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After lunch Harry found himself wandering the sixth floor looking for the Ancient Rune's classroom, grateful that he had cut his lunch a little short in order to make sure he would make a good impression by arriving early. Although right now Harry would settle for not being late and making a poor impact before he even did the evaluation.
Harry heard someone behind him clear their throat which caused him to spin around to be confronted by…
Daphne Greengrass. The Ice Queen of Slytherin.
"What are you doing here Potter, aren't you supposed to be taking that fluff course, Divination? Even someone like you should know by now that the Divination classroom is not accessible from this floor. You know Potter, you really are more than a little bit of a disappointment to …the Wizarding World…like really, Divination?"
Harry stood there for several seconds, entirely shocked by this conversation. He did not believe he had ever said a single word to Daphne and while it was not uncommon knowledge that Harry did not personally like most Slytherins, especially due to his ongoing conflicts with Draco and the Slytherin Quidditch Team, Harry generally tried to avoid contact with any Slytherins preferring to ignore them rather than interact with them. Although, personally, Harry felt his distaste was warranted as it seemed that Slytherins went out of their way to target him and even if they did not participate, they must know their house mates actively made Harry's life more difficult. While the comments about Divination felt forced, her tone however was clearly very angry. It felt that there was more to this interaction than Daphne's supposed disdain for all students except her friends, it felt more than even a response to Harry's dislike of Slytherins…this felt personal…and as such left Harry unsure how to respond.
Eventually Harry shook off the shock. "Well Miss Greengrass I am so sorry you find me to be a disappointment to the Wizarding World and I am so sorry that I somehow offended you. Unlike some people, I did not grow up in a wizarding home or environment. People have always just assumed that I am the great Harry Potter and therefore at no point has anyone ever taken the time to explain anything to me, assuming that I must know everything and be a great wizard for managing to defeat Lord Voldemort as a baby."
Harry saw that Daphne looked like she was about to respond, however he continued on, although he was a little surprised as he noticed that she also did not react when he said Voldemort's name out loud. "No one told me that Divination, or at least no one told me that the way Divination is taught at Hogwarts is incredibly difficult for normal people to actually learn, usually the only successful people in the art are seers. I had heard it was a class that dealt with the ability to see the future and predict events. Let's be serious, even you must have realized by now that horrible events seem to follow me around, I am constantly being thrown into extremely dangerous situations where the few people who might help me are either unaware or actively being kept from helping me. So, I figured that maybe, being able to see dangerous situations might help me avoid them. I have already lost my entire family; I personally would prefer not to die myself. However, over the summer I decided that Divination might not be for me, so I chose to drop the course and switch into Arithmancy and Ancient Runes. Hopefully that will make me less of a disappointment to the Wizarding World. Currently heading off to find Professor Babbling to get permission to join her class."
Finishing his rant Harry took a deep breath and turned around heading in the opposite direction of Daphne, replaying the event in his head. While he was still uncertain what he had done to warrant animosity from Daphne, he was a little confused by both her animosity and her reaction to his tirade. Even though she had started off by saying that she …and the Wizarding World were disappointed in him for taking Divination she showed almost no change in emotion when he provided his defense, which he honestly thought was a pretty reasonable defense. After all how many muggle born students would not be interested in learning to tell the future. Muggle pop culture was full of references to future telling. If they just saw a class that dealt with that concept and no one explained how rare the gift actually was. and even then, how imprecise it actually was, how could the muggle raised wizards and witches be judged for wanting to take the class. In fact, Harry was surprised that the only changes he had seen in Daphne's reactions were surprise when he had stated that he was not raised in a wizarding home and a look of sadness and …guilt… that momentarily crossed her face when he mentioned his loss of his entire family.
Deciding that he had other things to focus on at the moment, Harry continued down the hallway before seeing a line of third years standing outside of a classroom. Harry started heading over to them before he was apparently recognized, as a blond that he did actually enjoy talking to stepped out from the crowd and called out to him in a dreamy voice, "Oh Harry, welcome to the Runes hallway. Are you joining our year?"
Harry laughed, "Hello Luna, it's good to see you. I've been looking for the Runes classroom, have been hoping to take up the class starting this year and have an evaluation with Babbling before I can take the class."
