Chapter 10: A Giant Problem

The next morning, Harry completed his daily workout in the Chamber of Secrets. Salazar put him through his paces with the Sword of Gryffindor and Harry noted that he was already a little more accurate with his thrusts and chops with the unwieldy weapon. Afterward, Harry gathered up his school books, dressed for classes, and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast. He saw Hermione and Neville sitting together on one side of the Gryffindor table, with Ron sitting across from them.

'I wonder if Hermione forgave him already for not visiting?'

Harry swung in beside Neville. "Morning."

"Hi, Harry," Hermione chirped, "I'm so excited to get to go back to class today. I really hope my homework is up to scratch. I feel like I missed so much and I really don't know how I'm ever going to catch back up," she said in one breath.

Ron scoffed, "What do you mean 'catch up'? You read all of the course material before term even started."

Harry had to reluctantly agree with Ron's assessment, having said as much to the girl himself, though he now sympathized with Hermione more than he probably would have before.

'I would probably be fretting too if I missed almost three weeks of lessons from Salazar.'

Hermione rolled her eyes and refocused on eating her breakfast while reading her Potions book.

Harry made himself a plate and pulled his own Potions book out and propped it open in front of him.

'Might as well try to read up on the Potion that Snape will no doubt fail me on today.'

Ron raised an eyebrow, "Since when do you study at breakfast?"

Harry glanced up and kept a neutral tone, "Since I decided it would be nice to actually learn how to be a good wizard someday."

'Not to mention the fact that I have been here for two years and each year I have been in danger at multiple points of the term.'

Hermione grinned behind her book, which Ron couldn't see, and Ron just shook his head slightly and resumed eating his toast.

The four Gryffindors made their way down to the dungeons for Double Potions after breakfast and lined up outside the door with some of the Slytherins. Harry noticed Daphne and Tracey standing closest to the door having a whispered conversation. Students continued to trickle into the corridor and, with just a couple of minutes remaining before the class was supposed to start, Malfoy, Crabbe, And Goyle slid in next to Harry.

"So, Potter," Malfoy drawled, "I heard you and the Weasel had a falling out. Did you finally decide I was right and cut your losses?" Ron heard him and his ears started turning red. "Though, I see you have your favorite mudblood back. Shame, really."

Harry's blood started to boil but he took a deep breath and schooled his expression.

'Don't let him rile you up, he's just sore.'

Harry turned slowly to face him, contemplating how best to respond and take Malfoy down a peg. Hermione put a hand on his arm to hold him back, but Harry didn't need it, he wasn't going to do anything foolish. He had fought with Malfoy before and it never got him anywhere. "Dobby." Harry called.

Dobby appeared with a soft pop. "What can Dobby be doing for Master Harry?" Dobby's eyes flicked over to Malfoy and he paled slightly but, ultimately, ignored him. Malfoy, however, turned a shade of purple that Vernon Dursley would be proud of.

"Can you grab me my planner, I seem to have forgotten it today," Harry asked. He had to put a lot of effort into not smiling widely at the look on Malfoy's face.

"Of course, Master Harry," Dobby answered as he apparated away.

"Isn't that your elf?" one of the other Slytherins, Blaise Zabini, asked Malfoy.

Malfoy didn't answer so Harry took the liberty instead, "Well, he was Malfoy's elf. Long story short, I tricked Draco's father into freeing him and he chose to work for me instead."

Zabini, a few other Slytherins including Daphne and Tracey, and all of the Gryffindors sniggered. Dobby apparated back and handed Harry his new planner, bowed, and apparated away again. Harry gave Malfoy a grin like the Cheshire Cat and turned away from him.

Malfoy stormed away to the end of the line of students muttering to his henchmen. Daphne caught Harry's eye and winked. Tracey saw and she grinned mischievously before whispering something to Daphne that made the blonde blush. The two Slytherin girls had a whispered argument until the door opened to the potions room and Snape ushered them inside.

Harry chose to partner with Neville to make good on his promise to act as a shield against Snape. "Are you sure, Harry? I don't want you to fail just because you want to help."

"It'll be fine, just focus on the potion and let me worry about Snape."

Snape swept to the front of the room, his black cloak billowing out behind him. "I see Mr. Potter has decided to grace us with his presence again," he drawled, sneering at Harry. Harry focused on a point just above Snape's head.

'Don't let him see you get riled up. Don't give him the satisfaction."

