Classes - Monday
"Mr Potter, stay after class if you please?"
Harry sighed, "Yes, Professor Babbling."
.
"What's this about Professor?" said Harry.
"You've already read this year's text through to the end?"
"Yes, Professor," said Harry, "Umm, A significant portion of the Potter Manor wards … the parts that are meant to be customised, are in Middle-Finn."
He saw her get ready to correct him to the name of the language that native speakers rather than uninterested history scholars would call it, and then come to the correct conclusion that he knew that, but couldn't yet pronounce that name.
"Interesting … Well that's unusual."
"I'm sure someone thought security through obfuscation."
"A lot of people think that," said Professor Babbling, "I think Septima has an article she'll be happy to show you on why that is a rather poor trade-off compared to working in a language you are fluent with, and having enough people review your work that all the logical weaknesses are found and repaired."
Harry nodded, "She made us read that last year … in November I think."
"Hmm," Professor Babbling nodded, "Alright well, to the matter at hand, would you like to assist me in teaching this year?"
"Oh my," said Harry, "That's … thank you for the compliment, but … is this a normal sort of offer?"
Professor Babbling nodded, "Seventh-year everyone should be teaching themselves, choosing a language to study, choosing texts or inscriptions to translate, choosing and completing their seventh-year project."
Harry nodded.
"Perhaps your work over the summer would count for that, but unless you've documented it rather well, and are willing to publish it with the NEWT board or the ward builders guild, I can't give you class credit for it."
"Oh," said Harry.
"But I can offer you an assistant teaching position, I'll still be auditing your sessions, at least to start with, and can help answer questions if you get stuck, or your fellow students get too ambitious with their 'stump the substitute' questions, but it will give you experience that you can refer back to."
Harry nodded, "Yes, I see. I'm … thank you for the offer, but I'll have to consider it carefully."
Professor Babbling nodded, "That's fine. How many classes did you drop this year?"
"Just History so far," said Harry.
"Just History," she said, "Your course load was already rather heavy last year?"
Harry nodded.
"Alright, well then, I won't think ill of you for not accepting, it is a large time commitment."
Harry nodded.
"Well off you go then."
.
Harry caught up with the others outside Defence Against the Dark Arts. The door was firmly locked.
"I didn't want to believe it," said Parvati, "But …"
"No shit," said Lavender, "The incompetence of DADA professors has reached a new record."
Hermione met Harry's eyes.
They waited ten minutes. Hermione cast the time-telling charm.
"The professor," announced Theo from beside her, "is officially five minutes late."
"No shit," said Fey Dunbar, "The incompetence of DADA professors has reached a new record, Lavender, are we leaving."
Harry crossed the corridor to where Hermione stood among the members of her House, "Head Granger?" he said, "Would you be willing to assist me?"
She raised an eyebrow, "Probably. How?"
"Unlock my classroom?"
She smiled, "Do you have a lesson plan?"
"No," he said, "But as we've got the best textbook so far to work from, and I've read the first quarter, I'm willing to wing it for a week or two."
She nodded, and turned, "Alohomora!"
The door swung open, he gave her a bow, then led the way into the DADA classroom, amid a lot of comments along the lines of, "Are you really teaching, Harry?"
"No way!"
"Alright people," said Harry as he took the podium, such as it was, "I am not here to teach the Hogwarts class formally known as 'Defence Against the Dark Arts,' I am here as a Representative of the Associated Houses' Defence Training program, a chapter 28 organisation, to run a free seminar on defensive magic for whoever is interested, if you're not interested, please leave. The official defence class will start whenever the official professor arrives. Let's get out our books, chapter 1 is boring as hell but you should read it anyway. It is very important, (but not in a way that needs practical demonstrations, which is my favourite part.) It is a rather straightforward assessment of the philosophy of what 'defence' is, and why most kinds of violence do not and should not count as defence. And why we should never use the term 'defence' loosely. Were there any questions on chapter 1?"
About a third of the students shook their heads vehemently, and two-thirds stared at him with wide-eyed expressions of surprise or dumbfounded horror.
"Good," said Harry, "read it on your own sometime, if you haven't already. Let's read Chapter 2 together and work through the exercises."
There were muffled cheers.
"I … have a question," called out one girl.
"Ah!" said Harry, "What is that?"
"Are you going to call roll?"
"No," said Harry, "This is a free seminar, you don't need tickets to attend. Nor do you need to get your tickets stamped to prove to your parents that you're getting their money's worth." Harry looked around, "There's no professor here, so no, we're not getting our money's worth."
More titters.
One more student left, and two students who had been hanging back at the doorway came in and sat down.
.
"Mr Potter, stay after class if you please?"
Harry sighed, "Yes, Professor Vector."
.
"What's this about Professor?" said Harry.
"You covered two years of arithmancy in your fourth year?"
"Yes, Professor."
"That's rather impressive, what have you been up to lately?"
"In arithmancy?" said Harry.
"Yes."
Harry swallowed, "Last year Ginny Weasley and I wove 2 sets of secret passageway tapestries, we're planning on making another set, though we were going to be experimenting with quilting engraved leather."
"Won't work," said the Professor, "the spacial effect will interfere with the quilting process, and even if you succeeded you'd have quilted yourself inside the tapestry."
Harry raised an eyebrow, "Hadn't thought of that, but it doesn't seem insurmountable. Runes can count. We'll just describe that we want the spacial effect to anchor on the second surface away, or the nearest stone surface in a particular direction, not on the nearest surface in that direction."
"Hmm," the professor leaned back and stared at the ceiling for several seconds, "Yes, that could work. Good, go for it."
Harry nodded, "Thanks."
"Have you already picked an alphabet?"
"We'll either start from our previous design or start from scratch using this year's alphabet, for the practice."
The professor nodded, "and how long do you anticipate this project will take you?"
Harry shrugged, "a week or two to recompose the runes, a day or two to make the design, a day or two to construct."
The professor nodded, "You're going for a relatively simple design then?"
Harry nodded, "The Current plan is the giant squid on one side and a flock of hippogriffs on the other."
The professor frowned, "have you tried to portray the giant squid yet?"
"No, why?"
"It … tends to not end well, I'd recommend you try something else."
"Luna said something odd to the same effect, what do you recommend instead?"
"Anything else."
"Alright, how about … the first-year boats."
The professor smiled, and nodded, "as a sixth-year," she said, "you might find it more thematically appropriate to consider the seventh-year boats?"
"Ah," said Harry, "That's a good point."
The silence stretched.
"Was that all?"
"Ah! No, I know you've been tutoring Miss Weasley and Miss Lovegood, I was wondering if you'd also consider adding Miss Vane to your group?"
Harry rubbed his forehead, "She's … a gryffindor and in her fourth year?"
"Yes."
Harry sighed, "I'd rather not, but … how much help does she need?"
The Professor slid an essay across the desk to him.
Harry frowned and read it over, mostly skimming to the teacher's corrections.
Several of the mistakes made him wince, but whenever he strayed away from the corrections most of her reasoning seemed sound, even if there was sloppy wording here and there, which probably went along with being a fourth-year and not yet learning the correct nomenclature for various ways that group theory made the possibilities of general magical theory significantly more accessible to description.
"Alright," said Harry, "speaking of students above or below grade level, I've been meaning to ask about … Ben Windrow. How is he doing in your class?"
"Rather well, I've gotten used to his plodding nature. He's very deliberate and turns in his work on time. He's … not always as creative as I'd prefer, but … well this year he's relaxed a lot and is more open with his questions and suggestions, have you been tutoring him as well?"
"Perhaps you could call it that," said Harry, "But not in arithmancy."
The professor shrugged, "Then what is your concern?"
"Member of the House of Potter," said Harry.
"I … didn't think that was a concern for you."
