Chapter 24
"Oi! Any of you lot seen Scabbers?" Ron's call woke Alex from his doze.
"The fuck is a scabbers?" Seamus yelled back from behind his curtains.
Neville poked his head out of his own bed's curtains to look concernedly at Ron. "Uh, may you should go s-see the nurse, Ron. It could be catching."
"What are you on about? I'm lookin' for me rat!" Ron yelled back while tossing blankets and pillows around searching for his lost pet.
It was at that moment that Dean walked out of the bathroom in just a pair of pyjama pants, towelling his wet hair. "What's all the fuss?"
"Ron can't find 'is rat." Seamus informed the boy.
Dean shivered. "Good, can't stand rats. Maybe it's crawled off to die or sumthin'"
"He's not dead." Ron grumbled. "He'll be around here somewhere."
"How old is it? Didn't you say something about Percy having him, last night?" Dean asked as he pulled clothes from his trunk.
"'bout ten years or so." Ron admitted.
"There you go." Dean pulled out his uniform. "Rats only live something like eight years, then I think when they get ready to die, they crawl somewhere out of sight to cark-it."
"Bollocks." Ron sighed in defeat.
Alex snorted at conversation that was happening and got out of bed. It only took a second to will himself dressed in a copy of his Gryffindor robes made of light. Gem based clothing really did beat the hassle of getting dressed each morning. He stretched and wished he could have slept longer, even if he technically didn't need sleep his human habits liked getting a good eight hours. He hadn't gotten back to the dorm until about three in the morning whereby he fused with his duplicated to gain the memories of no one getting up through the night then laid down for a as much as a nap as he was going to get.
At least Sirius was in good hands being tended too at the Luna Academy. Alex and Lyn had ferried the comatose Dogfather back to the moon castle and had left him in the tender care of the Gem in charge of the infirmary. Which surprisingly, was a bubbly Pink Diamond. Not THE Pink Diamond of course but still a Diamond class gem in the shade of pink that went by the name Azalea.
Azalea was competent in enough wizarding healing to teach classes on it, which she would do so if and when they introduced students to the school. She was also able to heal much like the OG Pink was able to from the show. With the combination of Pink's healing abilities, her medical spellwork and a few potions, it was likely Sirius would be restored to health within a few months, a year at most. Still, it would probably be at least a few weeks before they woke him from his potion induced slumber. Hopefully his improved physical health will also have an effect on his mental health too.
"Good morning, Harry." Hermione greeted him in the common room.
"Morning." Harry lazily greeted the girl.
"Are you excited about our first day? I've got all my books on me so I'm certainly not late for class. I wonder what our first lessons are going to be like?" Hermione chatted away with a large smile on her face.
Alex smiled at her infectious exuberance and silently took her incredibly heavy and over filled book bag from her.
"Wha-?" Hermione started to protest as he easily fit her bag into his own smaller bookbag without it changing in size or weight.
"When's your birthday?" Alex asked her.
Hermione blinked at his non-sequitur. "The nineteenth of September."
"Damn, that's less then three weeks away." Alex noted.
Hermione frowned, not meanly or anything, it just seemed to be default to any confusion she might encounter. "And why would that matter?"
Alex shrugged and started walking out of the common room, forcing the bookworm to follow lest he abscond with all her school books.
"I want to know so I can get you a bookbag with some good expansion and feather-light charms on it." Alex followed the map overlayed in a corner of his vision causing him to lead Hermione down the hall and into a side passage.
Hermione almost tripped at his words. "Oh.. umm why?"
"Because that's what friends do, they get each other thoughtful gifts." Alex stopped in front of a large tarnished ceiling to floor mirror with a gilt frame. He glanced at his map for confirmation then leant towards the glass and breathed against it, his breath fogging the chill surface.
Poor Hermione was completely out of her element as she watched him like he was some strange yet interesting new animal. "We're friends?" she asked timidly.
Alex wrote the word 'Salr' on the fogged glass causing it to shimmer and suddenly stop showing their reflection but instead showed a completely different hallway. "Yes, Hermione, we're friends. Keep up."
Alex stepped into and through the glass into the hallways beyond. Hermione blinked, frowned, then smiled all within a second or two and cautiously stepped through after him. Alex smiled as Hermione followed then started walking, taking a left bring them to the entrance Hall, just outside the doors to the great hall. From the seventh floor to the ground floor in a single step.
"How did we…?" Hermione trailed off in wonder.
Alex grinned at her. "Damn, I love magic"
The pair entered the nearly deserted great hall and took their place at the Gryffindor table which only had a few bleary-eyed older years seated at it.
"How did you know the short-cut?" Hermione asked as she picked out some toast and snagged a jar of marmalade.
Alex filled his plate with some eggs and fruit along with some buttered toast. "I'm Harry Potter." He said as if that explained everything.
Hermione simply huffed at Alex's non-answer then frowned at him again. "You're wearing glasses today."