"Today, you will be attempting to brew a Blood Replenishing Potion. This potion is not particularly difficult to brew, and takes roughly an hour and a half if done properly. The instructions," he flicked his wand behind him, "are on the board. Begin."

Harry pulled out his potions kit and withdrew the ingredients they needed. "We need to pulverize the Valerian Roots. I read earlier that the best way to do it is to crush them with the flat edge of your silver knife on a clean surface, so they don't get contaminated."

Neville nodded and pulled his knife out, using it to crush the small pieces of Valerian Root into a pulp on top of his clean, polished oak cutting board.

While Neville did that, Harry went and filled their cauldron with water at the tap, put it over the magical fire he conjured using Incendio, and added the proper amount of honey to the water for the volume of their cauldron.

Snape swept up to their work station while Neville passed the crushed Valerian Root to Harry. "Potter, I see you are hoping to drag Mr. Longbottom up from the bottom of the class," he said with a sneer. "Too bad it won't be too big of an improvement for him. Second to last in the class isn't too far a climb."

Harry ignored him and explained the next instruction to Neville with a tip from his earlier reading. Snape tried again, "Your father tried to carry another useless boy through his classes too, shame it didn't work out well for him in the end." Harry had no idea who Snape was referring to and figured he was probably just making it up to make him angry.

"Sir, what does bruising the Nettle Leaves do to them that is of a benefit in this particular potion?" Harry asked.

'Deflect with questions. He hates answering questions so maybe it will make him go away."

Snape's eyes went unfocused for a second, like he was reliving a memory. His expression turned to one of pain and loss for a split second, but Harry saw it. "That's actually not a bad question, Potter," Snape said quietly. Harry almost fell off of his stool in shock. "Bruising the leaves slightly alters the alchemical signature of the ingredient, thereby slightly altering its effects. Nettle Leaves, in this potion, help retain fluid thereby extending the useful life of the potion before it spoils and must be discarded. Bruising the leaves makes this effect last a little bit longer than unbruised leaves." Snape swept a gaze around the room, finding all of the students staring at him with dumbfounded expressions. "Well, write that down!" He snapped before sweeping off to bother Ron and Seamus a couple of workstations over.

Neville gave Harry an incredulous look which Harry returned. They continued working on their potion, whispering back and forth about the instructions when necessary. By the end of class, they were able to produce a potion that matched the description from the book perfectly.

Snape prowled from cauldron to cauldron, turning his nose up at most of them. He gave Hermione and Parvati a curt nod after checking theirs which caused Hermione to beam with pride. Malfoy and Pansy Parkinson's potion also seemed to pass Snape's inspection as did Daphne and Tracey's. Finally Snape stepped up to Neville and Harry's cauldron. He peered down into it and raised his eyebrows in surprise before schooling his expression. "Clear away your Potions, with the exception of Malfoy, Parkinson, Greengrass, Davis, Granger, Patil," he sighed audibly, "Longbottom, and Potter. Your Potions will be decanted and sent to the infirmary to replace last year's stock that will soon expire."

Neville was grinning. "Thanks Harry, this Potions stuff isn't so bad when Snape isn't breathing down my neck."

Harry smiled as well. "Tell me about it. I wonder why he left us alone after I asked that question though?"

"Not sure," Neville frowned, "he had an odd reaction though. Maybe it reminded him of something?"

"Maybe," Harry muttered.

'Maybe today was just a fluke.'

Harry and Neville watched as Snape produced dozens of crystal vials from a store cupboard and, using a spell that Harry didn't recognize, siphoned equal portions of the four Potions deemed worthy into the vials. All of which were then magically sealed and labeled. The boys cleaned up their equipment and made their way down to the greenhouses for Herbology with the Hufflepuffs.

"Pair up with me today," Neville said to Harry as they approached the waiting class, "I owe you for helping with Snape." Harry gave him a smile and nodded his agreement.

Once the class was let into the greenhouse and everyone had paired up at the workstations, Professor Sprout began, "Today, we will be taking cuttings from the fully grown Mandrakes that you have been re-potting throughout the year, and planting them to start next year's crop. Please do be careful to ensure your earmuffs are in place properly. At this stage, the cry of the Mandrake can cause permanent hearing loss or even death. I will personally inspect your hearing protection and will be placing Silencing Charms on the Mandrakes. The Silencing Charm will only partially mute the cry, however. Nothing can fully silence a Mandrake."

