Chapter 7
Harry desperately wanted to just fade into his normal Hogwarts routine, albeit with the subtraction of quidditch and a bit if extra time spent in the library. He had enough shakeups in the last year to deserve a break he figured. Hell, Harry thought, he hadn't gone more than about six months in a stretch in the last few years without having his life at risk. Was it crazy to ask for just a regular year?
The short answer was yes, and the long answer involved a fair bit of cursing.
The next morning Harry and Neville began a new tradition for them, and took seats at the Ravenclaw table in the morning, sitting next to Luna who looked ecstatic to see them. She had some of the most curious breakfast habits either of them had ever seen (A sandwich with pancakes for bread, and porridge and jam for filling?) but she was a delight, and Harry and Neville both enjoyed her discussion of the fantastic creatures she interacted with. She had a very dreamy countenance, and the guys could see why people would think she was weird, but she was bubbly and if they were honest, just a pleasure to talk with.
When McGonagall made an appearance that morning with schedules, the guys bid Luna good day and good luck, and moved back to the table of the lions. Ron shot them a strange and aggressive look between his fifth and sixth sausage.
Their classes were mostly the same as they had been the year previous. They all just kept their heads down in potions, predicted their own gruesome deaths in divinations, potted and harvested plants in herbology, and spent care for magical creatures trying to not get killed by Hagrid newest pets (why, in the name of the All-Father, had Hagrid thought breeding a manticore and a fire crab a good idea? And how would that work anyway? Harry shuddered at the mental images.).
Transfiguration and charms were different for Harry, but only because he finally knew what he was doing. Harry made sure he let Hermione get all of the spells first, if only because she would flip out if he actually showed his skill.
DADA was one of the two classes that met with a large change, and it was due entirely to Moody. Moody, as Lee put it one day, really knew , man. His presentation on the unforgivables was impressive, but for a class with survivors of attacks by them, remarkably insensitive. Harry kept a steadying hand on Neville's shoulder the whole lesson long.
Harry didn't twitch when it was his turn under Moody's imperius, which seemed to frighten more than it impressed, but like he had with the Twins during the World Cup, Harry expanded his shield to cover Neville. Neville seemed as surprised as everyone else when that happened, but it lead to Harry showing Neville the book he got that summer and helping him and the Twins at the same time with the concepts in the book.
Harry met with them all in the library, and they had a much easier time picking up the basics than he had, simply by virtue of being able to cast spells without worrying about getting caught using under aged magic. Given the ridiculous ease with which he taught the three of them wandless magic, he guessed he could understand why the ministry had outlawed the book.
The twins actually had wands that they could effectively use, so Harry left them to their own devices. The only thing he showed them after they got the hang of it was a few developments he had made to the shield he put up to protect himself from the veela and anyone using legilimency. They left his brief lessons for parts and pranks unknown after that.
Harry went on to show Neville how he had been faking using his wand in class. In Harry's experience his wandless was a lot easier (which was why he was working so hard to get a focus that would actually help him) than his wanded magic, so he often just waved his wand in the way the professor said they should, and channeled his magic through his hand avoiding the wand entirely.
Neville's very first transfiguration class after the Harry showed him it, he was the first person to figure out the spell after Harry and Hermione, which was quite an accomplishment given that Harry was practicing sixth year spells on his own time and Hermione was, well, Hermione. Harry would forever cherish the memory of Neville's face when he finally got proof that he was in fact a very good wizard.
History of Magic was the incredibly surprising final class to undergo a large change. On the first day they came in, they found a professor in the room who wasn't dead. Everyone's mind was blown. Almost everyone actually showed up the first day, (Ron brought a pillow shrunk to the side of a matchbox that he actually had out on the desk before he realized there might be a change in the class) only two people were missing. After they had all gotten over having a living professor and settled down, the man at the front introduced himself. He wore a set of black robes and had dark brown eyes and grey hair, he was overall unremarkable, but his stern personality filled the classroom and made up the difference.
