Chapter 94 – Learning Experiences
Harry and Severus walked in companionable silence from the dungeons to the Great Hall for breakfast on Monday morning. Harry glanced up at Severus as they walked, and was shocked to see him looking furtively at the walls of the corridors with a very distressed expression on his face. He had been fine when they left their rooms, so Harry had no idea what was causing this.
"What's wrong, Severus? Don't you feel well?"
Severus seemed distracted, and did not answer Harry, so Harry took him by the arm to get his attention.
"What's going on? Why are you looking at the walls like that?"
They'd stopped now in the last corridor that afforded them a measure of privacy – around the next turn, they'd be in a corridor regularly traveled by students. Severus was clearly upset about something. He seemed to be trying to draw Harry behind him, to protect him in some way. Harry was getting more confused as the moments passed, as he saw no danger in the corridor. His green eyes were clouded with concern. He finally slipped his arm around Severus' waist, lest the taller man needed support.
"Please, Severus, tell me what's wrong."
With a voice that was almost a whisper, Severus finally answered. "Why are there so many house elves in this corridor? I've never seen so many of them before, aside from down by the kitchens. What would cause them to behave like this?"
Harry chuffed out a small laugh of relief as he shook his head. "Oh. The Headmaster can probably explain this better than me, but house elves apparently go about their business invisibly, except that a few of us can see them. They pop into view of everyone when a witch or wizard summons them. Is this the first time you've noticed them?"
Directing a look at Harry, Severus replied "Well, if I had seen them before, it would be less likely that I'd find this all as concerning as I do, don't you think?"
Harry thought to himself that if the snark was back, Severus couldn't be too upset. He gently squeezed Severus around the middle as he chuckled again.
"I saw them for the first time as the Headmaster and I walked out of the castle to go to the Calling. He said that he can see them, too. You get used to it. Just watch out about making eye contact, or they pop into view in front of you immediately. They are invisible to just about everybody else."
Harry gave Severus another small hug around his waist as he started walking again toward the Great Hall. While Severus walked along, his arm still protectively around Harry's shoulders, his thoughts were roiling. He was powerful wizard, with long and broad experience in the wizarding world, and there wasn't much he hadn't seen. So why was he so nonplussed to discover something new about his world, something that he'd never suspected before? And why did Harry already know about it? Harry was such a novice in this world, and here he is telling Severus that house elves are invisible! And while the thought of those little creatures keeping themselves hidden like that made him very uncomfortable, Severus was further astonished that this was something else that Harry simply took in stride.
While Severus was still mulling all this over in his mind, Albus appeared in the corridor, looking for them.
"Ah, my boys! Is everything well with you?"
The old coot went out of his way, down a corridor that was nowhere near where he was heading at this time of morning, to ask about their health?
"We are fine, Albus. Just making our way to the Great Hall for breakfast. And you?" Severus replied, his irritation warring with a growing curiosity.
The old man looked sharply at Harry, and then at Severus, his eyes betraying nothing but his demeanor suggesting concern.
"Severus, forgive me, but all does not seem well with you this morning."
Harry could not see what the fuss was about. Obviously, Professor Dumbledore could sense that Severus was upset. So had he. He'd just gotten Severus to acknowledge that he was distressed at suddenly seeing the invisible house elves. He decided to fill in the gaps for the Headmaster and get this over with.
"Sir, Severus just realized that he can see the house elves standing around the edges of rooms and here in the corridor – they aren't invisible to him, either. I remember how uncomfortable it was when I first learned about that. He's just getting used to it, I imagine."
The Headmaster was momentarily stunned with that news, his blue eyes shifting quickly between Harry and Severus. He recovered quickly, though. Patting Severus on the shoulder as they headed as a group toward the next corridor, he offered "It is very disconcerting when you realize how house elf magic works, but once you are used to it, you don't even notice anymore." The twinkle returned to his eyes, and he gestured expansively. "A very exciting day awaits. Harry, Augusta and I appreciate your attending the opening of her class, just to say a few words of welcome. I know you want to get to your classes, and it will be fine if you are a few minutes late to your first class."
X X X X X X X X X X
Mrs. Longbottom's class was getting settled on benches around a large open area. Harry stood in the center of the open area, looking a bit awkward, to welcome his guests.