The class complied with the instructions, and after getting checked by Sprout and waiting for her to cast the Silencing Charms, they began to pry the Mandrakes from their pots. Neville was gesturing instructions to Harry and performing all of his actions slowly and methodically so Harry could clearly see how and what he was doing. Harry learned more during that class than he had in any of his previous Herbology classes, and even managed to do so without being able to hear a word. Neville was, quite simply, a prodigy at Herbology.

They were the first pair done with their assignment and were given a bright smile and a gesture from the Professor that they were allowed to leave. They made their way quickly out of the greenhouse so they could remove their earmuffs.

"Thanks a lot for the help Nev," Harry earnestly told him.

"Hey, I owed you for Snape, it was the least I could do," Neville replied, "My family made most of their fortune growing plants that are used as potions ingredients. Gran taught me most of what I know when I was young so I could help out in the greenhouses. She is getting on in years so I try to help where I can to make things easier on her."

Harry grinned, "Well the lessons helped a lot. You taught me a bunch of stuff during class that I never even considered trying."

Neville stood a little taller at the praise. Harry shot a look over toward Hagrid's cabin. The man that had introduced Harry to the wizarding world had been taken to Azkaban prison a couple of weeks ago by the Minister for Magic and Lucius Malfoy under suspicion of having opened the Chamber of Secrets again, a crime he had been framed and expelled for almost 50 years prior. What Harry was surprised to see was the smoke rolling out of the chimney of the hut. He had wondered if Dumbledore was going to get Hagrid released soon, and apparently it had finally happened.

"Hagrid's back!" Harry shouted as he took off at a run toward the hut.

Neville shouted something after him, but he wasn't paying attention. Harry arrived at the door to the cabin a couple of minutes later, slightly out of breath from the exertion of running across the grounds with his school bag and in his bulky school robes. He slammed his fist on the door a couple of times, harder than he meant to in his excitement to see the man that had introduced him to the wizarding world. Harry heard a few loud barks from Fang, Hagrid's large bloodhound. A few seconds later, while Fang had begun scratching at the door, Harry heard the unmistakable voice of Hagrid telling the dog to back down.

"Get down, you dozy dog," Hagrid grumbled behind the door. Harry heard the latch open and the door started swinging open. "Knew ye wouldn' give me more n' five minutes ter meself," the large man said happily when he saw Harry standing on the doorstep.

Harry smiled widely at him, "Not a chance." He eyed Hagrid critically, the flesh of his face was slightly thinner given the man a slightly haunted look. His eyes were still beetle black but they weren't quite as warm as they had been. "Are you ok?" Harry asked, concerned.

Hagrid shrugged, "Azkaban isn't the nicest place. Them damn dementors suck the life out o' ye." He shuddered slightly, his eyes focusing on unseen things behind Harry. He refocused and continued, "But, I hear I have to thank ye, Harry. Ye followed the spiders and figured it out. Cleared me name as well."

Harry smiled brightly, "So they overturned your expulsion then? Does that mean you can get a wand again?"

Hagrid shook his bushy head and sighed, "No, some toad at the Ministry made the case that, since I raised Aragog in the castle and that was also a broken law, my expulsion would hold up. But Dumbledore made sure I got out o' Azkaban fer what they put me there fer."

Harry's shoulders slumped, "Well, at least there is that."

Hagrid waved Harry in and busied himself with making some tea for them. Harry made small talk with Hagrid while he worked, explaining what all had occurred at the castle since he had been taken away. When Harry told him about Dobby and how he had been freed, Hagrid roared with laughter.

"Serves that git right," Hagrid said darkly. "'Im linin' the pockets o' the Minister got me put away."

Harry nodded his agreement.

'The Malfoys all need to be brought down a peg or two.'

"What kind of spider is Aragog, by the way?" Harry asked. He remembered vividly the spiders that had tried to eat Ron and himself a couple of weeks ago. He had never come across mention of magical spiders that big in his studies thus far.

"He's an Acromantula," Hagrid answered. "I hatched 'im meself and took care 'o 'im in the castle, until Tom found out and reported me to Dippet."

Armando Dippet, Harry had found out, was the Headmaster who preceded Dumbledore.

Harry and Hagrid continued to chat about various things. Harry, noting it was getting close to lunch, steered the conversation toward Unicorns. "Hagrid, I came across a reference to Unicorn Blood being a very powerful healing ingredient. I thought anyone that spilled the blood of a unicorn would be cursed."

"Yer not wrong, but it is possible ter get Uncursed Blood if the unicorn gives it ter ye willingly," Hagrid explained. "I've gotten a few vials o' the stuff o'er the years. Dead useful stuff when it comes to helpin' out a hurt animal."

