Chapter 17:
"You?" Daphne asked in a shocked voice.
"Yes, but it seems like you are not happy to see me." Alistair Moody replied to Daphne.
Daphne was shocked to see Alistair Moody in the room. Nevertheless, she did not get any time to think about it as Moody started to speak again.
"I know you are shocked to see me in the room. I come here to integrate you." Moody declared.
"Why?" A shocked Daphne again asked him.
"I think you know in your minds why I come here. Yes, I know that, you are a parselmouth. I was behind you during the duel and due to my experience and my magical eye, I detected that you are a parselmouth.
Now you are wondering that, why I save you from being exposed as a parselmouth during dueling? If I let it happen, then a chaos would have been created, you would get time to think, even your parents could take you away from here.
I am surprised to find out that, you are a parselmouth; I never thought that House Greengrass would produce an ultra dark witch like you. But, strange things happen sometimes." Alistair told her.
Daphne was stunned after hearing opinion of her professor; she never thought that, Prof. Moody would be so narrow-minded.
"So just because I am a parselmouth you are calling me as super dark witch. You are a bigot sir." Daphne accused Moody. Her voice was burning with anger.
"I am not a bigot, you stupid girl. I am a realistic person who can see dark wizards and witches and I am ruthless to them. Show me, one parselmouth who did something better for the society. Being parselmouth is an ultimate character trait of a dark wizard or witch.
I came here to investigate cases, which involved a parselmouth. However, I was motivated to catch the culprit and now; you are trapped in this room. I am wondering how you changed your gender and age when you raided Gaunt Manor. Now, I realize that, it must be something to do with parsel magic. Parselmouth like you are living danger to the society and therefore, their every movement should be monitored by aurors." Alistair Moody smirked.
Daphne felt horrible after hearing Moody's statement. He was indicating that he hated her just for being a parselmouth. He was saying that, because of her that quality she did not deserve to move freely and her every activity should be monitored by the government. He was telling her that, she was a freak she was abnormal. His statement were also confusing Daphne, he was accusing her about raiding Gaunt manor, which she never did.
"So you find a dark witch in an 11 years girl just because she is born with a quality. People are right you are really mad person." Both Daphne and Moody were shocked after hearing the voice of Harry suddenly.
"Good morning to you also Mr. Sayre. I can understand your desire to defend your cousin Mr. Sayre but you should realize that, Parselmouth like her never love anyone as their family, you are a talented wizard, but if you continue to support her you will become a slave of her." Professor Moody warned Hadrian.
"So you are saying that, I will enslave people, I will never love anyone in my family. I am shocked to hear your opinion about me." Harry replied to Prof. moody.
"I am not talking about you I am talking about your parselmouth cousin." An irritated Prof. Moody told Harry.
Harry remained silent for few seconds; he knew what he needed to do.
"Actually you are also talking about me, Obliviate primex" Harry shouted and quickly moved his wand. Moody tried to build a shield but the spell easily broke his impressive shield and hit him in the chest. Prof. Moody got himself unconscious because of that.
Daphne rushed to Harry and hugged him & Harry hugged her back.
" Harry I never thought that Prof. Moody would have so much prejudice in his heart about parselmouth. His every word was hurting me like hell. Why he thought that, I would become a bad person in my future just because I can talk with snake." Daphne was crying while holding Harry tightly.
After seeing his friends crying state, he was feeling like cursing the unconscious professor again. He also never thought that Prof. Alistair Moody would be a bigot in that universe. It reminded Harry how people still fear what was unknown to them.
"Daphne I told you yesterday, I am telling you again, you are a family loving, talented witch who have a vision for the future. You should not let this ignorant person's word to hurt you. You should remember that, his comments are about all the parselmouth, which includes me with you.
He also forgets that, in our history there were many parselmouth in future and they contributed greatly to global wizardry.
Our ancestor Octavian Gaunt was a great scientist, wizard, visionary, even our great grandfather was a parselmouth, and he was a great family person." Harry commented.
"Harry what you did to him?" Daphne asked him.
"I just casted an obliviate spell on him in parseltongue which will erase his memory of last 24 hours. This spell is created by our great ancestor Octavian Gaunt , this spell would not harm his mind at all which is not the case with normal memory erasing charm. I first found it in his diary.
Because of this spell, our Prof. Moody will remain unconscious for next thirty minutes and after that, he will forget everything about his last 24 hours." Harry remarked.