Harry shrugged, "I'm not sure where you got that impression, earlier I was mistaken about whether I had any preexisting members. But my point was more along the lines of: have you considered Ben for doing this tutoring position?"
"Ah!" she said, "Perhaps that would be appropriate." Then she winced, "Not sure about the age spread between seventh and fourth year though."
"And sixth to fourth is that much better?" said Harry.
"If you were a prefect, that would be within the normal range," she said.
"But I'm not a prefect," said Harry.
"Yes well," she said, "and anyway, he's a seventh year. I presume he's much too busy."
"Possibly so, perhaps we should ask," said Harry, "anyway, I think he could handle being around a fourth year just fine, though he might need help keeping the learning environment … properly structured. Especially if Miss Vane is sufficiently more creative than he is."
"Hmm, yes, I see."
.
"Hell of a way to start a school year," said Parvati as she and Harry sat down by Ginny and began serving themselves lunch.
"Language," said Hermione automatically without looking up from her notes.
"Don't correct me with your mouth full, if you please, Miss Prefect," replied Parvati.
Ginny chuckled.
Hermione didn't seem to have even been listening, which somehow made the automatic profanity objection a bit more amusing.
"Anyway," said Harry, "How were your classes, Ginny?"
"History is still History, but Potions is still Potions," said Ginny, "I'm looking forward to Arithmancy."
"Good," said Harry.
"Speaking of … why were you so much later than Hermione, did you stop for a snog?"
"No," said Parvati, "Babbling and Vector both asked him to stay after class, but he still hasn't told me why."
Harry rolled his eyes, "They both want me for a teacher's assistant, or else they … are starting to coordinate this year's tutoring roster and sixth years are who they bother first."
"Oh, that makes sense," said Ginny.
"It's probably, sixth-years who aren't already prefects, actually," said Hermione, "Given that it was Padma who requested that the professors compile a list of approved tutors and it be available to all prefects to recommend from across house and year boundaries."
"Nice," said Parvati.
"What?" said Ron.
Hermione rounded on him, "Weren't you there for—Oh, no, that's right, never mind." She blinked twice, "She suggested … err she demanded it in a prefects meeting late last year. Sprout and Snape both backed her up. McGonagall was angry for about twenty minutes until she realised that Dumbledore had gone quiet, and … then she took Snape aside and they argued quietly in the corner for most of the rest of the meeting. Then she was the one who said she recommended the professors should preferentially nominate sixth-year students for their tutor rosters, and clear it with the students in question before adding their names to the rolls."
"Makes sense," said Harry.
"Eventually Dumbledore explained that in muggle universities there were teaching assistants who had a slightly different, slightly broader role than just tutoring fellow students. And he didn't see why Hogwarts shouldn't do something similar."
"Oh, good grief," said Harry.
"And then Flitwick and Snape said that there were guild awards for tutors that performed sufficiently well or something."
.
In Care of Magical Creatures, Hagrid covered gryphons again, but not just the largest most notorious kind, (the eagle/lion kind from southeastern Europe), which had definitely earned its XXXX classification. There were also various smaller versions down to the Miniature Rusty-Spotted Leech Chaser from Tapti and Maharashtra, which were normally classified as 'only' XXX. Though Harry didn't see how they were any more dangerous than owls. Hogwarts owned a pair of them, of course, and since this was the sixth year class, instead of having the class spend the afternoon catching snails to feed them like last year, Hagrid had the Leech Chasers on leashes, and he had the students pair off and lead them along the edge of the forbidden forest.
Unsurprisingly Pansy got herself paired with Hermione, and Ron paired with Millicent, but at the last moment, Fey got herself paired with Parvati, which 'somehow' left Harry with Lavender Brown.
To Harry's surprise, she was not quite as much of an airhead as he remembered.
.
When they'd wandered far enough that the leech chaser had started finding things, (also it? he? she? had finally determined that neither of its new handlers was going to be a soft touch about removing its leash.)
"How was your summer?" said Lavender.
"It was very interesting," said Harry, "Probably my best summer ever."
"Lots of relaxing?"
"Yes, but also exciting and scary by turns."
(I had Igor Karkaroff die in my office because my great aunt-in-law decided that murdering him inside the ministry was a hilarious show of force.
But rather than let all that drama go ahead, I took him home and used him to fertilise the first row of trees in my wife's new orchard.
And I got a thrall mark from the empress. And a letter from her afterwards about whether I needed a mum to tell me what to do, or just listen and advise because she was aware of just how young I was, and how annoying it was when no one had enough authority to give me a straight answer about important things without being afraid of me.)
"Parvati said you have your own house already. Something about inviting a bunch of your friends over for a big party."
"House? Yes. Friends visiting? Yes. Big party? Meh, not really my style. Mostly we did crafts, revised ahead, or explored."
"She said you were getting her adopted into the House of Black so that she could 'court' purebloods."
"That is a thing that can happen," said Harry, "But I think someone left out some important details somewhere."
Lavender nodded, "Like … does that apply to all purebloods or just the purebloods that aren't stupidly prejudiced."
"Probably the former, technically," said Harry, "But depends on where you think the threshold between 'prejudiced' and 'stupidly prejudiced' exists."
"Good point."
"So, are you asking for a letter of introduction or something?" said Harry.
She shrugged, "I'm not sure how many purebloods I'd even want to court. Beyond, I suppose, you and Neville."
"I'm a half-blood," said Harry.
"Oh," she said, "So … you … just have the connections to help Parvati get into those circles?"
"I suppose you could say that," said Harry, "Also, Neville already knows you, you don't need me to introduce you."
CRUNCH!
"Who else is there?" she said, "My god little birdie, that's a big snail you found."
CRUNCH!
"In our year?" said Harry.
Crackle, crunch, crcrcrunch.
"And who would look at me, if I had a different last name."
Purrrrrrrrrr.
Harry nodded, "I'd like to point out that, if they won't look at you without a new last name, they don't deserve to have you, regardless of said last name."
Lavender's eyes snapped up from watching the Leech Chaser snacking on a snail, to stare into Harry's eyes, "There's 'won't look at me,' and there's 'not allowed to look at me,' I don't mind being accommodating for the second group."
"Good point," said Harry, "But I'd recommend you think carefully about the trade-offs between courting a pure-blood who is clear-eyed enough to respect you and so to deserve your respect, and dealing with his family who can't, won't, and doesn't."
She shrugged.
"Have you considered the Gamps and the Davies?"
She shook her head and looked thoughtful, "I hadn't considered ravenclaws much."
"And now who has been prejudiced?" said Harry.
She swallowed and looked away.
Their charge started pulling on his leash, so they led him another two leash lengths farther along to give him another circle to explore.
"So," she said, "have any girls caught your eye recently?"
Harry snorted, "you could say that?"
"Who?"
"Just how much has Parvati told you about me?"
"Everyone knows you were dating her and her sister and Susan last year."
Harry nodded, "is that all?"
"Yes."
"Interesting," said Harry.
"Why?"
"Because … I'm mildly surprised that my love life is not much more thoroughly broadcast."
"Oh, there are lots of rumours," said Lavender, "But I know better than to believe everything I hear."
"Ah," said Harry, "fair enough, that's very wise of you."
"You're not giving anything away are you?"
"Let's just say," said Harry, "As far as I'm concerned, what happens in my bedroom stays in my bedroom." Well, stays in my House alliance structure at any rate.
"Huh," said Lavender, "I don't think I've ever heard a boy say that."
"And what does that tell you?"
"Either that you're a slut, or a virgin."
"Umm?"
"Or a girl in disguise."
"I … choose to neither confirm nor deny any of those labels."
"So you're still weird," said Lavender, "have you done any more fibre arts projects recently?"
"Ginny and I are considering whether we have time to make another secret passageway. But we're thinking it will be quilted this time."
"Ginny Weasley?"
