bare when we came."
"What?"
"That's a really big hint," said Ron, walking away. "It wouldn't be fair if I gave you more."
#
#
Professor Sprout said, "Well done Neville, Ron, for being first to figure it out. Well done all of you. Ron, Neville, if you could explain your reasoning."
Ron explained it, giving much the same speech he'd given Harry, and Sprout nodded along, pleased.
"Excellent. Five points for Gryffindor. I'll use the acorns to create a treatment for the parasite. Let's head back."
Neville had joined Harry and Ron, which gave Harry an excellent chance to drift back. Normally, ignoring Ron was second nature, but at that moment it was a little hard. He was shuffling along, kicking at the dirt, when Professor Sprout pulled at his sleeve.
His first terrified thought, which hadn't occurred to him in over a week, was that Professor Sprout was a secret Voldemort sympathizer, and she was going to kill him.
"Let's talk."
"Sure." His voice squeaked. She was going to ask about the night Voldemort killed his parents, wasn't she? Whether he remembered anything. Almost everyone got to that eventually.
"Potter, where's the nearest squirrel?"
"Huh? There." He jerked a thumb without looking.
"And of the trees around us, which one is oldest?
"I don't know. Don't you have to count the rings?"
"Where's the nearest spider to you?"
He pointed to the one crawling through his hair.
"The nearest large animal?"
He pointed to her.
"How many birds are in this oak we're passing?"
"...10?"
"11, but close. How did you communicate with the three-eyed raven?"
So it was that. He'd noticed that none of the others communicated with their pets like he did. "When I look an animal in the eye..." He wasn't sure what to say. He'd never had anyone to describe it to. And she was a Professor, so he shouldn't have to explain it. Though his books didn't say anything about it, so it must be covered in later grades. "A mind is just a bunch of things connected. When you connect two minds, you get a bigger mind."
"Don't mention this to the other students. The Headmaster will be expecting you."
#
#
The Headmaster's office had been a gaggle of odds and ends.
Dumbledore had said, "Charismancy is the most distinct type of legilimency. I wondered before, when you said you could commune with animals. You ought to be trained at it properly. Hour and a half sessions, twice I week I think, scheduled as mutually convenient."
Harry had said, "With Professor Kettleburn, the Magical Beasts professor."
"No," Dumbledore had said. "You'll train with Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of the Keys, and one of the greatest Charismancers alive."
#
#
The autumn days being short, it was getting on toward night as Harry approached the high-roofed cottage, feeling slightly apprehensive, and a massive barking dog burst out of the trees, heading straight toward him. Even on all fours, it was nearly as tall as he was.
Harry made eye contact, knelt, braced himself, looked away, and made brief eye-contact again. Dogs didn't like maintaining eye-contact.
The dog ran hard into his chest, knocked Harry over, and licked him all over.
Harry got to his knees and motioned for the dog to back off.
The dog stood off a few feet, lowered his shoulders, inviting play, and Harry hopped to the side, which was excitement enough to send the dog running, circling, and as he ran by again. Harry swatted him on the rump and gave chase.
They messed about in the grass for a minute, before Harry put a hand up.
The dog sat.
"Sorry, but I can't be late," said Harry, starting back toward the cottage.
"You ain't late," said a deep, rough voice from the darkness. "Ye've already started."
The mammoth figure of Hagrid came out of the trees, and the dog ran over to him, looking small to medium next to Keeper of the Keys. Harry had seen Hagrid briefly on the first day they'd come to Hogwarts, and a couple more times around the grounds throughout the two weeks, but those brief and distant viewing hadn't quite communicated the full size of the man. Each hand was like another person's chest.
"Dogs are easiest," said Hagrid. "We'll see what you can do. Come on."
The cabin was high-roofed but cozy, the furniture over-sized and overstuffed. Hagrid served him tea and biscuits, and they talked about animals.
"Lots of experience with cats, then?"
"Lots of cats around. Birds too. Finches."
"Never liked finches, meself. Too flighty"
"Yeah, but they were there. I wasn't too upset when the cats ate them. A little."
"And I see yeh've got a spider. Always loved spiders, but haven't had one in ages. Got in trouble for it once. Can I see yers?"
Phil stepped out of Harry's hair, walked down his arm onto Harry's finger, and from Harry's finger onto Hagrid's finger.
"A portia. Not the quickest thinkers but give 'em time and they'll out think critters a thousand times their size."
Hagrid's eyes met its, and Harry shuddered. A very strange feeling, seeing out 12 pairs of eyes at once.
