Chapter 23

The next day Harry found out how fast news spreads in Hogwarts, when Harry and his friends arrived for breakfast he noticed the few students that were already there stopped whatever conversation they were having and looked in his direction, it didn't take long for them to start whispering to each other. Harry knew that by now everyone would know he can speak parseltongue so he did his best to ignore everyone. Even though Harry did his best to try and have a normal conversation with his friends he could tell that many were staring at him. Harry quickly finished his breakfast and got up to leave but he noticed when he stood up many of the students became quiet, when he saw some of their faces many looked afraid of him. Harry hated the looks they were giving him so he quickly left and decided to spend the rest of the day in the dueling room.

Since the rest of his friends were going to be busy Harry thought he'd be alone in the dueling room but soon he heard the door open and saw Susan had joined him, seeing her Harry said "Hey Susan, what are you doing here?"

"Hannah left to help Professor Sprout so I decided to head to the dueling room." Harry nodded before Susan asked "Why are you here?"

Harry sighed and said "We're the only ones who use the dueling room so I thought I'd be able to get away from the rest of the students."

"I can see why, the rumors going around in Hufflepuff aren't good." The two sat down and Harry asked about the rumors, Susan explained, "Some of the students think you were ordering that snake to attack Justin, they all believe you're the heir of Slytherin and Justin thinks he's going to be petrified next so he's planning to stay away from you."

Harry groaned and said "That snake was going to attack him so I ordered it to stop, if I hadn't stopped it then Justin would have ended up in the hospital wing."

Susan nodded and said "I noticed that, I tried to tell some of the other Hufflepuffs but Ernie is convinced you're the heir and he keeps telling everyone you ordered the snake to attack. I think Megan and Wayne believe me but they've decided to stay out of it."

Harry thanked her for trying, he hoped they'd be able to find out who the real heir is so everyone will stop blaming him. Susan could tell Harry didn't want to talk about the rumors anymore so she changed the subject, the two started to talk about their classes and soon the two were talking about their two least favorite classes: defense and potions. Susan complained about the two teachers, she explained how she tried to ask Lockhart questions about defense but the Professor always tries to dodge her questions or change the subject, Harry told Susan about the times he cast frictionless while Lockhart was reading and it made the girl laugh.

Since Amelia knew Lockhart would be useless she decided to prepare Susan and Hannah's lessons herself, she shared with Harry what they've been learning and thankfully most of it matched what Augusta did for him and Neville. Thanks to their conversation Harry learnt that potions is needed for anyone who wants a career as an auror, according to Susan Amelia hates Snape since most students drop his class as soon as they can so they've had a lack of recruits over the years. The two of them talked about wanting to complete their education in potions, Harry wants to do it because it was his mother's favorite subject while Susan wants to do it for her future, unfortunately Snape is making them reconsider.

The two hadn't realized how long they had been talking, they were in the middle of a discussion about casting offhanded when the door opened and Hannah and Neville walked in. Lunch had already started and the two hadn't realized it, Harry didn't want to deal with the stares he knew he would get so he told his friends to go without him. It took a bit of convincing but Harry soon got them to head to lunch without him, once Harry was alone he summoned the journal and started to read Lily's notes but his mind kept drifting back to the duel. Harry closed the journal and started to wonder about being a parselmouth, he wondered if any Potters were parselmouths and who they might have inherited it from, he decided he'd write a letter to Augusta and see if she might know anything about the Potters speaking parseltongue.

Before lunch was over Harry heard the door open and saw Hermione walked in, she explained Neville said he'd be there so she decided to bring him some food so he wouldn't go through their lesson on an empty stomach. The two sat down and Harry asked "How was it at lunch?"

Hermione looked hesitant before saying "Not good, everyone is still talking about the duel and some of the Gryffindors have been trying to convince everyone you're the heir."

Harry could already tell she was talking about Mclaggen and his gang, he briefly wondered if cursing Mclaggen would solve any of his problems. The two continued to talk until lunch ended and they were soon joined by the rest of their friends, they waited until Professor Flitwick walked in but Harry noticed Flitwick looked at him with worry and asked "Mr. Potter, how are you doing?"

