And here's the fifty third chapter of "A Year Too Soon"! Enjoy!
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Urgazhi, orion0905, BMS, mizzrazz72, maximusrexmundi, Luiz4200, Greatazuredragon, Draco is someone whose belief in his lineage automatically making him a Magically-powerful natural leader is too strong. The reality has already shown it to him - even if refuses to learn this lesson yet - that not everyone is willing to do what he says just because he's a Malfoy. Or that his 'pure' blood doesn't mean much in a fight - it's all about one's skill with a wand and their spell knowledge. Though, admittedly, children of the old Magical families do have a serious advantage there since they have access to generations worth of Magical books their families have collected. Perhaps, one day, he might grow mature enough to understand that he needs to develop actual skills if he wants to achieve anything.
wanderingwitchelaine, not sure if it isn't too late at this point. But if it isn't, she definitely should do something.
magitech, to be honest, I don't believe that the wand being a deadly weapon that shouldn't be pointed at other people just because has even been addressed in the books. It could be because people in the Magical world think that since the other party has their own wand - even if it isn't drawn yet - they can defend themselves, so they don't bother with the "pointing wands at other people is bad" thing.
Vampireking40, I'm actually undecided on this. And even if I do make Harry a prefect, there is a good chance that he will be forced to step down before long.
Bountyhunter1977, that is an interesting idea but I don't see how I can cleanly insert it into the story at this point. As for the Dark Mark - I think that it as more than just Voldemort's Magic, so it will remain as a barely-noticeable mark on the skin even if the bastard is completely gone from this world. And given how he was so weak before his final death, not many would even notice the difference. Crouch Jr. and Wormtail still have their role to play in the story.
Guest #1, Guest #2, haha, true.
decoy73, that requires him to have plans. But no, while he will definitely not get anywhere close to the top of the House hierarchy, I don't see Draco actually getting kicked out of Slytherin.
* 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 LIII: Semester's End
On the second day after his conversation with Neville, Harry received a letter from the boy's aunt. According to her, the Longbottoms had hired Mr. Thomas Finewood and his son Jeremy for the renovation of the family greenhouses. And while she was rather grudging with praise, she did say that the worker duo did a good job.
Another day later and Mr. Hall finally responded as well. The old architect too recommended Finewoods, though he also said that Mr. Plank and Mr. Smith had a construction firm with a good reputation. Finally, he mentioned Messers Oldstone, but couldn't say anything good or bad about them.
Given the small size of the British wizarding community, two independent recommendations was a great indicator that those men really were good at their job, so Harry decided to contact the Finewoods first to see if they were interested in becoming the general contractors for the new Potter manor. And if they were booked out for the spring and summer, he'd try Plank and Smith instead.
He received a response from Jeremy Finewood the very next morning. In his letter, the wizard expressed his interest in the job, though he did say that he and his father would like to see the manor designs and the grounds it'd be built on first, before they signed a contract. He also said that they had an ongoing project right now and wouldn't be able to start working on the Potter manor until mid-to-late April next year, if they took the job at all.
Harry didn't mind that one bit as it was quite close to the timeline he himself had envisioned. So he sent the Finewoods another letter, asking if a personal meeting during the winter holidays would be convenient for them. After exchanging a few more letters, they ended up agreeing to meet in the 'Leaky Cauldron' at noon on December 29th.
~/ *** \~
For their next dueling lesson Professor Flitwick decided to give the Slytherin trio some spell-dodging practice. Harry, already familiar with the exercise - it was what he did during his very first lesson with the Charms Master, after all - did pretty well, even if it took him several attempts to last the required two minutes. Flora and Hestia, on the other hand… Even seeing their boyfriend go at it first, they both severely underestimated how hard this exercise actually was. Not being in as great a physical shape didn't help them either. Neither of the girls managed to last more than a minute during any of the dozen attempts they did.
Aside from spell-dodging practice, Professor Flitwick also had the Slytherin trio show their progress with silent casting. They certainly had ways to go before they could be called proficient with the skill, especially with how limited the repertoire of spells they could cast without spoken incantations was, but the progress was definitely there.
And then, just before calling it a day, the good Professor announced that they will be having only two more sessions this semester as the need to first prepare and then grade the end of the semester tests would leave him with no time for these lessons.