"Harry memory erasing charm is a sixth year charm, how you able to learn it so quickly." A surprised Daphne asked.
"Daphne, this is specialized spell which is created for parselmouth, the dynamics of this spell is very easier compare to normal memory erasing spell. Therefore, any parselmouth who are 11 years or above can learn this spell and I will of course teach you this spell." Harry explained to his cousin.
After hearing his cousin explanation she felt assured, she also felt grateful to Harry for protecting her from Moody. She knew that at that moment Harry would always support her. She also felt excited to learn the new spell.
"Harry I really appreciate your help, but what should we do with Prof. Moody?" Daphne asked Harry.
"Daphne Prof. Moody came here with this cloak of invisibility we can use it to hide him then we can use cushioning charm and then we can use our parseltongue ability to enter his chamber and left him in his chamber." Harry told the plan to his cousin.
"You are a genius Harry." Daphne declared.
"I already know that and having a fellow genius best friend also help me a lot. Now we should not waste any time to send Prof. Moody into his chamber." Harry smiled to his best friend after saying that.
After 20 minutes, Harry and Daphne returned to their common room. Soon Tracy and Blaise surrounded them.
"Hey, be ready we have a quidditch match against Puffs in the evening." Tracy informed them.
"Yes, it is soon, when Cedric and rest of the Puffs heard that, they were furious and they took as a house pride thing." Blaise notified them.
"Harry, I think nobody will be bothered too much if you can't catch the snitch when you are facing against a star seeker like Cedric Diggory." Tracy tried to assure Harry that, it was ok to lose a match against Cedric.
"Don't worry; I will try to give my best." Harry told his friend.
Something never changes even in different universes. Despite it was just a friendly quidditch match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin, it seemed like half of the school were present in that friendly match. As expected, Hufflepuff was getting significant amount of support from the house of Gryffindor and Ravanclaw. They were expecting to see a defeated Slytherin quidditch team.
"Listen Sayre, we are in that mass because of you first years. Now if you embarrass us in the field then I will personally make your life difficult in the house of Slytherin." Slytherin captain Flint threatened Harry.
"Flint, I can promise you Slytherin team will not be feeling any problem in the field because of me." Harry tried to assure the captain.
As expected, Madam Hooch would conduct that match. Flint and Puff captain Anderson shacked hands while Madam Hooch was giving lecture about the importance of a clean game.
After that the game started. Harry decided to position himself in the middle of the pitch as his eyes were searching for the golden snitch. He saw Cedric positioned himself just away from him. Harry saw despite having a strong attack from Slytherin, Hufflepuff were holding them well, as they were trailing by 40-20. Flint desperately wanted to build a lead of above 150 incase, Cedric was able to catch the snitch.
Harry decided to disrupt the defense mechanism of Puffs. He moved swiftly towards the chasers of his team who were brilliantly marked by the puff's beaters. Harry saw Cedric also followed him as he thought Harry might saw the snitch.
"Warrington, give the quaffle to me." Harry told Warrington. Warrington was obviously surprised by Harry's sudden demand but he gave the quaffle to Harry. Without wasting anytime, Harry throw the quaffle towards goalpost and the Keeper of Hufflepuff house had no chance to prevent that, as the whole incident was very much shocking to him.
The whole Slytherin house cheered after Harry scored. Hufflepuff and other houses were stunned by seeing Harry's move. They did not expect that, Harry would act as fourth chaser and disrupt the rhythm of Hufflepuff defense system. The move done by Harry was only done in professional league. Normally a seeker could not simultaneously play the role of chaser perfectly. However, Harry was an exception he was a great chaser even better than original chasers. Not all the viewers of the match expected that, a first year student could show such a professional quidditch move with perfection. Cedric was stunned by Harry's move he was a star seeker but he was not as good as a chaser.
Cedric was undecided whether he should marked Harry or go for a search of snitch. Slytherin was increasing their lead over Slytherin at rapid rate after Harry joined in the chase. At that moment, Slytherin was leading the game by 110-30. It seemed like Slytherin would extend their leads over 150 if the game continues for another 20 minutes.
Suddenly Harry saw both beaters were ready to hit Warrington with their bludgers at the same time. Harry increased the speed of his broom and moved between the Hufflepuff beaters and present him as the target as expected they targeted Harry with bludgers from both side. However, Harry moved his body and broom from the path of bludgers at exceptional rate thanks to his great reflexes and moved upwards.