Surprised by the concern Harry answered, "I'm doing well sir."

"I've been informed about what happened during your duel yesterday with Mr. Malfoy, some of the students believe you're the heir because you're able to speak parseltongue."

Harry understood Flitwick was concerned about him so he said "I'll be alright Professor, with the break starting soon hopefully things will calm down by the time everyone returns."

Flitwick hoped he was right, he knew what people thought about parseltongue so he hoped Harry would be alright. They continued with the lesson and Flitwick told them it was time to test their shields, Flitwick had the students cast their shields before firing his own spells at them to see how much damage their shields could reflect. Flitwick saw their shields held up well, whenever his spells were reflected back at him, he batted them away before continuing to cast at them. By the end of the test the students managed to each reflect two spells, Flitwick smiled at the progress they made.

Flitwick decided to do something different before their lesson came to an end, he spoke up "For the rest of the lesson I want all of you to focus on learning a new spell, it's a detection charm. I have seen during meals students have been slipped a potion for a prank, with this charm it'll allow you to detect any potion in your food or drink." Flitwick turned to Harry and said "Mr. Potter, with everyone knowing you're a parselmouth it's likely some might try to slip you a potion so I want you to cast this spell on anything you are given, even if it's small like a bean from Bertie Botts. If you find anything then you are to bring it to me right away and I will do my best to track whoever tried to potion you."

Harry could see Flitwick was looking out for him, he nodded and thanked the Professor. Flitwick conjured a goblet and filled it with water before pulling out a vial and pouring it into the goblet, he taught the students the spell and had them practice casting it on the goblet until they felt their magic warn them about the potion. It took some time but after a while the students were able to detect the potion in the drink, Flitwick had them cast the spell over and over until he was certain they got it. Once he was certain they got the spell Flitwick decided to grab the goblet and drink it, to their surprise his hair immediately stood up. The students quickly realized it was a hair raising potion before some of them started to laugh, Flitwick smiled when he saw he managed to make them laugh.

Flitwick ended the lesson by saying "I am happy to see the progress you've all made, now that all of you know how to strengthen your shield and reflect spells hopefully this will keep you all safe. I want all of you to remember, I don't want any of you starting any fights but if someone does attack you then focus on casting a reflecting shield, you will not get in trouble for defending yourself and it lets the teachers know who started the fight." They all nodded before Flitwick continued, "Over the break I still want all of you to practice with your wand holsters and practice drawing your wands, once you all return then we will move on to our next lesson, I hope you all enjoy your break."

They thanked the Professor before leaving for dinner, Harry thought of skipping dinner but he knew trying to hide wouldn't help him so he decided to head to the great hall. Arriving at the great hall Harry noticed how many started whispering when they saw him, even some of the Gryffindors were whispering, Harry was tempted to leave until he noticed Ron, Fay, and Sally-Anne were waving them over. Once they joined them they were quickly joined by the rest of the quidditch team, Colin, Demelza, and the rest of their year mates. Both Dean and Seamus happily greeted Harry and started to tell him about their plans for the break, Colin even acted like his usual excited self and wanted to show Harry some photos he had taken. Harry saw the rest of his friends still treated him the same and even made sure to keep him away from the Gryffindors that were staring at him.

Harry noticed some of the Gryffindors were missing and realized one of them was Mclaggen, he asked "Hey, where's Mclaggen?"

Harry noticed the rest of the quidditch team all turned to Oliver, Oliver simply smiled and said "We got into an argument earlier, he thought I should kick you off the team because you're a parselmouth, I told him I'd never replace you with someone as barmy as him."

Angelina added, "After their argument we might have sent the twins after him."

Harry turned to Fred and George and asked "What did you do?"

Fred simply shrugged his shoulders and said "Last we saw him he was stuck to a wall somewhere."

George continued to eat as he said "I'm sure he'll turn up, eventually."