"I spoke to each of our guests as they arrived yesterday, and I'd like to repeat my welcome to the other guests who arrived just this morning, and wish you all a productive class. Most important, I want to thank Mrs. Longbottom for offering to share her knowledge with others. She's faced things in her lifetime that most of us have never seen before, but we're likely to be seeing soon. Her willingness to share her experience and teach others who will handle those things is remarkable. I am so grateful to her. I'd also like to thank her grandson, my classmate, Neville, for assisting in the program, and Hermione Granger, as well, who is helping here and with Mrs. Longbottom's articles in the Daily Prophet."
Mrs. Longbottom took Harry's place as he headed off to his classes. She spoke for a bit, and then with Neville's and Hermione's assistance, began demonstrating some rather complicated spells. In short order, she had her class divided into teams to begin practicing those spells.
There was some reluctance at first among the older students, especially those from foreign auror corps and governments, to try something this complicated in a public setting, where others might see them fail. Mrs. Longbottom had taken care in setting up the teams to be sure that she did not have people who worked together on the same team, but she sensed a general discomfort.
One spell in particular was causing many students difficulty, so she asked Neville and a volunteer to step forward and repeat the demonstration. Sirius Black was well on his way to solidifying his identity as the class clown, and with a charming smile, he immediately volunteered to join Neville in front of the group. Severus smirked as Sirius preened, but kept his inner commentary (largely focused on the insatiable egos of certain Gryffindors) to himself.
Mrs. Longbottom explained the steps to the spell again, and asked Sirius and Neville to cast it. Sirius managed to mangle the spell to the extent that he blasted a large chunk of stone out of the far wall, while Neville executed it perfectly. At this point, Sirius' gregarious nature came to the fore. He shook his head with chagrin at the mess he'd made, but immediately refocused on the need to get that spell right. He clapped Neville on the shoulder as he praised his casting, and insisted that the younger man walk him slowly through the spell. Neville looked terrified, but he followed Sirius' lead. With some encouragement and good natured back-and-forth banter between them, Sirius was finally able to cast the spell acceptably.
That started to break the ice. Suddenly people were much less inhibited as they tried their best with difficult and complicated spells. When the group broke for lunch, Sirius was overheard chatting with Pharaoh Nitrocris about the Calling, and Albus was overheard commenting to the head of the Bulgarian auror corps that, yes, Sirius Black was joining the International Confederation of Sorcerers. As the gossip made its way through the class in the afternoon, people began to realize that Sirius was not only a bit of a showoff, but also a very strong and powerful wizard. His willingness to fail before the group made everyone much more comfortable that it was not evidence of their incompetence or weakness that they, too, might be struggling. Progress accelerated as students stopped holding back, although as the day progressed, it became clear that the house elves would probably have to replace at least one wall in the classroom that night.
Years later, when Mrs. Longbottom was asked about her most memorable moment from her program at Hogwarts, she described Neville coaching the Headmaster and Sirius Black to help them with spells that neither had been able to master right away. While no one ever asked Neville, it was very likely something he remembered as well.
As the group was about to break for the first day, Hermione took the floor. People had noticed that she'd easily managed all the spells they'd been taught that day, to the surprise of several of her much older and more credentialed classmates. A hush fell over the room to hear what she had to say.
"I would like to ask you all to join us this evening in a group spell casting. You might have heard that You-Know-Who used the Dark Mark to draw power from his Death Eaters to cast his sleeping spell. After Harry woke everyone with magic and then cast a stasis spell on the sleeping muggles, we knew we needed to disrupt You-Know-Who's plans. We decided that our best approach was to dissolve the Dark Marks. That way, he can't use the Marks to either summon people to him or draw their power. We developed a spell to do that – it's very complicated, but Professors Snape and Dumbledore and I will gladly work with anyone who wants to try to learn it. After dinner, Professor Dumbledore will invite those who wish to participate in the casting to go as a group out past the Hogwarts wards, under escort of the Winter Land warriors. Harry Potter will command the ley lines in the earth to receive our spell. While he gets us into the ley lines, several of us will cast the spell, and still others will cast an Iuntcus spell to blend our spell into a powerful burst of magic. Unfortunately, the spell has a directional component to it, and casting takes a great deal out of us, so we cast in random directions every night. I don't intend to place any pressure on anyone to do this. If you are unsure, you can come along to watch and then make up your mind. Anyway, it's interesting and I hope some of you will want to do this."