Ginny Potter, thought Harry, but he only nodded.
"You're going to be tutoring her in Runes and Arithmancy again this year?"
"Perhaps."
"I wish I was taking Arithmancy; the things that Parvati can do with it sometimes are impressive."
"You know," said Harry, "A lot of adults learn things directly from books without going through the trouble of hiring a tutor or taking classes."
"True," Lavender yawned and glanced into the woods, "what was that?"
There was a shrill whistle, which Harry knew enough to recognise meant trouble. He spun to look in the direction of Parvati, just in time to see her throw a gold and silver cord into the treetops, there were discordant cries of angry birdsong as the cord fluttered to the ground. And when she drew it back it was knotted around the collar of the other Leech Chaser, and dragging it gently back from the shadow of the trees, though it was hissing and groaning all the way.
Before anything else could happen, Crabbe and Goyle were there, taking the leash from Fey and working together to get it reattached to the winged cat's collar.
"Umm," said Lavender, "I think it's your turn to hold the leash."
"Alright," said Harry. And she passed it over.
He led the Leech Chaser in a small radius turn, then back toward the rest of the class.
"So," said Harry, "Have you invented any new potions recently? Or are you more the type to refine recipes?"
"Oh, I do some of each," said Lavender, "How much has Parvati told you about me?"
"I think she's only told me about the recipe refinement hobby, and that you're creative and generally have good intuition for ingredient substitutions."
Lavender smiled and nodded.
"And that she wishes you'd take arithmancy."
Lavender rolled her eyes, "Yes, well."
.
Harry turned the leash over to Tracy and Daphne, and wandered back into the crowd, careful to time and direct his 'aimless wander' directly between Parvati and Pansy, which was to say, next to Parvati, and as close to Hermione as Pansy was likely to let him get without an actual conversation. Which he was trying to avoid.
It worked, Lavender stopped following him.
As Hagrid finished his closing remarks and checked his notes, he looked up and met Harry's eyes, then made an apologetic expression and looked around again, "Parvati, Gregory, and Vincent, please stay after class."
Under the cover of Vincent's protests, Harry turned to Parvati, "Congratulations, but don't agree to more than you want to deal with."
"Huh?"
"We both know what this is about," whispered Harry, "Hagrid wants to sign you three up as the go-to tutors for his class."
Her eyes went huge, "Just because Ginny coincidentally asked me to walk her kelpie this afternoon?"
Harry smiled, "See, Ginny thinks so too."
Parvati's mouth dropped open for just a moment, and then she smiled, "Yeah, I guess."
.
Harry waited until Parvati was free, just as she'd waited for him after the morning classes. Then they climbed up the hill to the castle and back down the stairs into the dungeon.
"Well," said Snape as he looked around at the much-reduced class size, "As usual: the House of Gamp and allies. Lord Potter, Lady Bones, I'm glad you could make it, I have some parchments for you to sign, come up and sign them now. Mr Weasley, what are you doing here? I don't believe you were invited."
"I want to take this class," said Ron. Which drew an interested mutter from the students. Given that his desire to quit was a well-known part of his whole shtick. Not that he'd said as much about it last year.
The two of them glared at each other.
Finally, Snape asked, "Which NEWT-level potions are illegal or highly controlled?"
Ron blinked, "veritaserum, everything toxic or with potentially lethal side effects is illegal to administer at all or without a licensed healer prescribing it, Felix Felicis is illegal at sporting events and during some duelling situations, amortentia isn't illegal but should be more heavily controlled, Aphrodite's Yoke is illegal, several of the other love potions are controlled … but barely, philosophy differs on how much more controlled they should be, Polyjuice is probably controlled enough, in theory, but it's not a NEWT level potion, and just about anyone can brew it if they have the patience. There are lots of other things, but most of them are just poisonous in creative ways."
Professor Snape nodded, "What is the antidote for Aphrodite's Yoke?"
"Draught of the Living Death, at least seven drops, exactly enough to stop the heart and mind, it is not necessary for the victim to be asleep for any particular period of time. Waking them up immediately after is fine."
Professor Snape nodded, "What is the false cure that is unfortunately well known?"
"Chocolate," said Ron, "But tea, coffee, pumpkin juice, and Firewhisky are all folk remedies that do more harm than good. Which is annoying, because Chocolate, pork, pepper, mustard, vinegar, and garlic are all antidotes to various other love potions, and it's not always clear what someone is dosed with, from symptoms alone."
Professor Snape nodded. After a few more seconds, he nodded again, "Alright, you may stay, but at the first assignment you fail to achieve an A, you're out."
Ron nodded, "Thank you, Sir." He went and sat by Millicent.
"What's wrong with the rest of you, find seats, get out your books and quills. Harry and Susan, the parchment is there on my desk, sign it already or get out."
Harry and Susan found their way to the front.
"Did he just call me by my first name?" muttered Susan while Harry signed away his right to refuse to tutor potions. (Fifth year and below, theory only, no actual brewing.)
"He wants to run a study group of the able, not babysit a mob of little menaces."
"Merlin," she said, "alright, but …"
"I don't care for his methods either but … that doesn't block me from understanding them."
She took the quill and signed her name.
"Did you teach Defence also?" she murmured.
"I did not teach DADA," said Harry, "I offered a free AHDT seminar in which we read and discussed the second chapter of a DADA-type textbook."
"Ah," muttered Susan, "That's even better. I'll be more clear next time."
"Stop flirting you two, and go sit down."
Two ravenclaws laughed. No one else did.
.
Luna let in a gust of cool air while letting snorkack out to swim.
Harry looked around, everyone present was in the middle of studying but was momentarily distracted with watching Luna coo.
"Alright everyone, I've got a topic, I hope it's a short one, but I don't want to wait any longer."
Parvati sighed.
"Go," said Ginny.
"Today in Care, Lavender came onto me. Well, only sort of."
"I'm not sure that there's such a thing as 'only sort of' came onto someone," said Luna.
"Specifically she hinted that I might have an in with the purebloods such that I could get one of them to adopt her so that she could court other purebloods. Parvati, I presume she's misinterpreted something you told her about being adopted into the House of Black?"
Parvati shrugged, "Perhaps, or what I told someone else. She's … very active on the gossip front. Sometimes I help her with analysis."
In other words, Sometimes I listen to her gossip and tell her when and why she's wrong, I can't control if she uses my evidence to mutate the speculative stories out there still further. But I try not to spread around the things she says.
Harry nodded, "That was vaguely my understanding of how things worked around her."
Ginny nodded.
Harry sighed, "I'm not clear that she knows the difference between courting and dating, and I'm fairly sure what she's asking for isn't quite what she wants. On the other hand, I'm not sure how muggle-borns are supposed to join the courting ecosystem instead of the dating ecosystem, so maybe she is asking for the right thing, it's just not something I know enough about."
"I'm not sure what you just said," said Ginny, "and I don't think Weasleys believe in courting. Or else we only bother to do the official things after we've dated enough to be sure what we want and don't need to try to learn them in the starched shirt of the official way." She shrugged, "Which is kind of what you did, though also … kind of didn't give me as much time as I might have asked for if … there had been different circumstances."
Harry nodded.
"I understand what you said, Harry," said Parvati, "but I'm sure I don't know either."
"Probably something to ask Rebekah or Susan then," said Harry.
"Or Sirius," said Parvati.
"Good point," said Harry, "I'll add it to my things to ask him next time I call."
"Or I can," said Parvati, "Lavender is my friend."
Harry shrugged, "fair enough."
"You had something else, didn't you, Harry?" said Luna.
"Yes," said Harry, "We all have established relationships, but we haven't gone out of our way to advertise them. We did crests last year for Valentine's, and now the anklets, but I'm not sure how many people understood them, apparently Lavender did not."
Parvati smirked.
