Chapter7:
Harry was still thinking about Quirrell, when he entered into the Slytherin common room after the feast. However, he shifted his attention towards his new Hogwarts house's common room. Slytherin house had a slightly different outlook than other houses. Harry definitely liked that new outlook of his house. He was also feeling all the green serpents on the wall were responding to his presence in that room. He felt his parseltongue status would allow him to discover the hidden mystery's of Slytherin House's common room.
Almost all the students of Slytherin house were present in the common room. He knew it was the tradition for older Slytherin to be introduced with their new housemates. The older years generally did not interfere in the internal matters of lower years; however, they always observed their younger housemate's action closely.
"From the older students of House of Slytherin I am welcoming all the new snakes into the best house of Hogwarts. As a first year, you should know that, every other house of Hogwarts despise us, so get ready to be despised by 75 % of students of Hogwarts. House unity in front of students from other houses is necessary for the survival of our house. If you have any disagreement with your housemate, then try to solve it within the house. A Slytherin is known for his/her ambition and cunningness, so show it in your behavior and prove your worth as a Slytherin." Eighth year male prefect Albert Jenkins addressed the first year students.
"Despite being hated by 75% students of the school, we are the best house in the school. It is the house of ambition and you should be all ambitious for doing best in Hogwarts. We are winning the house cup for last five years, so we are hoping to continue that in this year also. I will also hope that, one of you will become first academically in your first years examination. Now, please come forward one by one and tell us about yourselves." Caroline Shaw, the seventh year female prefect told them.
Harry saw one by one first year students of Slytherin came forward and introduced themselves to older Slytherins. Harry also saw that, Daphne and Tracy introduced themselves confidently to the older students. When his turn came, Harry moved forward confidently to introduce himself to the older students.
Harry slightly bowed his head to older students as per wizarding tradition and started to introduce himself.
"First of all I want to say greetings to all of my housemates. I am Hadrian William Sayre. I am a Pureblood and I am the heir of Ancient House of Sayre. As a student, I am hoping to make a significant contribution to this great house that will be remembered in this house even after my graduation." Harry tried to make it clear to the older students that, he wanted to make a long lasting impact in the Slytherin house.
The introduction ceremony in Slytherin common room ended with Blaise's introduction.
"Now, I understand that, all of you are tired and want to take some rest, so without any delay we are releasing all of you from this meeting, good night." The female prefect spoke to first year Slytherin after the end of introduction ceremony.
"Good night, Daphne and Tracy, we will see you both in tomorrow morning." Harry told the girls.
"We are also hoping to see both of you boys in tomorrow morning, good night." Daphne responded.
After saying good-bye to the girls, Harry and Blaise went into Slytherin boy's dormitories. Unlike Gryffindor, dormitory Slytherin, dormitory had only two seats. Harry was glad that, he would not be forced to share the dormitory with someone like Malfoy or Nott.
"So, Harry what you are feeling now?" Blaise asked.
"For now, I am glad to not share the dormitory with Malfoy. I am also feeling glad to be sorted into the House of Slytherin." Harry responded
"Harry what you are planning to do in your free time in Hogwarts? Blaise casually asked.
"I want to explore this castle. I want to discover secrets the passage. I want to talk with various portraits of this castle to know the hidden history of this castle. What about yours?" Harry asked.
"Harry, I want to spend my free time in reading some book about politics." Blaise responded.
"So, Blaise Zabini you are a bookworm who wants to be a great politician?" Harry smiled when he asked Blaise that question.
"Every Slytherins from influential family wants to be a great politician." Blaise simply responded.
"You are right my dear friend, however, I think you will become a great politician one day. Good night." Harry told Blaise.
"Thanks for the compliment Harry and good night to you also." Blaise told Harry.
At the same time in Slytherin girl's dormitories:
Daphne and Tracy were sharing the same dormitory. Both of them were happy to share dormitory with each other. After wearing nightdress both of them were starting to talk.
"Daphy, why did the sorting hat take so much time to sort you?" Tracy asked.
"The sorting hat was trying to sort me into Hufflepuff; it was saying that, I have loyalty, hardworking characteristics. However, I strictly told it that, I will not accept any other house than Slytherin." Daphne told him.
"You are very loyal to your friend and you work very hard to achieve your goal. I can tell you from my personal experience that, you are very loyal to me." Tracy told Daphne.
"You are my best friend. Therefore, I will be always loyal to you." Daphne told Tracy.
"I know I am your best friend. However, I am suspecting that Harry will replace me as your best friend." Tracy was laughing when she told that to Daphne half seriously.
Daphne knew that, Tracy was mainly joking but she could also sense Tracy was feeling somewhat anxious about their relationship status after the strong appearance of Harry in Daphne's life.