The members of the class seemed quite excited at the prospect of participating, and it was pretty much all the conversation at the Head Table that evening. Those who'd participated in some of the castings before shared their stories, and the excitement at joining in removed any lingering tiredness from the long day in the class. That evening, when Professor Dumbledore stood to invite all those who wished to participate in the casting to join them, every qualified witch and wizard in the castle went to join in.
The Hogwarts professors got all the participants sorted and placed around the stone that Harry had identified as the best place to access the ley lines. When everyone was in position, Harry pointed his wand at this throat to place a Sonorus charm on himself and turned to address the group.
"Thank you all, again, for joining in with us tonight to cast this spell. As Professor Dumbledore told you, I'll cast my spell first, asking the earth to open the ley lines and allow the other spell entrance. When the earth is ready to receive that spell, it will be cast by those who have mastered it, amplified by an Iuntus spell from the rest." Looking behind Severus, the Headmaster and Hermione at those who would be casting the Iunctus spell, he added "Don't worry if you find that you can't cast the spell – it's really, really complicated. I couldn't get it. . ."
Chuckles greeted that admission, and with his usual self-depreciating shrug and a small grin, Harry turned, cancelled the Sonorus charm, and cast his spell.
On the way back into the castle, Severus walked along with Harry. Harry had already gotten a great deal of information about how the day had gone in Mrs. Longbottom's class from Hermione, Neville and Nitrocris at the Gryffindor table, but he was interested in Severus' take on the day.
"Your godfather made quite the spectacle, nearly took down a wall with a miscast spell. On a much more surprising note, Longbottom did rather well. He was no doubt extensively tutored by his grandmother, but he did seem to have a grasp of the work."
Harry beamed at him. This wasn't even about Neville's Herbology skills, so it was amazing praise indeed! He also noticed that Neville, for once, was just "Longbottom," not "your Mr. Longbottom," another noteworthy advance.
"I have some homework and translations to do. Do you think you'll be brewing tonight?" Harry wanted to know. If Severus was going to be in his lab, Harry would set up his work at his desk in the lab, otherwise he'd get comfortable in front of the fireplace. The Headmaster had made other arrangements for the Potions classes while Severus was attending Mrs. Longbottom's program, so he was free of the usual chore of marking essays for a few days.
"That's a good suggestion. I have the time now. I see Longbottom up ahead; I'll ask him to assist in harvesting some buds and get started brewing."
Severus lengthened his stride once Harry veered off to follow the path back to the castle, and quickly caught up with Neville, who was heading in the direction of the greenhouses.
"Mr. Longbottom, I hate to extend what I am sure has been a long day for you, but I was wondering if you might be able to help me harvest some buds from the rosa caedes."
A small gulp was the only evidence of Neville's terror at being spoken to by his least favorite professor. "Sure, Professor. I have to go to the greenhouses right now, to take care of a few of the plants. This one is pretty easy-going, now that it's settled, so I can get what you need right away."
Severus followed Neville to the greenhouse that contained the rosa caedes. Severus found the plant and stood admiring it while Neville retrieved a dragonhide apron, a pair of soft leather gloves with dragonhide gauntlets and a small pair of nippers from the bench by the door. He had to admit, the plant had done very well under Neville's care. There were numerous buds, many large, fragrant flowers blooming, and he'd swear this plant was a good foot taller than it had been when Mr. Landon delivered it.
"Sir, do you know the location on the plant from which you want me to harvest these?"
Severus gave Neville a very puzzled look. "What does that matter?"
"I read up on the properties of magical roses in one of Professor Sprout's old manuscripts. The rosa caedes buds, in particular, are very sensitive to the pull of ley lines, so their location on the north, south, east or west side of the plant creates differences in their magical properties. Floris sempiternitas has lunar properties, so anything harvested from that plant will have properties based on the different phases of the moon."