Harry couldn't help it, he started laughing along with a few around him, he thanked them for sticking up for him. By the time dinner ended Harry felt better, despite how the rest of the students were looking at him he saw his friends still trusted him and didn't seem bother by the fact he was a parselmouth. Once they returned to their common rooms Harry decided to head to bed early, he was looking forward to the break and wanted the day to be over already, he said a quick goodnight to his friends before heading upstairs to bed.

The next morning Harry joined his friends in the great hall for breakfast, it didn't take long for the carriages to arrive to take the students to Hogsmeade station. As everyone left Harry said goodbye to his friends and hoped they'd enjoy their break, he told Neville to give Augusta a hug for him. Susan came up to Harry and said she'd get her aunt to help them, Harry thanked her and the two said a quick goodbye before she left to join Neville and Hannah. Harry felt he was going to miss seeing most of his friends, but he was glad the school was going to be mostly empty and he wouldn't have to deal with the staring and whispering, he made his way back to the tower with his friends.

In Gryffindor Harry saw that aside from the Weasleys and Hermione the only students that stayed were Lee Jordan and Oliver Wood. Lee was helping the twins create some fireworks they were planning on testing during the break, Oliver didn't give a reason for staying but Harry wondered if it had something to do with Penny.

Later during lunch Harry saw only a handful of students stayed for the break, once they sat down at their table Luna came over and joined them. Harry asked "Luna, what are you doing here, I thought you went home?"

Luna sat with them and said "I wrote daddy a letter telling him I was staying for the break, the nargles told me something was going to happen in a few days so I wanted to stay for it."

Harry nodded in understanding, by this point he understood Luna had her own way of seeing things so he just went with what she said. Hermione heard what Luna said and even though she didn't believe in the creatures she talked about she decided to ignore it and instead change the subject. They asked about Luna's classes and aside from potions and defense she was enjoying them and she was getting good grades, she told them she was planning on practicing in the dueling room over the break, Harry offered to help Luna practice her casting but she said she was ok with practicing on her own.

When the rest of the Gryffindors joined them Luna looked at them and mentioned something about wrackspurts infesting Gryffindor, she told them to pay attention to see who they were affecting the most before getting up to head back to her table. Harry was confused before he heard Ron say "Completely mental that one." Harry turned to Ron and frowned, seeing this Ron said a quick sorry before going back to eating.

As the break continued Harry was able to spend time with most of his friends, he visited Hermione while she worked on the potion and was able to see it should be done soon. Hermione explained she made enough for the three of them and that she will need to get rid of any that remains since they could get in big trouble if they were caught with it, their conversation was cut short when Myrtle showed up and cheerfully greeted Harry before she started talking with him. Hermione felt annoyed since every time she talked to Harry they were interrupted by Myrtle trying to get Harry's attention, thankfully dinner had just started so Hermione had a reason to pull Harry away from Myrtle and leave.

Harry had spent some time talking with the twins and listening to some of the pranks they've pulled on Lockhart in the last month, their conversation even changed to talking about some ideas they have for their prank products, sadly they don't have the money they need to work on them. Harry admitted to himself that he was still angry with Lockhart for the duel, if he hadn't made him duel then no one would have learnt about his parseltongue ability, he decided to write a quick letter to Gringotts and sent a drop of his blood. The next day Hedwig returned with the money withdrawn from his vault so Harry went to go visit the twins, walking into the dorm the twins and Lee shared he saw they were working on a potion, they quickly tried to hide the potion before realizing it was Harry.

Fred asked "How may we help you, Harry?"

Harry smiled and said "I actually want to help the two of you, your ideas for your prank products sounded amazing and I'd love to see them, that's why I've decided I want to give the two of you this."

Harry handed them the bag of galleons and all three boys looked inside to see around a hundred galleons, all three were shocked and George said "Harry, we can't-"

Harry stopped him and said "Truthfully, I want to see you guys continue to prank Lockhart, but I also know you want to one day open your own joke shop so use the money to help with that dream, when you finally open your shop just be sure to give me a great discount and we can call it even."