"Tracy, you are my best friend from the age of 5 .You have special place in my life, you should never worry about being replaced by anyone as my best friend. As for Harry, he also has unique place in my life. He is my only close blood relative apart from my parents and sister. He is also living with my family and my parents are his magical guardian. Therefore, he is my family.
Harry also become close to me by understanding me, sharing our experiences, discussing our common passions, talking about small things and studying together in our library. Both Harry and I share a common vision for UK. Therefore, Harry becomes my second friend after you.
Both Harry and you are quite different from each other in nature. So, both of you cannot be compared with each other.
Tracy, both of us did not have any other friend than each other until the last year. Nevertheless, now we have Harry and Blaise as our friend. We have increased our friend numbers from one to three. However, that does not mean, our friendship level will be reduced because of the inclusion of new friends in our life." After assuring Tracy, she hugged her.
"Daphne, what you think about tomorrow's class?" Tracy asked her.
"I am waiting for this eagerly; I am hoping to do well in those classes." Daphne told her.
"Don't worry Daphy; you will do well in those classes." Tracy assured her.
In the morning:
Daphne, Tracy, and Blaise met in Slytherin common room. They did not find Harry in the dormitories or common room.
"Where is Harry?" Daphne asked Blaise.
"I don't know where he is. When I woke up in my bed, I saw his bed empty." Blaise told her.
Suddenly they saw Harry was entering into the common room from outside.
"Harry, from where you are coming now?" Tracy asked him.
"I do some physical exercise every day after waking up from my sleep at 5.30 am."
"Why you wake up so early in the morning and doing those physical exercise." Daphne asked him with confusion.
"First waking up early in the morning is obviously beneficial to your health. It make you healthy and by doing physical exercise regularly you can achieve physical fitness. Physical fitness will strengthen your magical core and physical fitness will give you mobility in the duel.
You don't need to cast a shield charm and spend your magical energy when you can just move away from the path of the curse which is casted for you." Harry explained to his friends.
"Wow! Harry, you know so much about physical fitness and its benefits. However, I think you can also use your physical fitness to build up your body and attract young witches after few years." Tracy teased him.
"Will you be among the witches who are going to be attracted by me after few years" Harry teased her back.
"I would be among them but I don't hit on those men who will be already taken by other women." Tracy smirked.
Harry looked confused after hearing this. Blaise were silently smiling after hearing that from Tracy.
After 10 minutes four of them went to Hogwarts dining room for breakfast, they moved to near end of the Slytherin table. They also saw Malfoy, Nott, Moon, Parkinson, Goyle, and Crabb were sitting in middle portion of the table with other year's leadership.
Harry was observing that, how Malfoy was influencing other year's leaders. He was using full might of House of Malfoy on them. It seemed like the combined might of House of Malfoy, Nott, Moon, and Parkinson were enough to get some respects from upper year's leadership.
Harry was determined that, one day he and his friends would replace Malfoy, Nott, Moon, and Parkinson in his year's Slytherin leadership.
In Transfiguration classroom:
Harry and his friends went to attend their first class in Hogwarts in Transfiguration classroom. Harry was feeling somewhat excited to attend his first class in this universe. Harry and his friends sat in a separate table in the classroom from other Slytherins.
As usual first year Slytherins and Gryffindors were looking at each other angrily. Harry found that, whole thing between two rival houses rather childish. Harry also saw that, a cat was sitting on the chair of Transfiguration Professor. Harry was smiling silently after seeing Minerva in her cat form again. Just like, Harry's home universe the cat slowly transformed into the human form of Minerva.
Just as Harry expected, every other students were shocked to see the transformation of their Transfiguration teacher.
"As your Transfiguration teacher I am welcoming all of you into your first ever Transfiguration class in Hogwarts. Transfiguration is a noble art of magic. It needs your imagination and will power along with your spelling movements and uttering of spells." Minerva started to give lecture to the students.
Harry was observing Minerva's lecture and he was impressed with this universe's Minerva performance as a teacher.
"Now, who can tell me about three exceptions in Transfiguration?" Minerva asked her students.
Hermione Granger raised her hands and gave a answer which was completely similar to first year Transfiguration text book. Harry realized that, Hermione was only memorizing the answers from her textbook blindly. She was not trying to crosscheck the answer from textbook with other reference books to get a better answer. She was also not trying to understand the actual meaning of various theories.
Harry knew that, you could never become a truly knowledgeable wizard or witch if you did not try to understand magical theories and crosschecked them by various sources. In Harry's opinion memorizing answers of various theories could give you a good grade to a certain degree but you would never able to apply those theories in your real life if you did not understand those theories.
Minerva again asked another question about Transfiguration and that time she let Moon to answer the question. Hermione looked very sad for losing chance to answer the question. Harry felt very annoyed by her attitude.