Because of his action, both bludgers hit the both Hufflepuff beaters and knocked them off from their broom. Slytherins were cheering loudly after seeing such a daredevil moves from Harry . They were overjoyed, as they did not thought the first year Slytherin student Hadrian Sayre would be such a multitalented quidditch player.
The Hufflepuff were obviously not happy with the development, they were feeling shock, and they never saw it coming. They could never imagine that a first year student could have that much quidditch talent so that he might pull difficult quidditch moves so easily. They were panicked as they lost both of their beaters and that made them defenseless.
Slytherin did not forget to take advantage of that defenseless situation of their opponents. They attacked heavily against Hufflepuff and Harry joined in the attack. The combined attack of Slytherins was too much for the Hufflepuff keeper. Because of that, Slytherin was leading by 250-40.
However, Slytherin did not stop their attack even after getting such a huge lead; they were determined to create a record. Cedric looked desperate to find the snitch as he was trying to minimize the margin of defeat and end the game. Suddenly he saw Harry gave the quffale to Warrington and moving towards the ground. Cedric thought Harry might saw the snitch soon; he moved his broom and followed Harry.
Cedric got worried as he saw Hadrian was moving towards lower and lower of the ground at a very high speed, but Cedric followed Harry at the same speed. When Cedric thought Harry would crush on the ground, he saw Harry moved swiftly towards upwards. That move from Harry shocked Cedric and he did not get time to think what to do as he crushed heavily on the ground.
The shouting from Slytherin stand was earth shattering; they were enjoying the brilliant performances of Harry very much. They were happy that, their team would crush their opponents by a huge margin.
On the other Hufflepuff was feeling that, they were living a nightmare. When they first entered into the stand, they thought that their team as Slytherin seeker was just first year student would defeat Slytherin and their seeker was the best among the houses. Now, their house was facing the prospect of most humiliating defeat in their history ever and that first year inexperienced Slytherin seeker had a great role behind that.
Slytherin lead over Hufflepuff increased rapidly and when the Madam Hooch called for break, Slytherins were leading by 560-50.
"Sayre I don't praise the player easily, but you are something else in the field. The stunts you pulled there were really something else. Therefore, I am offering you the regular seeker position in our team." Flint told Harry.
Harry was definitely pleased by the development as quidditch his first passion and he simply like flying.
"I will be honored if I get an opportunity to become a part of the team." Harry politely accepted the offer.
"Welcome to team Sayre, I am hoping that, you will also rock in future." Warrington welcomed him in the team.
Harry thanked Warrington.
"Flint, when I should catch the snitch?" Harry asked his captain.
"Sayre you can look after for snitch after our lead crossed 1000, I think if we can do that it will be a record in school history." Flint instructed Harry.
After the break, the game begins once again. The Hufflepuff team was deeply demoralized by the state of the game and they failed to build any effective opposition against the attack of Slytherins. The lead of Slytherin finally crossed 1000 after 45 minutes of the break. After that, Harry started to search for the snitch. He finally saw the snitch behind a Hufflepuff chaser. Harry moved very quickly towards the snitch, however, the Hufflepuff chaser felt worried as he saw Harry was coming towards him at a very rapid speed. Nevertheless, he found himself further shocked when he saw Harry caught the snitch near from his ear.
The stand of green and silver shouted very highly as their team finally defeat their opponent by 1260-60.
The members of Slytherin quidditch team celebrated wildly in the ground. The whole team was very happy because they not only beat the Hufflepuff; they beat them by record margin. Hufflepuff team on the other hand was feeling very much disgusted as it was the darkest day in the quidditch history of Hufflepuff house.
When Harry got himself released from the team, he went to his friends.
Daphne quickly hugged him and then Tracy and Blaise hugged him.
"Harry it seems like you are a prodigy in Quidditch also." Blaise remarked.
"I like the feeling of flying in the sky mostly." Harry told them.
"Harry please don't be so modest, the stunts you pulled earlier was totally a different level of performance." Tracy told him.
"Friends, I have good news for you, I am in the quidditch team as regular seeker." Harry informed his friends.
"Flint would have been crazy if he did not offer you the seeker position after your brilliant performance in this match." Tracy told Harry.