"Well you have made it to the right classroom Harry. I think this is a good call for you, you always seemed…or at least the Harry I remembered from last year always seemed a little underachieving. You are capable of so much more than what you were settling for. Ooo speaking of things that are not what they appear have you seen the new Defence-Against-the-Dark-Arts professor… I have never met Moody before but he seems ….well…. he seems different than what I would have expected, more like if someone was pretending to be Moody. He seems a lot darker than what I would expect, one of the most experienced dark wizard catchers would be…" She paused glancing airily around before refocusing back on Harry, "But maybe that is more just a result of having to deal with more than his share of bad wizards and witches. I can't imagine that is too easy on someone's soul."
At this moment, the door opened and the students entered the classroom, leaving Harry alone in the hallway staring at the space that Luna had just occupied, wondering just how it was possible for her to know the things she knew.
Harry was brought out of his thoughts by a polite cough, causing him to look up and see Professor Babbling.
"Hello and you are…" She began, "Ooo Harry Potter, of course. If you want to come in and sit for the first part of the introduction, it will help you gain an understanding of the class and my expectations for the students I teach. After finishing the introduction I will give the students a little bit of reading to introduce them to Runes and I will come over to you and we can began your assessment. Does that sound alright?"
Harry nodded, appreciating the quirky energy that the Professor exuded, and followed her into the class seating at a desk by himself in the back of the room. He sat and listened as she listed the goals of the class and her expectations. Eventually she finished her class aims, gave out the reading to the third years, and approached Harry at his desk carrying a rune carving set and a couple sheets of parchment.
She sat down across from him and placed the material in front of her and starred at Harry Potter, before we begin, I just want to know why do you want to join my class? I have seen your transcripts and talked to some of your professors and while you are not a particularly bad student, you do not seem to be particularly motivated towards academics.
Harry looked guiltily across the table at the professor and hoped that he would not have to explain his motivation over and over again, feeling particularly embarrassed that everyone seemed so surprised that he was choosing to apply himself towards school work.
After collecting his thoughts, Harry replied, "Well most importantly is that I myself realize and admit that I have not been particularly motivated and I think, this summer, I realized that this attitude may be something I come to regret if I did not change. On top of this I looked at the electives available and your course, and Arithmancy, struck me as particularly helpful courses for their numerous applications, especially since I always seem to be in situations where I could always use more help."
Babbling smiled at Harry, "Well, that is as good an answer as any. And better than most. Let's proceed with the evaluation. First I want you to go through this parchment and translate as many of the first year runes as you are able to and once that is done I want you to carve a runic sequence on this tablet, then describe the sequence it and a situation in which you would use this runic array. What this array does is up to you, your imagination is your limit. When you are ready you may proceed, I will be up front teaching the class, however if you have any questions feel free to wave me down and I can provide clarity."
With that, she turned and headed to the front of the class as Harry looked down at the first sheet of the parchment. 'Let's see what we are dealing with,' he thought and began translating.
After thirty minutes, Harry looked down at both the completed sheets of parchment and the tablet with the carved rune sequence on it, before waving over Professor Babbling. She finished up the question she was answering before making her way over to Harry's desk.
Once she arrived, she briefly scanned the parchments nodding. "This looks good, no glaring mistakes. If anything you might be ahead of most classmates in your year…now let's check out your array…ooo this is good…this is really good. I will admit, I definitely did not expect anything this complex, had hoped for a working rune assay that would substitute for lumos or something like that. This assay would allow anyone who had this runic sequence carved or inscribed on their clothing to improve their vision in dark or near dark environments. You know… I went to school with your parents…well I was a couple years below them but even I heard of your father's propensity towards pranks. I imagine this would have served him well…I do hope you do not share the inclination that he and his friends seemed to share." She finished with a laugh.
"That being said this is remarkable work, I would not expect something this concise and effective until at least the end of your fifth year. And that being said, I am positive that most of the O.W.L. students could not manage this. Well congratulations Mr. Potter, I look forward to you attending my classes. Now I believe you are also attempting to join Arithmancy and will be doing an evaluation with Septima shortly, I wish you the best of luck, although if you are anywhere near as prepared as you were for this evaluation I predict you will be busy this year."