Alex slid the simple wire lensed spectacles further up is nose in a classic anime-esque action. "Only took you twenty minutes to notice."
Hermione blushed. "I mean, why are you wearing glasses? Didn't you say you got contacts on the train?"
Alex nodded and took a sip of bitter, sweet ambrosia. Fuck, the elves made a better coffee than most hipster cafés. "I did, but I was so tired last night that I forgot to take them out. Slept with them in and woke up with my eyes feeling irritated. Thought I'd give them a breather today."
Hermione accepted that answer as she poured herself a cup of tea.
Truthfully, he had plans for today and needed the lenses out for them to work. These ones were just simple glass lenses with the reflection rune-cluster etched neatly around the edges. He still wore the modified InSpecs as a fused item but this way he had an excuse to rebuff legilimency attacks.
"Mr Potter, Ms Granger. It's good to see two of my lions were able to find their way with plenty of time to spare." McGonagall passed them each a stiff sheet of parchment with their timetables written out on them.
"Mornin' Professor." Alex causally greeted the Scottish woman.
"Good morning, Professor McGonagall." Hermione also greeted her after swallowing the mouthful of toast she was eating.
Alex glanced at the timetable. "Guess we'll see you after breakfast then."
"Indeed Mr Potter, do ensure you're not late." McGonagall told him before moving on to the next new arrivals, a pair of third years if Alex wasn't mistaken.
"Transfiguration, a short break before lunch, and a free double period then Potions afterwards." Hermione noted the day's classes.
"Great. I'm useless for at least an hour after lunch, we can either check out the library or take a nap." Alex knew there was only one choice that Hermione was going to make.
"The library. It's supposed to be the largest collection of magical books in England." Hermione said with, and Alex had to double-take to make sure, literal stars in her eyes.
"How did you two get down here so quick?" Ron squished himself between Alex and Hermine as Dean and Seamus sat opposite them, Neville sat to the other side of Alex with a small smile.
Hermione frowned as she had to scoot to the side to give herself space. "Harry knew the way."
Ron ignored her but still asked Alex as he loaded his plate with sausages. "And how did you know, we had to wait for Percy to bring us down."
Alex rolled his eyes at Ron's actions and sent a wink at Hermione. "I'm Harry flippin' Potter."
⦖⋄⦕
Alex and Hermione made it to McGonagall's class with plenty of time to spare and were, in fact, the first students to arrive. It had been easy for Alex to note McGonagall's position on the map and lead Hermione through the twisting turns of the castle. It was also fun to reply to Hermione's constant questioning on 'how' he knew the way with a smug grin. It causes the young girl to fume something awful and Alex could see her redoubling her efforts to ferret out the answers.
The classroom was large and seemed to be an odd combination of lecture theatre and regular room with student desks. The front of the room was dominated with a large blackboard and a heavy wood desk. Lined up before the desk were rows of smaller student desks each only wide enough to comfortably sit two students. The rows of desks each were on low tiered platforms that created a wide and gently sloped stair from the front of the room all the way to the back. The slope was nothing like a true lecture theatre yet was just enough of an elevation between tier of desks that would ensure each student would be able to see to front of the room and, in turn, that that professor could see each student.
"Kitty!" Hermione squealed, albeit softly, and walked briskly to the regal looking tabby that was perched upon the teacher's desk. "Aren't you just the prettiest, puss?" Hermione timidly reached out and pet the stiff animal that stared at her with hard unblinking eyes.
If it wasn't for his prior knowledge or the way that the very tip of the cat's tail twitched back and forth, Alex would have thought the cat a stuffed animal rather than a real living creature.
"Umm, Hermione? Maybe you shouldn't pat every strange cat you see find," Alex was sure he was failing to hide his smirk. "They might have fleas or something."
If the cat turned hard and unamused eyes on Alex then they were outdone by Hermione's scandalised gasp. "She doesn't have FLEAS! She's definitely well cared for, why just look at her how her coat gleams in the light and how healthy her clear her eyes are!"
"Eyes' with markings around them incredibly similar to Professor McGonagall's glasses?"
Hermione blinked at him then looked down at the cat that she was still stroking. The cat looked back up at her. One thing for certain, Hermione was not an idiot. She might not know all the various forms of magic that existed in the world but unless a book told her something was impossible then she could apply her imagination to magic. Her only real fault at this point in time was her faith in those that came before. If she had read somewhere or a professor had told her that it was impossible to transfigure one's self into an animal then she would never have considered the possibility, but since she had not read anything on the subject as of yet she was willing to consider Alex's insinuation. Hermione snatcher her hand back from the cat as if burned.
"P-Professor?" she queried the cat cautiously.
The cat leapt from the desk and shifted into the regal, matron that was their transfiguration professor.
"Well done, Ms Granger, Mr Potter." She acknowledged their guess.
Hermione just stood their gaping, the hand that had been petting the cat-now-tuned-professor was now not so subtly wiping itself on her school robes.
