Chapter 4: First Forays (Part Three)
Harry's first two months at Hogwarts had practically flown by. He was enjoying most of the classes except Potions and History of Magic. History was good for a short nap though and when he wasn't tired it was the perfect opportunity to work on improving his developing clusters. The Extinguisher hadn't quite worked out but he figured weaving in a Soften rune to the scheme should offset the effect enough to make his Extravagance Rune Show impressive but harmless. It would be perfect for Dudley!
It had taken Harry less than a week to realize that he didn't have the same luck with any of the other magical topics that he did with runes. It was a bit disappointing that he hadn't seemed to inherit his mum's skill in Charms or Potions. At least he could at least partially blame the latter on Snape.
The first Potions lesson was…well getting run over by a lorry would probably have been more fun. Snape's first few questions were trick ones to see if Harry had read the year's textbook. From cover to cover. And memorized it. When he – somehow – managed to get those few right Snape had moved on to more complicated questions – things from the 4th and 5th Year curriculums according to Hermione later on. Harry still managed to get those questions right thanks to remembering some things from his mother's notebook. Snape then proceeded to take points off for being "insufferably superior" and "reading dangerously far ahead". When Harry had had the audacity to actually ask why stirring clockwise vs. counter-clockwise made such a huge difference Snape had vanished his potion since "obviously if you cannot grasp such a simple concept than there's no point in seeing the horrific results of your work." When Harry afterward tried to stay quiet and avoid eye contact Snape picked on Neville instead, leaning over the boy's shoulder and degrading him for his shaking hands and fumbling of ingredients. By the time the class had ended Harry had been sorely tempted to set off his defective Extravagance Rune Show in the man's cauldron.
When one's teacher took every opportunity to insult and degrade you there was little point in putting forth any effort. Harry had agreed in principle that learning Potions was important though so…on the weekend after that first class he had grabbed Neville, commandeered an unused classroom and set about teaching the coursework to each other. Harry had invited Ron as well but the red head just laughed hysterically at doing any extra work. Within a few weeks Neville and Harry had made excellent progress and Harry always cackled like a madman when thinking of the end of term exams and how they was going to show the bigoted teacher exactly what they could do!
Transfiguration and Charms were topics that, while interesting as hell, seemed to be a huge waste of energy. Something that he finally decided to bring up during the lesson on Halloween.
"Professor, why use a charm for this when a rune would be just as easy and more permanent?" Harry asked while most of the rest of the class was attempting to get their feather levitating.
"Well it would be quite difficult to etch a rune onto a feather, Mr. Potter," Professor Flitwick responded with a chuckle. "Besides, runes are far too advanced for a first year course."
"Well yeah, you can't etch the rune on the feather but still it seems silly to try and memorize such a precise wand movement when I can just draw and link the rune to it in a few seconds instead. Here, watch." Harry shifted his feather over to the side and inked a quick Flight rune onto his paper before adding a small Synchronization rune and a Feather rune entwined within. Less than thirty seconds after he started, Harry touched his wand to the paper and energized the cluster. Harry smirked as his feather floated off the desk and hovered neatly in the air for about five seconds.
Then the parchment with his cluster burned to ash.
Scowling, Harry glared down at the parchment. "Stupid paper. Horrible conductor. I should've torn a strip from my robes instead. That would've lasted at least a minute." He sighed as the feather floated back down in front of him. "Well it made my point at least right?" Looking up at Professor Flitwick Harry's eyes widened a bit and he jerked back slightly in his seat. The little man's eyes were bulging out of his skull, his mouth was hanging open, his hand was clenched so tightly on his wand it had gone white and his entire body seemed stiff as a board. Harry had seen that expression enough from his relatives. The Freak had shown his true colors yet again. Frantically blinking Harry desperately started to mentally draw and recite the most complicated runes he could think of. He would not cry in class. He had stopped crying years ago. It was not going to happen!
"Mr. Potter, how…how did you…?" Before Professor Flitwick could finish his thought, from several seats down Hermione loudly corrected Ron's pronunciation and her feather soared into the air. "Five points to Gryffindor for excellent spellwork, Miss Granger," the Professor commented without even taking his eyes off Harry. He opened his mouth to try again before Seamus Finnegan's feather literally exploded in his face. Professor Flitwick shook his head and moved off to make certain the boy was alright.
Harry slowly exhaled and stopped his mental exercises. 'I should've known not to ask questions. I'll just do the clusters on my own and study the normal things with everyone else for now.'