With that, she turned around and headed to the front of the class, leaving Harry to quietly leave out the back door and head towards the Arithmancy classroom, smiling the entire way. 'One down, one to go.' He thought happily.
Harry arrived at the door to Arithmancy several minutes before the break and decided to wait for the class to finish, rather than interrupt. Harry stood as the door opened and a couple of students exited, likely to head to use the bathroom. Realizing that this likely meant this was a double block and everyone was still inside Harry entered and looked around to try and identify Professor Vector, however Harry's eyes immediately caught on the table in the front row, just as the individual shook her blond hair and turned around.
Daphne Greengrass froze in her desk after making eye contact with Harry, a look of embarrassment crossed her face and she immediately turned forward and refocused on the parchment in front of her.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, good timing," a voice said from beside Harry, causing him to turn.
Even though Harry remembered Hermione talking to Ron and himself in detail about Professor Vector having been an arithmancy prodigy who had graduated in their first year and managed to completed her arithmancy mastery in one year before being hired in their third year, he had never actually noticed her or at least been aware of having seen her. As for this fact, Harry was completely shocked to see a reasonably attractive lady, that looked to be only a couple years older than him, standing beside him.
"Professor Vector?"
She nodded her head, "Welcome to my class Mr. Potter. I believe the current class is full of your year mates and if you are successful on the evaluation this shall be the class you shall be joining. Well now let's grab a seat in the back of the room and I will explain how this evaluation shall go."
Harry was impressed that even though she was young, much younger than any of the other professors, she immediately took control of the situation. Although Harry felt that might largely be due to her absolute confidence in her knowledge regarding the subject matter she was responsible for teaching.
As Harry made his way to the back of the room, he acknowledged Hermione who excitedly waved to Harry, before stopping as she looked towards Professor Vector. She then looked back at Harry with a concerned look. This worried Harry for a second before he realized that Hermione was likely just rethinking everything they had gone through and was worried that maybe they should have focused on topic A at the expense of topic B, or maybe they should have focused more on some rare aspect of arithmancy. Harry smiled at Hermione and mouthed 'I will be fine,' towards his friend, before sitting down at the empty desk.
Harry had barely pulled out his quill and ink, before Professor Vector sat across from him.
"I personally do not know why you are taking this class but I will operate under the assumption that you realized you made a mistake and are taking this class as your love of learning as been reignited and you intend to rectify the mistake of not taking my class in the first place."
Harry could not help but smile as the Professor continued.
"But no matter what the reason, I caution you that this is an incredibly difficult course and I have quite severe expectations. Even if you pass this evaluation and I permit you entry, I reserve the right to remove you at any point if I feel you are not taking this seriously or applying yourself to your full potential, this is a right I reserve for all my students and thankfully have only had to exercise twice. Usually, the students themselves realizes that this class is not right for them and voluntarily remove themselves. If this is the case I would hold no judgement against you for deciding that this class is not a fit for yourself."
She finished and looked at Harry, as if waiting for him to decide this class was not for him. However, if anything, her speech made Harry even more resolved to prove that he was capable to meeting and exceeding any expectations she laid on him.
Seeing that Harry was not about to rethink attempting to join the class, she smiled, "I wish you luck Mr. Potter. This evaluation shall be several pages long with the questions progressively getting more difficult. If you need any clarification ask now, as I will not offer you any help during this test. If you come to a question that you are unable to answer, it is very unlikely that the question is the problem. However, if you do feel there is a problem with a question feel free to star it and if indeed there is a problem with the question not only will I apologize to you in front of the class but I will ignore the rest of your answers and immediately allow you into my class. This is a similar policy I have to my exams, where if a student points out an error I will immediately give them full marks for that exam…so far no one has ever managed to accomplish it. Good luck, feel free to wave me down when you have completed the evaluation Mr. Potter."
With that she turned around and proceeded to the front of the class and began the second half of her lecture regarding Arithmancy. Harry was shocked, having never met someone as self-assured as Professor Vector was, however, realizing that her confidence was likely well-earned and he had more important things to deal with at the moment, Harry turned his attention to the parchment in front of him and began.
