Chapter 175: Chapter 172
"How did your Potions go?" Harry asked Ron as he led them towards Professor Vector's office a bit ways off the classroom.
"Bad…" Ron muttered, as Dean fervently nodded while adding, "I used to think regular Snape was bad, but this is just…he was pissed off. Angry like I've never seen him before."
"Well, what did you expect?" Hermione snapped, "The Hufflepuffs just threw his entire house into the hospital wing. Of course, he's angry."
Ron opened his mouth but didn't get to say anything. They'd arrived at the Professor's office. Harry poked the entrance portrait's Mimbulus Mimbletonia with his wand, making it burst open and shower the blue bearded wizard in stink sap. The wizard in the portrait grumbled for a second before he waved his own wand, and with a click, the portrait opened up to show an oaken door, which Harry knocked on.
"Come in Potter. And all of you too" called the voice of the Professor.
Harry pushed open the door and led his friends inside the office, where Professor Vector was ruffling through her desk drawers looking for something. With a victorious "Aha!" she pulled out a piece of parchment.
Suddenly realizing that there were five students watching, she quickly schooled her expression.
"Potter, these are your papers from the Ministry," she said, handing him a file, "Your project has been accepted as an official Arithmancy class project. I will be letting Madam Pince know that you are to have access to books from the Restricted Section. Also, you can now take off a set amount of time from your classes to work on your project, provided you do so judiciously. Is that perfectly understood?"
"Of course Professor," Harry said as he took the file from her and subtly dropped it into his inventory for safekeeping.
"Good," she continued, turning to the remaining four second years in the room, "I assume Mr. Potter has told you that he has started working on a little side project of sorts?"
"Yes Professor," came Hermione's clear reply as the three boys nodded. She glanced at Harry hesitantly before adding, "He hasn't told us much about it though."
"That," the Professor replied, "he did on my instructions Miss Granger. The chances of these kinds of project ideas being stolen is very large, which made keeping the project under wraps very much necessary. But now that the paperwork is submitted and done, that's no longer needed. Mr. Potter? Would you like to tell them now?"
"Er…yes please," Harry said before he proceeded to lay out his entire plan of creating his own game and how far he had come with his planning and ideas in front of his friends.
The first person who spoke as soon as he finished, much to Harry's surprise, was actually Ron.
"You want to compete with Quidditch?" he asked in a suspicious voice. Terry's keen look was telling him that he was about to ask the exact same question.
"Well, not really compete," Harry said, lying out of his teeth, "It's not really a sport, is it? It's just an exploration game. Fun relaxing stuff to do on the ground for those of us who can't make the Quidditch team."
Ron wavered, "Well…I'll give you that. The Gobstones club isn't really all that much fun"
"But why bring us here?" Hermione asked next, "Why not just tell us in the tower or at breakfast or something?"
"That is something I'll have to explain Miss Granger," Professor Vector replied, "As a Project Leader, Mr. Potter is allowed to have a few students who can choose to work on the project with him. A team, if you will. Those students will get benefits such as relaxed marking in their end of the year exams. Furthermore, should the team be able to finish the Project and pass the Ministry's review before the end of Mr. Potter's 7th year, all of the team will be awarded perfect Arithmancy NEWT scores."
All four of Harry's friends froze, completely shell-shocked at the prospect of what looked like a free NEWT.
"That seems…generous" Hermione wonderingly muttered, "Why doesn't everyone just make a project of their own and get a guaranteed NEWT? Seems like a pretty obvious loophole to me."
The Professor had an answer to that, "Many reasons, but mostly it's just the lack of good ideas. Every idea is reviewed by the Ministry, and very few are actually even considered for approval. Mr. Potter's idea is not only innovative, it is also incredibly complex. Don't mistake this for a free NEWT Miss Granger. If any of you choose to accept Mr. Potter's offer to join his team, you'll be working for that score."
Much to Harry's relief, it didn't take long after that for them to accept his offer. Professor Vector gave him a key to an empty classroom for them to use, and they resolved to meet every Sunday afternoon to work on the project for a few hours, at least for this year, before they headed out of the class and headed off to their respective common rooms.
That night, Harry took off the weighted vest in the bathroom and dropped it into his inventory before putting his shirt back on, feeling incredibly lighter.
Ping!
Due to using torso weights gear all day long, you have gained +4 to Str!
Happy with that, he hopped into the stalls for a quick shower, before he headed back to the common room to get some homework done before sleep.
Much to his surprise, the common room was much more crowded than it usually was. A small knot of people was gathered around the common room's notice board, reading a piece of parchment that had been pinned up. Terry beckoned him over, looking excited.
"Oi Harry!" he said enthusiastically, "Will you be coming to the dueling club on Friday?"
"Dueling club?"
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