October
*Hogwarts school of witchcraft and wizardry*October 21*
As the months changed so did the professor's kind of lessons, from only theory to mainly practical lessons; Professor McGonagall started to give more work during classes, often making those that finished one exercise early on make the change back and forth, or transfiguring many things in close succession.
Professor Flitwick had started them on to charms that required actual wand-movements rather than just an incantation, spells like depulso, the pushing charm, colore mutatio, the colour changing charm, and wingardium leviosa, the hovering charm; but the diminutive professor also made them discuss how charms could be used in different scenarios, like packing stuff with the hovering charm, painting a house with the colour changing one or moving a shelf out of the way.
The professor also shot down many ideas, saying that they would not be practical in the end.
Professor Sinestra started quizzing them randomly on what she had been teaching during the nights, but Harry, along with Blaize, spent most classes only half-listening and only stargazing without even using their telescopes.
Professor Sprout also quizzed her students in their knowledge of plants, but less frequently than the Astronomy professor, and making the questions quite open, so unless you knew absolutely nothing, like Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott, both of whom had not spent a single moment in their family's gardens, you couldn't get it wrong.
Potions continued to be a nightmare to those who couldn't work well under pressure, well, the Gryffindoors that couldn't work under pressure, since Snape liked to breathe down the Gryffs' necks during their potions periods, while the Slytherins had no problem with professor Bat, as said man only took points from Gryffindor during his classes with them, on Fridays and Mondays, and refused to do anything but giving points to his own house.
Harry had, along with Lisa, Terry and Blaize, occasionally making Neville go with them, visited Hagrid once every weekend since the third week of school, and the half-giant had spent a lot of time telling stories of Harry's parents, the times he, Hagrid, had gone into the forest and discussing exotic beasts with Terry who was an enthusiast about them.
Lisa and Terry had stopped being harassed by Su Li, Marietta Edgecomb and Cho Chang, though that did not stop said girls of trying to make their lives harder every time they met; blocked paths in the corridors, paper planes coincidentally crashing into them, loud noises near their places in the library, but that rarely happened, as the castle was big enough.
The only real problem was now Draco Malfoy, who proved himself to be either brave or dumb enough to withstand Harry's glares, some harsh enough to scare away some of Vernon sister's dogs away, and insulting Blaize, Harry and Lisa at the same time with only one sentence.
This was usually solve by a compulsion or a hard shove using his magic tendrils to push the blond away, usually the humiliation of tripping over 'nothing' was enough to send him away.
The only not solvable problem, not really a problem though, just an annoyance really, was that three out of four of Harry's roommates snored, and while he was good with runes, he had not learned from his mother on how to make a silencing runic array, nor did he know the silencing nor the muffling charm, so he had spent more time than he cared to in the library, as his mother had never needed such spells and had forgotten about them.
He would have to ask the twins; surely they had need of them for their experiments.
But first he would look in the library; worst case scenario was that he spent the day learning some other useful thing, like more runes, runes were fun to learn.
It made him mad that he hadn't thought of putting more rune dictionaries in his many-book.
The Hogwarts library was probably one of the biggest libraries in the world, right up there with the Library of Alexandria and the Library in Switzerland.
At first glance, however, it was small, with only fifteen rows of shelves, divided in three lines, with three floors, the third one being the restricted section, but in a place like Hogwarts, where even Muggles could feel the magic permeating the air, nothing, not even the classrooms were really small, and the library was one such place.
Harry had discovered, with help of Lisa and Terry, who spent nearly as much time there as he did, that the shelves never really had the same assortment of books, only the same general topic, which led them to believe that there was some kind of storage and the books changed place every day.
This had been shot down by the librarian, Irma Pince, because while there WAS a storage room, she did not know where it was, only that it was in the same floor as the library, the magic in the castle made it so that only the books that mentioned what the one entering the library wanted were on display.
Madam Pince, just like her predessesor, had learnt the secrets, almost every one of them, to the Hogwarts library; she knew how to call a book to the frontal desk, she knew how to get a lost book back, she knew how to veto a person that damaged books on purpose without the headmaster overriding her, and perhaps the most important of all, she knew where every shelve was, who entered and who was where they were not supposed to be.
