And here's the fifty second chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
* Review Response:
J.E.P 1996, SiriusOrionBitch, mwinter1, DarkRavie, Jostanos, griffin blackwood, wanderingwitchelaine, stevem1, LeoniLiponscovi2, AlanLoo, Blue Luver5000, Uday Sra, JPElles, samusbot, Guest, , EP (guest), lord of the east, Uhh (guest), trainreader, thank you for your reviews, folks!
Clavyus, maybe if the Dark Lord was stronger when it happened. He was already both feet into the grave when the destruction of the horcruxes finished him.
Luiz4200, not really. Crouch Jr. found a mention that it is possible to bring someone back. He doesn't know how to perform that ritual, or even what is its name.
TheGreatBubbaJ, I'm sure he will.
magitech, don't really think so. Perhaps, he knew that Harry would never be able to match Voldemort in a fight and was hoping that Harry sacrificing himself would give a watered down version of his mother's protection to everyone fighting against Voldemort? As for wands crippling natural Magical abilities... That would come down to how much one can actually control wishcraft on which accidental Magic operates. Wands definitely allow for far easier spell casting, but at the cost of using formulaic spells.
BMS, I read that story. It's pretty good though it got a bit too much into management and economics in the recent chapters.
Darth Huitzilopochtli, thank you very much.
Diametrik, this Harry definitely wouldn't want to enter himself into the Triwizard Tournament. As for the potion... I should bring it back into the story at some point, but right now I have no idea how to do that in a good way.
* AN: This chapter has not been beta-read.
Disclaimer: I DO NOT own "Harry Potter" franchise. No profit is being made. Same goes for any books, video games, anime or manga I may or may not use for ideas.
"speaking"
"parseltongue"
'thinking'
written text
spells
A Year Too Soon
Chapter LII: November Days
"Mr. Potter." Professor Snape said as he stepped into the Slytherin common room, his mere appearance made the noise there quieten considerably. "The Headmaster would like to speak with you."
"Did he mention why, Sir?" Harry asked back as he stood up from his couch.
"No, he did not." The Potions Master replied. "He didn't order you to come to his office immediately either. That said, I'd recommend against keeping him waiting." The green-eyed teen couldn't argue really against that so, reluctantly, he left the very enjoyable company of his girlfriends and headed out of the common room. And as he passed by Professor Snape, the man fell in step behind him - while Harry did know where the headmaster's office was, he didn't know the (current) password.
Before long, they were standing before the gargoyle statue that guarded the entrance to Dumbledore's office. The Potions Master gave the statue the password, but didn't follow Harry through the door.
"You aren't coming, Sir?" The younger wizard asked.
"The Headmaster had requested for the meeting between you two to be a private one." The Head of Slytherin said before turning around and walking away, likely towards his workshop. Letting out a sigh, Harry stepped onto the moving stairs and rode them to the office's actual door.
"Come in please, Mr. Potter." Dumbledore called. Stepping inside, Harry saw that the man was seated behind his table, which had a small mountain of parchment scrolls on it. Paperwork. The bane of all leaders in the world… Unlike the previous times he had been here, Fawkes, the Headmaster's phoenix familiar, wasn't in his golden cage and instead was perched on the man's shoulder. "Tea? Some lemon drops, perhaps?" The old warlock asked once Harry took a seat across the table from him.
"No, thank you, Sir." The green-eyed teen replied.
"Alright then." Dumbledore said. "I wanted to share some good news with you, Mr. Potter." There was a brief pause, before he continued: "As of two days ago, the sixth and, presumably, the last of Voldemort's horcruxes has been destroyed. We believe that the Dark Lord has perished as well, but we weren't able to confirm it with absolute certainty yet. But even if he somehow managed to remain in this world for now, he has no more horcruxes and shouldn't be able to create another one ever again."
"These are some great news." Harry said after a few moments it took him to properly process what the man had just said.
"Indeed." The Headmaster agreed. "That said, I'd rather you keep this to yourself. People don't need to know that the Dark Lord was still clinging to life and skulking in the shadows for twelve years after his supposed death. That will cause panic and might give some of his more fanatic followers an idea that they might be able to bring him back to life."
"I… I see…" The young Potter said. He wished he could share the happy news with Flora and Hestia but they didn't know that Voldemort was alive until just a couple of days ago. And Dumbledore was right in that letting people know that the Dark Lord managed to avoid dying in the past might not be the smartest thing to do.