"My name is Bartemius Crouch, and I work at the Ministry of Magic as head of the department of International Magical Cooperation. I will be showing up several times from now until the Triwizard tournament begins. I am a very busy man, and my time is very precious, I'm responsible for coordinating a number of events that will involve all three schools that are coming here to be in the tournament. As such, I won't be assigning any homework or assignments to be turned in," The class cheered at that, "BUT!", Crouch said, raising his voice over the class, quieting it, "But that does not mean that you can afford to not pay attention. I'll be giving you lessons on a couple aspects of the history of the tournament itself, as well as a detailed history of a few ancient Celtic and Scottish wizarding traditions."
Crouch went on, over the next two months before the arrival of the other two schools, to describe why the tournament was to begin on Samhain. Samhain, in the Gaelic tradition, was one of the most important days of the year. It happened midway between the summer and winter solstices, and it represented to ancient Irish and Scottish wizards the beginning of winter. When the ancestor wizards of the Scottish tradition that Hogwarts was founded on were still herders, Samhain was the traditional time to meet and bring in the herds for slaughter to prepare for winter. Samhain represented a time of beginnings, and it was a time when the wizards in the days of yore communed with nymphs and dryads. The fey was closer to the world the wizards inhabited, so it was a time when pacts were struck for the use of natural areas of great magical power that had initially belonged to the fey, areas like the one Hogwarts was built on. It was also a time when some of the ancient dark wizard killed mundanes, and had used their deaths to fuel blood rituals.
Bonfires were also traditionally lit, and powerful rituals were performed over them to offer good fortune to the participants. Crouch referenced that it was a time when if the potion Felix Felicis was brewed it was made even stronger.
Harry had never known more about the wizarding world, and he actually was impressed by the history of magic class and Crouch. He was looking forward to being a part of those traditions here at Hogwarts this year.
Minerva McGonagall had been noticing a number of strange things during the year so far. She wondered if it was because things had changed during the summer, or if she was just on her toes more than usual because she was concerned about the tournament. Most of what she noticed seemed to surround the son of her two favorite students, and she wasn't sure if she should be worried more than usual about one Harry Potter.
The changes that she had noticed started before the semester even began. During the opening feast Harry had seemed distant from the youngest Weasley boy and Hermione. He also seemed closer than usual to Longbottom. During the feast she had even heard rumors that Harry was quitting the quidditch team, which she really didn't understand. The boy was like his father, a plain natural on a broom, there was no reason why he would leave the team. She didn't think anything of it though.
The next morning though, the things that had seemed slightly odd at the feast were more pronounced. Potter and Longbottom were sitting next to that airy Ravenclaw (Lovegood was it?), not even at the Gryffindor table! There was no rule against it, but Potter was a born Gryffindor if she had ever met one, and he seemed to be growing farther and farther apart from the rest of the house. Johnson, who she had given the captaincy of the quidditch team to now that Wood had graduated, had come to her that day and confirmed the rumors, Potter said that he was done with quidditch! Ron Weasley looked at Potter with open hostility that morning.
It kept happening too. Every morning Potter and Longbottom were sitting with Lovegood, and occasionally Susan Bones and the Abbot heiress joined them at the Ravenclaw table with the girl. (Filius had seemed incredibly happy about that development for some reason)
It would have been one thing if the two boys had just started eating breakfast with new people, but after the first week both of them had gotten significantly better in class. Almost to the point where she believed the boys to be cheating based on their incredible leaps ahead in skill level. If she hadn't heard Irma say that both of them had been in the library almost constantly when out of class, she would have investigated it. And Irma said they weren't even spending time with Granger, Potter seemed like he was growing away from her as well.
When she heard that from Irma, she began paying more attention to the boys in her class. Longbottom seemed to be trying his hardest and actually getting somewhere with it, but unless she missed her guess entirely, Potter was... bored. She spent the entire third week's classes watching him, and as they went over theory he was doodling instead of taking notes, and as they got to the practical section, Potter's eyes were glued to Granger. While he watched her he mumbled the words and idly waved his wand, but as soon as she accomplished the day's task, he did the transfiguration on his first real try and in one move.