"Being invisible when I want seems like a sufficiently visible demonstration of being under your protection."
Harry nodded and smiled, "Is it time for rings or something?"
Parvati stared at the ceiling, "Far be it from me to turn down jewellery, but …"
"We wear your crests on our robes," said Ginny, "but that only tells purebloods and some half-bloods about us. We wear your portkey anklets, which only tell the Patil's dad's side of the family about them. Maybe Harry needs to be wearing something?"
"Oh," said Parvati, "yeah,"
Harry turned his hand over to show Ginny's mark on the web of his thumb.
"But no one ever sees that," said Ginny, "I mean, for not having clothes covering it, I think I only see it when you're running or moving cooking trays around. And no one else sees you doing those things."
Harry smiled.
"I think we can afford to give you rings," said Ginny.
"Two rings?" said Harry thoughtfully.
"Interlocked," said Luna, "To make sure no one gets the wrong idea."
Harry smiled, "Ruby and sardonyx?"
"Ruby, tiger's eye, and sardonyx?" said Parvati.
Harry and Luna smiled.
"Three rings interlocking," said Harry.
Parvati's eyes widened, "ok, now I want that too, that says more than my necklace does."
"Nine rings," said Harry, "I think we officially have something to do next Hogsmeade weekend."
"As if we can't just sneak into the page program room and pop pop to our favourite jewellers in Hangleton or London."
"True," said Harry, "Do we want to do that?"
"We can do that from Hogsmeade if the local jewellers aren't up to the task," said Ginny.
Harry nodded, "that works."
.
...-...
Classes - Tuesday
The most subtle Professor of all was Sprout, she just happened to leave a piece of parchment at Neville's workstation. And by the time she'd finished her lecture, she'd collected it again and offered it to Parvati.
Parvati glared at it thoughtfully for about twenty minutes, then took it away with her when she went to get a trowel. She didn't have it when she came back.
Harry didn't see what happened to it after that.
.
"Mr Potter," said Professor McGonagall, "Could you meet me for office hours, at your earliest convenience?"
"Alright," said Harry, "This afternoon?"
"That will do."
.
"I'm here Professor."
"Ah, Harry, good to see you again. Biscuit?" she pushed a tray at him.
"Flavours?"
"Ginger or oatmeal."
"I suppose." Harry shrugged and accepted a ginger, "What's this all about?"
The Professor tilted her head in a gesture that Harry immediately recognised as feline.
"Are you going to be attending the animagus seminar for extra practice this year?"
"I wasn't planning on it, Why?"
"I was hoping you'd help me teach it," said Professor McGonagall.
"Umm," said Harry, "Why?"
"Because I know you've taught the subject before. I know you enjoy teaching. And I thought that allowing you to teach it in a controlled environment might be a sufficient incentive to not teach it anywhere and everywhere else?"
What?
Just … what?
Wait … do I like teaching?
You do an awful lot of it, for something that you don't like, thought Nim, I even remember that time you went out of your way to get the chance to teach The Dark Lord how to be a model modern politician.
Hush you!
"I have no idea what to say," said Harry.
"You're not leaving until you promise not to teach anyone underage, without competent adult oversight, until you attain your Mastery in Transfiguration."
Harry blinked, then nodded, "I promise."
"That was too easy, I'm not sure you understood me."
"I'll help anyone revise any of it," said Harry, "except that final meditation for turning transfiguration charm arithmancy into wandless tap self-transfiguration casting, whatever that procedure is called. That part is the part that to me is animagus training, the rest is just transfiguration or arithmancy. And no one taught me that part, so I don't even know the words to explain how to do it anyway. And I won't tell anyone about the Circe's Vision overdose shortcut, that was mostly what I was promising."
"Ah," she said, and nodded, "and will you also, when given the opportunity, advise against practising living-to-living transfiguration on beings?"
"I will," agreed Harry, "Also I'll advise against using beasts of near-human intelligence for any unnecessary experiments, transfiguration and otherwise."
Professor McGonagall nodded seriously, "Thank you."
A pause.
"And would you like to help me teach the seminar?"
"My schedule is so busy," said Harry, "I sort of would like to help, but I'm not ready to commit to more yet. Could you ask me again a week or two in advance, long enough for me to review your lesson plan and agree on how much I'm willing and able to commit to?"
She smiled, "Yes, I think we can do that. What's on your schedule so far?"
"You know my class schedule."
She nodded, "And that you turned down the Quidditch Captaincy as long as I gave it to Miss Bell. And not your seventh-year rival Mr McLaggen. Which I have done, I don't want an uncommitted captain. And Miss Bell has seniority."
Harry nodded, "Good! She deserves it."
A raised eyebrow.
"I also have AHDT, which is turning into more than merely preparing two lectures a month, and a little administrative work to keep things coordinated."
"How so?"
"I'm not promising anyone this, but … until the defence professor arrives, the AHDT is also leading sessions revising from the book he picked out, it seems to be a very good book. At least Susan and I are covering our year, not sure if we have enough leadership to cover the other years."
"Oh, my."
"And Tutoring in potions. And I signed up for the apparition seminar, it's not the whole year, but I still need to schedule for it…"
She raised an eyebrow.
"I'm not sure if I have Tutoring in Law also, except Dumbledore … it seemed he doesn't want help with the tutoring side, just assistance with preparing parchment and cleaning up the classroom."
She folded her arms, "You signed up as Severus' tutoring assistant, and not mine?"
Harry rolled his eyes, "It was the only way he was going to let me join his NEWT class. I almost took the free period, I still might next year."
She nodded, "and Survey of Law?"
"I think there's extra red tape with letting me the rest of the way into the page program as a sixth year?"
She shook her head, "Yes, and no. But you could insist, which might increase your workload this year but lower it next year, but also give the wrong impression when you don't go looking for a ministry job until the year after."
"Given that most of the jobs I'm interested in would be under the DMLE and Susan's Aunt already has a close eye on me, I don't think that's much of a concern."
She nodded.
"And besides all of that, I'm a charter member of the Greengrass, Malfoy, Potter Wizengamot research committee about cross-statute investing regulation reform."
"You what? Since when?"
"Uhhh, about ten months ago or so?" said Harry.
She sighed, "Then the Survey of Law assistant position might merely be an on-parchment excuse to not force you to do the page program at all if you're already learning your way around the ministry well enough without it."
Harry shrugged.
.
"Home," hissed Harry, "Open."
Nothing happened. Right, that word means 'Egg nest'.
"House," hissed Harry.
The door opened. He looked around. The common room door out onto the lake was open. Luna was sitting on a cushion at the edge, and sending out conjured boats of every imaginable description, for Snorkack to climb on and over and capsize.
Padma was crouched in the corner, experimenting with which sticking charm would most firmly hold a copper plate to the wall.
"Hey Padma, did I miss anything?"
"Not much, Freyazegen's acting weird, but then she only ever acts weird."
"But a different weird?"
"Yeah."
"Any more diagnosis than that?"
"I'd say she's numb, but it's only the second day of classes, and I'd have expected something like that to take several days more."
"Unless bullying has started already," said Harry, "Shock and numb look similar from the outside?"
Padma shrugged.
"And now you're installing Wotcher eyes for additional insight?"
Padma nodded, "I'm about to just lay them on the floor, and conjure a pretty chair above them, the walls won't let anything stick to them. Unlike the doors."
"Fine by me."
Padma stood up and faced him, "Truthfully, I was already planning this for the added safety of portkey travel, and so Parvati and Ginny can check on their workers, and I can check on Cassie, not so that you can check on Freyazegen, but … I'm fine with that too."
Harry nodded.
.
"Wotcher, are you here?" said Padma.
[I can hear you.]
"What can you do here?" said Harry.
[Not much, I can't map, and I can't raise an anti-apparition field, there seems to already be one there.]