As he neared the end of the hour, Harry starred at the parchment. He had initially made really good time and flew through the first three pages with ease, the next couple of pages definitely took some time and resulted in Harry spending nearly three quarters of the block working his way through the questions, however he was reasonably confident that while perhaps not perfect he had answered the questions reasonably well. However, Harry was currently looking at the last question, on the last page, and was unsure of where to start. He had chosen to leave the first two questions on the page blank as he did not understand the questions, much less what he was being asked to answer. However it was the last question on the page that gave Harry Potter pause, he had looked up when he first read the question and was positive it was coincidental but as he looked up he noticed that Professor Vector had looked at him with a smirk on her face, almost as if she knew he had started on the final question, but she looked away so quickly that Harry was unsure if she had actually been looking at him.
Harry stared at the question in front of him and read it over again and again.
'What is the significance behind the number 823,543?'
Harry must have stared at this question for almost ten minutes before deciding that any answer he wrote would just be a guess and as this evaluation was testing what he actually knew he decided to leave it blank. Harry put down his quill and indicated to Professor Vector that he was complete. She acknowledged him and asked him to wait as the class was finishing and proceeded to excuse the class.
When Hermione walked by, she gave a cautious smile and whispered that she would wait outside.
Harry nodded and looked back towards Professor Vector who was approaching his desk.
"So, how did that go Mr. Potter?" She asked.
Harry paused for a second realizing that this may be part of the evaluation. "It was tough, there were certainly some difficult questions, but I believe I have at least an answer on the page for every question… except the last page."
Professor Vector raised her eyebrow at that statement, "Truly? Every question except the last page?" she questioned, as she picked up his work and began looking through it, concentrating.
Harry nervously watched as the professor appeared to be studying all of his answers and the reasoning behind the answers, alternating between nodding and shaking her head. "Well, I am impressed Mr. Potter. The first three pages were to get a grasp of what we had covered last year and you were almost perfect, the next two pages are a sampling of questions that you would be expected to know based on the material covered this year and the next, information which would make up most of what will be tested on the your O.W.L.S. And you did much better than I would have expected, I would be surprised if more than two people from your year would have done better than you."
"As for the last page…" She began with a smile. "The last page dealt with questions that I had dealt with in my final year at Hogwarts, while the last question dealt with a question I focused on while obtaining my mastery. I would have been absolutely shocked if you had gotten those."
Harry sighed in relief, it sounded as if his evaluation had gone well.
"I would like to welcome you to my class, it appears you seem to be quite capable with the material we are covering and should be able to successfully complete your O.W.L. next year in the subject.
"Thanks so much Professor Vector, I look forward to joining your class. I will ask Hermione to catch me up on what was explained today."
Harry began to collect his stuff and then proceeded to get up, as he chuckled towards her, "I was so worried about the last page. I was thinking that I only had an idea of where to start. But did not want to write anything down if it might be wrong."
Professor Vector smiled at him, "And where would you have started?"
"Well I realized that the number itself is derived from multiplying 7 by itself 7 times. And then I realized that if you take the sum of all the numbers that make it up and then take the sum of that procedure you are left with 7 again. So I realized that the number itself is both derived from the most magical number known and itself can indeed be broken down into the number 7 as well. But beyond that I had no idea where to begin."
Harry finished and looked at Professor Vector only to see a surprised look on her face. There was silence for a second as she seemed to be judging Harry, before she began, "That is impressive Mr. Potter, that really is. You are indeed correct with those two observations. There are several others that confirm that the number is indeed very powerful. Specifically in relation to soul magic."
Harry froze, "Soul magic…?"
Professor Vector looked at Harry with a serious expression on her face, "Aye, that is a branch of magic that is not even mentioned until your final year and even at that point its only theoretical. Most soul magic is dark in nature, although there are some areas that are used for protections, but they usually require sacrifice. But whatever the case those areas are definitely not covered in the material I plan to teach you."
Harry looked at the professor, re-evaluating her, however, knowing that there was no question he could ask at this time remained silent.