Potter seemed to be hiding his skill. She couldn't for the life of her figure out why, so at the conclusion of her last lesson with him that week she kept him after class. In previous years, Weasley and Granger would have look nervous for him and waited, but Weasley seemed pleased he was being held back after class, and Granger looked concerned for a moment, then simply packed up and left. Potter shared a long look with Longbottom who packed and then waited outside the door patiently.
She walked to Potter's desk and stood before him as he packed his last quill. When he was done he looked up at her, and she said to him, "Potter, don't be worried, you're not in any trouble, I just wanted to test you in something for a moment."
She had been thinking about how to see if he was performing at his real level, and she had an idea that she felt was perhaps a little Slytherin. The next week's lessons were switching spells, fairly basic for most full grown wizards, but their first introduction was often very difficult for the students. She conjured a pair of tea cups and set them on the desk in front of the boy.
"Could you switch the handles of these two cups for me."
Potter looked at her nervously, as if he wasn't sure he believed her that he wasn't in trouble, he waved his wand and the two handles seamlessly switched, despite being different colors and different sizes, which often tripped students up as they learned the spell. She only narrowly hid her surprise. Minerva waved her wand and undid Potter's work, then kept going forward with her plan.
"Could you please transfigure the cup on the right into a mouse and the cup on the left into a kitten?"
Potter again gave her a look of ill-concealed worry, but after two waves of his wand, a kitten was busy on the table before her playing with a mouse. She had an even harder time hiding her surprise. This was OWL level work. Just reading ahead wasn't enough to be able to do this. Potter had real skill to be able to manage this, especially at the beginning of his fourth year. She wanted to stop but Potter hadn't even hesitated when she asked him to do it. She really wanted to see how far the boy could go. Two swishes or her wand later there were two formless lumps of clay on the table before him.
"Potter, could you turn one of these into a piglet, and the other into a full grown pig, and when you're done vanish the pair."
With three movements of his wand, Potter had just gotten at a minimum an Acceptable on his NEWT. Minerva was stunned, and her face showed it. Potter looked actively afraid when he saw her shock.
"Potter, please tell Longbottom to head to his next class. I'll write you a pass, but I would like to have a discussion with you in my office."
Potter did as she asked, and while he was doing it she moved into her office which adjoined the classroom. Before he could get into the office, she opened the locked drawer in the filing cabinet behind her desk and quickly swallowed a wee dram of the fire whisky she hid there to calm herself. Not even James had been this good with transfiguration. She would have been hard pressed to duplicate his feat at that age, and her OWL and NEWT scores were second only to Dumbledore's record setting scores. She had no idea how he had come by this skill, but she had been watching him closely. He could do it. He did it. She closed the drawer and looked at it lost in thought until she heard the office door open behind her. She turned to him.
"Ma'am? Did I do something wrong? I know I haven't been paying the most attention in class. I'm sorry for it but I've done a lot of studying ahead so I understand everything we're doing pretty well."
Minerva smiled at the small nervous boy. He seemed so much smaller than James did at that age. Maybe she would talk to Poppy about that. "Take a seat Harry. You've done nothing wrong, I just want to talk to you about how you've been doing in class lately. I can tell you've been studying ahead, but did you have any idea that with just the work you did in the last twenty minutes you could go as far as passing your NEWT for transfiguration?"
There was no deceit in the expression of pure surprise on Harry's face.
"I knew I was ahead, professor, but it all seemed so easy and made so much sense, I just figured it was supposed to. I mean I've gotten some small conjurations and some transfigurations to last for a few days, but nothing permanent..." the boy seemed lost in his thoughts and didn't notice that Minerva's own expression mirror Potter's from the moment before.
"Harry, you've been able to do some conjurations that have lasted for days?"
"Yes ma'am. I lost a quill before history last week, I just conjured one before class quickly and it lasted until the past weekend. Is that not normal?"