"Yer connected to it even now, without eye contact. You've had it what, two years?"
"About."
"Magical then, to live that long. Yeh ever seen it do anything else?"
"Not really. Phil."
Phil turned, and jumped off Hagrid's finger back into Harry's hair.
"You're a natural Charismancer sure enough. I'll work with you on it, and I'll throw in occlumency lessons as part of the deal, but not human legilimency. Yeh're too young fer that. But before you agree ter be taught by me, you ougter know I'm not a real wizard. I was a student here once, but they expelled me and snapped my wand. You don't need to know why. But since then I've focused on wandless magics, such as charismancy and occlumency. Yeh've also noticed I'm big. Some people say I'm half-giant. What do ye think of that?"
"I don't care."
"Good to know. Yer parents didn't think blood told either, so make of that what you like. Now, yeh've already burned through the basic charismancy exercises I had handy, so we'll spend the rest of the session on occlumency, a rather necessary art for any feller thinking to increase his sensitivity. I'm about to enter your mind, and you'll try to stop me. Clear yer mind, and rather than thinking of nothing, don't think."
Harry attempted to freeze, like holding a long breath of the mind, not a single thought wandering by.
Harry gasped. There was a horrible feeling like feathers tickling the inside of his head.
Hagrid said, "You have a crush on the TA, Shelby Blank. It's yer first crush, and ye know it's very silly, and ye're hoping it'll end soon."
"Stop that," said Harry.
"I have stopped."
"No you haven't, I still feel you."
"My oh my, to feel my legilimency at the beginning of the very first lesson."
It stopped.
"Yeh're sensitive, but I think yeh gather that yer strategy did not work. Yer goal for now isn't to turn your mind off, it's to empty it of thought. The mind is still very much there. Point that spider at me again."
"Phil."
Phil met Hagrid's eyes and...
"Feel my mind, boy? This is not what the mind of a really skilled occlumens feels like. That feels like exactly the normal mind the occlumens wants to present. But this is what ye, a beginner, might make yer initial goal."
It was stone. A riverbed dried up. A machine without any power. "Let's go again," said Hagrid.
"Let's go again," said Hagrid.
An hour later, Harry was almost in tears. Not from pain, there hadn't been any pain or even unkindness, but somehow this giant oaf of a man had learned every secret he held dear.
Hagrid picked up a pink umbrella. "All those secrets of yers that belong to you that now I've got too? Don't worry, I'll get rid of them, except for one I'll keep for reference. How yer Aunt and Uncle treated you?"
Harry shook his head.
"No, yeh think it's very embarrassing, don't you? How yeh feel when the other students do better than you? No, ye're ashamed of that. And though it's not my place, I oughter say yer resentment toward Hermione will lead ye anywhere but where yeh'd like to go. But don't worry, I'll forget that too. And also the mean thoughts yeh directed toward me. I know. How about I keep the memory of yer crush on the TA? Oh, don't worry, everyone has a story like that, it's just part of growing up. Trust me. A young woman is oddly flattered if she finds out she's an adolescent boy's first crush, though I guarantee she won't find out from me. Can I keep that one?"
Harry nodded.
Hagrid raised his pink umbrella to his head and said, "Obliviate."
The umbrella flashed. Hagrid wobbled, then smiled. "This umbrella contains the pieces of my wand. Helps me cast serious spells like Obliviate, and that's a secret of mine I've given yeh. By obliviating myself I've lost every memory I got from you except the stuff about Shelby, to use as a reference. I do, however, remember everything I've learned about your skills, and how easily I got yer secrets. Do the exercises like I said, and ye'll do better next time. Class dismissed."
#
#
'Yer resentment toward Hermione will lead yeh anywhere but where yeh'd like to go.'
A lot had happened in an hour and a half, but as he ate dinner, that was the part Harry kept coming back to.
'Yer resentment toward Hermione will lead yeh anywhere but where yeh'd like to go.'
The resentment itself was silly. Every time she did better than him, which was usually, he got angry. He'd never felt that way at his old muggle school. Then, he'd never really cared that much about his old muggle school.
Was that just because magic was cooler? Thinking about it, muggle technology was pretty cool, but you didn't have to learn about a light switch to use one, whereas learning Lumos had taken him hours, and he still had room for improvement.
"Ready, Harry?"
The others were going back to the dormitory to get their astronomy books, but Harry had his in his expanded bag. "I'll meet you there."