"Five points to Gryffindor for working out I was an animagus, Mr Potter. It would have been ten but for your comment about fleas."
Alex just grinned and gave the stem matronly woman a little shrug. "If I had really wanted to be rude, I would have made a joke about cats and licking themselves clean."
His comment caused Hermione to squeak a little and McGonagall to close her eyes for a second, her mouth moving just a little as she sub vocally called upon one higher power or another for patience. "You remind me of your father, Mr Potter." She eventually managed.
"Thank you, Professor."
"That was not necessarily a compliment." McGonagall sighed. "Why don't the two of you find your seats, I trust that you won't give up the game to your fellow classmates?"
"Of course, Professor McGonagall." Hermione agreed and dragged Alex back and towards the first row of student desks. Alex in-turn had to then drag Hermione further back to the second row. Everyone knows that you don't sit at the front if you could help it.
McGonagall retook her cat-form and position on the desk and waited for the rest of the class to arrive.
"I can't believe you let me pet a teacher?!" Hermione whisper-shouted at him as they took their seats.
"Hey, I'm not the one who ran to pet the cat. Anyway, she's the one who let a student pet her, that's just a tad creepy of you ask me."
Hermione didn't have a response to that other than to give a huff, not at him but more just huffing about her own lack of answer.
"Anyway, what's an animagus?" She asked.
"It's an advanced transfiguration technique whereby a witch or wizard can wondlessly transfigure themselves into a specific animal. Generally, a magical only gets one mundane animal they can transform into and they don't get a choice about what animal they can become, but the benefits are the speed of the transformation, the ability to retain their human consciousness in animal form and some advantages from their animal form bleed over into their human form." Alex answered her.
Hermione digested the new information then narrowed her eyes. "Generally?"
Alex nodded. "It's said that very powerful magicals could have multiple forms or even magic animal forms but there's not been one such recorded instance other than myths that Merlin could transform himself into a dragon."
"Hmmm, I wonder how you become an animagus?" Hermione mused.
Alex's next words brought a huge smile to her face. "Why don't we use our free period to look up animagi in the library?"
"Sure!" Hermione beamed.
Eventually the class filled up with their year-mates from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, it was interesting to note what the students did as they entered the classroom. Some simply looked around then found a spare seat, others greeted or pet the cat and others still didn't seem to care for the cat at all. It was as the bell rang for first period and Zacharias Smith was complaining to Earnie Macmillan and Justin Finch-Fletchley about the lack of the professor that Alex truly understood McGonagall's purpose in deceiving the class like she was, especially when he noticed Susan Bones flick her eyes to the tabby then glare at Smith.
By observing the class under the disguise of a cat, McGonagall was able to catch a glimpse of the personalities of her students that would normally be hidden from the professors. Was it ethical? Not overly so, but it was likely effective in calling attention to students whose attitudes could be a problem later. Case-in-point as Ron and Neville ran through the classroom door a full minute after the first period bell rang.
"Blimey, could you imagine the look on ol' McGonagall's face if we'd been late?" Ron panted having run from the great hall all the way to the classroom.
McGonagall took that as her cue to morph back into human form whereby she now loomed over the pair.
"S-Something like t-that, I r-recon." Neville gulped.
"Tha' was brilliant!" Ron exclaimed.
"Thank you, Mr Weasley. Though perhaps I should transfigure one of you into a watch, or maybe a map? Perhaps then you would more easily find your way to class on time? Five points for your tardiness, the pair of you." McGonagall's stern persona didn't change though the ghost of smile might have touched her lips at Ron's compliment.
McGonagall turned to the class as a whole. "Now. Transfiguration is one of the most complex and challenging disciplines taught at Hogwarts, it is also one of the most dangerous."
What followed was an intense lecture of the dangers of transfiguration, covering irreversible changes, accidental poisonings, and blunt-force trauma from reshaped material suddenly reverting to original sizes. Turn out that shrinking large objects can be dangerous when they could pop back to full size in a fraction of a second.
Eventually, after an hour-long lecture on the importance of following directions, not experimenting on their classmate and not, REPEAT NOT, eating conjured food, McGonagall passed out a single matchstick to everyone and proceeded to explain the process of turning the matchstick into a needle.
Honestly, it sounded trite. Complex magical abilities used to turn a small sliver of wood into a small sliver of metal. Yet, having read quite a bit ahead of his classmates, Alex understood the method behind the supposed madness.
The end result of transfiguration was the ability to free shape the world around them with a wave of their wands and an effort of will. True transfiguration, by definition, was not static but a constant change and flow that could only be directed by feel and understanding of one's own magic and the subtle connections between the physical and the realm of thought and imagination. To this end, spells within the branch of transfiguration fell into two main categories: directed and undirected casting.