Harry, Flora and Hestia were understanding of this: they would be doing quite a bit of studying around this time themselves and, likely, won't have time for the dueling lessons anyway.
Their next lesson happened unexpectedly soon, only four days later, due to some last-minute changes in Professor Flitwick's personal schedule. And this time around the Charms Master had them practice snap-casting once again. Except, instead of having to use the Color-Changing spell for different colors, they had to cast actually-different spells this time.
This exercise turned out to be harder than the teens were anticipating and, at first, their casting was pretty slow and they were making quite a few mistakes. And even after a few repeats of the exercise, their results were still worse than what they got with different colors of the Color-Changing Charm. Professor Flitwick was quick to reassure them that it was pretty normal and that they will improve as they get more experience under their belt.
He also noted that in an actual Magical fight things will be even more complicated. And to give them a little taste of that, he set the new rules for the exercise: now, some of his calls required the teens to cast the Color-Changing charms for a variety of colors while the others - entirely different spells. He could've made the whole thing even more difficult by making the colors and spells change based on some condition, but decided against that. At least, this time.
In the end, even without that last bit of extra complexity, the Slytherin trio didn't do too well. They were making quite a lot of mistakes, though Harry made less than the girls, and they couldn't really keep up with the pace the exercise demanded from them. The teens were, unsurprisingly, not happy about their poor performance.
"Despite what you might think, you actually did pretty well." The good Professor said. "This is not an easy exercise, especially not with the limited amount of practice you have had thus far. Don't be too hard on yourselves." None of the teens knew what to say in response, so they remained quiet, hoping that they will indeed do better the next time.
~/ *** \~
The following weekend was the Hogsmeade weekend and just like about every student in their third year and up in the castle, Harry, Flora and Hestia went to visit the village. Having been there several times already, they have already familiarized themselves with the local points of interest - Hogsmeade wasn't an especially large village, after all - and so their visit was not for the purposes of sightseeing. For the most part, at least. The three of them were still planning to have a nice little date after they were done with their shopping.
And speaking of this shopping, it was for more than just extra parchments, quills, ink, sweets and the like: Christmas was near at hand and so the Slytherin trio was also browsing the shops for gifts for their friends. Well, for friends they didn't have anything special in mind at any rate. And Harry certainly had something very special planned for his girlfriends. It wasn't protective charms made from the basilisk's bone he wanted to make for them one day, but it certainly was something more meaningful than what he thought he could find in the Hogsmeade shops.
That is not to say that the village's shops lacked interesting things one could buy. So, in addition to quite a lot of sweets from Honeydukes, Harry also bought a number of fancy enchanted quills and other useful trinkets for his 'associates' outside Slytherin, and one quite interesting Herbology book for the Longbottom heir.
Flora and Hestia haven't been fooling away their time either and when Harry met back up with them - they had split up to do their own shopping after leaving Honeydukes - each sister was carrying a pair of pretty sizable bags. Those bags were obviously charmed to be weightless, but the green-eyed teen still offered the twins to carry those for them.
"Shall we go have some lunch now?" He asked. The girls nodded.
"Let's." Flora said.
And with that the threesome made their way to the Three Broomsticks. The pub was, of course, crowded with Hogwarts' students but with it being past the usual lunchtime, the crowds weren't too bad and the Slytherin trio had little trouble claiming a table for themselves. They needn't wait for long for Madam Rosmerta to accept their order either.
After they've had their late lunch, Harry ordered them some coffee. And while they waited for the pub's landlady to get them the drinks, he transfigured three napkins into simple cups. He also applied several Charms to these cups to ensure their contents would stay nice and hot. Then, once their coffee arrived, the green-eyed teen poured it into the cups he had just made.
"Shall we?" He put a question to Flora and Hestia, asking them whether they were ready to head somewhere more scenic and private for their little 'date'. The twins gave him a nod and the three of them departed from the Three Broomsticks. Harry once again took it upon himself to carry all of their bags, leaving the three coffee cups to the girls.
They wandered about for a short while before arriving at a nice and surprisingly quiet spot on the outskirts of the village from where they could see the Black lake and the Hogwarts castle. With a bit of Magic, a bench sitting there was cleared of snow and warmed up for extra comfort.