He washed his face in the restroom, and, though he'd been explicitly told not to do so, pointed his wand at his mouth, trying a cleaning spell he'd learned only that morning. "Scourgify."
"Ow." He hopped on one foot. That had stung. But the sting faded, and when he smiled at the mirror, his teeth gleamed. "There's got to be something better for that."
He went up the staircase to the astronomy tower.
At his muggle school, there hadn't been any expectations. He'd been just one more student. But now teachers paid special attention to him, even if they tried not to, and the others Gryffindors first-year boys looked to him, and the older Gryffindor students told him to carry the torch in dagarary, and had chanted, "We got Potter," when he'd been sorted in.
The Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and even Slytherins pointed at him in the hallway.
Everyone expecting him to be great, and there was Hermione, so much better.
Harry was the first student to reach the Astronomy tower, and he sat at the back, in the shadow of a crenelation, drawing his dark cloak about himself against the growing chill.
Hermione, Lavender and Parvati arrived and sat not far in front of Harry.
"You should do your own homework this time," said Hermione.
"But you'll check it," said Parvati.
"I'll check it, but you have to do it first."
Lavender said, "I don't understand why it matters what way we stir the potion."
"What do you think would happen if you always stirred in the same direction?"
"That's what I'm asking you."
Hermione said, "And I'm saying you should think about it yourself."
"I have thought about it."
"Not enough."
There was silence, then whispering between Lavender and Parvati, and some giggling.
The other Gryffindor boys arrived, looking around for seating.
Harry had done homework with them, and maybe he'd known the most, but it had been a team effort.
"Anyone see Harry?"
He pulled deeper back into shadow, wondering what they'd say about him if they didn't know he could hear.
"He probably isn't here yet."
They talked about the cold, and how they didn't see why they really needed to know about the stars, and complained about Snape, which was fast becoming a favorite pastime of the young Gryffindors.
When class started, Professor Sinistra waved her wand. "Ocular Distare."
The top of the tower became the bottom of a telescope, that, Harry was sure, would've cost millions of muggle pounds, perhaps many millions of muggle pounds. Further, as he understood it, muggle telescopes had trouble with the atmosphere, which was why they sometimes put them in space, but Ocular Distare, done properly, had no difficulties with the atmosphere at all.
Harry stared into a little point thirty some feet above his head, which, defying all intuition of how vision worked, expanded as if it were right against his eye into a wide angled cone he could look about through.
The tip of the cone was directed at a star, which had been white, tiny and pale, but was now right before his eyes, huge and slightly pink.
They skimmed through the constellation, many stars resolving into giant clusters, before Sinistra moved onto the main topic of the day. A cursory of study of Saturn, an overview of those moons which were on the right side to see, then a dive on Titan, its greatest moon.
Titan had clouds, mountains, and vast seas of liquid methane all shrouded in an orange haze.
Harry had heard older students complaining about astronomy being required when it hardly had anything to do with magic, but he couldn't understand disliking the class. It was like living in a beautiful dream.
Lulled by it, his attention wandered, and he returned to thinking of himself and Hermione.
He'd long thought he was special, since he could turn into animals. When he'd gotten the letter, it'd proved that he was special, though had also made him less special in a way, since there were plenty with magic. Then he'd found out he was the Boy-Who-Lived, the center of the world.
Except there was a girl who seemed more special than him, at least in some ways. And she didn't even have a special backstory. She was just a muggle-born girl who liked to read.
Harry whispered, so only he would hear. "I am not the center of the universe, and that's okay."
Harry realized he didn't believe it.
Professor Sinistra said, "And I expect four pages on Titan's life, including why yeti introduction failed."
Harry hung at the back as the students went down the stairs, just behind Hermione, who was just behind Parvati and Lavender.
"Should we ask Hermione why yeti introduction failed?"
"She probably won't tell us. She'll probably think it's revenge because she thinks we're not smart enough to figure it out ourselves."
"That is not fair," said Hermione. "That's the opposite. If I thought you weren't smart enough, I would just let you copy it."
"Do you hear something?" said Parvati.
"I think it's a bug. A prissy little nightghast that thinks it knows everything and always shows off."
Hermione voice was rough as she said, "If you keep talking like this-"
Lavender said, "You'll stop talking to us? What a disaster. You're a nightmare, Granger, honestly. No wonder no one can stand you."
Harry gripped Lavender Brown by the shoulder, fingers digging in.
She turned, mouth open to say something, and froze when she saw his eyes, which were huge and slit-pupiled, and felt his nails putting holes in her robes.