"That's correct."
"That's fine."
[The texture of portkey space seems unusually unstable, I suggest that I shouldn't portkey from or to that location without more data.]
"Disappointing, but fine. Feel free to gather that data, as you have time and insight. What else?"
[Would it be logical to guess that this location is inside another set of wards?]
"Yes, that is true."
[I do not have an interface to those wards, I recommend against trying to activate most of the capabilities I installed in the standard ward stones.]
"That is fine, mostly we wanted to be able to communicate with you about what is going on at home."
[Rule set.]
.
"Ginny," said Padma.
"What?"
"Lion's-Keep had a much better study area than this suite does, has anyone checked if it's still there?"
"I haven't," said Ginny, "But we should. I kept heading there yesterday and had to correct myself. And anyway, we've still got friends in the regular dorms we'd like to be able to visit. So we'll be on that side of the castle eventually."
"It's still there," said Parvati, "or at least the Sher-mark is still on the door, not sure what's inside."
"We should check, sometime," said Ginny, "Even if we decide to move the Sher-mark from there to the closest unused classroom to where we are now instead."
"Right."
...-...
House Liaison Meeting
Parvati checked the time, and then Ginny's circumstance clock.
Ginny looked up, "are you alright?"
"Want to ask Padma to check my work," said Parvati, "still half an hour to curfew, and I don't know whether she has patrols tonight."
"I think that she doesn't," said Freyazegen.
Parvati sighed.
Someone knocked on the door.
Parvati sprang up to answer it, then paused. "Padma doesn't need help to get in, so it's someone else."
"You want me to get it?" said Ginny.
"I'll get it," said Harry, "though if any of you want to have your wands handy, I won't object."
There were shrugs. And some of them did that.
Harry strategically placed his foot to limit how far the door could open, then peeked out.
"Oh, hello Professor Snape, umm, to what do we owe this visit?"
"Faculty Liaison," said Snape, "You didn't select one on your request form, I presumed that you wanted me, but feared to offend Minerva."
Harry shrugged, "I asked Sirius what that was, but he only referred me to the school rules, and I didn't find anything about it and seem to have gotten distracted."
"Be that as it may," said Professor Snape, "None of you were sorted slytherin, so I must give you the benefit of the doubt that you don't know how I prefer to do things. Therefore I decided to stop by and give you a rundown of your rights and responsibilities."
"Oh, like a House Orientation Meeting?" said Freyazegen.
Harry pulled the door wide and waved him in.
Professor Snape entered and looked around.
For once Harry was glad that they were sharing the suite with Freyazegen, and therefore had implicitly adopted a relatively tame dress code. Not the casual nakedness that some of them had practised in Lionskeep and the family suite at Potter Manor.
It was about an hour before curfew, some of them were already in pyjamas, but nothing so revealing that Harry wouldn't wear it in gryffindor common room.
But Professor Snape's attention seemed to be eyeing the furniture and the books and notes everywhere.
"Are Miss Lovegood or your Ravenclaw prefect likely to grace—"
"Here I am Professor," said Luna. She pushed her door open and entered the common room. A book wrapped around her finger. And a sentient splotch of swirling silver and purple imitating a skin cancer on her cheek. After a moment it reformed itself into a scarlet squirrel instead and perched on her shoulder.
"Padma isn't here, though we're expecting her any time."
Snape yanked his gaze from that and got started, "As your Faculty Liaison," said the Professor, "I want monthly meetings with each of you, feel free to stop by during my office hours and wait your turn, or sign up for an appointment in the book by my office. If you neglect these meetings for long enough, I can and will track you down.
"The point of these meetings is to give you a time to ask questions, or have your grievances heard, either on the record or off, your choice. If you make me chase you down, it will ruin both our moods, don't push it."
"We can discuss anything that you'd otherwise be bringing to the attention of your prefect or head of house. Anything from reporting bullying to requesting assistance setting up a meeting with a parent, on school grounds if necessary or preferably in Hogsmeade during a normally scheduled weekend. From requesting study time budgeting advice to getting a second opinion on any medical issues you may be experiencing.
"I hold almost as many healing-related certifications as Pomfrey, (including a few outside her repertoire, such as basic mind healing). And I may have access to slightly more in-depth and up-to-the-moment news on medical potions. Believe me, almost everything that teenagers deal with in regards to magical, physical, and emotional development, I've dealt with it before and helped dozens to hundreds of other students your age come to terms with it. Anything that you don't want to hear about from me, or don't trust yourself to take notes on, I can find you a brochure about. Etc."
"Also I am perhaps less squeamish about certain … less well-known medical rituals and curses. However, by the same token, I insist on and require a greater level of involvement and consent from my patients. But if you ask for something sufficiently exotic, I reserve the right to refer you to an outside specialist."
"Does that mean outside Hogwarts," said Freyazegen "or outside England?"
Professor Snape shrugged, "depends on what you ask for."
"Alright," she said.
Harry turned to stare at her, she said nothing, but the horrified expression she was trying to suppress clued him in that she thought Professor Snape had just volunteered to give them or help them find locally illegal medical treatments if they asked for help convincingly enough.
Harry suddenly wondered if the necklace he'd given her was illegal on some other technicality than all the ones he and Padma and Susan had thought to look up.
He was brought out of his reverie when Professor Snape said, "Any questions so far?"
No one was willing to volunteer anything.
"Alright," said Professor Snape, "and since none of you are first years, I shan't give you an introduction to Hogwarts or dorm life in general. I will remind you that those of you who have not yet received O.W.L. certifications are required to both attend school and stay in bounds while at school. You all should already know your classes and schedules, when the curfew is, the school boundaries, the boundaries of Hogsmeade, the limits and schedule of Hogsmeade weekends, etc. And if you don't I hold you responsible for looking them up."
Everyone nodded.
"Those of you who have O.W.L. certifications (and a letter permitting or instructing such from your guardian), do have the liberty to come and go as you please, within the limits of the laws of the nation, and the instructions of your guardians, and as long as you maintain your classroom attendance, and register your intentions with your prefects and teachers sufficiently that they do not report your absence and initiate an emergency search for you."
That was news to Harry, and he was sure that Sirius would have signed such a letter if it had been in this year's information packet, but Harry hadn't seen anything like that.
He looked around, everyone else seemed surprised too.
"As none of your parents have filed such, I expect you to continue staying within bounds and obeying curfew, with the obvious caveat that this is now your dorm of record."
"Any questions?"
Everyone drew their breath, but no one said anything.
Snape nodded, "and when in doubt?"
"Ask?" said Freyazegen.
"Look around?" suggested Ginny.
"Buy extra?" said Parvati.
"Listen?" said Harry.
Snape rolled his eyes, shook his head, and glared at Harry.
Nim was chortling so hard just now, but then, Harry had been trying to ignore her, since she had been poking through Harry's memories of his first night in Gryffindor, trying to check the details of Professor McGonagall's orientation speech so she could cross-reference against what she remembered from slytherin under Professor Slughorn.
[[["And here I thought you at least claimed to be a slytherin."]]] Snape somehow inserted into Harry's mind. Harry went hunting for the source of the intrusion but could not seem to find it, perhaps he hadn't intruded, just projected the thought hard enough for it to arrive.
"All of those strategies contain a kernel of wisdom," the Professor agreed judiciously, "but there seems to be one that you are missing, and as your Faculty Liaison, your behaviour now reflects on me, I expect you to learn to live by it as well:"
"When in doubt," intoned Professor Snape, "don't, get, caught."
Freyazegen gasped.
Parvati and Ginny tried to suppress snickers.
Luna said, "Well, obviously."
In the back of Harry's mind, Nim dissolved into insane cackling. But hers wasn't the nervous surprise to hear over-strict Professor Snape subtly releasing them from obeying any rules at all, as long as he never had to file any paperwork about it.