"Also, I'd like for you to tell Lord Slytherin that his locket has been recovered and cleansed of Dark Magic taint." Dumbledore continued. "It, along with several other artifacts that belonged to the Founders will be put on display here at Hogwarts some time in the near future."
"So, it was the horcrux?" Harry asked. The Headmaster only nodded in response.
"Alright." The teen said. "I'll pass the word."
"Thank you."
And with that their meeting seemed to come to and end as neither wizard really had anything else to add. So, Dumbledore dismissed Harry, letting him return to the Slytherin common room. Of course, the moment he arrived there, Flora and Hestia were upon him, wanting to know why the Headmaster had summoned him.
"They've recovered an artifact that once belonged to Lord Slytherin and the Headmaster wanted me to pass the news to him." The young Potter said. His explanation was overheard by Salazar's portrait:
"Which one did they recover?" The Founder asked. Apparently, there was more than one relic associated with his name. The green-eyed teen, however, wasn't aware of any other than the locket and resolved to ask the man about those later.
"The locket, Sir." Harry replied. "It had been turned into a horcrux by Voldemort, but the Headmaster hired Curse Breakers to cleanse it. It should be untainted right now." Lord Slytherin was definitely not happy to hear that one of his artifacts had been used like that by an upstart Dark Lord. And in a rather out-of-character moment, he let his emotions get the better of him and swore out loudly. In Parseltongue, thankfully. Because the young ladies next to him certainly didn't need to hear those words.
"Please forgive me for this unbecoming display of emotions Mr. Potter." The Founder's portrait said as he calmed down a bit. "The thought of my family's relic being used as a vessel for such foul Magics makes me very angry." There was a pause before he added: "Please give your Headmaster my thanks for cleansing the locket of those Dark Magics."
"Of course, Sir." Harry said with a nod. There was a moment of silence, before the portrait spoke again:
"And speaking of my family's locket, what does the Headmaster plan to do with it?" Salazar asked.
"He wants to put it, along with artifacts that once belonged to your colleagues, on display here at Hogwarts." The young Potter replied. "Not sure when that's going to happen, though. He said 'in the near future' but didn't specify beyond that."
"I guess, that is as good a way to keep the Slytherin legacy alive as any after everything that has happened to my House." The portrait said thoughtfully.
~/ *** \~
A few days later, Harry received a package from Mr. Hall with updated designs for the new Potter manor. And just like Harry had asked him during their last meeting, the elderly architect extended the manor's wings a bit. It wasn't exactly a major change, all things considered, but it did make the building look better to the young Potter's eyes.
He also showed the updated designs to Flora and Hestia, and the twins agreed that those looked good. They liked the previous version well enough too, though.
So Harry sent Mr. Hall a reply saying that he liked this design as well as thanking him for the great work he had done. He also asked the architect about building materials he'd need for the manor. In particular, the Potter heir wanted to know whether he could buy wood and stone from non-Magical suppliers. Even with the rather terrible Galleon-to-Pound conversion rate maintained by Gringotts, it might turn out to be cheaper than buying from the wizarding world purveyors.
Plus, it looked like hiring a few big trucks to deliver the materials to the manor grounds would be simpler than arranging for dozens upon dozens of portkeys needed to transport those materials the Magical way. And while he might need an actual adult to sign a few papers with the truckmen, Harry was planning to hire a team of construction workers to work on the manor, so it shouldn't be a big problem.
Mr. Hall's response arrived the next morning. According to the architect, non-Magical building materials worked just fine, except for a handful of special cases. And his manor was none of those, especially since he will be using the wardstone from the old Potter manor instead of a new one. The man however knew nothing about actually purchasing materials from non-Magical suppliers and couldn't recommend any good ones.
Still, it gave Harry quite a few more options for procurement of building materials and he intended to examine those in detail during the winter holidays. Maybe even place some orders too so that the construction of the new Potter manor can start as soon as the spring comes.
~/ *** \~
While it took him some time and quite a bit of effort, Harry finally mastered non-verbal casting of the Lighting Charm and could consistently light the tip of his wand up without saying the incantation now. And it looked and worked no different from how it did if he cast it 'normally'.
Flora and Hestia were still having some troubles with silent casting of their chosen spells, though. Mostly because those were a bit trickier than the simple Lighting Charm to begin with. Still, the girls were very close to mastering non-verbal casting for their chosen spells and Professor Flitwick was rather impressed by the progress they've made when they showed him what they could do already during their next special lesson.