To an outsider, Irma Pince was sharper than any hawk.
To a student, she was demon sent to torment those that had decided to hang out at the library in Hogwarts.
But the few that knew her, people like Minerva McGonagall and Augusta Longbottom, she was a woman whose passion for books was second to none.
So it was no wonder that Hermione Granger, the girl that had been helping Neville, indeed, probably her only friend, was one Madam Pince's favourite students, as she was the perfect image of how one should behave in the library.
So here was Harry now, having given up with searching for silencing spells, since most book he had skimmed through that day had only made some mentions of them, and picking up books in runes, a subject he honestly believed should be a core subject instead of History, unless the latter got a professor that actually taught, instead of a ghost that only droned on and on.
Sitting himself in the chair he had been using for the past hour, his buttocks aching some for the continued sitting, Harry started reading.
Sometime later, Harry was brought from his reading because of throat being cleared, something that made him frown, because he knew that his friends knew better than interrupting his reading lest they be subjected to his annoyed glares.
He looked up to see Hermione Granger, the girl that was way better than him in theory but worse in practical application of spells.
Maybe it had to do with the brain?
"Why did you sit here?" the girl with the bushy hair asked, but Harry was busy staring at her hair.
'How can it be messier than mine?' a month, almost two, may have passed, but he was still shocked at such a hair.
"She asked you a question, Harry" Lily said in a slight scolding tone, pushing him out of his thought.
"Because I needed a chair" Harry answered bluntly, "If you are asking why I'm sitting next to you, it's because you sat here when I was putting some books away"
The girl nodded and looked at the title of the books that Harry had grabbed, "Isn't the study of runes for third years and above?" she asked.
"The class is; there is nothing in the Hogwarts charter that prohibits studying ahead," Harry answered and went back to his reading.
"But, shouldn't you go to the professor if you want to know what to learn?" Hermione asked again.
"I've been using runes since I was six, I think I know what I'm supposed to learn" Harry snapped, "Now, if you could let me search for a silencing array, that'd be great"
Hermione looked hurt, making Harry sigh, "nothing personal, but I hate it when people interrupt me"
*October thirty*
Harry was sitting in the top of his four-poster with a chisel in his mouth, a book on his legs and a clay tablet, since he doubted that the elves would let the damaged bed stay, in front of him and the book with the array he wanted in his bed.
He was moody, and everyone could tell because he made no effort whatsoever to hide the scowl that seemed permanent in his face.
This was not because Halloween was the next day, nor because the school was being decorated for the feast.
No, it was because almost everyone in their fourth year and bellow had decided to thank him again and again for vanquishing Voldemort, totally ignoring that he had lost his father, his mother too for everyone else but him, that day.
And apparently everyone wanted their autographs in their Harry Potter books.
He was getting a lawyer to get those things recalled.
Only his friends said nothing, as they knew what happened, well, Lisa learned what happened, the other four already knew but said nothing, and only kept him company between classes.
Taking the chisel off his mouth and putting it so it hovered just over the clay tablet, Harry took another look at the book before carefully carving the first rune of the array; silence.
It wouldn't be so bad if the professors remembered what happened, but only Hagrid, who had cried inside his hut when he mentioned them, the only person that seemed to remember the sacrifice of his parents that daw was Dumbledore, who had given him a sad nod and a grief filled glance.
The second rune, area, was started five centimetres away from silence.
Not even professor McGonagall nor Flitwick recognized the day and only joined in the good mood of Halloween, becoming enthusiastic of their teaching.
The rune of 'outwards' went in so it was just touching the one for area and the one for 'inwards' touched silence.
The twins had tried, somewhat successfully, to get his mind off the day by making a school-wide prank that involved animating the chicken served during mealtimes, so the school was gifted to the sight of chicken that fought back whenever someone tried to grab a piece of it.
It also danced away from the plates it was served on.
Professor Flitwick and the Headmaster were the only professors that took it with humour.
The twins had gotten detention.
Maybe he could skip classes the next day, if only to evade the idiotic fans and the thanks.