Nothing that Severus had read in either Ventus' or his mother's notes said anything about this, but Neville spoke with total conviction. While Severus retained more than a little doubt about Neville, this seemed to be his area of expertise, so he wasn't entirely willing to discount the input entirely. "The notes said nothing about that, so I don't know. Might I have a look at your reference material? Possibly there is some suggestion as to how location or lunar phase would matter in a potion, which might help me determine which to use? For now, let's harvest four buds from each of the four corners of the compass, and label them."
Neville donned his protective apron and gloves and, working quickly but carefully, stepped up to the plant and gently snipped small buds from different sides, depositing them into small envelopes on which he recorded the location from which the buds inside were harvested. He handed the envelopes to Severus. "If you'd wait a minute, I left the reference book in Professor Sprout's office. I'll be right back."
Moments later, Neville offered Severus a large, very old and worn book. "This manuscript is one Professor Sprout allows me to use from her library. People who've used this book over the years have added their own notes and observations in the margins. I have worked with it before, never regarding roses, of course, but the notes in the margins have always been accurate in other areas. I'm sure Professor Sprout would be pleased to have you add any observations that you make based on your research."
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Severus recounted his conversation with Neville as he and Harry settled in for some brewing and homework, respectively, later that evening.
"See, I told you Neville knows plants. He's like this different person when he's talking plants, isn't he?"
As much as it pained him to do so, Severus had to agree. "I do find it hard to believe that he has insights into properties in these plants that neither Ventus nor my mother mentioned in their notes. Those notes are very detailed, and I absolutely would have expected some mention of this, somewhere. I suspect I will have to approach this as an experiment, and test the properties of the buds harvested from the different locations, one by one."
Harry couldn't decide if it was more amazing that Neville Longbottom, of all people, would be offering advice on a potions ingredient to Severus, or that Severus would actually take such advice seriously. Both eventualities were utterly astonishing and he smiled with pleasure at this most unexpected development.
Severus smirked at Harry's grin. He perched on a stool at his laboratory table as he began reading the book Neville provided, taking his own detailed notes as he did so, as Harry got started on an essay for Charms. Eventually, Severus felt he'd captured the insights of the author of the book, and the insights of the three or four later readers who had annotated the book with their own comments. It puzzled him. If the book was to be believed, the rosa caedas rivaled Wizarding sugar root for the variety of effects achievable based on where on the plant it was harvested, in the case of the rose, or how it was prepared, in the case of the sugar root.
Would it be possible for him to discern which of the various possible properties were the desired ones in the potions he was going to try to brew? He knew from his years of experience that there was no substitute in a situation like this for careful experimentation. He had no choice here but to use ingredients new to him in a potion for which he had only some vague theories. He knew that some approaches will be total failures, but solving the puzzle would be all the more satisfying when the challenge was this great. There was also the prospect of learning about the properties of the plant so that he could incorporate it into other potions, which appealed to his sensibilities as a Potions Master.
Severus placed four cauldrons on his table, as once the time came to add the rosebuds, he would need to start separate potions. He brought the potion base he'd made earlier to a boil in one cauldron as he carefully prepared the buds, dicing them precisely and neatly. He added the other, more familiar ingredients, stirring them together, watching colors change and checking that the consistency was as expected. When the time came to add prepared rosebuds, he split his boiling potion into four cauldrons.
Severus carefully placed the diced buds harvested from the east-facing side of the plant onto a long-handled spoon, and gently added them to the boiling base. His face bore an expression of curiosity tinged with a bit of nervousness; he really did not know what was going to happen.
Nothing happened.
After stirring as directed in the notes for several minutes, all Severus had were little bits of plant material bobbing along merrily in the liquid like little corks, completely impervious to the moisture. With a small sigh, he stood back from the cauldron and stopped the flame beneath it.
The sigh, and his muttering, drew Harry's attention away from an admittedly rather boring Charms essay. Harry could not contain his curiosity, and slowly walked over to take a peek into the cauldron. He had to stifle a laugh. He'd seen this outcome in Potions class; it had even happened to him a time or two. It was usually good for at least a zero for the day, and sometimes for a loss of House points, or even a detention. And look who did this! He apparently did not stifle his laugh completely enough. Severus had already turned his back and was making notes at his own desk, but said over his shoulder "Is something funny?"
"Um . . . the last time I saw a potion look like this, I think you took five points from Gryffindor."