After theory lesson, Minerva told the students to be ready for their first practical lesson of Transfiguration. The task of the Transfiguration practical lesson was turning a matchstick into a needle.
"This is show time; I have to show them now." Harry told himself. After that, without any delay Harry moved his wand and turned the matchstick into a perfect needle with Slytherin's monogram within five seconds. He did this whole thing silently also to make it more shocking to others.
The whole class was stunned including Minerva was stunned after Harry's performance. Daphne, Blaise, and Tracy all were looked shocked to see Harry's performance.
Malfoy and his allies were also shocked to see the brilliance of Hadrian William Sayre. They never knew that, Harry was so much talented in the arts of Transfiguration.
Minerva was also very impressed by young Hadrian's performance. Hadrian transfigures the matchstick into needle within 5 seconds with Slytherin monogram and he had done the whole thing by casting the spell silently. Minerva was sure that, Hadrian William Sayre was a prodigy in the art of Transfiguration.
Hermione was clearly jealous by Harry's performance because she finally found someone who was much more talented than she was and she did not know how to react with that newly found fact.
"That's great Mr. Sayre, take 20 points for Slytherin. How you do that so easily?" Minerva asked Harry.
"Professor, I have just followed your advice and imagine the matchstick as a needle which belongs to Slytherin house and then use my will power to achieve that by accurately moving my wand while casting the spell." Harry told Minerva.
Harry obviously lied to Minerva about moving his wand accurately and using his willpower to transfigure the matchstick. For Harry who studied for six years in Hogwarts, researched extensively for two years about various parts of magic and was the most powerful wizard of his generation, transfiguring a matchstick was too easy. He could do it without using any wand. Therefore, moving wands accurately was not needed to cast the spell. That spell was also too easy for him to use any significant amount of will power.
However, he could not reveal all of his secrets without raising some tough questions and giving a teacher some, credits for his performance could always be useful for future.
"But, how can you cast the spell silently?" Minerva asked him again
"Madam, I always try to cast a spell silently at first, if I can't perform the spell silently then, I utter words to do that. I always think if you can cast a spell silently then there is no need to shout the spell." Harry told Minerva with an innocent face.
His answer again shocked Minerva. In Minerva's mind, Harry was already the most talented student in Transfiguration after Albus. She was feeling very much excited for finding such talent.
"You all see how Mr. Sayre has completed the transfiguration. Now it is your turn to do it and you Mr. Sayre try to transfigure the needle back to matchstick." Minerva told her students.
Harry again wasted no time and completed the task in a record time. After that, Minerva assigned Harry to transfigure a quill into a parchment, a parchment into quill, a matchstick into a button, a button into a matchstick, a needle into a quill, a quill into needle, a parchment into button, and a button into parchment.
Harry completed all the tasks within 5 minutes. Meanwhile Daphne was successful to transfigure the matchstick into a needle but it was not as sharp as Harry's needle and she shouted while casting the spell. All the other students were struggling to complete their task.
Minerva gave Harry 50 points for all of his completed tasks and Daphne 10 points for completing her task.
Harry then, decided to help Tracy and Blaise who were still somewhat shocked about Harry's performance. After 10 minutes, both Blaise and Tracy completed their task. Meanwhile, Daphne also transfigured the needle back into the matchstick. Minerva gave Daphne, Tracy and Blaise 5 points for their works.
Minerva was clearly impressed with Daphne's performance also. Normally no students were able to complete their tasks in the first class. However, after finding a super prodigy in Harry, Minerva also found a prodigy in Daphne and two talented students in Tracy and Blaise.
At the end of her class, Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy were also able to transfigure the matchstick into needle. Daphne was also able to transfigure the quill into the parchment. Minerva gave Daphne 5 points and she gave 3 points each to Draco and Hermione.
"I am very much pleased with all of your performance. Now you are all required to write 10-inch parchment about the theories and applications of matchstick to needle transfiguration." Minerva told her students.
"Mr. Sayre and Ms. Greengrass please stay here for few minutes. I have something to discuss with both of you." Minerva told Harry and Daphne to stay while other students were living the classroom.
After all the students left the classroom, Minerva started to talk with Harry and Daphne about their performance in the class.
"Mr. .Sayre you are truly exceptional in Transfiguration. You are clearly way ahead of your classmates except for Ms. Greengrass. I think 1st year Transfiguration practical tasks will no longer be a challenge for you. Therefore, I am willing to test you with second year transfiguration practical tasks. What do you think about it? Minerva asked Harry.
Harry was obviously not worried about second year Transfiguration practical works. However, he would love to have some practices on her class.
"Madam, I think it will be a great for me. I love Transfiguration; it makes me a believer of endless possibilities of magical world."