Her amusement was at everyone else's responses to that.
The professor offered them another chance to ask questions. This time there were a few takers. And Harry offered him a seat, which he accepted.
There were several questions about the rights and responsibilities of a Faculty Liaison and how it differed from a head of house, (almost no difference, on paper, except that if they didn't like him, they could select a new one next year.)
But apparently, Snape interpreted those rules … somewhat differently than the other heads of house, with the result that he was Faculty Liaison to about the same number of house suites as all the other staff combined.
When questions slowed down or started to contain awkward pauses … (When questions started to stray into territory that might be better suited to private conference) he offered any of them to follow him back to his office and take the first turn for a Liaison conference.
When no one took him up on it, he turned to Harry, "Alright Potter, you're first, walk with me."
Harry stood and followed.
.
"Potter," said Professor Snape when they were seated and behind privacy charms, "what happened to your scar?"
"Ugh," said Harry, "Nagini dragged me in front of the queen."
"The muggle queen?"
"Yes."
"And are both of you still alive?"
"Obviously," said Harry, "But she demanded an oath … gave me enough rope to hang myself by letting me invent the wording for myself."
"Merlin," said Professor Snape, "how bad is it?"
"I think I'm on the recommended tutors list for every class I'm taking, despite my guess that that's roughly three times too much."
"Hmm, spell that one out to me."
"Nim says it's about halfway between a judge's oath and a professor's oath, Padma's helping but … yeah it was frightening realising that I'd made an oath strong enough to block me from turning down chances to tutor on a per class basis."
"That explains why your letter was reluctant and full of preemptive cop-outs."
"Yeah," said Harry.
"It doesn't explain how your scar is missing."
"My scar isn't missing," said Harry, "after she accepted my oath, she knighted me, with a wand, whatever that's called."
"That's still called knighting. Into which order did she place you? Merlin? Peregrine? Henry?"
Harry shook his head, "Just 'Judge Royal,' no land, not hereditary. Just my right to hear pleas between willing mages has been extended from just England and to the rest of the island."
Professor Snape gave him a narrow-eyed glare.
"I'm not certain if it has been extended from the Wizengamot treaty to also include questions of ministry law, and muggle law. And I think it does apply to citizens of other parts of the commonwealth if they happen to be in Britain at the time."
"Alright, Never mind your title, what did it do to your scar?"
"Where the wand touched my shoulder, it … my scar slipped down my face and formed into her symbol."
"It did what?"
"It appears to now be a thrall mark from my empress."
"You lead a very strange life," said Professor Snape.
Harry nodded.
The professor lifted his left arm as if to stare at his wrist, but did not turn his head, just stared at the far wall, "Does being replaced by a thrall mark, imply that the first mark was also a thrall mark?"
"Probably," said Harry, "But all the other marks I've seen are flat, either black or reflective or glowing as if just magic slightly below the surface of the skin. My scar had height to it and often stung or ached. Especially around Quirrell, Legilimency, and I guess dark magic."
"All dark magic, or just some forms?"
Harry shrugged, "No idea. It was intermittent. I can't say I tracked down everything that caused the problem, mostly I only have the guesses that I and Nim collated. Anyway, it went inert after the first time I did the animagus transformation and didn't do anything else until my empress …"
He touched his left collarbone. Then shrugged.
"Has it hurt since?"
"No, it feels a tiny bit cold, like it's pulling on my magic. The opposite of what my thralls report about my marks, I presume that means that a certain amount of my power is trickling to the Queen through the connection, rather than the other way around. Oh, and it's flat now like a thrall mark should be."
"Hmm, alright, thank you for the information."
.
...-...
Regarding Derick
Harry looked up from his book when Parvati stepped into his room and crossed to his patio door.
"What's up?"
"Sorry to bother you," she said, "I was trying to lay eyes on the fourth-year tutoring group."
"The who?" Harry got up to join her at the window.
There were four students on an eclectic mix of armchairs and student desks, the feet of which were all sunk a couple of inches into the soft lakeside peat as if they hadn't been there long. Probably conjured fresh at the beginning of the revising.
"I recognise Freyazegen and Miss Vane, who are the others?"
"The boy's first name is Derick, I have no idea who the other girl is."
"I'm amused that Derick's boots so closely match Freyazegen's."
"Freyazegen wears boots that big because she's got platforms inside so she can go on being a girl without anyone commenting that she shrank over the summer."
"Hell," said Harry.
"Something like that," said Parvati, "I saw her conjuring them on Monday between breakfast and her first class."
"It's rather ingenious actually," said Harry.
"It works," agreed Parvati. "And she's been reshaping them almost every night since. I get the feeling she's planning on redoing them with some permanent shaping fairly soon. Otherwise, she could just wait for them to fade then conjure them the same as before, no need to practice reshaping the conjurations repeatedly."
"You're pretty good at this 'information gathering' thing aren't you," said Harry.
"Of course," said Parvati, "practice."
"Hmm," said Harry, and went to his trunk.
"What are you doing?"
"Just checking something," said Harry. He picked up his telescope and aimed it out the window.
"What are you looking at?"
"Not yet," said Harry, "Just a second let me go check on something."
She followed him out of his bedroom.
"Do you know Freyazegen's password?"
"Grass," she hissed.
"That's right," he said, and hissed, "Open."
The door opened.
Harry went to the window and studied the chair on her section of the patio, lashed together from tree branches.
"What are you looking at?"
"Derick's boot laces aren't original, they don't match his boots, they aren't finished at the ends like laces, they're melted, I'd say they've been improvised from the same high-quality polyester cord that this chair was woven with. It was woven years ago."
Parvati blinked, and stared at the chair, then led the way back to Harry's bedroom and his telescope. She bent to the eyepiece for several seconds, then pulled away and nodded.
"What's your assessment?"
"We didn't choose this suite, we did not choose our rooms within it, it mostly matched our suite at home and we left it alone."
Harry nodded, "Go on."
"Did Peeves or Professor Snape put us here?"
Harry shrugged, "I think the elves were told to prepare the appropriate number of suites, and couldn't, and told Peeves, and he reminded them of the possibility of using this wing as well as the regular house suites wing, and someone matched Derick who likes to study outside, but habitually hides alone and inside the foundation illusion, to meet Freyazegen Windrow whose only friend by the age of seventeen was a muggle boy named Toby Pratt."
Parvati nodded, "I'll keep an eye out."
Harry nodded, "It makes me wonder."
"Wonder what?"
"If Peeves or the house elves, or whoever, match-make often. And if so, how far out of their way do they go to arrange such things."
Parvati shrugged.
After a minute, she said, "I notice…"
Harry straightened up from putting away his telescope, "Hmm?"
"That they're in the open now, not cooped up inside the foundation illusion."
"True," said Harry, "I wonder how much Derick minds the change. Is he feeling outvoted, or is he glad for a big enough crowd that he's now safe in plain view?"
"Good point," said Parvati, "I'm thinking about moving Wotcher's eyes a bit farther out."
Harry nodded.
.
...-...
Bones
Hanna followed Susan down the hall between classes, as usual.
What was still not usual was that Ernie was never in the group anymore, and never would be again.
Susan was also unusually tense right now. Again. Maybe even angry. Hanna had no idea if it was about that or something else.
"Susan?"
"What?"
"Is something wrong?"
"Yes, several things," said Susan.
Hanna sighed, "Anything I can help with?"
Susan stopped and opened her mouth, after several seconds she shook her head, "Most of it is petty annoyances that I'd normally ignore, I'm just not in the mood to ignore them." Susan resumed walking.
That time of month? It happens to us all, you aren't obligated to put up with everything just because half the time you're willing to put up with more than you are the rest of the time.
Hanna shrugged, "What are you in the mood to do?"