"And properly so. We were brewing a very simple healing potion as I recall, and had the ingredients been prepared correctly, there was no excuse for the ingredients to float like that on the surface. When experimenting with ingredients for which all properties are not known, at times, an ingredient will not blend as one might have hoped. We have now observed a curious resistance to moisture in the buds from the east side of a rosa caedes. This will have to be explored, but for now, it appears that these are not the buds we need for Ventus' potion."
The second cauldron was set up, and this time, carefully prepared rosebuds from the north side of the rosa caedes were stirred into the potion. Almost immediately, the contents of the cauldron thickened, first into an oatmeal consistency, but then they kept on thickening so rapidly that Severus did not even have a chance to extract the stirrer he had been using. In all likelihood, that cauldron would need to be discarded, as the potion was now a solid block.
Severus took a moment to make some notes about these two failures. Harry was surprised that Severus did not seem upset. He certainly carried on when a student's potion ended up as either of these two did, but he was carefully documenting exactly what he did and what happened in response, with no sign of irritation or annoyance. It was time for the next portion of rosebuds to go into the third cauldron.
As Severus stirred those buds into the potion, there were hissing and spitting noises, and some steam started to rise from the liquid. The hissing got louder, and the steam more billowing, until Severus realized the potion was about to explode. He got a shielding spell in place just in time, as the cauldron erupted, spewing fiery, glowing material in a column that nearly reached the ceiling. Fortunately, Harry and Severus and their desks were protected by the shield, because the glowing glop fell all over the room and some of the surfaces began to smolder. Severus quickly levitated some of the glop back into the cauldron for further study and banished the rest before it could ignite a fire or cause other damage.
Harry silently held his breath, expecting some sort of explosion from his bondmate. To his astonishment, Severus looked fascinated by what had just happened. He'd just produced a Neville-worthy potions accident, and seemed almost pleased with himself. He turned immediately to enter his observations into his notes. When Severus was done with his notes this time, Harry dared to speak. "Did you just blow up a cauldron, Severus? What happened?"
"According to the book, the roses from the south-facing side of the plant bring heat to a potion. Apparently, a great deal of heat. That small portion caused the liquid base to evaporate and the remaining ingredients to explode. I never saw anything like that!"
They both watched intently then, when Severus gently stirred the last portion of buds, harvested from the west side of the plant, into the final cauldron. There was just the sound of softly boiling liquid for about a minute, when Severus laughed softly. "That seems to have been the right place to harvest the rosebuds. This is what we were supposed to get."
Harry cautiously approached the cauldron, and saw a beautiful shimmering turquoise liquid bubbling away.
X X X X X X X X X X
One floor above the dungeons, in a classroom across the hall from the Hufflepuff Common Room, a harassed looking Amaranth Savoy was meeting with Professor Sprout and several of the squibs she had recruited for this project, among them Petunia Dursley.
"We've got to finalize the agenda for the Introduction to the Magical World program. This has gotten much bigger than I ever expected when we proposed it to the Headmaster, Pomona."
"Well, dear, the Headmaster brought it up at a staff meeting, and people got enthused. Better than the alternative, I imagine."
Amaranth had originally envisioned a weekly session of an hour or so, and that included time for butterbeer or pumpkin juice and sweet cakes, and she expected it would run for four or five weeks. She expected the content to include things like the moving portraits, Wizard space, and house elves. However, as more people heard about the program and shared their ideas, it was turning into something quite different. Wizards and squibs alike had suggestions, and the topics now extended to substantive topics like Wizard law, banking and government, as well as magical creatures and plants. Amaranth's program would have to run at least to the end of the school year, and maybe into the summer, and if she stuck to her weekly frequency, it appeared that the sessions would each have to be at least two, if not three hours.
The most awkward part of the exercise was turning out to be selecting presenters to invite for the different parts of the program. Amaranth had been worried that she'd not have access to enough people who could speak competently on the different parts of her world, but she was experiencing something quite the opposite. She had more volunteers than she knew what to do with, often multiples for one program. And these were not just your average, ordinary wizards, either. The volunteers included three members of the Wizengamot, the president of Gringotts, and the Headmaster and half the staff at Hogwarts.
With a sigh, Amaranth opened the parchment in front of her.
