~An Emerald amongst a Sea of Stone~
Chapter Four
Darkness greeted Harry as his eyes fluttered open.
It wasn't particularly surprising. After all, their room in the Slytherin dorms didn't have any windows. Still… It reminded him of the cupboard. Fumbling for his glasses, he sat up in bed.
Light, he commanded. From a large yellow crystal embedded into the ceiling, a soft incandescent glow flooded the room.
The enchantments really are a work of art.
Harry's gaze shifted towards the other side of the room, where Blaise had settled in last night, and remained asleep even now.
What time is it?
There was no clock anywhere in sight, but here at Hogwarts that wasn't much of a problem. Drawing his wand, Harry closed his eyes, picturing the golden digits which Professor Flitwick had conjured at Privet Drive over a month ago.
'Tempus,' he incanted softly.
A warm, soothing sensation coursed through his palm and he opened his eyes. Curved, golden figures hovered before him - he couldn't help the small, satisfied smile creeping onto his face.
4:45
He swiftly got up from the bed and slipped out into the corridor. The hallway was in much the same style as their room. High walls, hewn from coarse obsidian slabs, and gentle warm light which illuminated the ancient stonework. The walls were adorned with portraits of famous wizards and witches, their eyes seemingly following him as he passed by.
He moved towards the far end of the hall, where a large black door with a silver handle granted him entry to the bathroom. After taking a warm shower and freshening up, he headed back inside his room, careful not to wake Blaise.
He opened the nigh-black wardrobe which stood beside his bed, and picked out a set of standard Hogwarts robes. After dressing himself, he sat down in front of his desk, his eyes settling on his collection of books he'd placed on the shelves above.
I should try some spellwork…
He had spent the whole summer studying theory, after all. He stood up from the chair and reached for The Standard Book of Spells: Volume One.
Light off, he commanded.
The light which had been suffusing the room flickered out behind him. With a quiet click, he gently pushed the door into its lock, and headed down into the common room.
The space before him was entirely deserted. His new housemates were seemingly content to sleep in on the first day.
With a yawn, he settled onto one of the green, plush couches right beside the expansive glass wall that separated him from the mesmerising expanse of the Black Lake.
There were a lot of incantations he wanted to try, but perhaps it was best to just begin with the basics. His time-telling charm had worked flawlessly, but that didn't necessarily mean other spells would. He was confident in his abilities, but there was a fine line between confidence and arrogance.
Sitting up straight, he brandished his wand and pictured its tip lighting up white.
'Lumos,' he said clearly.
A cold, bright glow emanated from his wand. In fact, it was so bright that after a few seconds, staring into it started to hurt his eyes. He willed the light to die.
'Nox.'
The glow immediately faded to darkness. He blinked a few times, trying to make the white spots littering his vision vanish. A frown creased his forehead.
That was rather bright…
He brandished his wand again. But this time, instead of bright, white light, he imagined a dim, orange hue emerging from its tip.
'Lumos.'
A smile found its way onto his face. It had worked.
'Nox.'
The light vanished.
Harry decided it was time to try a different spell. The wand-lighting charm was merely the first spell in their book, after all.
Reparo perhaps? I managed to fix that vase with accidental magic once, but replicating the effect has always been hard.
Wandlessly, he had usually only been able to fix smaller damages - a small tear in a page, or a chipped cup, for instance. He'd once tried repairing his broken glasses, but after trying for almost an hour, he'd been forced to resort to duct tape instead.
Speaking of that…
He took off the pair of round spectacles which sat on his nose. To his dismay, everything blurred into a mix of pale colours, but that was to be expected after all. He placed his glasses on the low table in front of him, before pointing his wand in their rough direction.
'Reparo.'
Nothing visible happened. He felt for the bridge of his glasses, but the duct tape was still firmly in place…
It didn't work… But why?
What had he done differently? He'd looked at the glasses and willed them to mend? His intent had been there. He sat there in silence for a moment. Why-
Visualisation… Of course. I can hardly picture my glasses getting repaired if they're a blur.
He pointed his wand at his glasses once more. Closing his eyes, he pictured the spectacles mending in his mind.
'Reparo.'
He saw nothing, but as the familiar, soothing sensation seeped into his palm, he knew it had worked. With a small grin, he placed the glasses back onto his nose.
I wonder why I didn't just ask Tom or Flitwick to fix them for me. Completely forgot about that…
But that mattered little now. With a yawn, he settled on some more spells to try.