Professor Vector nodded at Harry and continued, "However, before we got off track, I indeed am happy to welcome you to the class and imagine you will be capable of exceeding any expectations placed upon you. But I am meeting with Professor Sinistra for supper, so you best be off. Congratulations again Mr. Potter. Looking forward to you joining the class."
With that she ushered Harry out of the class and headed off in the direction of the Astronomy Tower. As Harry prepared to head down to the Great Hall and catch up with his friends for their meal he was almost knocked over by a very familiar bushy-haired missile.
"Omg…Harry…you were in there for so long…I was so worried…How did you do? Was it alright? As you started writing I started thinking that we focused on the wrong material, I am so sorry we should have focused more on numerology…omg and I didn't even ask about Runes…how were they? You did ok didn't you? Please tell me you were alright!"
Harry laughed and leaned forward embracing Hermione, "Hermione I did wonderfully on both evaluations. I am being allowed to take both classes. Thank you so much for all the help in preparing, there is no way I would have achieved that by myself. If there is anything I could get you please let me know. I really do owe you. You are an amazing friend; I do not know where I would be without you."
Finishing his sentence Harry released her and took a step back, almost laughing again seeing that his friend more closely resembled a tomato at this point, a blush covering her full face.
She appeared to try to compose herself as she mumbled out, "It was nothing Harry, it was your decision in the first place and then all your hard work to follow through…"
Harry smiled, "Well how about we split the credit then. I think we make a really good team. But I maintain my statement, if there is anything you want Hermione, just let me know."
Hermione smiled at Harry, "We really do. Ok but let's head to the Great Hall … and on the way I expect you to tell me all about the evaluations. What was asked? Which questions did you get right? Which did you get wrong?..."
Harry released a mock groan which caused Hermione to laugh as they headed in the direction of the Great Hall.
As they were nearing the Great Hall, Harry smiled as they ran into Ron and the other students who had been taking Divination.
Ron who was busy chatting to Lavender, smiled to Harry as he excused himself from that conversation and hurried over to Harry and Hermione, "Hey Harry, how did the evaluations go?"
Harry smiled at his friend, "They went well mate, looks like I need to apologize, I will be taking Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, sorry for leaving you all alone in Divination."
Ron let out a suspicious smile, "Don't worry Harry, it was actually a good class. Trewlany moved me to sit with Lavender and Parvati, actually had a really good class with Lavender…it was…I mean…I said…"
Harry laughed as he heard Ron trail off mumbling something about Uranus as his cheeks turned a very similar color to his hair.
As the trio approached the last corner before the entrance to the Great Hall, Harry froze as he heard laughter ahead of them, causing him to realize what he was about to walk into. Unfortunately the momentum of the students behind him was too great and he was unable to stop Ron, Hermione, and himself from being pushed around the corner. Just as he suspected, he was greeted by the sight of the three Slytherins standing in front of the Great Hall doors holding the Daily Prophet and laughing.
They looked up and their laughter intensified as they noticed Ron was in the newly arrived group of students.
"Hey Weasley, looks like your Dad made the paper," the center Slytherin student said.
'Wait…what…' Harry mumbled under his breath. Harry missed what was being said as he kept starring at the trio, recognizing the bookends, Crabbe and Goyle…however in the center was …Cassius Worthington…?
Where was Malfoy…?
jadesabrexiv - That is probably the most wholesome feedback I have received to date. Thank you so much! I am really glad you are enjoying it and your former coworker enjoyed it enough to recommend. as for your question ... haha I guess we will see but there were several things that happened at the world cup that will come up later. But seriously the review made me smile, hopefully I can keep living up to your expectations now!
Stormbow - I am glad you are enjoying it! I do think that while JKR obviously wrote a masterpiece there are flaws with Ron and I hope that I can fix that, while I do not think Ron is a bad friend (certainly not as bad as some fics make him out to be) I do think he is a character that would benefit from some development and better interactions with Harry, however their journey in this fics will ... possibly not always be smooth sailing.
zega606, jkarr, fortinpatric - Thanks so much for the feedback!
Kind Regards,
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Thanks to those of you out to those of you who enjoy my stories, I promise to keep updating the stories as long as you enjoy them, and a special thanks to those of you who have taken the time to leave feedback or reach out to me directly.