There was a wild celebration in Slytherin common room because of their quidditch victory.
"Thanks Malfoy, I would not be Slytherin seeker today without your contribution." Harry teased Malfoy.
Malfoy failed to say anything in reply as his plan against Harry backfired massively. Harry's quidditch popularity would surely increase the influence of Harry's wing in the house.
Harry and Daphne secretly leave the common room and soon they reached in the room of requirement.
"Daphne the first thing you should remember about parsel magic is that, parsel magic has some fundamental differences with normal magic. However, as I told you before you will have greater degree of control in parsel magic and you will also have a greater result if you cast a spell in parseltongue." Harry told his cousin.
Daphne felt very much excited about learning the parsel magic.
"Harry, I want to learn how I will control myself from speaking parseltongue whenever I will see the snake. After today's experience with Prof. Moody I want to protect my secret from the outside world." Daphne told Harry.
Harry understood that, Daphne's experience with part time potion Professor made her more determined to protect her secret. Harry himself never thought that people in that universe would be more bigoted against Parselmouth then his home universe.
"Daphne for that you have to learn some basics of mind arts in parsel magic." Harry informed her.
After that, Harry explained her how to establish an initial mental link with snake that would prevent her from speaking parseltongue automatically whenever she saw the snake. Harry gave importance to mental concentration and will power in establishing the mental link. Harry also explained her she should be respectful to the snake when she would try to establish the mental link with the snake. Harry then told her how to organize her mind for learning the parseltongue.
He taught her how to preserve all the knowledge about parsel magic behind the white wall in her mind space.
Daphne followed Harry's instruction very carefully. She was able to build a very weak mental link with snake after 40 minutes of continuous practice. However, Harry told her not to get disappointed, as it will take at least a month for her master the establishing the mental link with snake.
Daphne also gave her best effort in learning how to organize her mind with the information regarding parseltongue. Even though she did not see, any visible progress on this Harry informed her she surely made progress in organizing her mind. He also told her to be patient in learning parsel magic, as the whole thing is completely new to her.
"Now Daphne I want you to learn this spell specially, it is an illusion spell which would be more effective than normal illusion spell, it will help you to practice your spells secretly, now repeat my wand movement and say 'Alasthaia'." Harry instructed Daphne.
Daphne was quick to realize the wand movement pattern for that spell and repeat the word Alasthaia. Daphne felt encouraged when she saw visible progress of her spell work. After 30 minutes, she made significant progress in learning the spell. Harry informed her that, if she practiced it for another day then she would clearly learn the spell totally.
"Daphne we should go now as it is dinner time." Harry suggested.
Daphne agreed with him and they both left together for the dinner.
Albus Dumbledore was looking at the performances report of the first year students of two weeks. There were 80 first year students. Slytherin was dominating the top 10 list; it was not in the case in previous years. He again looked at the names and the top 10 students of first year for 1991 were-
Hadrian Sayre
Daphne Greengrass
Blaise Zabini
Hermione Granger
Tracy Davies
Terry Boot
Draco Malfoy
Susan Bones
Lilith Moon
Theodore Nott
Seven out of top 10 students were from Slytherin. He did not expect such dominance of House of Slytherin. There was no doubt in his mind that, that Slytherin batch of 1991 would become the brightest Slytherin wizards or witches in last 40 years.
He was shocked to see Hermione Granger at number 4 , he saw the girl's muggle school report card before 1 September and thought that girl would be a prodigy and first in her batch. A muggle born topper would definitely make a strong political statement against hardcore conservative faction who were saying that, muggle born did not contribute much in British society. He saw the weekly report in first week Hermione was at number 3 but in next week Blaise Zabini outperformed her.
Among the top 10 students of first year, nine were Purebloods 7 were Slytherin purebloods. Non-Slytherin purebloods like Susan Bones and Terry Boot came from liberal families but their families were not so enthusiastic supporter of him and moving towards centre in recent days.
Then he shifted his focus towards 7 Slytherin purebloods, he knew those 7 students were divided into two groups. Despite the best effort from Slytherin house, he came to know there were clearly a power struggle and rivalry between dark and neutral factions and it clearly reflected in recent honor duels.