The spell to transfigure a match into a needle was of the first category. In fact, almost all the spells they would learn up to their OWLs would be directed transfigurations. A directed transfiguration spell could only transfigure one specific thing into another specific thing. Matches to needles, beetles to buttons and rats to goblets or other such spells. Sometimes there was a little give in as such that the definition of the first object was vague enough to apply in multiple cases. A match, a pencil, a twig, really any long thin piece of wood could be targeted by the match to needle spell. These spells were much easier than undirected spells and had a much less chance of failing in dangerous ways, generally only resulting in a partial change of the target into the result. They needed only focus and imagination to subtly shape the end result.
The wizarding world, wasn't in that dire need of needles that this was the first transfiguration spell taught to all student. No, the reasoning behind targeted transfigurations was to learn the feel of the spell. Each and every directed spell taught in the classroom was for the purpose of understanding the flow of magic that induced the desired change. The match to needle spell was, in essence, a non-living organic substance to a non-living inorganic substance spell with minimal change in shape. Once students could understand the feel of the magic, as shown in how quickly or how intricately they could enact the change they would be moved onto other more challenging inorganic to organic transfigurations and then again onto organic to organic, living to unliving and so on and so forth.
In addition to the alchemical-like transition of matter between states, directed spells worked within linguistic, mental and imaginative boundaries to either increase the ease of the spell or to make the student work harder at the change. Magic could not be completely defined in scientific principles and had a large assortment of sympathetic laws that affect its workings.
The law of similarity, the law of contagion, the law of consanguinity and the laws of conservation, each was used to various effect within the spells taught to either ease the spells magical requirements or force students past them. Beetles looked much like small black buttons and the 'similarity' in their appearance made the spell that much easier to cast. An owl into opera glasses pulled on the concept of sight to direct the spell into proper telescopic lenses. A teddy bear to spider forced the caster to push against the feelings of warmth and comfort to direct the spell into danger and disgust. There was a reason that on-the-fly transfigurations followed certain mental flows within battle as casters either consciously or unconsciously pulled on sympathetic ties between substances to ease their spell work.
The end result was that directed spells became primers for undirected spells. Undirected Spells that could freely change substances between multiple states, the most famous being the Mutio spell that could change any non-living substance to any other non-living substance and in any shape the caster desired. A single spell that could turn a stone into a bed, a chair into a typewriter and pillow into a sword, constrained only by the casters ability to feel and direct their magic in specific ways to achieve the targeted result.
Put simply: by casting seemingly useless and unconnected transfigurations in class, students learnt how to reshape specific materials and concepts which could then be applied to broader and more dangerous spells later.
"Well done, Mr Potter. Ten points to Gryffindor." McGonagall pulled Alex out of his musings. He hadn't even noticed that he had wordlessly changed the matchstick in front of him. "A little more twist to the wrist, Ms Granger, you're doing well."
Hermione leant over to Alex as McGonagall walked away briskly to where Seamus' match was already smoking.
"How did you do it?" Hermione asked.
"There are two ways," Alex told her. "Either imagine the match shifting form gradually to become what you want, or imagine what you want intensely and command the match to fit itself to your image."
"What? McGonagall didn't say anything about that!"
"Yeah, she did. She said that the method was personal to the caster and that imagination and focus was key. It's a process Hermione, it's not a math equation where you just know the answer, you have to show the workings… but, like, in your head." Alex tried to explain.
Hermione turned back to her match and glared at the splinter as if she could change it with directed malice. Which, honestly, might actually be possible.
Alex reached over and wrapped himself around the girl eliciting a small "Eep!" from her, he took her hand in his and directed her wand arm from behind, then he whispered instructions over her shoulder. "Breath. Calm down and close your eyes."
Hermione blushed at the unexpected closeness but did as directed.
"Picture the match in your mind, imagine it changing slowly, becoming silver, slimming, smoother metal, the head becomes the eye and the other side shifts into a point. Imagine the weight of it as in your hand. Metal is denser than wood, it's small but has a little heft, imagine the chill of the steel quickly warming at your touch, imagine how it will bend before it breaks, how it will resist being broken and wont snap like wood… now open your eyes, say the spell and push all of those images into your magic and into the spell."
Hermione had relaxed within his arms as she was swept up his voice and the mental images she was creating. She opened her eyes and saw the match but at the same time she saw the needle in her mind and she pushed.
"Acusignis." She breathed the spell softly, barely even vocalising the word.
The match shivered from one end to the other, wood becoming grey steel in a wave that rippled down the length of the match.
"Well done, Ms Granger." McGonagall startled them again, Alex leaping back away from where he was wrapped around Hermione. "Five points to Gryffindor, though perhaps next time without the need for Mr Potter to be draped across your shoulders?"
Hermione blushed and stuttered out a thank you to the stern professor while much of the class giggled or snickered, though Alex definitely heard a "Lucky bitch." Muttered without heat from someone in the room.
Class continued though Hermione wouldn't look at him without blushing. He also wasn't sure if Hermione was disappointed that they, as the only two to successfully complete the transfiguration, were exempt from homework.