The bell signaling the end of class sounded and Harry grabbed his bag walking out with Neville and Ron before Professor Flitwick could try to stop him. He was not going to let the Freak come out again. Not here. Not with people who knew and liked his parents. Not with someone his mum had liked.
"She's mental! Mental, I tell you!" Ron prattled on beside Harry and Harry just nodded not bothering to listen. "Levi-OH-sa not Levi-oh-SAH! She's such a bossy little know-it-all! Why can't she just mind her own business for once?! I'm not surprised she has no friends. No one's ever going to be able to stand her!"
Hermione pushed past Harry's shoulder and the sound of sniffling broke through his reverie. "Hermione?" She practically sprinted down the corridor and disappeared before Harry could do more than extend a hand in her direction. Frowning he turned to Ron. "What did you say to her?"
"Weren't you listening? I just said the truth! It's not my fault if she heard me."
"That was really mean, Ron," Neville said quietly from his other side. "She was just trying to help you. And she was right."
"She should mind her own business!" Ron's face had gone as red as his hair. "I didn't ask for her help and I didn't need it! She's too bossy. She thinks she knows everything just because she's the best in class and because she turns in double the homework that we do. She wants to go and cry about it, well serves her right. Maybe now she'll stop making the rest of us look bad!"
Harry froze. The rest of his classmates flowed around him and a few steps later Ron and Neville turned back to look at him stopped in the middle of the corridor. Harry's hands clenched and his teeth ground together. "You," he stepped forward and his mouth curled into a snarl, as he jabbed a finger accusingly in the redhead's chest not even realizing he was still holding his wand. Or that it was glowing. "You want her to make herself dumber just so she doesn't look better than lazy idiots like you." Harry's voice was like ice. Neville hurriedly took a few steps away from Ron and worriedly tried to get his wand out though he seemed nervous about which boy he should be pointing it at. "You're jealous that she's better than you. That she understands the subject while you can't even be bothered to try. How dare you! Dudley was bad enough! I can't do anything about him yet but, I can do something about you!" Harry thrust his hand forward not even realizing his wand was in it. "You stay the hell away from, Hermione! And stay the hell away from me too!"
"Wha – " Ron sputtered backing away from Harry. He tripped over his robes and landed on his butt on the floor. "Harry – "
"Shut up, Ronald! I don't like bullies and that's all you are. You're just like Dudley! Stay away from us!" Harry turned on his heel and scanned the small crowd that had formed nearby as the rest of the class had gathered to view the rising chaos. "Lavender! Did you see where she went?"
The girl's eyes widened, afraid to be in his sights, and she quickly shook her head. "Um, no, but she usually goes into the second floor bathroom to cry. She should be out by the end of the feast though…"
"If you see her before I do tell her to stay away from Ron and that I want to talk to her," Harry's voice had dropped back down to a normal volume and he had stopped breathing heavily. Lavender nodded and the crowd slowly started to mill away towards the Great Hall, the show apparently over.
"You coming, Neville?" Harry asked as he walked off.
Neville jerked and stared at Harry. "Yeah. Coming." He sent a baleful glare at Ron who was still staring up from the floor before hurrying after his friend.
Harry had kept watching the doors to the Great Hall during the entire feast. Halloween was turning into a right awful day. Flitwick was still casting glances at him from the staff table. Everyone was celebrating his parents' death. He'd thrown aside one of his few friends. Hermione still hadn't shown up. What the hell else could happen to make this day worse?
"Troll! There's a troll in the dungeons!" Professor Quirrell yelled as he ran into the room and barely even reaching the center of the room before fainting.
'Note to self: never ever tempt fate. Even in my head. She obviously hates me – or at minimum – loves to play around with me, all the while cackling madly in the background.'
The Great Hall exploded into chaos as the professors called for the Houses to follow their prefects back to the dorm rooms. As they left the room, Harry scowled and shifted to the back of the crowd. Neville noticed his friend slowing down and leaned over to whisper, "Harry, what's going on?"
"Hermione doesn't know about the troll, Nev. What if she's still in the bathroom?"
"Shouldn't we tell the prefects?" he suggested with a slight quaver.
"They're busy with everyone else. Come on, it's only a few corridors over. We can get there faster if we just go ourselves. The troll isn't even supposed to up here anyway. I don't want Hermione to get into trouble for something Ron did!"
Harry saw Neville's face drain of color and gave a sad smile. "It's okay, Nev. I'll go get her and we'll meet you guys up in the Common Room." He turned to run away from the staircase but Neville grabbed his arm.