"Alright. I think maybe we should open the program with something that will make people comfortable, not so academic. I was thinking maybe taking Mrs. Weasley up on her offer to speak about Magical Homekeeping. She suggested the topic and seemed pretty passionate about it. It's got a practical element, and if someone is now going to be part of this world, you'll see these things sooner or later." Many of the squibs had seen Mrs. Weasley out and about in the castle (with her flaming red hair and expanding belly, she was hard to miss), and those who'd met her liked her and enthusiastically endorsed the suggestion.
"Hagrid wants to speak about Magical Creatures, which I think is a good subject, but he's a bit scary himself, let alone his beasts, so maybe we put him a bit later in the program. Madam Pomfrey offered to speak about Magical Healing; she's another one who won't scare people away, and I think people will find her subject very interesting and useful. Maybe she follows Mrs. Weasley." Again, the men and women at the table nodded.
The Hogwarts teachers had all volunteered to speak about their subjects, which was all well and good, although Amaranth and Professor Sprout agreed that the generous offers to present on Arithmancy and Ancient Runes were probably best declined. Pomona herself graciously suggested that she and Amaranth's friend, Mr. Landon, could share a presentation on Magical Plants, which solved one of Amaranth's more delicate "volunteer" problems. Everyone had met Professor Flitwick, and agreed that his Elfish heritage would not distract from his lessons, plus his discussions about Charms would deal with the moving pictures. All agreed that Divination would be interesting to include, but several squibs were quite taken aback to learn that the teacher deemed best suited to do the presentation was a centaur. "He's fascinating, actually," Professor Sprout offered. "Knows quite a bit about astronomy, too, which means we can avoid a separate class on that. And he gets us around to magical creatures, too."
"Did you mention that Professor Dumbledore offered to give us a brief history of Hogwarts, Amaranth?" a young squib named Chester wanted to know.
"Good catch there, Chester. Maybe we need him to lead off the bit about Hogwarts and the subjects we teach here," Professor Sprout agreed.
"Sir Nicholas has volunteered to speak about ghosts and poltergeists, as has Professor Binns. We have to go with Sir Nick; can you help me out with how to do that, Pomona?" Amaranth remembered her student days well enough to know that the Professor was too boring, too lost in his minute and irrelevant details to be tasked with presenting at a session like hers.
"This looks good for the day-to-day ways of wizarding life. We have some very generous offers to speak on weightier issues – wizarding history, law, politics, government, economy. I'd suggest that we start out with Wizarding History and Politics. Remus Lupin has offered to speak. He's on the Wizengamot, has taught here at Hogwarts, and students think he's wonderful. I understand that he has a great grasp of the big picture, and all."
Petunia recognized that name. He was the brute who hit her! She'd been so good, really, she had, and had held her tongue through this entire discussion, even nodded pleasantly in agreement with what everyone wanted to do. But this is an esteemed person in this world? And they want to have him speak to the group? She started to speak "He's the brute. ." but her accusation was lost in a loud belch that she could not control. Mortified, she covered her mouth and excused herself.
Amaranth looked after her with sad understanding, and commented as the door closed behind Petunia, "Poor thing. She must still be having trouble getting used to the food here." Shuffling the parchment, she continued. "Lord Lucius Malfoy wants to speak about Wizarding Law, Government and the Ministry of Magic."
Pomona grimaced slightly before commenting. "Normally, I'd have recommended that we find some reason not to include him, but the Headmaster spoke very favorably about inviting him, so I think we have to do it. Likewise Griphook, who proposes to speak about the Wizarding Economy. Nasty creature, that one, but Albus was quite strong in his support there, too."
Amaranth brightened as she consulted her parchment. "Final two subjects. Mr. Weasley, that tall red-headed gentleman we've seen here on weekends, has proposed speaking about Wizard – Muggle Relations, and specifically about the things the Ministry is doing to restore and preserve the muggle world. He works for the Ministry, right, Pomona?"
"He's a mid-level functionary, but far better than most of the politicians. Albus supports his speaking, and I'm sure the Minister herself will vet what he's going to say. I'll mention that to Albus, and he'll be able to arrange it. Arthur is an awfully nice person and I'm sure he'll make a good impression."