The levitation charm worked on his first try. It took a few attempts to stop the book from shaking as he raised it towards the ceiling, but after a while, every cast was as smooth as the next one.
He considered attempting the fire-making spell, but thought better than to do so while sitting amidst a room of flammable items.
Instead, he cast a softening charm, which made the edge of the table as soft as a plushy.
Eventually, he moved on to the basic severing-charm - with which he was able to cut a few pages of his book in half. Afterwards, he simply repaired it with the mending charm. At that, another idea came to mind.
I wonder…
On the train, he'd spent most of his time going through the spell section of his Healing book. There, he had seen the incantation for a skin-knitting charm. He knew what he wanted to do was probably a bad idea, but could he really resist?
'Diffindo,' he said firmly.
He bit his lip as the resulting, pale-red flash tore a wide, shallow cut into his left forearm. Brandishing his wand, he moved it in a circular motion, before pointing it directly at the cut and sliding it across the wound.
Time to see if I can heal it.
'Episkey.'
The bloodied flesh of his arm seeped together, and where there had just been a cut, only smooth, tender skin remained. Carefully, he allowed his fingers to glide over his forearm.
A bit itchy.
'Impressive,' a voice commented.
Harry's gaze shot upwards. Gemma Fawley, the prefect who had escorted them to the common room yesterday, stood a few feet away, giving him an intrigued look.
How long has she been watching me?
He gave her a stiff nod. 'Thank you,' he said.
'Potter, right?' she asked. He nodded. 'Your sorting was quite a surprise,' she told him. 'Not a lot of people expected the son of James and Lily Potter to end up in Slytherin.'
Harry gave her a blank look.
'Slytherin's reputation isn't the best. With your parents…' she paused, seemingly trying to find the right words. 'Suffering the fates they did, most assumed you wouldn't want to be affiliated with our House.'
'And it has nothing to do with blood purity?' he asked bluntly.
She shrugged. 'That as well, I suppose. We don't get a lot of Half-Bloods here in Slytherin. I personally don't care about blood, but there are many that do. You should certainly be mindful of your surroundings, Potter.'
You didn't have to tell me that. A slight frown formed on his face. So what exactly is your agenda?
'Why are you telling me this?'
Fawley raised an eyebrow. 'I'm a prefect, Potter. It's my responsibility to make sure the kids make it through their first year. Just because Pucey doesn't give a shit, doesn't mean I don't.'
'Fair enough,' he conceded. But that's not all there is to it.
She plopped down on the couch, a foot away from him. 'Apart from that, it would be a shame to see such a talented wizard's potential wasted. What you did was rather impressive, considering you haven't yet had any classes. Why even learn the skin-knitting charm? It's quite an obscure spell for a first year to know.' she asked.
What lie to tell?
Harry's lips thinned. 'I thought it would be useful. No need to go to the Hospital Wing for every minor scratch this way,' he answered.
She nodded, before getting up from the chair again. 'A good reason.' She paused. 'Keep up with your studies, Potter. If you have anything I can help you with, just find. I usually spend my mornings down here as well. We seem to be the only early risers in our House.'
She smiled faintly.
'I'll get ready for the day. See you around, Potter.'
See you around… Fawley.
As she vanished back up the staircase, he was left behind pondering the encounter. Perhaps he should have known better than to practise spells in the common room, but waking Blaise had hardly been an option. At least Fawley hadn't shown any open hostility - which was more than he had expected.
Never be foolish enough to think that you can tackle this world on your own, Harry Potter… the Sorting Hat's words echoed within the confines of his mind.
Revealing his ambitions was out of question, but maybe having an ally or two inside this Viper's nest wouldn't hurt.
Maybe I will come find her…
Deciding to leave that trail of thought behind, he turned towards the Standard Book of Spells once more.
Classes had been rather disappointing, all things considered.
As promised, Professor Snape had handed them their schedules at breakfast, and Harry had been rather pleased to note that Charms with the Ravenclaws had been their first class for the day.
But to his dismay, the lesson had turned out to be rather boring. They covered basic understanding of how spells worked, the curriculum for the year, and the theory behind the wand-lighting charm - which Harry had successfully managed on his first try just a few hours ago.
He was relatively sure Flitwick had noticed his lack of enthusiasm during the lesson. The Professor had given him an apologetic smile near its end, but he hadn't asked Harry to stay behind either.