"No – no. I'm coming too. I may not be much help but, I'm not letting you go alone and I don't want Hermione to get in trouble either." Harry smiled back in reply and the two sprinted off. Harry's opinion of Neville jumped up several notches seeing the boy would actually stand up for himself and others when push came to shove.
As they got closer to the bathroom an awful smell drifted toward them. "Neville, do trolls smell?" Harry tried to keep his voice calm but there was a small tremor running through it.
"Yeah..." Neville's face had reached nearly pure white.
"Maybe we should've gotten a prefect…"
They twisted around the last turn just in time to see a twelve foot tall troll amble through the door to the bathroom, a giant club half as big dragging in its wake. Harry's face joined Neville's in color loss. "That's the girls' bathroom…" A scream rang through the air from the room the troll had entered.
"Hermione!" Both boys shouted and sprinted straight through the door.
In front of them the troll was standing and raising its club. Hermione was crouched on the floor among broken toilets and stall doors. Harry didn't think; he just immediately jumped onto the troll's back and grabbed its head trying to twist it away from Hermione and back towards the door. "Neville! Distract it! Hermione, run!"
Hermione didn't run. She stayed frozen and whimpering in the corner of the room. Neville stayed frozen for a moment too before he snapped out it. He grabbed his wand and tried to shout out a spell but only a weak red light came out that bounced harmlessly off the troll's skin. The troll's club swiped out and Neville jumped back. He managed to avoid getting hit but his wand wasn't so lucky. As the boy fell back, his wand got caught by the edge of the club and snapped right in half.
It had bought enough time though. Harry, one hand wrapped around the troll's neck, the other digging through his pack, triumphantly raised his arm clutching his incomplete Extravagance Rune Show. Thrusting his hand around the troll's head Harry activated the rune stone and thrust it into the troll's open mouth. He dropped off the back of the troll and rolled away just as a dull bang sounded through the bathroom. Covering his head, Harry felt himself splattered with something sticky and smelly as a second later there was a great crash when the troll fell to the floor, its loincloth passing so close that it brushed against Harry's arm.
Slowly, Harry lowered his arms and scanned the room. Neville was sitting on the floor staring dumbly. Hermione was still crouched in the corner but with her mouth wide open. Next to Harry, on the floor was the troll. Most of the top of its head was missing. Steaming meat chunks squelched down the wall of the bathroom and dripped off the ceiling.
Without the Extinguisher and Soften runes weaved into the cluster, the Extravagance Rune Show was still rather explosive.
"Umm…" Anything else Harry was going to say was cut off as a blurry, bushy, brown bullet slammed into his chest nearly knocking him over. Hermione's arms wrapped around him and her head buried into his chest. Harry froze; this was the first hug he could ever remember receiving. "Hermione? Are you okay?" Cautiously Harry reaching a hand out and patted her head. A small nod was the only answer he got as the girl's arms tightened around his chest and he felt his stomach get wet. She was sobbing right through his shirt. "Neville? You good?"
"I'm okay. I broke my wand but, I'm okay. Did you blow off its head?" Neville's voice was strained – like he couldn't decide between whether to cry or laugh. Harry commiserated.
"Yeah. Yeah, I think I did."
"Did you mean to do that?"
"Um, maybe? I knew it would explode. I didn't mean to kill it but…I didn't know what else to do. Did I kill it?"
"Mr. Potter? Mr. Longbottom? Miss Granger?" Professor McGonagall's shocked voice sounded into the small bathroom. "Is that…? How…? Are…are you three hurt?" she finally managed to say.
"We're okay, Professor. Neville's wand got broken though."
"How did this…?" The teacher abruptly cut off as a piece of brain from the ceiling dropped an inch in front of her face.
"What the blazes?" Professor Flitwick squeaked as he came around the older woman. "What happened to its head?"
"Obviously it smacked itself with an errant swing," Snape drawled swishing in behind the other two.
"No it didn't, Sir," Neville said softly from the floor, still staring at the troll. He shook his head, stood up, grabbed his broken wand and moved to stand with Harry and Hermione. "Harry killed it, Sir."
"Impossible!" Snape sneered.
"Mr. Potter? Perhaps you should explain what just happened," Professor McGonagall could barely tear her eyes from the troll's twitching remains long enough to glance at the trio of students.