Still, she waited as he gathered their things to go explore the library together so Alex assume she was just embarrassed but not off-put by the closeness he had shown.
⦖⋄⦕
Hermione and he had enjoyed lunch and then returned to the library with Alice and Lapis in tow to continue to explore the stacks of centuries old books. The spent the time searching for books on animagi and the process of becoming one. Eventually though they had left the comfort of the sanctuary of pages to seek the dreary, damp stone confines of the dungeons for their potions class.
"Ah, Mr Potter. Our new celebrity." Snap purred. He fucking purred.
Alex had to resist rolling his eyes at the man's over the top… everything. He'd admit that the speech about potions was enthralling but everything else about Severus Snape screamed 'sad thirty-something emo drama-class dropout.'
"Potter! What would I get if I added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?" Snape barked out.
A creepy comment about my mum? Alex thought to himself before answering. "The beginnings of the base for a Draught of the Living Dead."
Snape sniffed dismissively. "Well, I see that you've at least opened a book before class. Tell me, Potter, where would one fine a bezoar?"
Alex lifted one of the smooth stones from his potions kit. "One should find one standard in most potions kits as they are a blanket antidote for most poisons under class three, I found it curious that they were missing from the required materials list sent out yet it seems half the class were able to procure one." Alex eyed the potion's kits of the Slytherins nearby. "Yet, I believe you were asking where they originate and, in that case, they are formed in the stomach of goats from undigested organic matter, typically hair.
A few of the Slytherins were now scrunching up their noses as they looked at the miraculous panacea that had no doubt been provided to them by Snape.
"That will be ten points for your cheek and your pontification, Potter." Snape sneered.
Alex just shrugged, the simple action seeming to infuriate the man-child.
"What is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane."
"While both being from the Aconitum plant; in potioneering, Monkshood describes the flowering potion while Wolfsbane refers to the roots of the plant." Alex recited the relevant section from One thousand Herbs and Fungi verbatim.
"Another ten points from Gryffindor for trying to show off." Snape snaped. "I suppose you thought you could read a little ahead and act like you had a modicum of intelligence. You're just like your father; he too couldn't resist acting superior to those around him."
Alex cocked an eyebrow at the greasy bat. "I doubt he had to act superior when you were nearby, sir, he would have been superior by default."
The class had gone silent. Hermione was staring at him with her mouth agape, Ron couldn't keep his snickering to himself and the majority of the Slytherins had turned pale. It said something about the speed and fecundity of the Hogwarts rumour mill that by the last class of the first day everyone in the room seemed to have heard about how much of a cunt Snape was and how he shouldn't be crossed.
"What did you say, Potter?!" Snape growled. Ok seriously, was the man a secret furry or something? Because this was a lot of animal themed vocalisations in the last ten minutes.
"I believe I was commenting on your inadequacies compared to my father, of which I'm sure there were many." Alex quipped back.
"You arrogant, little, pathetic child. Your father was just as useless, though he strutted around like he was Merlin incarnate. How dare you speak to me in that manner!" Snape stared right into Alex's eyes as he ranted.
Suddenly Alex felt his glasses vibrate slightly and warm-up against the bridge of his nose and Snape abruptly collapsed to his knees as he clutched his head while he yelled out in pain.
"POTTER!" he managed to ground out as he pulled out his wand and started to point it at Alex.
Alex didn't give the man a chance to actually cast anything as his wand was already in his hand with only a thought.
"Expelliarmus!" Alex shouted and the red spell shot towards the greasy potion's professor and hit true. Alex casually caught Snapes wand in his off hand. "Do you often draw wands on students after attempting to rape their minds?"
"Return my wand at once you pathetic, child!" Snape stumbled to his feet.
"No, I don't think so." Alex shook his head. "I'll be holding on to this until the aurors get here."
"And what will they do?" Snape sneered. "You can't just wave your fame about and get law-enforcement to bow to your every whim, Potter."
Alex rolled his eyes. "No, but I can show them that the last spell cast by this wand was likely a legilimency attack."
Snape narrowed his eyes and Alex saw the moment when he decided to take the wand back by force. The dungeon bat was mid lunge when Alex muttered a quick "Shibarcerous," and cast a variant of the 'incarcerous' spell causing ropes to spring out of thin air and bind the man in intricate shibari-like knots. While the spell did have some… unique bedroom applications that Alex and the girls had already explored, it also was able to bind the hands and feet together in a more secure way than the regular incarcerous which only wrapped the ropes around a victim. Snape landed in an intricatly bound heap with a pained grunt.
"I'm off to see the deputy-headmistress." Alex informed the class as he packed his things and left the room in stunned silence. Well, except for Snape' "Potter! Potter! GET BACK HERE AND RELEASE ME YOU INSOLENT BRAT!"
Ten minutes later found Alex knocking on the door to McGonagall's classroom and interrupting her lesson with Ravenclaw-Hufflepuff fourth-years.