Transfiguration on the other hand, had been more interesting. As he had picked up the night before, Professor McGonagall was a rather stern woman, and a strict instructor - a no nonsense kind of person.
It was understandable, considering that she taught what was considered one of the more dangerous branches of magic there were. But still, contrary to Flitwick, she had allowed them to practise magic in their first lesson - even if a lot of theory had come beforehand once more.
Transfiguring a matchstick into a needle had been rather easy. On his first attempt, the wood had only received a silver shine, but after adjusting his focus, he had quickly managed a perfect transfiguration.
The Professor had been quite impressed, since even his father - who had apparently been one of the brightest transfigurers of his age - had only managed the transformation shortly before the end of his first lesson.
He was certainly ahead of his classmates in terms of spellcasting.
The only other students who had managed anything resembling success by the end of the lesson, had been Blaise, Davis, and a rather uptight girl from Ravenclaw called Granger, who had raised her hand at any opportunity she got.
After Transfiguration had followed History. And that was a class he was seriously considered skipping. Professor Binns - a ghost, as Blaise had rightly told him - had the most monotonous voice he'd ever heard. And that aside, the classes' topics had been dreadfully boring as well.
He'dmanaged to listen to forty five minutes of the Professor droning on about Goblin Rebellions, before zoning out and allowing his mind to wander. Afterwards, Blaise had assured him that he hadn't missed anything.
Currently, Harry sat in the middle of the Great Hall eating his lunch. Blaise was chatting away with Davis, who seemed just as bubbly and talkative as yesterday.
A bit exhausting as well, really.
'I'm just glad we didn't get any homework on the first day. I'm so spent I almost fell asleep during Binns' lecture,' she sighed.
Nott shrugged. 'Apparently he's been teaching for over a century. One day he died and just kept teaching. I might not even bother going if things continue that way. I don't think he'd even notice if some of us were to miss it.'
Greengrass scoffed. 'That would be foolish, Nott. You still need to read the book. The end of year exams aren't made by our Professors, if you remember.'
Davis groaned.
'Ugh. I just want to stop talking about classes for a moment. Charms was nice, but Transfiguration was so annoying. I still don't know how Potter managed that transformation on his second try.'
I'm right here, you know?
'We could play a round of Falsiphase in the common room,' Nott suggested. 'That's bound to take your mind off classes.'
That seemed to brighten Davis' demeanour. 'Who wants to join?' she asked.
A sigh escaped Greengrass. 'Fine, but later.'
'We can do it tonight,' Blaise suggested, before turning towards Harry. 'You wanna tag along?'
No.
'Maybe,' he responded with a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. 'I wanted to visit the library. I don't know when I'll be returning.'
'Oh. No worries.'
Harry got up from the bench and said goodbye, before heading out of the hall. Aftering wandering the corridors for a while, he came to a halt.
Tall doors which towered him by almost six feet formed the entrance to Hogwarts' library. He had heard about its brilliance, but as he stepped inside for the first time, he still almost couldn't believe his eyes.
Hundreds of sky-high shelves towered to his right, filled with a number of books incomprehensible to any human. To his right, he saw tall metal gates which undoubtedly marked the entrance to the restricted section.
By the large glass front which adorned the long side of the hall, stood a counter. An older, grumpy looking witch with a large hat sat behind it, her ancient-looking spectacles sitting atop her upturned nose.
The librarian, he supposed.
The library may have been a sight to behold, but after all he was here for a reason. Dismissing his awe, he walked up to the woman behind the counter.
'Excuse me, Ma'am?'
The witch looked up from her desk. 'Yes?' she asked in what could have been mistaken for a drawl.
'Could you tell me where the section on curses is located?' he inquired politely.
She sighed. 'Right side of the twelfth shelf from the opposite end of the hall. Ask a student next time,' she told him.
Harry gave her a bright cheer. 'Thank you, Ma'am.'
Miserable woman…
He followed her instruction and soon enough, he found himself standing between two of the towering shelves, browsing the section on curses in hopes of finding information on a particular one.
Eventually, he found a book titled Dark Curses and their Counters. Nodding to himself, he opened the table of contents, before flipping to the page on the Unforgivables.
'The Torture Curse is arguably the worst curse out of the three. The excruciating pain and the psychological strain of the intense torture often makes victims of the curse delirious after prolonged exposure.
Like the other Unforgivable Curses, the Cruciatus Curse cannot be traditionally shielded or defended against. The only way to escape a curse heading your way, is to either dodge, or to utilise a physical object as a shield.
