The Power of a Voice
Thirteenth October Nineteen ninety-three – Hogwarts Library
Mediocrity will never understand excellence. Words Daphne's father had said to her one day when he was working on case. Observing Harry research, she was reminded of those words.
He was beyond anyone's understanding. A seventh year had walked past them in the restricted section and a short glance at Harry's notes had made her gasp.
Harry had glared poisonously at her when she peeked into his diary. She had squeaked and hurried away. Daphne found it amusing Harry's glare could scare even seventeen year old's. She hurried after the seventh year Hufflepuff and cornered her to get an understanding of what Harry was researching. It all looked like complicated squiggles to her.
Runes that amplify runic structures, she was told. A NEWT level project. And the seventh year had also said she didn't even recognise half the structures in his notes. Ancient rune students were given predetermined runic structures with the task to explain them in exams. What Harry was doing was making his own. The seventh year was amazed and said she couldn't wait to tell Professor Babbling.
Alarm bells went off in Daphne's head. Harry was hers! "Confundo!"
The seventh year never saw it coming.
"Absolutely," Daphne laughed. "He's just begun opening the rune books and would love to take up the elective!"
"Huh? I thought?"
"That's right," Daphne continued with a big bright trust me smile. "I'll be sure to ask him to talk with Professor Babbling."
"Oh. Ok. See you…. ….?"
"It's Greengrass. Daphne Greengrass."
The seventh year suddenly realised she talking to a third year. She frowned, then smiled awkwardly. "Well see you around kid."
Daphne scowled at the girl's back when she left. "Kid? Bitch didn't even realise I confounded her." She didn't recognize the girl and that meant she was insignificant.
When she returned to their table, Harry was gone.
"Crap," Daphne muttered. Her dad might have said understanding excellence was impossible unless you were there at that level. What Daphne felt he failed to mention was excellence was also accompanied by the jerk syndrome in collaboration with the psycho gene.
She sat down at the table with a sigh and opened her own notes. She had assignments to submit and day by day, time was becoming a luxury she couldn't afford. Not with her plans. Not with her dreams.
.
.
.
Harry hadn't left to escape from Daphne. He had simply gone down to the forest to experiment. Nobody was there to stop him going from to the forest at night. The one time Filch had caught him, Harry got the opportunity to try out his runic version of the memory charm. He had held Filch in place with the void and wrapped it around his mouth when he started screaming for help. Then he used a pen to draw the rune structure on the man's forehead and then pushed the void through, activating it.
Filch had passed out immediately and Harry wasn't quite sure if he was successful. Yes, the man forgot him but Harry wasn't sure how much memory he had erased. There was no change in his behaviour. He was surly and annoying as ever.
Harry put it out of his mind. He had greater things to focus on.
The main doors had a charm to alert the gamekeeper if they opened after curfew and Harry could see the magic in it. Instead he walked along the corridor parallel to it and stopped at the second window. He pulled at the latch instead of pushing to open it. Stone grated against stone as a part of the wall began to rotate giving him a way out close to the forest.
Cool air splashed on him and Harry shivered in pleasure. Being outside the castle felt like freedom. Away from the stifling environment of a closed minded society.
The moon was in one of its funny phases casting gentle yellow light down on the black lake and over the tall trees that marked the forbidden forest.
Harry inhaled the fresh air and walked towards the forest.
His feet rustled against the manicured lawns until the grass began to grow and undulations beneath his feet became more unsteady. He walked until the looming trees towered over him like angry beasts.
Harry smiled. He almost felt welcome as he stepped over a particularly thick root and entered the forbidden forest.
Almost immediately the atmosphere changed and the magic in the air thickened. It pressed on him from all sides, radiating warning and danger. Urging him to flee from the forest.
Harry shivered in delight. He missed surviving in the desert and the nature of the forest brought back his senses of survival.
The Void sharpened, becoming alert and hostile. Harry drew his wand and slowly moved through the forest. His eyes were glowing with magic. He was watching the movement of magic through the forest, looking for threats and the path to the clearing where he practiced.
The forest was bathed in the colours of red, green, violet and moonlight.
A movement towards his left alerted Harry and the Void immediately sprung out of his wand, reforming into the shape of a sharp sword and when Harry pushed more magic through, a seven-foot tall and foot wide steel sword materialised and pierced through the body of something big, black and hairy.
The creature screeching in pain as it was skewered and pinned on a tree trunk by a giant sword.
Harry cautiously observed the creature. It was an Acromantula. One of the big ones. He giggled when it struggled to get free. It's many legs twitching and dozen eyes, darting around in panic.
Harry opened the face of his left hand and the sword was yanked free.
The Acromantula fell with a thud and let out another screech of pain and anger as it tried to attack Harry in desperation.
Green eyes glowed predatorily and the sword was raised high and allowed to fall onto the head of the creature.
The sword cleaved its head like a melon and dug itself a foot into the ground.
The Acromantula twitched for a few more seconds before going still. It was dead.
Harry laughed and turned the sword back into the void by releasing the compressed magic. The magic of the forest swirled. With every creature he killed, he felt like the forest was changing. It was beginning to create an aura of danger around him. Instead of warning and pushing him away, it was slowly adapting and warning other magical creatures to flee from him. Those that could not stand up to him at any rate.
"That was fun," he giggled and continued deeper into his home away from home.
He wondered where the more dangerous creatures were and what were they? Where were the beasts the forest felt were greater than him? If Acromantula were all there was to the threat of the forbidden forest, then Harry was going to be severely disappointed.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
Thirty first October nineteen ninety-three – Hogwarts Great Hall
It sent whispers through a hundred ears all at once. The noise was a low buzz of excitement that sent their pulses through the roof. Anticipation of an explosive unknown made them tense with the exhilaration of imagining it.