"Mr Potter, shouldn't you be in Potions class?" McGonagall asked sternly.
Alex gave a half shrug-grin. "Actually, Professor I just came from there. I was hopping you could contact the Aurors for me?" His words set the class to whispering and McGonagall's eyebrows to shoot up.
"Whatever for?" She asked completely bewildered.
"Snape just tried to illegally violate my mind then attack me." Alex reported to her and held up Snapes wand. "Thankfully, I disarmed the bastard but need to report the crime to the authorities and hand over the wand as evidence."
Of all the things Alex expected, McGonagall releasing a tired sigh of "Damnit, Severus," was not it.
It was another ten minutes later after McGonagall had dismissed her class and lead him to the headmaster's office that found Alex sitting under the disapproving stare of Albus Dumbledore.
"Harry, my boy, I'm afraid that you can't just accuse Professor Snape like that." Dumbledore tiredly shook his head.
"I'm not accusing anyone. I'm stating a fact. Snape attempted to enter my mind, then drew his wand on me when my defences rebuffed him. And why have you not yet flooed the aurors yet?"
"Professor Snape." Dumbledore corrected.
Alex snorted. "A prejudiced, meanspirited man like that doesn't really deserve the title."
"And what would you mean by that?" McGonagall asked quickly.
"I mean that man that intentionally tries to trip students up with questions way above their year level and yet still insults and removes house points when the student gets the question right is not fit to hold the title professor." Alex explained.
"I'm sure you're exaggerating; Professor Snape has my complete confidence." Dumbledore smiled genially.
"I am not exa- " Alex's response was cut short as the door to the office slammed open and Snape strode in already shouting.
"I want that Potter brat expelled! NO! I want him punished, flogged, beaten! He's an arrogant, little, pompous, conniving, toe-rag!"
"SEVERUS! That is enough!" McGonagall interrupted the man's rant forcing him to notice that both she and Alex were also in the room.
"YOU!" Snape directed another wand — it appeared to be Malfoy's — at Alex yet it was ripped from his hand before Alex even had a chance to disarm him.
Albus Dumbledore deftly caught the wand with the hand not holding the knobbled length of elder wood. "Severus." He warned.
"That, That BOY! Attacked me in my class! I want him gone! Out! You hear me?!" Snape fumed impotently.
"Now, now, I'm sure we can settle this like civilised adults." Albus tried to calm the potions professor down.
"I'm not." Alex quipped. "And you still haven't contacted the aurors."
"Harry, there simply isn't any point in contacting the aurors as there's no proof that Professor Snape did anything wrong."
Alex shook his head and tapped his glasses. "I'm quite willing to show my memory of the event, additionally my glasses retain the magical signature of the last spell they deflected."
"Your glasses?" McGonagall asked.
Alex took off the wireframed spectacles and handed them to the transfiguration mistress then made sure he was looking up at the ceiling and not meeting anyone's gaze. "See the runes around the edges? I inscribed them to reflect dangerous magics like legilimency attacks."
"You did this?" McGonagall asked, impressed at the workmanship. The rune scheme wasn't complex but it was neatly and accurately done, or at least McGonagall thought so even though her use of runes was minor. "Excellent work, Potter." She handed the glasses back to Alex who put them on before anyone could attempt anything.
"Add outrageous liar to dangerously, delinquent." Snape scoffed. "As if a child — a first-year at that — could produce a working rune scheme."
"If you must know." Alex gave the man a pithying glare. "I've been studying runes for months now, ever since I found my mother's journals on the subject."
At the mention of Lily Potter the red of Snapes face suddenly had to compete with a wave of green as if he had swallowed something incredibly bitter. Then something seemed to firm within the man and he returned Alex's glare with intent only to once again stumble to his knees as Alex's glasses deflected his mental attack again.
"Argg!" Snape groaned as his mind fell upon its own sword once again.
"Did you really think it would work a second time done wandlessly?" Alex drawled.
"Severus!" McGonagall barked. "I am appalled, attacking a student! Fer the secon' time, mind you!"
"Now, now Minerva." Dumbledore attempt to placate the irate Scot, "let's not jump to conclusions."
"How is it jumping to conclusions if his attack was done right in front of her?" Alex asked.
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he twined his fingers together on the table in front of him. "The runes on the glasses could be faulty or designed to cause pain to anyone who meets your eyes."
"Surely, yer not accusing Mr Potter of attacking Severus, Albus." McGonagall exclaimed angrily.
"No, no. Only that the runes may be faulty and acting in unexpected ways. I'm afraid I'll have to confiscate them for the safety of the student body." The headmaster demurred.
"You want to take the glasses away from a child with poor eyesight?" Alex asked surprised. "That's schoolyard bully types of low, even for you."
McGonagall though interrupted with a solution. "Perhaps we can have the school's own Runes Master inspect the Rune scheme and lay any doubts to rest?"