Both conjuration, transformation, and animation are viable ways to defend against the curse, although it is recommended to run if ever confronted with a wizard or witch proficient in casting of the curse, as they can often be unpredictable in their behaviour and duelling patterns.'
With an unsatisfied expression, Harry allowed the book to fall onto the table with a dull thud.
Nothing again.
His eyes trailed towards the other side of the library, where he could just barely glance the metal fence separating him from the restricted section.
Maybe… No.
Breaking into the restricted section should be considered as a last resort. His frustration was growing, considering that he hadn't yet found a single piece of useful knowledge on the Cruciatus curse in the past five weeks, but he couldn't allow those feelings to cloud his judgement.
Since a first year was all but certain to be denied access, he would have to break in. And he didn't like the idea of risking expulsion before he had exhausted all other sources.
Ignoring the nightly patrols, he was quite sure that there were also wards protecting the restricted section against unauthorised entry - and even though he knew little about such enchantments, he was quite certain that circumventing them couldn't be easy.
Despite that he would still read up on the theory of such things.
Since even if he didn't end up using the knowledge for this specific endeavour, warding still seemed to be am1 extraordinarily useful branch magic to know anyway.
He felt far too annoyed to continue browsing the curse section anyways, so it seemed like a good idea to look for an occupation elsewhere.
To the warding section then…
'Tempus,' Harry murmured.
7:30. Dinner ends in half an hour…
Looking at the dozen pieces of parchment scattered over the table, he allowed the book in his lap to close with a soft, quiet snap. His stomach growled.
Perhaps that's enough for today…
He'd spent the last six hours reading up on wards - what they were, how they worked, and also how they could be circumvented.
His research had certainly borne fruit.
In the simplest sense, wards were permanent enchantments, powered by runes which were in turn arranged after arithmetical calculations. Additionally, the art with which a ward could be safely circumvented - or defused - was called curse-breaking.
Contrary to warding, curse-breaking, he had learned, was not a subject taught at Hogwarts. But that wouldn't be an issue. Essentially, curse-breaking was based on the same branches of magic as warding itself - charms, runes, and arithmancy.
Because - just like with Healing - to disable a ward, one had to know what kind of enchantment they were dealing with.
For him, that meant learning advanced charms, runes, and arithmancy would be all but inevitable.
He supposed that a few months were realistic to get adept in the subject. The first year material had not seemed particularly demanding so far, but he would still have to deal with essays, lessons, and people soon enough.
His stomach growled again.
With a sigh, he got up from his chair and returned the books to their shelves. Collecting the parchment sprawled over the table and stowing it away inside his bag, he swung the leather strap over his shoulder before heading out of the library.
For a few minutes, his quiet steps reverberated through the empty halls of the gloomy castle, before he eventually arrived in front of the Great Hall's towering doors.
Smoothing out his robes, he stepped inside. A few students met his eye, but nothing seemed out of place. He noticed Professor Flitwick shoot him a warm smile, which he returned in kind, before heading towards the Slytherin table and taking a seat next to Blaise.
'You're rather late,' the boy commented. His tone wasn't accusatory.
Harry shrugged. 'I lost track of time. The library is quite impressive,' he replied nonchalantly.
Blaise nodded. 'I think I'll pay it a visit tomorrow. Will you join us for Falsiphase after dinner?' he asked.
Harry's eyes briefly flickered to the rest of their house mates. Nott had his head hanging low above the table, Greengrass' gaze was locked onto the ceiling, and Davis looked at him expectantly.
He shrugged. 'Perhaps some other time. I'm quite exhausted. I got up rather early today, after all.'
For a moment, surprise flooded Blaise's gaze. 'Understandable,' the boy smiled. 'Some other time then,' he suggested.
Author's Note:
This Chapter was supposed to be a lot longer. I had a scene for the Falsiphase game written out, but decided to cut it since I felt like it didn't fit at this point in the story. It will probably make an appearance some time in the future though.
Apart from that, as you've noticed, nothing major is happening. I'm mainly continuing to lay groundwork.
A Thank you goes to all the reviewers, followers, favourites, kudos, and most importantly - my betas. I've expanded on that front - Popsoda has joined the club amongst Jupiter and Jono. So, big shoutout to them - they really help improve this thing.
On that note, I want to once again invite you to leave a review and join my Discord. The link can be found on my profile on FFN, or simply here in the Author's Notes for all AO3 readers.
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See you soon.
Edited: 17.09.2023