The three boys were still speechless but soon they started to smile before agreeing, they thanked Harry and started to make plans for some of their experimental products. Harry was about to leave before noticing in a plastic box on one of the nightstands was a tarantula, when he looked closely it looked like it was trying to escape. Lee noticed Harry was looking at the cage and said "I see you noticed my pet tarantula."

Harry looked closely at it and said "I remember Ron mentioned someone had a pet spider but I didn't know it was your pet."

George spoke up, "Oh yeah, Ron has always been afraid of spiders so last year when Lee showed us his pet tarantula Ron quickly left."

Harry asked "What's it doing?"

Lee walked up to the box and said "I'm not sure, he's been acting weird this year and has been trying to escape more than usual." Lee spun the box around to make his tarantula face a different direction and the tarantula stopped and moved to the direction it was originally facing. Lee said "I'm starting to think someone might have cursed him since he keeps facing that direction, if he manages to escape and you find him can you bring him back to me, he's harmless so you don't have to worry about being bit." Harry agreed, he wasn't afraid of spiders since he used to find them in his cupboard and befriend them.

Harry had tried to speak to Percy but Percy started to focus more on his prefect duties, it seemed like Percy was busier than ever since he would spend most of his free time studying. Oliver decided to let Percy have their dorm to himself so he could study in peace, since Oliver didn't like doing nothing he decided to still practice during the break, he even talked with Harry and Ron about their next quidditch match. A few times Harry had gone to the hospital wing with Luna to check on Penny and they would sometimes find Oliver there talking to her, whenever Oliver had to leave he would turn the radio back on so Penny would have something to listen to.

Harry had also tried to talk to Ginny but he hardly ever got a chance, he tried to approach her a few times but she quickly left, even when he got the chance to talk to her she spoke quietly and gave short answers before giving a reason for being busy. Harry remembered Colin and Demelza mentioned that Ginny didn't really speak and would usually stay to herself, Harry had asked Ron about it but Ron shrugged his shoulders and said she probably misses home and was still adjusting to living at Hogwarts, he even asked the twins but they thought the same thing. Harry wondered if Ginny might have believed the rumors about him and that's why she was trying to avoid him.

On the day before Christmas Harry had decided to spend some time in the middle courtyard and practice some of his casting. He found it easier to practice there since the area was covered in snow, Harry used a spell to quickly form a snowball before levitating it, he practiced how well he could control the snowball's movement before launching them at the wall to see how fast they moved. When he was certain no one was around to watch he practiced wandlessly with his left hand, although he made sure to keep his wand out in case someone did show up. Harry was about to levitate another when he heard "Harry!"

Looking over Harry saw Hermione showed up, walking up to him Harry said "Hey Hermione, what are you doing here?"

"Ron told me you were out here practicing, I wanted to come and tell you that the potion just needs to settle and it should be ready by tomorrow."

Harry smiled and said "That's great, hopefully tomorrow we can finally get some answers to our questions."

Hermione nodded hoping they might learn something from Malfoy, they've spent hours searching the library for creatures that can petrify someone but the ones they found don't seem possible. Hermione changed the subject and asked "What are you practicing?"

"I'm trying to improve how well I can control an object I'm levitating before I test to see how fast I can launch them."

Hermione decided to join Harry, she pointed her wand at a snowball and cast, "Locomotor snowball!" She raised the snowball into the air and moved it around in circles before sending it flying into a wall, Harry levitated a snowball and made it circle around both of them before launching it. The two practiced for a while together but soon Hermione got an idea, with how busy she's been brewing the potion she decided to have some fun, when she saw Harry was levitating a snowball and wasn't paying attention she decided to launch her snowball at him and catch him by surprise. Harry was caught off guard and turned to see Hermione was smiling at him, he smirked then quickly launched his snowball at her and managed to hit her. The two kids laughed before their practice turned into a game as they had fun launching snowballs at each other and dodging, they even practice catching the snowballs midair before launching them back at each other.