Harry wasn't, principally, angry. Life felt suddenly too real. Like his heart was on his sleeve, and every passing word scratched it.
His voice, when it at last came out, was a rough rumble, like a lion's roar.
"Thank you for saying that."
Hermione's face, which had already cracked, collapsed.
"If you hadn't said that, I might have, and I would've hated myself."
Harry released Lavender, and she slumped against the wall, breathing hard.
Harry shuddered, and pulled the hood of his cloak deeper over his face. "Hermione, you're incredible. I hope you keep being incredible." He took her arm and led her quickly down the stairs, passing the other students.
Hermione said, "Harry, your eyes."
"Harry, there you are," said Dean.
"See you later." He kept his face turned toward Hermione and the wall.
Hermione tore her arm from his, and moved to his left, between him and the other students. "Your eyes. Your fingers. Harry, what is going on?"
"I need to calm down." He stuffed his hands in his pockets.
"Your teeth," said Hermione.
They hustled down the end of the stairs, and turned off into a dead-ended hall away from the other students. Harry squatted against the wall between two suits of armor, put his head between his knees, and breathed slowly, focusing on the dreamlike images seen through Ocular Distare, a spell that he had to learn yesterday, but wouldn't be able to learn for years.
Hermione said, "I don't know what's going on, but it's a decent distraction."
"Glad to help," said Harry.
"Your voice is getting back to normal."
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1, 4, 9, 16, 25. 1, 8, 27, 64, 125. 1, 16, 81... was it 256 next? Then 625. Exponents were just about the last thing he'd ever learned about in muggle school, and locked in the cupboard, there sometimes hadn't been much to do.
Harry looked up.
"Back to normal," said Hermione. "What was that?"
"I lost control a bit."
"Lost control of what?"
Harry said nothing.
"It was like you were a Werewolf, except you seemed more like a cat, and it's not the full-moon, and you were in control of it, so I guess, when I say it all like that, it doesn't seem like a Werewolf at all." Her words came quickly, like the conversation was a welcome way to not think about what her friends had said.
"The Headmaster implied I should keep it a secret."
"So the Headmaster knows about it?"
He looked away.
"Harry."
"Not 'it' exactly. But he knows there's stuff."
"You don't have to tell me, but you should talk to the Headmaster. For a moment I thought you were going to hurt Lavender. If you get emotional when you partially transform, you really need to be in control of the partial transformation."
"I wasn't emotional because I transformed a little. I transformed because I was emotional. I didn't like what they said." He'd thought that was clear.
"Oh. Well it's nice to know you care. Though you've got a strange way of showing it."
"Huh?"
"You're a little extreme Harry. First you write me letters, then you ignore me at school, then you flip out and half transform into a tiger when the girls get catty."
A lion, thought Harry. "You were always with them, and I thought they were your friends."
"I thought so too till I noticed they were only my friends when they wanted help. I also thought we were friends, so getting a wand obviously hasn't made me any better at judging these things."
"I am your friend."
"Really?"
Harry said, "I invited you to the practice room a couple times, and you said no."
"Every time I learned a spell more quickly than you, you got angry. I didn't need you glaring at me in the practice room too."
"It was that obvious?"
Hermione said, "It must have been; I noticed."
"Okay, being annoyed was my fault, but you could've invited me to do something."
"Like what?"
Harry said, "I don't know. Exploding Snap, some game. You could've just sat next to me."
"Maybe you don't realize this, but you're Harry Potter. If I'd sat next to you, to the other girls-"
"Would've gotten catty?" said Harry. "That sucks, but all you're saying is you decided being friends with me wasn't worth the hassle."
"You're not doing a very good job of comforting me."
"I'm the one who just involuntarily grew long teeth."
"Poor Harry, was it embarrassing? Don't lie by saying that you don't like showing off."
"You would know about showing off," said Harry.
Her expression turned.
Harry said, "Not that it's bad to show off. You're the best. You've got a right to."
"Maybe, but I shouldn't do it just to annoy you, then get upset when you're annoyed."
"Oh," said Harry. "That bit with the feather, waving it around, was that on purpose? That does kind of make me angry."
Hermione smoothed her robes and wiped her eyes, though she hadn't been crying. "You're a colossal jerk, Harry Potter, and I'd be happy to go to the practice room with you."
So they went.
They left right away, because it was two minutes from closing time when they arrived.
But that wasn't the point.
:::
Author's Note: I've made some slight corrections. Also, I think I'm going to have to eventually add a few lines to the previous chapters. Thanks for reading.
:)