Harry told her with excitement in his voice.
"I am pleased to see your passion for Transfiguration Mr. Sayre. I will also like to see your theoretical work about those transfigurations." Minerva told Harry.
"Ms. Greengrass. I am also pleased to see your depth of skill in your practical works. I want to test with you more than two practical tasks of 1st year transfiguration. I have no doubt; at the end of this year's Transfiguration class, you will be close to complete the second year Transfiguration practical works." Minerva praised Daphne.
"Thanks for giving me such opportunity madam; I will try to never disappoint you." Daphne told Minerva.
"I am hoping to see your good performances in my future classes also. You can now join with your classmates." Minerva told them.
After taking leave from their Transfiguration teacher both Harry and Daphne joined with their friends Tracy and Blaise who were waiting for them outside of the Transfiguration classroom.
"So, Harry, do you want to tell us something now." Daphne asked him. Harry felt all of his friends were looking at him with curious face.
"Ok, I may be little skilled in all the first year subjects and by the way Daphne you also did not tell us about your talent in Transfiguration." Harry told Daphne.
"Oh! Harry please stops trying to be humble. It does not suit you and Daphy, Harry also has a point about your performances in Transfiguration." Tracy addressed both Harry and Daphne.
"I don't want to publicize my skills outside of class and I also don't think we should talk too much about each other's magical skills when we are spending time with each other." Daphne told her defensively.
"It is same for me, Tracy; I have become friends with all of you for less than two months. Therefore, I do not want sound too much arrogant about my skill to all of you and in friendship; I do not think we should give too much importance to each other's magical skill while we are talking with each other as friend." Harry told to her.
After their short chatting session, four of them went for their next class, which was History of magic. Prof. Prince was definitely an improvement over ghost professor of Harry's home universe.
After graduating from Hogwarts, Harry tried to gain some knowledge about wizarding UK's history and it fascinated him. Harry realized then, history of magical UK was more than Goblin's war. Those history lessons made Harry proud about his nation and forced him to think beyond light and dark. He wanted to get rid of Voldemort in order to build a modern British magical society, which had its roots firmly on history.
Harry was able to give a good controversial answer to Prof. Prince's question about British ancient magical tradition and festivals. Harry told the class how the neglecting and insulting of native tradition and culture in the favor of promoting muggle religious festivals in the name tolerance made the integration of first generation wizards in British magical society almost impossible and that type of attitude was leading to slow cultural death of British magical culture.
Harry also told the class that, in order to become tolerant about a foreign culture one does not need to marginalize and insult their own native culture. He also told them he did not think that, doing violence would restore British culture. He told them, the emergence of Dark lords in last two centuries had only brought death and sufferings for the people and reduced wizarding population of UK.
Prof. Prince was highly impressed with Harry's answer. She might not agree with him 100% on everything he said. However, she liked the fact that, Harry showed maturity beyond his age. She also liked the fact that, how he presented his point in a clam manner. Prof. Prince also liked the fact that, despite being a rich pureblood himself, Hadrian Sayre talked against dark lord and importance of integrating first generation wizards and witches into the mainstream British magical culture.
On the other hand, Harry knew that, his answer would create controversy among students; however, he thought, it would be a better way to publicize his groups vision to all those students who were searching for an alternative, who valued and loved their native culture , nevertheless hate violence and killings.
Therefore, Harry once again became center of attention of the class after Transfiguration class. After History, class there was a break for 1 hour. Therefore, Harry and his friends were sitting on a couch at one corner of the Slytherin House.
They were clearly observed by the rest of the Slytherin first years. Harry and his friends were expecting these types of extra attention from other first year snakes after the incidents of Transfiguration and History classes.
"It seemed like Malfoy, Nott, Moon, Parkinson have become dejected by their performance in Transfiguration compared to our performance." Harry commented after observing their rival group.
"It seemed like they are more dejected by their performance compared to mostly yours and partially Daphne's performance." Tracy replied.
"You should not forget that, both you and Blaise completed your tasks at least 10 minutes before Draco did. You also know that, Nott, Moon, and Parkinson all failed to complete their tasks in the Transfiguration class." Daphne told Tracy.
"I think we are on the way to establish that, our fraction is stronger than their fraction in terms of magical power." Blaise told his friends.
"I think, at the end of first week, we will be able to establish our fraction as the stronger one among Slytherin first year in terms of magical power and it will shake their power structure." Harry commented.
"I think we should also practice our spells separately from others in a secret room." Harry further added.
"So, Harry you want to mentor us, I have no problem about that, however, where we will get a secret room for practicing spells?" Tracy asked Harry.
"I think, as we are friends, we should always help each other and to answer your question, I have already found a room for us for practicing spells separately and it is called Room of Requirement." Harry commented.
Chapter end
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