Albus released a great sigh as if this was a great imposition yet sent off a Patronus for Professor Babbling to come to his office immediately.
While waiting for runes professors' arrival the room sunk into an awkward silence broken only by Snapes continue vindictive muttering.
"While we wait, perhaps you can return Professor Snapes wand to him, my boy." Albus once again tried to genially convince Alex to give up the wand.
Alex shook his head, his arms crossed. "As I've said multiple times now, no. I'll hand it over to the authorities when they arrive. And I'm incredibly disappointed that no one has yet to contact them on the matter."
"Harry, an allegation of legilimency on a minor is a serious accusation." Dumbledore began.
"Oh, I'm aware. Legilimency on a minor, especially one who is the heir to house Potter, could see your pet Deatheater in Azkaban for years."
"Arrogant little – "
"That is enough Severus!" Minerva thundered, her Scottish brogue appearing in with her anger. "Don' think I've nae forgotten tha' second attempt to read me lion's mind."
The office door opened once again as Bathsheda Babbling entered the room. "You called for me professor?"
Professor Bathsheda Babbling was one of the youngest members on staff at only nineteen years of age, having graduated at seventeen and having attained her Mastery of Runes and position at Hogwarts within a year of her graduation. Already her name was becoming known among various circles for her brilliance in the subject. She was attractive with honey-coloured eyes in an oval shaped face framed by shoulder length wavey brown hair. Her skin was touch darker than was common for Britain's magical population denoting a hint of middle-eastern heritage.
"Ah, yes, my dear." Albus waved her into the room proper. "Could you perchance examine young Mr Potter's glasses and determine how dangerous they are?"
Professor Babbling cocked an eyebrow in suspicion given the room contained the Headmaster, the Deputy-Head and Head of Gryffindor House, as well as the Head of Slytherin. "Certainly. May I Mr Potter?"
Alex nodded and handed her his glasses while making sure not to look at either Snape or Dumbledore. Even still, he felt the probe from Dumbledore reach out to him and miss. Legilimecy could be done without eye-contact but it was infinitely more difficult. Because the Headmaster wasn't using eye-contact the probe wasn't affected by Alex's hidden pair of InSpecs but was instead rendered void by the Vegetative Perk from the Instant-Noodles Gauntlet which made his mind completely blank to all forms of scans or detections. It would have raised questions should his lack of detectable mind have been noted while trying to read it through his eyes, but from a legilimency probe without eye-contact it would simply appear as if the probe failed or slid of a natural resistance.
"These are very nicely done!" Babbling held the glasses up to the light, tilting them each way to examine the minute runes etched along the rims. "Where did you purchase these, Mr Potter?"
Alex shrugged. "I made them myself."
Babbling looked over the glasses to see him properly. "Truly?"
Alex nodded.
"Well then, fifteen-points to Gryffindor for superb rune-work. I hope to see you in my class in your third year."
"So they aren't harmful?" McGonagall asked her, cutting out Dumbledore who had looked like he was about to say something.
"Harmful? No, not at all. So long as you don't cast spells at them." Babbling explained.
"What do you mean by that?" Dumbledore asked with twinkling eyes.
"It's a simple reflection rune incorporated into a surface-braid to spread the effect over the lenses without impeding vision by having the etch the scheme onto the centre of each lens. They'll 'reflect' most spells targeted at the glasses or the eyes." Babbling continued. "Nothing overly serious, of course, but summoning the glasses shouldn't work, neither would something like a stunner of it was directed at the wearers face. It's possible it could even prevent the petrification effect of a cockatrice."
"What about something like legilimency?" McGonagall prompted.
Babbling considered the runes and the question. "They would likely reflect the attack back at the attacker, probably causing a short yet debilitating headache as the attack created a sort of feedback loop in trying to read the attacker's own thoughts."
"So a headache enough to cause a person to fall to their knees and clutch their head?" Alex clarified.
"Yes, something like that. Though I couldn't be sure without testing, I'm not as well versed in the mind-arts to know all the bits and pieces. Perhaps though, I will make a pair of these of my own, they should work as excellent defences. That is if you don't mind, Mr Potter, the idea is your own."
Alex smiled as he took the glasses back from the runes Mistress. "I doubt I'm the first person to think of this rune-scheme, feel free to utilise it if you like."
This had Dumbledore frowning, he certainly did not want these glasses spreading as reading the minds of student and the staff was an excellent method gathering information and maintaining his persona of 'all-knowing' grandfather.
"I must ask, given the questions; did someone attempt a legiliemcy attack on you, Mr Potter?"
The fact that Harry and McGonagall immediately glanced at Snape seemed to answer her question, yet Alex still responded.
"Snape tried to violate my mind yet was rebuffed by the glasses. He then drew wand on me but I defended."
"So you claim, my boy." Dumbledore interposed. "Unfortunately, there is no proof."
"Except for the wand used to cast the spell." Alex produced the Snapes wand and held it up.