That lesson wasn't about non-verbal spell-casting, however. After assessing their progress and instructing them to start practicing silent casting of other spells, Professor Flitwick announced that today they will be working on casting speed and accuracy. He then gestured towards the three training dummies he had set up and Harry immediately noticed that each dummy had several pieces of parchment pinned to them. Each of those parchments had a target drawn on it.
"I hope you all remember how to cast Color-Changing Charms?" The Charms Master asked. As the Slytherin trio nodded, he continued: "I will be calling a color and a location. Your task will be to hit that target with the Color-Changing Charm of appropriate color as quickly as you can. For now, you can use incantations, but in the future I would like it very much if you do this using non-verbal spell-casting." The teens nodded again while reaching for their wands. "Ready?" And a second later, without waiting for their response, he called the first target: "Left shoulder, yellow."
Harry was the first one to react, but even he needed a few moments to process the command. And by the time the spell finally left his wand, Professor Flitwick already called the text target. This time the young Potter managed to react a little bit faster, but because he tried to fire his spell as quickly as possible, it ended up missing the intended target by a few inches. And he still got only a small fraction of a second to rest before the next target was named.
The exercise continued for another minute or so before Professor Flitwick called it's end. After letting the three teens catch their breaths a little, he announced the results:
"That wasn't too bad for the first time." The man said. "Your first few spells took you too long to line and fire, but once you got into the rhythm you could keep up the pace I set well enough. There is no easy trick that will instantly make this issue go away, though. If you want to get better at snap-casting, you need practice." Pausing for a moment, the diminutive Professor continued: "Your other problem is accuracy and how it drops significantly when your targets are far from each other. Part of it comes from how you keep your wand pointing at your last target even after you've finished casting the spell. In a situation where you don't know for sure where your next spell will be going to, it may be advantageous to move your wand towards the middle point, if you have time for that. This way, you won't be doing as many sudden, wide movements with your wand." He said.
"I see." Harry said. What Professor Flitwick was saying made a lot of sense, but could he really follow that advice in the heat of the moment?
"Shall we try again?" The Charms Master asked then while removing the paint from the training dummies with a quick wave of his wand. The Slytherin trio didn't feel quite ready for the repeat of the exercise but, nevertheless, they drew their wands and trained them onto the dummies. "Ready?" The man said before calling the first target: "Torso, purple."
And so the second round of the target practice began.
They did the exercise another five times after that before Professor Flitwick decided to call it a day. And while they were improving according to the man, Harry didn't really feel like his later attempts went any better than the first one: he still struggled to keep up with the rhythm set up by the Professor and he still missed the targets every now and then. A couple of times he even used wrong colors. And his girlfriends, as far as he could see, were having the same issues.
Still, being able to cast spells quickly and accurately was very useful, so the Slytherin trio was determined to do their best to master this skill. And any other that Professor Flitwick was going to teach them.
~/ *** \~
Another couple of days later the invitations to the Yule party finally arrived. It should've been the Lestranges' turn this year but since all of them were currently imprisoned for life in Azkaban, the Ancient and Noble House of Greengrass was hosting the party instead.
Having expected this letter, Harry took a piece of parchment and a self-inking quill that he had been carrying with him these days and quickly penned a response to Lord Greengrass, thanking the man for the invitation and declaring his intentions to attend the party. And he needn't worry about Dumbledore interfering: since he was an emancipated minor now, the Headmaster had no legitimate reasons for keeping him from attending the event.
"Mind if we borrow your quill, Harry?" Hestia asked him once he finished writing his response. She and Flora too received the invitations, but unlike him they hadn't brought any writing utensils to the Great Hall with them - at least Lord Greengrass was considerate enough to send a blank piece of parchment with each letter.
"Sure." The green-eyed teen replied, handing over his quill to the girls, as he went on to Magically seal his response. Several minutes later, the Carrow sisters had their own responses ready and Harry then asked: "Want me to take these to the owlry?" He said as he accepted the quill back. The twins nodded.
"If it won't trouble you too much." Flora said. He waved his hand in response saying that it was fine with him. Then he picked the girls' responses and made his bow before heading out of the Great Hall.
And as he made his way to the owlry, Harry made a mental note to make sure that his dress robes still fit him. They did have size-adjusting Charms on them, but those had limits and he has grown quite a bit over the past two years. Other than that, he couldn't think of anything he needed to do about the party right now, and so his mind drifted back to the Potter manor.