"Get shagged," said Susan.
"Oh," said Hanna, That was not at all the kind of shenanigans I was expecting you to suggest to exact petty revenge. "Yes, well."
Susan stopped, "Did I say that out loud?"
"Yeah."
"Ugh," said Susan, "well then." She shrugged, "tell me if you see Potter's posse around."
"They attend most meals," said Hanna, "Just like usual."
"Right, it's just, that they haven't been revising in their usual place," said Susan, "makes them harder to find."
"So, just to be clear?" said Hanna, "who in Potter's posse are you hoping to shag?"
"According to my preference?" said Susan, "or according to theirs?"
"Whichever," said Hanna.
"Parvati is best at snogging, but Harry and Ginny shag better, according to my preference at least, Harry or whoever it's been longest since they 'got something', according to theirs."
"How does that work out?" said Hanna.
"Fairly well, most of the time."
"No, I mean, how did that come to be the arrangement?"
"Because my Aunt, bless her prudent heart got him for my consort before he got either of them for wives. Also, they like me, and I do my best to stay likeable."
"Well obviously," said Hanna, "So you're already engaged?"
"No," said Susan, "well, yes. Depending on what you're asking. The Family of Bones isn't currently inviting courtship offers. I can't marry until I've produced two heirs and I've already got a breed contract that can provide them."
Hanna nodded, "That's clear enough, thanks. Also: Congratulations!"
Susan nodded, "Thanks."
Hanna mumbled, "You're welcome."
Susan looked over, "Have the offers come pouring in after your OWLs got published in the ministry?"
"No," said Hanna, "but Justin asked me yesterday something which might have been about how to explain to his father where to write for copies."
"Oh," said Susan, "Because his father's a muggle and wouldn't already know."
"Yeah," said Hanna.
Susan nodded, "Padma said something once about how old her parents were when they started courting, I gathered that muggles often start in their early twenties."
Hanna nodded. "He's gotten a lot more mature in the last year … but … I still favour Neville … But Neville's Grandmother hasn't contacted my Mum either, and … well anyway, no matter how much I'd like the question to be settled. I think I'd rather have a few more months to decide anyway."
"Yeah," said Susan.
"I just wish, there was a deadline for offers to be turned in, so I could be sure I'd waited long enough and had all the offers on the table, so I could review them."
Susan smiled, "That would be nice."
.
"Susan?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you just stop?"
"Wotcher's here, how is Wotcher here?"
"The air nymph from Potter Estates?"
"… Yeah."
"No idea, but I can feel her too, I can see the greenhouses and farm, but she isn't willing to portkey."
"Same here."
"What are you thinking?"
"Wotcher, is there something you're trying to warn us about?"
[No.]
"If there's nothing special about the time now … Wotcher, is there something special about where we're standing right now?"
[Padma tried to add my protections to this area, but I cannot do much beyond communicate because of the wards already in place.]
"Oh, ok."
"What are you thinking?" said Hanna.
Susan shrugged, "The place doesn't make sense on this floor, but maybe it makes sense on another floor. Or on the grounds."
"Oh," said Hanna, "So … something to explore after class?"
"Exactly," smiled Susan.
.
...-...
More color codes? Really?
"Alright class, I see my returning seventh years, (excellent!) and our new sixth-years. Good! Theo, Daphne, and Justin, I had no idea you were passing divination, congratulations. Parvati, I knew you were coming. Neville, I didn't know you had the Arithmancy background to be here. Welcome all." said Professor Babbling, "If any of you need help Professor Vector and I would welcome you to stop by and chat during our office hours, that's why we have office hours. Also, stop by sooner rather than later, we like to move fast in this class. Welcome to Overview of Ritual Magic, this is an infinite field, but we're here mainly to cover the basics and explore the intersection of all the subjects that make up this branch of study, and then get each of you moving in the direction you wish to go."
While she spoke she conjured a globe and tilted it to show them the south pole, then split it from the north pole and flattened it out, labelling the oceans and the big bays, "Arithmancy", "Runes", "Potions", "Astronomy", "Mind Arts",
Then she circled Antarctica with a line of flame and labelled it, "the ritual arts."
"If all goes well, you'll be able to pass the OWL certification by Yule Break, and NEWT by Litha. Many of you will choose not to attempt the tests because Great Britain is backwards and ignorant and doesn't understand the difference between the dark arts and the dark arts. Terribly imprecise language we have going on here. Hmm?"
"Sixth years, you're welcome to come back again next year when Professor Vector and I will trade which topics we will each cover, some people find that helpful. Like I said, we move very fast in this class, and we have a lot to cover before Mabon, so let's jump right in."
"Let's start with some review of theory, and cover some nomenclature," she said, "And I'm sorry that there are so many competing nomenclatures, there are two reasons this is a problem, one is since the Gamp revolution in transfiguration arithmancy, a new way of thinking about most of wizardry is sweeping the academic world, and with it a more refined nomenclature. The other more perennial problem is that many of the related fields maintain their jargon of their own, and sometimes neighbouring fields use the same word to mean something slightly different, or more rarely something completely different."
"How many know the colour alignment theory of charms?"
Parvati raised her hand.
"What are the colours?"
"White, Black, Red and Blue," supplied Parvati.
"Oof," close, but not close enough for professional ritualists, "Light, Dark, Red, and Blue, AND UNALIGNED."
She wrote them on the chalkboard.
"And which 'emotions' do they stand for?"
"Generous, Covetous, Motherhood, and Fatherhood," said a seventh-year, "and … balanced?"
"Hmm," Professor Babbling stared and blinked, "You must lead a very interesting life. Generous is spot on, hmm, I prefer 'giving' and 'taking' for 'light' and 'dark', and I prefer 'protecting' or 'conserving' for 'red'.
"Hmm, and 'blue' … is something like justice or revenge, but to fit the economics theme many authors prefer 'repaying'.
"And finally unaligned, has more of a connotation of: you aren't using any emotion to cast the charm, rather than that, your emotions about casting it are balanced between more than one of those four."
She wrote each of those words on the board next to their corresponding colour. "Some people call unaligned magic 'clear' but I find that less than helpful so we won't do that, we'll just stick with 'unaligned'."
She turned back from the board to face the class.
"And what are the target types?" … "No one?"
"Cast, point, direct, instant, immediate, triggered, reverted, are there others?" … "Right, a hell of a lot more, can a charm have more than one target?" … "Certainly!" "Can each target be of more than one type?"
"You're nodding like you're guessing, who here isn't guessing?"
Parvati raised her hand.
"Parvati?"
"Wingardium Leviosa, you cast it on an object, and then direct it around?"
"'Direct' means tapping rather than pointing your wand like many transfiguration spells," "With the hover charm, you instant-cast it on an object, and then what?"
"You immediate-point it where you wish it to go?"
"Perfect," said Professor Babbling, "Someone else? Do any of you know any reverted spells?"
"Mending charm!" said someone.
"Precisely!" said Professor Babbling, "though you point your wand to cast and point out and select the fragments, you also target a time in the past when they were configured the way you wish them to again be configured."
"How about triggered?"
"Most wards," said Theo.
"True. There are also charms, but the point is the same, a triggered target, is somewhere in the future, you don't select the target object, you imbue the charm (or wards) with enough information to select the target you desire when it appears. Does everyone understand the common seven target types?"
"What's the difference between instant and immediate?" said Justin.
"Instant is the instant you cast or the instant the magic reaches the target," said Theo, "Immediate is ongoing for the duration of your charm. Greek has the best tenses. Permanent is one kind of immediate."
"Correct. Exactly. And … that about Greek is open to interpretation and the preferences of the mage," said Professor Babbling, "Any more questions?"
"Good. Next, let's cover some witchcraft nomenclature the way we're going to use them in our class."