Minerva sat back and thought dreamily of the bottle of firewhisky just a few feet behind her. A conjuration that lasted days. And he had done it so casually. In order to make a conjuration permanent one needed to add a small piece to the incantation as it was cast, but it required a lot of extra power and a different understanding of the spell.
Permanent conjurations were a branch of transfigurations that were only ever taught as a person went for their mastery. Some masters couldn't do it, she could barely manage it, but the way you could tell if a student was capable of it was if a conjuration of theirs lasted for over 24 hours. And Harry here just made a quill before class that he used until the weekend.
Prodigy barely covered it.
"Mr. Potter, Harry, why are you hiding your skill in class? I've been watching you, and Professor Flitwick has been making comments that he suspects you've been doing the same thing in his class, you seem to always wait until someone else has done the day's work correctly, then you finish."
Potter looked a little guilty and a little angry. "Professor, have you ever noticed how Ron or Hermione act if I do something better than them? The first week back, I accidentally didn't wait for someone else to finish and just performed a summoning charm the first time. We weren't even supposed to be able to do it yet, we had just finished the opening theory that day. Ron got incredibly jealous and after class started whispering to people about how I was a cheater, and Hermione spent four straight hours in the library studying before the next charms class so she could be the first one done again. I've been annoyed by them a bit this summer, but when that happened I just didn't know what to think."
Minerva thought about the students in question. Hermione was so smart, Minerva had been overjoyed to get her sorted into Gryffindor. But the girl was incapable of being in second place. She couldn't handle losing, Minerva suspected it had to do with a friendless childhood. Ronald was in the lower half of his year, and the boy clearly had a jealous streak a mile wide. She could understand Harry's position, but maybe if she kept it quiet she could still help Harry see his potential. Hmmm...
"Harry, how would you like some much more advanced tuition in transfiguration? If you were willing to come in after normal class hours we could go over material you might find actually challenging, and if you keep advancing, you could probably test for a mastery before you graduate."
Harry seemed happy to donate a few extra hours for tougher instruction, and Minerva could only be happy to give it. Here was a real prodigy, and she had the chance to watch him develop. This would be a real joy. After Potter (Harry, she amended in her mind, the boy was advanced enough to warrant a closer relationship, they'd be spending a lot of extra time together anyway) left she poured herself a glass of her hidden emergency fire whisky. She didn't have any more classes today, and she needed to celebrate. This would be a wonderful year.
By the time the first Hogsmeade weekend rolled around at the end of September, Harry had spoken to Professor Flitwick as well, and while he wasn't as good with charms as he was with transfiguration, the half-goblin was more than happy to give him extra instruction. Possibly more importantly for Harry, Flitwick had allowed him access to Hogwarts' enchantment laboratory.
With access to those labs he had a space where he could consistently keep his work and try to develop his own focus specifically for himself. It was exactly what he needed, it had tools for working metal, wood, leather, you name it. It even had an ancient enchanted loom made specifically for working with Acromantula silk. In a word it was perfect.
Harry woke early for the weekend. He needed to head to Zonkos as soon as possible, so he could meet his end of the bargain he had struck his first day back with Peeves. After that he needed to get to the Three Broomsticks as soon as he could again. He'd talked Fred and George into buying a few kegs of butter beer early in the day so Madam Rosmerta would be busy somewhere else and he and Neville could slip away to Diagon.
The plan went off without a hitch, and before nine in the morning, Harry and Neville were in Diagon Alley and standing in front of Ollivander's.
"You ready, Nev?", Harry asked. He was really happy to be able to help his friend. He was also pleased to be able to see Ollivander again (Did the man even have a first name, he wondered idly) to ask him about materials used in foci. The strange old man had briefly mentioned a tribe of wizards in Central Africa that used specially tanned Tebo hide to for shields they used as foci. Harry thought that if Ollivander knew anything about the process, he could make himself a leather fore-arm cover, like a bracer. Harry could disguise it as a fancy wand holder, but use it as a focus.