Amaranth was surprised at the last volunteer. And all things considered, it was probably a good thing that Petunia had lost her composure a few minutes earlier and left already, because it would have been very difficult for her to witness the last part of the meeting. "Harry Potter has offered to speak? To the squibs?" Amaranth seemed overcome with emotion.
Professor Sprout stepped in to cover for the younger woman. "He's a very fine young man. He's not one to call attention to himself, but he felt it's important to be sure as many people as possible know what happened here, why You-Know-Who did what he did, how he did it, and how we are working to disrupt his plans to prevent him from succeeding. I think the lad will do well with that."
The squibs all looked a bit confused by Amaranth's emotional response, but were all beginning to understand that young Harry Potter was a special person in this new world of theirs.
Professor Sprout brought the meeting to a close. "Pumpkin juice, butterbeer and tea, as well as some cakes are on the table by the window. Help yourselves."
X X X X X X X X X X
Way up in the Tower, the Gryffindor Common Room was buzzing with the description of the first day of Mrs. Longbottom's class. Several of the older students were looking forward to attending the evening program, and they were anxious to learn what to expect, whereas younger students were excited to hear about it on general principle.
Nitrocris, seated comfortably on one of the large couches, was quite effusive in her praise of Neville, who blushed crimson at the attention. "When your grandmother asked you and Lord Black to demonstrate that spell to repel inferi, I did not realize how complicated that was. I watched you cast the spell, and you made it look effortless; it probably would have been more entertaining to watch Lord Black, though, given how he destroyed half a wall with his spell."
That observation led, of course, to a full description of Sirius' escapades and of the crumbling wall left for the house elves to fix when the class ended, all accompanied by much hooting and laughter. Every description of the performance in the class of Professors Dumbledore and Snape were also listened to with particular enthusiasm, and any missteps reported were the subject of a new round of hoots and laughter.
Hermione was sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall next to the fireplace with her knees drawn up in front of her, watching the proceedings with interest. More accurately, she was watching Neville and Nitrocris. To a casual observer (a category that fit most Gryffindors), she might have been a bit tired after the class and then the casting, so no one commented on the fact that she was more quiet than usual. She was fascinated by what she saw.
Neville was his usual shy and retiring self, looking down at the floor, afraid to speak up or draw attention to himself. She'd been a shy person all her life, so knew what that felt like. Nitrocris, on the other hand, was the polar opposite. She was very self-possessed and confident, very at ease. She wasn't like Sirius, who in truth did seem to crave attention a bit too much at times. She wasn't looking for attention, just very adept at handling it when it came her way.
And, amazingly, Nitrocris was paying a great deal of attention to Neville. He was drawn back into the conversation every time he tried to back away, inevitably by Nitrocris. She spoke glowingly of what he had done in the class, and had clearly watched him closely all day. The competition for Nitrocris' attention was fierce over there, especially among Seamus and Dean, but pretty much among all of the boys (including, to Hermione's annoyance, Ron), but none of them were capturing her eye the way Neville apparently had.
Hermione reminded herself that it was entirely possible that the Pharaoh had simply been impressed with Neville's poise and competence under the admittedly difficult circumstances created in Mrs. Longbottom's class, and her attention to him reflected nothing more than admiration. But the looks the other young woman was giving Neville sure suggested it was more than that.
X X X X X X X X X X
Up in the highest tower, where the Headmaster's rooms were located behind his office, Albus Dumbledore was ready for bed in a nightshirt of bright orange, across which shooting stars of deep purple were moving back and forth. Before retiring, though, he prepared to practice the new spells he'd learned that day.
It wasn't often that someone his age got to learn a spell he'd never encountered before. First, he'd had the exciting experience of developing and mastering the spell to dissolve the Dark Mark. He'd thought then that he was so fortunate to have had such an opportunity to still be stretching his mental and magical abilities at his age. And now today, several of the spells Augusta had trotted out were things he'd never heard of before. He was not so immodest to think that he knew all the defensive spells, but still – there weren't many that he'd never encountered. And there were three in today's class alone!
Quietly, and with great intensity, the old man called up his memory of the movements he'd been coached on earlier in the day and went through those movements. Those were three spells he'd remember in the future.
After an hour of thoughtful practice, which he found exhilarating and relaxing, Albus retired to bed.