"Is it possible for anyone to get some?" Harry asked, trying to sound innocent. He didn't like keeping things from Hagrid, but he was sure that he wouldn't understand why Harry needed it, and may go to the Headmaster with his concerns if Harry outright asked him for some. No, Harry needed to play this smart and cunning.

"It is," Hagrid said slowly, "But unicorns are very skittish by nature. Most o' em won't come near ye. It's rare for men to ever see one up close."

"So how do people go about getting it?" Harry asked. This was starting to sound like an impossible task, or rather a very expensive one.

'Would they even sell the stuff in Diagon Alley?'

"It's not summat that people usually buy," Hagrid said, "Most opt for dittany instead since it's cheaper. I don' know a shop in Diagon Alley that carries it."

'Well, that answered that question.'

Harry sighed softly to himself, something Hagrid didn't notice. "Thanks, Hagrid," Harry said with false cheer, "I knew you would know something about it."

Hagrid beamed at him, his suspicions seemingly forgotten under the praise. Harry bid Hagrid goodbye, promising to visit once more before he left for the summer, and made his way up to the castle for lunch. The whole way he pondered just how he was supposed to get his hands on some Uncursed Unicorn Blood.

Harry slid into his seat at the Gryffindor table feeling downtrodden. He was pulled from his musings by Ginny, who slid in next to him. "Hey, Harry. What are you so upset about?"

Harry hadn't noticed he had been frowning in concentration and consternation since leaving Hagrid's hut. "Hagrid is back, but his expulsion was upheld even though he was cleared of the charges of opening the Chamber last time," Harry told her, not entirely lying, but not wanting to tell her what was truly bothering him.

"That's good," Ginny said with a relieved sigh, "Dumbledore told me he would take care of it. I was so worried he would suffer for what happened to me." Her eyes started to get a haunted look to them which Harry noticed. He reached out and patted her on the shoulder, snapping her attention to him instead.

"It wasn't your fault Ginny," he muttered so only she could hear, "that diary was to blame. I wrote in it too. How were you supposed to know that it could possess you like that? I had no idea. Imagine if I had written in it more than that one time." Harry shuddered and he felt Ginny do the same. "Anyway, it's over now. Everyone is fine. If you ever need to talk about it, I'll be here. Otherwise, try to move on. That's what I'm doing."

Ginny nodded and gave him a sad smile. "I wish they had overturned his expulsion too though."

Harry nodded his agreement and they ate in companionable silence for a little while until they were joined by Hermione and Neville.

"Where have you been?" Hermione asked, the second she sat down.

"Hagrid is back," Harry said simply.

Hermione smiled brightly, "Good, I'm glad Dumbledore was able to get him free."

"It would have been better if his expulsion had been overturned. He mentioned that some toad at the Ministry managed to get it upheld because of Aragog," Harry explained. Ron, sitting a few places away down the bench, heard the name and gave an involuntary shudder.

"Well, I guess I can understand that," Hermione said, holding up her hands in surrender after she spotted the glare Harry was now directing toward her, "Harry, that spider is an Acromantula. Acromantula are XXXXX classified creatures with the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. Breeding one of them, outside of farms where they harvest their silk for clothing, is strictly illegal. Hagrid was lucky that, as an underage student, the worst they could do was expel him."

Harry didn't respond but he gave an apologetic smile to Hermione which she returned tentatively. The rest of the meal was eaten in relative silence afterward. Harry thought about where he could possibly look for some of the blood he needed.

'Maybe I'll have to take a trip into Knockturn Alley. I'm sure someone there could at least give me a lead on where to get some.'

Harry walked with Neville and Hermione up to the Charms classroom after lunch with Ron trailing behind looking sour. They took seats along the front row of the raised, amphitheater style seats and pulled out their homework that would be due. Neville had managed to complete his work while working I'm the library with Hermione and Harry over the weekend and had benefited from Hermione's desire, though Harry would call it a compulsion, to check his work.

Professor Flitwik walked into the room and took his usual place on the stack of books in front of his desk. Waving his wand, he silently summoned everyone's completed homework to his desk. "Today, you will be learning a very useful Charm, the Shrinking Charm. The incantation is Reducio." He then demonstrated the wand movements. "This Charm can be used to shrink most items to a fraction of their size. This can be used, for example, on your school trunk to allow you to carry it easier. Keep in mind, however, that this Charm does not impact the weight of an item, only its size." He then waved his wand and a single piece of parchment fluttered down in front of each person. "Try to shrink this sheet of parchment to the size of an Exploding Snap card."