Settling down there, Harry, Flora and Hestia engaged in a conversation as they looked at the lake and the castle while sipping their coffee. Eventually, the topic of their conversation gravitated towards their plans for the future and, especially, the Potter manor Harry was trying to rebuild.
The green-eyed teen hasn't kept them up-to-date on everything going on with that project, though mostly because he didn't think the girls would be interested in minute details. Apparently, they were.
"So, Harry, you said you've found the builders for the manor. When do you think it'll be ready?" Hestia asked him.
"Well, I found people who are interested in taking this job. They haven't agreed to it just yet." He corrected. "But if everything goes well and the Finewoods do accept the job, they said they can start working on the Potter manor sometime in April and, hopefully, will have the building itself ready by the end of the summer."
"Nice." Flora said.
"Well, it will be just the building at that point." Harry said. "It will need to be furnished before I can think of moving in." After a brief pause, he added: "Though, I suppose I don't need every room to be furnished for that. Just a bedroom or two, the guest room, the kitchens and the dining room would be enough. If everything goes really well, I might even have that all done by the end of the next winter holidays…"
"That sounds great." Flora said. "Will you invite us when you do move in?" She asked then.
"Of course." He promised.
~/ *** \~
The final dueling lesson of the semester was once again a practice in snap-casting. And now that the Slytherin trio has had some experience with the new and more complicated exercise, their results started to show improvement. They still made quite a few mistakes and the pace of exercise was a bit too fast for them at times, but overall they were doing much better now.
Professor Flitwick also tested their progress with non-verbal spell-casting, and Harry, Flora and Hestia all showed some progress. It wasn't quite a mastered skill for them yet, but they were starting to move onto actual 'useful' spells now and, in fact, the young Potter could already produce a silent stunner half of the time. The twins had their own successes as well, though for now those were limited to a couple of rather simple but still quite unpleasant Hexes and Jinxes.
And soon afterwards, it was the time for the end-of-the-semester exams.
Herbology and Care for Magical Creatures were mostly practicals - the latter more so than the former as Professor Sprout at least gave them a small written test before bringing them over to the greenhouses - but not especially difficult. Meanwhile, the History of Magic exam was a one hundred percent written one. With pretty much every question being about one Goblin Rebellion or another.
Arithmancy and Ancient Runes too were the subjects for which the exams consisted only of written tests. According to Professor Babbling, though, by the end of the next semester they will have learned enough about actual rune carving for it to be included into the exams.
This left Astronomy and Potions as the only non-wanded subject to have exams that were equal parts theory and practice. And neither of those exams was particularly easy. The Potions exam was especially difficult to ace as Professor Snape demanded a deep understanding of the topics and exceptional brewing skills from those who wanted an O for the exam. And he graded Slytherins just as scrupulously as he did students from other houses. Nevertheless, Harry was sure he did well enough to earn his 'Outstanding'.
That left the three 'wanded' subjects: Transfiguration, Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts. And during the practicals for these classes, Harry, Flora and Hestia were finally able to put the skills they've learned during their dueling lessons to good use. Their improved wandwork might have been of not much use while they were learning new spells, but now that they were demonstrating spells that they've already mastered… Faster and 'cleaner' spellcasting certainly made them stand out from their classmates positively. It was especially noticeable during the DADA exam and Professor Moody commended them for their good performance. The retired Auror commended the three of them for taking their safety (and his class) so seriously while also dropping a few hints about being well aware of their dueling lessons with the Charms Master.
In the end, Harry managed to score 'Outstanding' for all of the subjects except for History of Magic, where he got only 'Exceeds Expectations'. It was a repeat of his results from the previous semester, and just like back then, it was enough to make him the top-scoring student in his year among the Slytherins. He was only third in his year overall, though, as two Ravenclaw managed to get straight Os somehow. Flora and Hestia too did well on their exams - definitely better than they did the previous semester - but they still had almost as many 'Exceeds Expectations' as they did 'Outstanding'.
~/ *** \~
The last few days of the semester were the time for the students to wind down after the exams and relax a little. They still had classes to attend, of course, but the Professors were mostly doing the reviews of the test results rather than teaching any new material and were assigning little if any homework for the students to do.