"When I say White, I almost always mean inanimate elemental magic, Green means given off from a living plant, and Black means given off from a living animal. Some sources use orange or scarlet for this, but that almost always gets confused either with red-alignment charms or with brown. Brown means harvested from the dead flesh of a plant or animal. Some systems differentiate between those two, which is wise, and you ought to do so in your head, but I'm trying to arm you to get the most out of our textbooks. Anyway, since no one ever gets what I just said from words alone, let me draw a diagram."
In a column, she wrote, "Fire", "Air", "Water", and "Earth" each with an arrow pointing to a stalk of wheat.
She circled the four elements and labelled the circle "White/inanimate."
She drew a stick figure of a man and a … dog or sheep?, and drew two arrows which she labelled "Green Air," and "Brown earth: e.g. Wood," then she drew three more arrows from the far side of the animals and back around to the inputs to the wheat, which she labelled, "Black water", "Black air", "Black earth", and another arrow with the same endpoints as the previous labelled, "Brown earth: e.g. flesh."
"Here," she said, "Is what the muggles call the carbon cycle, but it's not just carbon, it is also energy and all of the non-living minerals that the plant fixes and makes available to the animals. But we're here to talk about potions and then rituals. All of these materials are imbued with some magic, but living creatures both plants and animals absorb and give off additional magic that is not associated directly with any matter, not even air. We call this ambient magic, and again we label them green or black for living, white for nonliving that has never been alive, and brown for nonliving that used to be alive."
"Also both plants and animals organise material outside themselves in order to redirect ambient magic in ways advantageous to themselves. Kabouters A.K.A. (goblins and True Gnomes, not the garden pests) and Humans may be the most prolific, but we are by no means the only species to do this. The magic imbued in these artefacts by what materials they are made out of, remains the same, but the ordered magic that is exuded by them is sometimes called 'ordered magic' and is sometimes considered a particular kind of ambient magic, does anyone care to guess what colour is associated with that?"
"Red," said Theo.
"Correct," said Babbling. "Does anyone not agree that is unnecessarily confusing?"
A general rumble of approval.
Justin said something about the thematic appropriateness of the ambient magic coming off wards being called red."
Babbling nodded, and sighed, "That is probably where the confusion even started, adjacent fields borrowing each other's terminology for related but different concepts. Also, I find it helpful to discuss the ordered magical effects given off by an artefact in order to complete its function, separately from that of the entropic eddies around an artefact that don't have anything directly to do with its intended effects. So the first I will call 'artefact-ordered magic,' or just 'ordered magic'. And the second I will call 'red ambient magic'.
"Almost all of the magic you've studied in your wizardry courses so far have been artefact-ordered magic, specifically those given off by your wand, or by someone else's.
"Almost always artefacts will be a combination of two or more materials, plant with animal for wands; inorganic or plant ink with animal hide or organic ink with inorganic stone for runes; organic materials, which is to say brown matter, with ambient magic from non-living sources, such as a cauldron, fire, and stirring rod, for potions. Etc. Etc."
"You will find, as you progress through ritual magic that the strongest rituals will be those with at least one material component from at least two varieties, generally three or four, or for very simple rituals, a material component of a different variety than your target. If your target is yourself, or your customer, your best components will probably be either plant or inorganic. But it depends on the effect you want. There might be a specific animal component that symbolises your desired effect better than any inorganic component available."
"Can you give us an example?" said Theo.
"Hmm." Babbling smiled. "One of my students lost sight in one eye in a potions accident in her second year. She and her brewing partner searched for years for a potion that could heal the damage, or a runic solution to get around the problem, then they started taking my class and realised that the events surrounding the accident met the requirements for a sacrificial ritual, which explained why healers kept telling her it seemed to be curse damage rather than physical damage, umm I'm off topic, short version then: they invented a ritual to imbue a pair of earrings made from bat ears with the power to grant her the ability to see with her ears the way bats do. Even though it is the brain of the bat, not the ears that give bats this special ability. Conclusion: She was an animal, obviously, and so was the bat, the gold studs were inanimate but that's not the point … or maybe it is, I'm not sure when in the process they were applied. Anyway: Use the best component available, it might be animal, but often it will be something very distinct from the rest of the ritual components. Understood?"
She glanced around the classroom.
"Where were we?" she glanced at the board, "Ah yes, component balance. Given that wands made of plant and animal material are most common, it ought to be no surprise that most everyone finds inanimate targets easiest to affect. However, if you ever have the chance to try crystal wands, you should notice an inversion to that general rule. Which yes, is why healers favour them."
"When and if you take the 'Wandless Magic and Alternate Foci' elective next year, you may find that you are not using your arms or hands alone to form the spells, but rather the interface between yourself and the air around you. Likewise, there are potions with inanimate components that require cauldrons or stirring implements made from wood or bone."
"Ugh!" shuddered Justin.
Professor Vector stared at him a second, then said, "Trivia question, which is the nominally blacker potion? If I were to concoct a potion that was meant to be mixed in the skull of a long dead rhinoceros and stirred with a well-cooked pig's rib, or a potion meant to be mixed on the palm of my hand with my finger?"
Theo snickered.
"Trick question?" whispered Parvati.
Theo nodded.
"Black means living, not long dead?"
Theo nodded.
"So it's the hunting paint, right?" she whispered, "Not the modified Nundu bait?"
Theo turned to stare at her, his eyes huge.
"What are the ingredients?" he said.
"Earth, salt, and saliva for the one," said Parvati, "the entrails of the pig and some snake or lizard parts for the other, don't look at me like that, I don't know the exact recipe, it was in a novel."
"Oh," said Theo.
"So where's the trick?"
"It's not in the technicalities, it's in politics and preconceived notions. It more counts as satire, not a riddle." said Theo tapping his head, "A white and black potion that no one except vegetarians could object to, vs. a uniformly brown one that everyone should."
"Oh, I see."
"Also, I was thinking of burial and/or mourning paint, though perhaps they amount to the same thing, depending on your intended relationship to prey."
Justin eventually got his head straight enough to give the technical answer so they could move on.
Though Parvati didn't manage to take any more notes, her mind was hundreds of miles away, watching lions and dogs and werewolves chase rabbits.
Harry had a special hatred of rabbits that he'd never explained to her. Maybe she should ask.
She came out of her reverie when Professor Babbling sighed, "Whew, time for questions?"
There were a lot.
Eventually Babbling finished up with, "Alright, come back next week for Professor Vector to introduce the basics of choosing the time to do your ritual. And yes, it will unfortunately include three more meanings for 'light' and 'dark', and two more meanings for 'green' and 'brown'."
Parvati moaned.
"And the week after that I will cover component procurement, which yes, some authors have tried to apply colours also, but I've never found two the same, nor at all helpful, so we'll be sticking with Milton's standard nomenclature."
.
"So!" said Padma, "How was ritual magic?"
"Introduction to ritual magic," said Parvati, "my head hurts. Bugger the sodding rainbow."
"Language?" said Lavender.
"Yes, language is exactly the problem," said Parvati, "If it doesn't get better by the end of the month, I'm going to drop it and self-study over the summer, maybe in India."
"Ok, but could you summarise?" said Fey.
"I just did," said Parvati, rubbing her temples, "but if you insist I'll summarise my summary: 'Fuck the bleeding rainbow!' is one syllable shorter."
"Merlin!" said Fey, "That bad?"
"Yes, it's that bad," said Parvati, "Today was all of witchcraft plus charms, next week is astronomy, then 'component procurement'."
"Component procurement means when potions call for a particular thing to be 'willingly given' or 'fairly earned' or 'harvested ripe by the brewer,' or 'hunted by spear only (or spear and pit trap, use 1/4 more if by pit trap)'."
"Yes, and all but that last are classic Milton's nomenclature," said Parvati.
.
...-...
{End Chapter 9}