He had asked Mr. Hall whether there were any good construction companies in Magical Britain some time ago, but the man was yet to send him a reply. Perhaps, he should start looking into those himself? Alas, Harry didn't actually have any ideas where to start…
After sending the invitation acceptance letters to Lord Greengrass, the green-eyed teen hurried back to the castle: the first lesson would be starting soon and since it wasn't History of Magic he better be there on time. At one point during this walk, his eyes landed on the Hogwarts' greenhouses and it reminded him of the rumors he had heard somewhere about the Longbottoms doing a major renovation of their own greenhouses a few years ago.
He needed to talk to Neville about this. If those rumors were true, he'd be able to get him in contact with the builders that did the job. And if someone as exacting as Regent Longbottom did business with them, Harry had little doubts that those builders were good.
Since they were in different years and in different houses, the earliest opportunity for Harry to talk to Neville was lunch. And thankfully for the Potter scion, Professor Babbling decided to end her lesson early today, so he was almost halfway through his meal when the other students - and third year Griffindors in particular - began arriving at the Great Hall. But approaching Neville right away, before he had a chance to even fill his plate, would be incredibly rude so Harry continued eating his lunch unhurriedly.
Once finished ten-or-so minutes later, he finally made his way to the Gryffindor table. And he wasn't particularly welcome there: the fierce inter-house rivalry didn't vanish or even lessen noticeably just because Slytherins were more civil now, and so the Lions continued to be suspicious of them. Probably, rightfully so. At least most of them could see that their fellow students in green-and-silver-trimmed robes weren't universally Dark Lords in training.
"Go away, slimy Snake." Someone called from down the table. "We don't need you poisoning our lunch with your Dark Magics." Ignoring them, Harry walked up to Neville.
"Heir Potter." The boy acknowledged him.
"Good afternoon, Heir Longbottom." Harry greeted him back. "May I have a moment of your time?" Upon Neville's nod, he continued: "I remember hearing the rumors that the Longbottom greenhouses had been extensively renovated a few years ago."
"That they were." The other boy confirmed. "Those builders Aunt Enid hired did a fine job putting them together." He said then, answering Harry's next question before he could even ask it.
"May I ask for their contact information then?" The young Potter said then. "I'm planning to have the Potter manor rebuilt in the near future and I'd rather hire people who know what they are doing for the job." Neville nodded.
"I'll owl Aunt Enid and ask her to send you the builders' contacts." He said.
"Much obliged." Harry said. Before he could say anything else, however, Draco Malfoy decided to make his appearance. As usual, Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle were flanking him.
"Decided to finally show us your true colors, Potter? A disgrace of a wizard like yourself must feel right at home surrounded by blood traitors and all this other filth." The blond ponce spoke, apparently oblivious to the looks the entire Gryffindor table was giving him.
"Malfoy. How cunning of you to come here and make yourself an enemy for the entire Gryffindor house. And you've insulted the heir to the closest and oldest allies of House Potter, so you made me your enemy here as well. Truly, Lord Slytherin must be applauding your incredible, well-thought-out plan." Harry said as he turned to face the uninvited annoyance. His sarcasm was such that even Draco couldn't miss it.
"I… Why you?!..." Unable to come up with an intelligible response, the Malfoy heir tried to reach for his wand instead. His two 'bodyguards' followed his example and too started drawing their wands.
"Really, Malfoy?" Harry said coolly. "Last time you tried this, it didn't go too well for you if I remember correctly. And I'm not half-crippled anymore." He then saw Professor McGonagall enter the Great Hall and immediately head towards them. "Also…"
"Mr. Malfoy, Mr. Crabbe, Mr. Goyle." The Deputy Headmistress said sternly, causing the Slytherin's troublesome trio to nearly jump out of their skins. "It seems like even after two and a half years at Hogwarts, the three of you still have trouble remembering the school rules. Perhaps, a remedial lesson with me this evening will fix that?" She asked.
"No, no, there is no need for that." Draco said as he hastily returned his wand to the pocket of his robes. "We only came to see if Potter needed some help. We'll be leaving now." Professor McGonagall let them go even if it was clear that she didn't believe a word the Malfoy heir had just said. The said boy meanwhile stopped after only a few steps. "I'll make you pay for this, Potter." He hissed before marching away to the Slytherin table.
Harry's only response was to sigh and shake his head.
That's all, folks!
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