Naturally, being the teens in love that they were, Harry, Flora and Hestia spent much of their free time together, kissing and sometimes doing naughtier things in the privacy of Harry's 'secret' hideout. They haven't gone all the way yet - it didn't feel like the time was right for the very special occasion of giving each other their first time - but they still were getting quite intimate with each other.
And then the fall semester was over.
The students that weren't staying at Hogwarts for the holidays, Harry and his friends included, found themselves boarding the train that would take them to London. As always, their little clique, which now included Astoria, shared a compartment for the ride.
Their conversation started on the topic of the forthcoming Yule party, of course. The fact that the House of Greengrass was hosting it this year only served to make it even more animated. And since neither Daphne nor Astoria knew what their parents' plans for the event were, they were just as eager to speculate as the rest of the Clique.
Of course, the Yule party wasn't the only thing the seven Slytherin talked about. The other topics of their conversation included their teachers and classes, as well as their expectations for the next semester. And when the Defense Against the Dark Arts was mentioned, everyone agreed that Alastor Moody was probably the best teacher they've had for the subject thus far.
Then, Blaise brought up the subject of the Quidditch World Cup, which was currently going through its first rounds. And while he - and to a lesser extent, Tracey - were the only big fans of the sport here, everyone wished the England's team a victory in their match against Transylvania in two weeks.
The topic of the new Potter manor has also been raised but since nothing new has happened on that front since Harry contacted the Finewoods a few weeks back, it was quickly dropped in favor of other topics.
Eventually, the Clique ran out of interesting things to talk about and the big conversation died down. Tracey and Blaise went back to discussing the Quidditch World Cup while the Greengrass sisters were now talking to each other quietly about one thing or another. Harry, Flora and Hestia meanwhile simply enjoyed the moment as they snuggled up to each other.
After a while, though, just cuddling was no longer enough for the lover trio. They wanted, nay desired, something more. So, asking their friends to save their seats for them, they left the compartment and went looking for a place to have some private fun. Thankfully, finding an unoccupied compartment turned out to be not that hard. And once they have applied the privacy Charms so that they wouldn't be disturbed - and won't disturb others - Harry found himself pulled into a needy kiss by Hestia while her sister was left waiting impatiently for her own turn.
Having reunited shortly before the Hogwarts Express entered the premises of London, the Clique then split apart again once they stepped off the train with Blaise heading straight for the public floos as, once again, his mother was too busy to meet him. Meanwhile, Daphne and Astoria went looking for their parents with Tracey tagging along with them.
Flora and Hestia too went looking for their family - their grandmother - and Harry chose to stick around with them. After a few minutes, the three of them managed to find Lady Carrow near the far end of platform 9¾ where the crowds weren't as bad.
"Flora, Hestia, welcome back!" The old witch greeted the twins. Then, she turned her attention towards Harry: "Good evening, Heir Potter. I'm glad to see you in good health."
"Thank you, Lady Carrow." The green-eyed teen 'greeted' her back.
"And." She continued. "I'm happy that, despite everything that has happened, your love for each other remains strong as ever." Not knowing what to say, he merely nodded in response. Flora and Hestia likewise remained silent, blushing slightly as their grandmother touched the subject of their relationship with Harry. "And now that you are no longer unwelcome at our home, I would like to invite you to visit the Carrow manor one day, Heir Potter." The witch added.
"It will be my honor." Harry replied.
"Now then." Lady Carrow continued, now addressing her granddaughters. "Dinner should be ready soon, Flora, Hestia, so let us be on our way."
"Yes, grandmother." The twins chorused.
Since they all would be departing from platform 9¾ via floo today, the four of them went to the fireplaces together with the young Potter helping Flora and Hestia carry their luggage. And, of course, he kept them company while they stood in line.
"I guess, this is where we say our goodbyes." Flora said as a wizard in front of them in the line threw some floo powder into the fire. "See you at the party, Harry." She said then before giving him a quick kiss. Hestia copied her a moment later.
"Of course." Harry said. After a couple of seconds he added: "Have a nice holiday!"
"Thank you." The twins said.
Once the Carrows disappeared in the emerald flames, it was his turn. Dropping three knuts into an enchanted jar next to the fireplace, Harry got himself a pinch of the floo powder - which he immediately threw into the fire.
"The Leaky Cauldron." He announced his destination once the fires once again turned emerald green. He then stepped into the floo and let the Magic carry him away.
That's all, folks!
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