"Hermione didn't know about the troll because she had been in the bathroom, Professor. Neville and I ran to get her but the troll was already here. It was trying to kill Hermione so Neville distracted it while I fed it my activated Extravagance Rune Show." Harry looked down and grimaced. "I didn't mean to kill it," he continued softly. "I designed the Extravagance Rune Show to emit a lot of bright lights and sounds to scare my cousin if he started in on me but I had to base it off of some of the Thunder and Explosion runes to get the cluster to work. An Extinguisher rune stopped the whole thing completely so I took it out. I knew adding in a Soften rune in conjunction with the Extinguisher would get it to work perfectly, but I only figured that out this morning and haven't had enough time to etch it in with the others. I knew the cluster was still pretty explosive and that's why I kept it in my bag. I didn't want anyone playing around with it while it was still dangerous…I didn't really mean to kill the troll. I just didn't know what else to do…" Harry trailed off.
Hermione gave him one more squeeze and finally let go. She turned to the gathered staff that had been joined by Professor Babbling at some point. "Please don't punish, Harry or Neville. They were only here because of me. I should be the one punished. It was going to kill me and they only did want they could to help. I'm the one who deserves punishment," she pleaded. The tears threatened to fall again and Harry reached out and squeezed her hand.
"Mr. Potter," Professor Babbling said with a note of awe evident in her voice, "do you mean to tell me that you designed an entire rune cluster fully understanding the interweaves, chained reactions and inherent complexities of the completed scheme without even fully finishing the etchings?" Harry nodded still looking at the floor. "100 points to Gryffindor for ingenuity, brilliance and having the foresight to keep a potential hazard from others. 25 points from Gryffindor for carrying a potential hazard on your person around others." At the massive point awards Harry jerked his head up catching a huge smile on the woman's face. Snape on the other hand, was turning cherry red.
"And 50 points to Gryffindor to you both for immediately coming to the aid of classmate in trouble and triumphing over incredible odds," Professor Flitwick commented as he poked at the troll's body. Snape's mouth clenched so tightly Harry was amazed his teeth didn't shatter. "This is amazing. Mr. Potter that was quite brilliant thinking. You would do exceptionally well in the dueling circuit I think. If you are ever interested let me know. Oh and 15 points from each of you for not informing a prefect or teacher that Miss Granger was missing." Harry stared in shock at the small man. After his comments in class earlier Flitwick was praising him? That was...wow.
"POTTER!" Snape had apparently finally regained his voice. He was practically spitting and his face was so red Harry wondered for a moment whether the man was about to pass out. "DETENTION! Dangerous, forbidden magical constructs are prohibited!" Harry just nodded; for once that was actually a totally warranted punishment.
Professor Babbling scowled at Snape. "Runic clusters are not forbidden magical constructs! They require care yes, but if they were 'forbidden magical constructs' then you might as well arrest me and the entirety of my NEWTS class, Severus!"
"Mr. Potter, you will serve that detention with me," Professor McGonagall glared at Snape before turning to Harry and the others with a far softer look. "We will discuss carrying around a potential hazard at that time. As disappointed as I am that you did not come to one of your seniors, I do understand that the troll was not initially reported as being in this section of the castle." She paused before continuing softly, "I have never lost one of my lions before and I am extremely glad that, because of your actions, I do not have need to revise that statement. I am very proud of all three of you." Three sets of jaws dropped open before snapping closed again. "Now, run along back to the Common Room and get yourselves cleaned up. Mr. Longbottom, I will contact your grandmother to arrange a date over the weekend for you to acquire a new wand."
The three students nodded and started to leave the bathroom. "Potter?" Professor Babbling said with a smile. "Whenever you get a chance stop by to see me. Nothing urgent. I think I can help you though if you'd like." It was all Harry could do not to gape at the woman as pride surged through him. He damped it down a bit and nodding, proceeded to follow his friends out.
Harry, Hermione and Neville trooped through the portrait hole and into a crowded Common Room. "There you are!" Percy Weasley immediately yelled out. "Where have you three been? The troll – "
"Is dead," Hermione stated. "Harry killed it. Neville helped. They saved my life." Percy's mouth dropped open. The rest of the room immediately went quiet.
"The Professors already know," Neville commented. "Excuse us, but we smell horrible and I really need to go and lie down."
"Hermione, you okay?" Harry asked before she could sprint away again.
"I'm fine, Harry. Thank you," she hugged him once more and turned to go up the stairs to her dorm. "See you tomorrow?" she finished in a quiet, questioning voice.
"Yeah," Harry said, giving her his warmest smile possible. "Definitely."
As Harry walked to the showers he chuckled slightly. For Halloween, this day actually hadn't really ended too badly.
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