The neutral faction was consisting of Hadrian Sayre, Daphne Greengrass, Blaise Zabini, Tracy Davies and they were all among the top five. Albus realized that, Tracy Davies had real potentials to replace Hermione Granger in top four. This group of four friends had become famous even outside of their house and called as Silver 4. They always hang out together and he heard the rumor that, they even practice together. They would be a powerful force in British wizardry when they would graduate from the Hogwarts.
The other faction was dark faction, which was consisting of Draco Malfoy, Lilith Moon, and Theodore Nott. Pansy Parkinson also part of the group even though she was not in top 10.
Their faction was dominant in the house but they were recently losing their influences to neutral faction.
However, those two factions did not openly oppose each other in front of other houses and they had some similar believes regarding protecting culture and heritage of British wizardry, celebrating traditional wizarding customs and they were both against incorporating muggle concepts in the society.
Dumbledore realized that, those seven families would lead the British wizarding society in next 10 years and despite having some fundamental differences there was a chance that, those families could find common ground in range of issues and that could lead to decline of strength of his liberal faction in wizengamot.
The whole situation made the power struggle between neutral and dark faction in Slytherin house more interesting for Dumbledore. Dumbledore knew he had to act now. He decided that, he would do everything in his power to increase the rift between two factions. It would be for greater good.
Harry after waking up in next day went straight to chamber of secrets.
"It looks like you were busy in last few days." Portrait of Tom told Harry.
"Yes, I was busy, Tom did you feel any discrimination for being a parselmouth in Hogwarts?" Harry asked Tom.
"Till fifth year I never told anyone about my ability, as our society was very much prejudiced against parselmouth .Even though recent parselmouth left a bad impression in the mind of people British society by their actions." Tom replied Harry.
After hearing Tom's reply Harry once again realized that, he and Daphne had to hide their abilities from everyone for some years.
Harry brought glasses, steel, and other equipments to make portable telescope. He always thought that, how much in the universe is still unknown to human. How wizards could use their magical abilities to solve the mysteries of space. Besides that, he could always use some good publicity to increase his influence in his house.
Harry worked for two hours, he was examine muggle telescope and thinking how he could further improve its performance by incorporating magic into it then making a separate portable telescopes for wizards and witches. He was also thinking about publicity of his products. He already had an idea about it. He also thought about how to ensure patent of his product and selling it through his aunt's store.
Harry directly joined his friends in Slytherin table for breakfast.
"Harry, see you are mentioned in page 3 of Daily prophet." Tracy told Harry.
Harry took the newspaper from the hand of Tracy. In page 3 Harry saw Daily Prophet extensively write about the humiliating defeat of Hufflepuff in the hand of Slytherin. The sports reporter gleefully told his readers that, a record was created yesterday in the friendly match between Hufflepuff and Slytherin.
Harry also observed that, he was specially mentioned in that article. The sports reporter lauded him as the child prodigy of quidditch. He praised his quidditch moves and mentioned his academic brilliance and his family history.
After praising Harry and his other Slytherin teammate, that article dedicated rest of the portion of it in heavily criticizing the Hufflepuff team. The reporter termed them, as a joke, a disgrace, and a sorry excuse of quidditch team.
At the end of the report the reporter proposed that, the Hogwarts quidditch cup should be held among only three houses as Hufflepuff was considerably weak than other Hogwarts houses.
"Tracy, while I am happy to get some good press, I think the reporter was really harsh towards Hufflepuff quidditch team." Harry remarked.
"Yes, I totally agree with you Harry, the Hufflepuff house was really demoralized after yesterday's heavy defeat and now after reading the article the whole house is furious. Every member of Hufflepuff team was taking it as a personal insult." Tracy told him.
"I can never understand why people are taking a quidditch game so seriously, it is just a sport." Daphne commented.
"Daphne in our society quidditch is just not a game, it is a battleground. Emotion, pride, legacy is associated with game. Therefore, every head of house is a quidditch fanatic." Blaise told Daphne.
"Besides, quidditch students of our house are also excited about the dueling tournament which will start today." Tracy told her friends.
"Yes, I am looking forward to the tournament hopefully I will be able to challenge some 2nd year students." Blaise told his friend.
"I am also hoping for same, I heard Prof. Dumbledore will also present there with Prof. Moody, and four head of houses for conducting the duels."
"I am also excited about the dueling tournament; I think it will be very interesting." Harry and Daphne exchanged looks.
Chapter end
I like to say thanks to all the reviewers of the previous chapter and they are –
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In next chapter:
The dueling tournament