Harry pulled his wand out and thought for a second. 'Visualize it happening. Intend for it to happen and to the desired size. Then, focus and Will it to occur while saying the incantation and performing the wand movement.' He glanced over at Hermione who had already managed to shrink her parchment down to half its original size. She still had a bit to go before it was the proper size but she was getting close. Harry concentrated and muttered, "Reducio." The sheet of parchment rapidly shrunk down to the exact size of an Exploding Snap card.

"Oh, well done Mr. Potter," Flitwick said shrilly from his perch, "Take 10 points to Gryffindor for a perfect first attempt." He flicked his wand again and a large tome landed on Harry's desk. "Now, try to make that book fit into your pocket."

"How did you do that?" Hermione asked from next to him, "It took me three tries to get it the right size."

"I focused my intent and willpower on what I visualized happening," Harry told her. "It's something I read about in a magical theory book," he added. He hated lying but he didn't think telling her who he had learned it from would do him any favors right now.

Hermione looked thoughtful for a couple of seconds then frowned in concentration and pointed her wand at the book Flitwick had given Harry. "Reducio," she muttered, and the book shrunk down to the size of a muggle postage stamp. She grinned triumphantly. "That was really good advice, Harry. Can I borrow that book from you?"

'Shit, now what.'

"It's in the library, I'll have to try to remember the title of it."

Hermione waved him off, "I'll find it later, I'll just ask Madam Pince."

'Double shit.'

Harry's fears of being found lying to Hermione were assuaged during the free period they had been granted in place of Defense Against the Dark Arts. Since Gilderoy Lockhart had lost all of his memory, there was currently no professor for the class. And, being that the end of term was only a couple of days away, the classes had been canceled in lieu of finding a temporary replacement.

"'Magical Theory', by Adalbert Waffling," Hermione said as she set a large, black leather bound book on the table she, Harry, and Neville had taken up residence at in the library. "Madam Pince told me this book is where you can find information on what you described to me earlier. What I can't understand is that I have this book, as does everyone else. It was assigned to us on our book lists for 1st year. I don't remember anything in here explaining things the way you did though." She said all of this very fast and it took Harry a second to parse through the fast speech to figure out how best to respond.

"Well, I just summarized things and simplified it," Harry said, "I didn't understand a lot of the technical wording but I gathered that you had to focus hard on what you wanted to happen and had to visualize the results you wanted in order for them to occur properly."

Hermione hummed thoughtfully then sat down and opened the book to read.

Harry was currently reading an introductory book on Arithmancy. So far, Arithmancy seemed a lot like muggle mathematics, but with different equations designed for specific magical purposes. The simplest equation, and the first one listed in the book, was designed to calculate the maximum power of the Wand Lighting Charm, Lumos. Harry ran the calculation and found that, no matter how much power you could put into the charm, the light would only be so bright. There was a way around this, he discovered. A side note about spell modifiers had him gathering another book from the stacks.

Some Charms, Hexes, and Curses have a more powerful alteration in the form of a Maxima. This modifier can be added to a wide variety of spells to change the arithmetically calculated maximum power of the spell. These spells will, understandably, take more power to cast and may not be possible for younger, or less powerful in some cases, witches and wizards to cast.

Harry pulled a sheet of parchment out and started making notes on the various spells that could be increased in power by adding Maxima to the end of the incantation. By the time Neville mentioned heading down to dinner, Harry had a list of some 30 spells he would practice in the future and a further list of 15 that he wanted to attempt to try that were not listed in the book.

Harry split from the group at the Great Hall and made his way down to where the Twins and the Chasers were sitting. He slid in next to Fred and across from Katie. "Hey guys, how were classes?"

"No Defense today, so the free period was nice," Katie said.

"Yeah," Alicia agreed, "Tomorrow is going to be great without having to listen to that pompous ass talk about himself for once."

Harry chatted with the rest of the quidditch team for a bit while eating but was interrupted by Professor McGonagall. "Potter," she said in her normal, stern tone, "the Headmaster wishes to see you after dinner. He will meet you in his office, the password Lemon Drop."

Harry frowned. 'What does he want to see me for? Does he know I've been back down to the Chamber? Would I be in trouble if he does?'

Harry finished his dinner quickly and bid farewell to his housemates, making his way up to the gargoyle guardian of the Headmaster's office on the 7th floor.