Neville seemed nervous, but he looked at Harry and said, "Yes. When you showed me I can do wandless magic that was the first time I ever felt like I could be a great wizard. I need a wand that matches me, I can't just pretend to use one."
A few moments later the clock tower in the alley struck nine times, and Ollivander opened his door and beckoned the boys inside, changing the sign in his window to open before heading back behind the counter. His soft voice rang out in the quiet of the store, "Mr. Longbottom. You never did come to get your own wand, I expected I'd see you a few years ago. You went with a family wand, correct? We'll let's see what fits you. Your wand hand, right or left?"
Neville spoke with confidence Harry wasn't sure he felt, "Right, sir."
The same strange tape measure that had measured Harry three years before left the counter seemingly of its own volition, and Ollivander silently began moving around his shelves of wands, coming back with three boxes.
The first two (ash and birch, both dragon heartstring) didn't make any real reaction, but the third, 13", cherry wood, and unicorn tail hair lit from the inside with a brown glow that spoke to Harry of growing things. Harry was actually sure for a moment that he smelt fresh dirt.
"Ah, excellent, we've discovered your match. Refreshingly simple, wasn't it, Mr. Potter?"
Neville looked at the two of them strangely, Ollivander continued, "Mr. Potter tried most of my selection of wands before he found one that worked, and now that he has found himself using wandless magic, he has found that his wand doesn't meet his requirements."
Neville nodded in understanding, but turned to Harry, "Yeah, I was wondering about that. Harry showed me how to do the same kind of wandless magic he did, but in the end using a wand just works better for me. I don't know what it is."
Ollivander gave a dry smile and replied, "Yes, that's not altogether unsurprising. Magic use has very deep roots in one's mental state, more specifically with the intent one uses to drive themselves. Mr. Potter, you were raised by non-magicals, were you not?" Harry gave a nod, he hadn't heard this before and wondered himself about it, "You undoubtedly have read non-magical fiction, likely some that included magic, and you were influenced by that understanding. Something I have noticed over the last few decades, children raised by non-magicals often have an understanding of magic not based specifically around the use of wands, they have to be trained into it. It is, I believe, the reason why Mr. Potter's book was made illegal by the ministry, for wizards of the wand based tradition wandless magic was difficult and unique. They were embarrassed when pure blood wizards were unable to do it even half as easily as a first year child from entirely non-magical stock."
This made sense to the two boys, and seemed to both of them like something that the ministry would do. Harry took a moment to glance at his watch, it was past time for them to be on their way. He tapped Neville's shoulder, and inclined his head to the door. Ollivander caught the gesture, and before they could leave produced a book from below the counter. The book looked more like an old style field journal, it had pages sticking up in different parts and seemed to contain sample of feathers and leather.
"Mr. Potter, I was speaking nothing less than the truth when I said we could expect great things from you. These are my notes, taken in my youth, about the process used in the creation of the Tebo leather foci we spoke of during your last visit. Use them well."
Harry collected the journal, and the boys left the shop, heading back to the leaky cauldron under heavy glamors. They made their way to St. Mungos, though they didn't have much time. Harry and Neville had agreed beforehand that they had to be back in Hogsmeade before noon, and after Ollivander's they had less time than they would have liked.
Neville introduced Harry to his mum and dad. Alice smiled unfocused but widely when the boys sat with her, and Frank had never moved his gaze from the window he had been staring out. They talked about Hogwarts, they mentioned the triwizard tournament, and talked about their still-new friendship with Luna. They left soon after, and as they stood before the public floo station in St. Mungo's, Harry put a hand on Neville's shoulder.
"Thanks, Nev."
Neville gave a tight and emotional nod before stepping into the fireplace and calling out 'The Three Broomsticks!'. The boys arrived back in Hogsmeade and split up. Neville needed some things from Scrivenshaft's, and Harry needed to pay up with Peeves before he pranked some helpless firstie.