Three Gryffindors. Two Hufflepuffs. Four Ravenclaws. Nine students sitting at the Slytherin table around the tenth. Nine pairs of eyes stared back with defiance at the rest of the hall and the tenth sat with smug satisfaction and importance.
Daphne Greengrass had officially done it. She had stunned a united Hogwarts.
The mind bender was the sight of the resident genius muggleborn of Hogwarts: Hermione Granger sitting to Daphne's right.
They felt silent. Letting their eyes do the talking. Letting the world know they alone were untied towards a better future. They were daring others to join them.
The power of inspiration breezed through the great hall and Daphne Greengrass was right at the middle of it.
Few minutes had to pass before eye contact was broken and the atmosphere changed to a charged state of gossip and theories.
The ten students turned to meet each other's eyes with a sense of accomplishment.
The Halloween feast had begun with a powerful statement.
Harry Potter was indifferent to it all. His mind was computing thoughts far beyond the imagination of the rest of the population of minds. He, instead, was watching how powerful Daphne's yellow had become. It spread all around her like a sky of yellow. It wrapped around those beside her like clouds, unconsciously interacting and influencing their green and orange. They felt visible. They felt good. They liked what Daphne said.
Harry smiled when he saw many reds flare up with hate around her. Those Slytherins were projecting their rage. They wanted to kill her. Yellow and Red seemed to clash quite often between people, Harry mused.
He kept watching Daphne and after a few minutes her yellow began to disappear as she began to converse with those around her. Her yellow, red and green flickered constantly. Whatever she was talking about was manipulating the hearts of those around her.
Harry giggled when he realised something. Anyone who becomes the voice of reason is a manipulator. He saw Dumbledore in Daphne. His giggle became a chuckle when he imagined telling Daphne his dream. He imagined it would destroy her own. Wouldn't that be a wondrous sight! He thought with amusement.
Around him his housemates resolved to leave another column of seats empty beside Harry next time. This year he seemed more unbalanced than ever and his unexpected bursts of giggles was beginning to terrify them.
At the Slytherin Daphne was holding court. Five Slytherins have moved to join their group and were deep in discussion with Daphne and her friends.
"I am a pureblood," Daphne was saying. "And I can confidently say intelligence is what truly matters. I have seen both worlds and the speed of our development pales in comparison. Change needs to come if our world has to progress as far as muggles in terms of standard of living. The archaic laws of the Wizengamot must be changed!"
Apart from a few older students who actually understood her, everyone blindly accepted her words as the truth. They sounded true enough. Their knowledge of laws, muggle technology, philosophy was severely lacking.
Daphne had done her homework well.
Her friends murmured in agreement around her. Tracey, Blaise, Pucey, Moon and Derrick had joined them.
"We need smart, open minded and talented wizards running our government. Minds like muggleborns who can uniquely contribute to our society."
"A society which purebloods have built," Pucey said sharply. His eyes were burning with anger.
"And have let it stagnate and rot," Daphne threw back passionately. "I would know. I am one!" She was painting her as the pureblood revolutionist. Deep in her mind she wondered if Ted would hear about this. She wondered if they would succeed tonight.
The debate turned heated as more participates began to join in.
At the head table, the events happening around the Slytherin table did not escape their notice. "Oh this is going to cause trouble," Flitwick squeaked and then promptly fell of his high chair. "Bold," muttered Snape eying the children with an evil eye. "Incredible," Tonks said in awe. She hadn't been gone from Hogwarts long to understate what the magnitude of the event before was.
"Remind you of someone?" McGonagall breathed in shock. She remembered a similar event deep in her past. It was an event that had sent stunned the foundation of Hogwarts. A presumed muggleborn was made prefect and accepted as the leader and voice of the Slytherin house. Tom Riddle had incredible charisma and Daphne was turning out to be a close second in her own way. Where she passionately spoke, all Tom had to do was smile.
"All too vividly," Dumbledore murmured with interest. "Ms Greengrass has certainly made great strides in her personal growth. She's top of her year as well isn't she?"
"One of the top," McGonagall corrected. "Ms Granger joins her there."
Daphne was being noticed. Her name was beginning to revolve around an ideal.
"What about Harry?" he asked curiously.
McGonagall snorted. "He hasn't submitted a single assignment back in till date. With the way he's going it'll be a miracle if he scores enough on his finals to pass to next year. If it weren't for the exams being canceled last year, which I must say again was a terrible idea, Potter wouldn't be sitting in third year classes."
"He'll do enough to pass his exams. His spell work I hear is phenomenal," Dumbledore said. His eyes settled on the dark haired psychopath and wondered if it would be a good idea to attempt legilimency. He wasn't sure if Harry's unique magic would detect it and wasn't ready to risk it.
McGonagall sniffed. "Doesn't mean he skips doing assignments! Even detentions don't have any affect on him. He does them without complaint! Talk to him Albus," she said exasperatedly.
"Expel him," Snape interjected, adding his own two thoughts.
Dumbledore chuckled. "If he weren't doing his detentions I would. He hasn't actually crossed the line to be sent to my office." Dumbledore felt amused. "Anyway. Let us move on and enjoy the feast! The elves have truly outdone them this year."
"Hear, hear!" roared Hagrid heartily.
The feast had moved on from the shocking event to enjoying the magical decorations, mouth watering food and the holiday spirit. Ghosts attempted to scare children and received only hysterical laughter in return. Uplifting stories and jokes were shared that had Hogwarts brimming with joy.
It was in this eternal moment that the silver mist of a patronus ghosted past Dumbledore's ear.
"It's happening," a female voice whispered in his mind. "They've broken into the Ministry."