"Alas, priori incantatum cannot be used as evidence given that the wand was not taken and observed in totality by an official law officer."
Alex frowned. "What are you implying?"
"Any spell could have been cast between when you relieved Professor Snape of his wand and when you spoke to Professor McGonagall."
"Surely, yer not suggesting that Mr Potter, would have cast the spell himself to frame Severus."
"No, no, of course not. Only that the law will not consider the evidence as binding." Albus demurred.
"You're really just going to do nothing even though your pet Deatheater attacked me in class?" If Alex didn't already know the attitude of the Headmaster and that his plan was a longshot he would have been shocked and bitterly disappointed in the grandfatherly old man.
"I assure you, Harry, Severus is not a Deatheater and has my complete confidence." Albus smiled.
"So, you say. But I've read my mother's journals and know all about that man's past." Alex sneered and tilted his jaw at the greasy bat. "I also know that I should never have been sent to an abusive home such as the Dursley's as my mother indicated she was changing her will ensure that I never step foot within their house."
Snape snorted and muttered something about 'precious princelings being pandered to.'
"I told you! I told you they were the worst sort of muggles!" McGonagall fumed at the headmaster. "But did yer listen to me? Nay!"
"You put me there?" Alex pretended to have just learnt this fact.
"Harry, it was for your own safety. The Dursley's home has powerful protections in place tied to the blood of your mother. While you live there, no harm can come to you. As your Magical Guardian I placed you were you were safest."
"Safe from everything but them. I've still got scars from their supposed hospitality, headmaster." Alex stared angrily at the old man. "And what the fuck is a Magical Guardian?"
"Language, Mr Potter!" McGonagall showed that she was still a stern teacher even at times like this. "And a Magical Guardian is an individual who is tasked with the care and upraising of a Magical Child."
"If that's so, then why have I never seen this man in my life before yesterday?" Alex waved his hand at the old man. "Why did I no know of magic before I found my mothers journals months before my Hogwarts letter arrived addressed to 'the cupboard under the stairs,' why did I not meet my Magical Guardian when collecting my Hogwarts things? Instead, I was taken by the Groundskeeper Hagrid who, despite being a wonderful soul, could not answer anything but the most basic questions about the magical world?"
"Hagrid?! You were introduced to the magical world by Hagrid?" McGonagall asked bewildered, she turned to Dumbledore. "Explain! When I volunteered to show the lad about you told me you had it sorted! You implied that you were taking him to Diagon yourself, that there was business you both had with Gringotts."
"Now, now, Minerva. Hagrid is a fine fellow to show a young lad about." Albus tried to placate the lion who was riled up in defence of her cub.
"You mean the business with whatever was taken from Gringotts by Hagrid and likely hidden here on the third floor?" Alex interjected.
"You left retrieving the stone to Hagrid and a child? Are yer barmy, yer doddering codger?"
"Stone?" Babbling asked softly to herself while Snape simply sneered and tried not to draw the old Scott's ire down on himself.
"Minerva, that's enough." Albus commanded sternly as the topic of conversation veered to places, he felt it shouldn't. McGonagall paused in her tirade yet remained red-faced and fuming.
"Harry, it would be best if you returned to your common room, classes would be over for the day by now." The headmaster told him.
"What? That's it? Your potions Master attempts to illegally read my mind and you just accept that and say carry on?"
"Again, my boy, there is little to be done." Albus told him.
"Yeah… I'm not accepting that. Until he," Alex pointed at the glaring Snape, "is suitably punished, I'm not stepping foot into the same room as him."
"I'm afraid that is not acceptable. You must attend your potions classes." Dumbledore began but was interrupted by McGonagall.
"No, he doesn't. As per the school charter, any student my procure tutors of their own as long as they pay for them themselves. I will personally hire a suitable tutor for Harry so he does not have to attend class with THAT man." McGonagall glared at Snape. "Honestly, I thought you could put your petty grudge against a dead man behind you to at least be somewhat of a professional teacher, I was wrong."
"Minerva – "
"Don' you 'Minerva' me!" McGonagall turned on the defeater of Grindelwald, "I'm not happy with you either. Now, off you go, Mr Potter, and you to Bethsheda, I've still got words to say to these two here."
Alex and Professor Babbling both stood to leave but Harry was halted by Dumbledore. "Harry, Professor Snape's wand."
Alex looked down at the wand held in his hand and seriously considered snapping the thing yet eventually simply threw it onto the headmaster's desk then stalked out behind Babbling. The door shut behind them cutting of the beginning of some serious shouting from the head of Gryffindor house.
Alex turned to a stunned Professor Babbling. "So… you teach runes, huh?"
⦖⋄⦕
AN: This chapter faught me so hard. I wrote the Snape confrontation then removed it then added it. I'm not entirely sure where i was going.
Pace should pick up again from here. I don't really want to write a day-by-day, class-by-class Harry Potter fic here. I'll write one of those as a dedicated fic at some point.