The two eventually stopped their game when they saw dinner would start soon, they made their way inside to warm up but soon they heard someone run up while yelling "Harry, Hermione!"

They turned to see Luna was running up to them, Harry asked "Luna, what's wrong?"

Luna came to a stop and said "You two need to come to Hagrid's hut, it's Swift, she's giving birth!"

It took Harry a moment before he remembered the thestral he named, he forgot about her and hadn't visited her this whole time. The two followed Luna and made their way to Hagrid's hut, when they got close to Hagrid's hut they noticed there were several thestrals and Hagrid was close to one that was laying on the ground. Hagrid heard the sound of crunching snow and turned to see the three kids, Hagrid smiled and said "'arry, 'ermione, you're jus' in time ta meet tha little guy, meet tha newest thestral."

They approached Hagrid and saw a newborn thestral resting in his arms, the thestral heard them approach and looked up to see them, he let out a soft snort before moving to take his first steps. Harry saw the thestral flap his wings a bit before slowly moving closer to them, Harry moved closer and held his hand out to the thestral and saw he looked up at Harry's hand before he lowered his head and allowed him to pet him. Harry smiled and Luna pulled out some meat from her bag and handed it to Harry, she told him "Feed him."

Harry wasn't sure if he should until he saw Hagrid nod, Harry held the meat in front of the thestral and watched as he sniffed the meat before he started eating. Once the thestral ate he moved closer to Harry and rested his head against Harry's chest. Harry was so focused on the new thestral that he hadn't noticed Swift got up, he finally noticed her when she lowered her head and nudged him. Harry started to pet her and said "I'm sorry I haven't come to visit you Swift, I'm glad to see you're both happy and healthy."

Hermione moved closer and started to pet Swift, Luna pulled out more meat and handed it to Hermione to feed the thestral. Hermione fed her and said "We're glad to see you again Swift, sorry we haven't seen you since Harry named you."

Hearing that Hagrid said "So you're tha one who named her, tha' explains why she hasn' responded to anything I call her until Ms. Lovegood called 'er Swift."

Luna approached and started to pet the thestral in Harry's arms, she fed him some more meat before saying "He seems to really like you Harry, since you named Swift why don't you name him too?"

Harry wasn't sure until he saw Hagrid nod and gesture for him to go ahead, Harry looked at the thestral Luna was petting and started to think of a name for him. A few names came to his mind but he crossed them out, it wasn't until the thestral looked at him that a name came to his mind and Harry said "How about I name you Binky."

The thestral seemed to like the name since he neighed and almost seemed to nod, Hermione knelt down and said "It's nice to meet you, Binky."

Binky allowed Hermione to pet him, Hagrid seemed to be thinking before he said "Binky huh, I like it, 't looks like 'e's already attached to you 'arry."

Unfortunately their time was cut short when they realized dinner was starting soon, Hagrid told the three to go ahead while he started to guide the thestrals away, however Binky stuck close to Harry. Seeing this Luna said "It looks like he doesn't want you to go Harry."

Harry noticed Swift was waiting so he placed his hand on the thestrals head and said "Binky, you need to go with your mother, you can't come with me, I promise I'll come see you again."

Binky seemed to understand and nudged Harry before turning around and returning to his mother. With that over the three students made their way back to the castle for dinner, on the way Luna said "Harry, you seemed to get along well with the thestrals, maybe you should consider taking Care of Magical Creatures next year." Harry hadn't really thought about what classes he would take, he told Luna he'd think about it.

The three made their way to the great hall and joined up with the rest of the Gryffindors while Luna left to sit at the Ravenclaw table, Ron asked where they were and they told him about Swift and Binky. When dinner came to an end Harry and his friends returned to the tower to relax before curfew, Harry had played a few rounds of chess with Ron while Hermione decided to reread her book about the founders and mostly focused on what it said about Salazar Slytherin. It was soon time for bed and the three made their way to their dorms to sleep, before falling asleep Harry thought about what kind of questions he should ask Malfoy in order to find out what he knows, he soon closed his eyes and fell asleep hoping tomorrow would go well.

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