Chapter Text
It was now the 30th of August and Harry was preparing to go out to Diagon Alley to buy his school supplies.
He arrived at the Alley through the floo network alongside his guardian Arcturus Black, and they were both quick to make their way to Gringotts.
The Alley was without much movement, but that was about to change since in about an hour, at most, Hogwarts students who had yet to purchase their supplies would be soon arriving and flooding the streets along with their parents as they joined the last minute rush that happened every year.
Inside the Bank, the two immediately joined one of the smaller queues (not that they were very long at that early hour) in front of the tellers and patiently waited for their turn to arrive after which they were directed to the carts.
The journey through the underground labyrinth that was the great cave system underneath the Bank passed in a very fast motion and at last, after many twists and turns, they arrived in front of the Black Family's vault.
The two exited the cart and approached the vault, quickly collecting what they had come from, money and some other things Arcturus was in need of, before they returned to the surface intent on starting the shopping for Harry’s supplies.
Reaching the surface once more, they both went in the direction of the main hall of the bank where they met with a goblin that had already been waiting for them.
Said goblin, had been waiting for them on orders from Harry's account manager, Sharpfang, with the intent to lead the two Blacks to his office to handle urgent business matters.
"Mr. Potter-Black, Lord Black. How are you this morning?" said Sharpfang as soon as they entered.
"Very well Master goblin." replied Arcturus, Harry following suit.
"I am afraid that the business I have with young Mr. Potter cannot wait much longer and as such I apologise for setting up a meeting on such short notice."
"There is no need to apologize. What business as brought you so much worry?" said Arcturus.
"Since your last visit Mr. Potter, we have been reviewing all of the documents pertaining to your estate and business here at Gringotts, and we must confess, to have found some worrisome things. I am afraid Mr Potter, that while you were away from the wizarding world Mr. Dumbledore, whom at the moment was your magical guardian, illegal as it was, took advantage of the fact and that he had the key to your vault in his possession to steal several hundred galleons as well as one of your family's heirlooms, your family's Cloak of Invisibility."
"Those are worrisome news indeed. What can be done in order to correct it?" asked Arcturus in a serious tone, silver eyes flashing coldly.
"We could request all of the money back with interest and push for a lawsuit if that's what you wish for us to do, however that would most likely make him aware of the fact that Mr. Potter-Black is in the know of his machinations. In regards to the cloak, we can only say that we took notice of its absence during the artifact audit we did to all vault during this last year and are now requesting it to be returned."
"I think we should forget about the money, at least for now, and focus solely on getting the cloak back." said Harry.
"Very well, it shall be done as such."
"There is something else I wish to bring to your notice." said Sharpfang while signing some documents "You are eligible, as of your twelfth birthday, to claim your heirships and I was wondering if you would like to do so today."
Harry looked up at Arcturus, who gave him a slight nod of approval, and then focused on Sharpfang again, saying in a clear voice, "I would like to do so."
"Very well. A moment please." said the goblin retrieving two boxes from the drawer on his desk "This are the Potter and Peverell heir rings that you shall try, one at a time, to see if you are accepted by the magics of both families and take the mantle of their heir."
The Potter ring was the first to be tried - it was made out of an intermingling of silver and white gold and had the house crest engraved at its head, a small dark red gemstone encrusted at each side - upon sliding the ring onto his finger a current of magic washed over him making him feel dizzy for a moment, while pleasurable streams of magic went up and down leaving his skin tingling a bit from the after effects. Next, he took the Peverell family ring out of its box - it was made out of platinum and had an incrusted black diamond on the head and the family crest, a triangle with a circle inside that was bisected by a line, engraved on the inside in silver through the aid of magic; this time, the effects of putting the ring were much more powerful and intense due to the house's longer history and more ancient magic that caused Harry to have a momentaneous black out from the powerful current of magic that enveloped his entire body, and went through him like an electrical current.
While in such a state, something happened. As he was in a state of unconsciousness Harry opened his eyes to a black void filled with a kind of silvery sort of ghosts that he instinctively knew to be the souls all of his dead ancestors that were in the afterlife, behind them, a huge black shadow loomed, barely distinguishable from the pitch black background, hovering and staring straight at him, Death.
As soon as it happened, and no matter how much time it seemed to have taken, it was over in the following moment. Both rings were now laying innocently on his finger, fusing together for as long as he remained heir of both houses, upon which they would once more separate and appear inside their respective boxes as they waited for the new one.
Once all business at the bank had been handled, they finally left and went to do what they'd originally intended to, Harry's school shopping. Which by now, would happening in a much more stressful way due to the chaos that would have already taken a hold of the Alley.
Their first stop was Madam Malkin's, where Harry bought a new set of school uniforms since he'd already outgrown the previous ones. The ones from the year before had, of course, been sold to the second-hand clothes shop by means of a house-elf medium, as they didn't intend to keep them indefinitely at home. Secondly, they bought Harry's potion kit, a set of new quills, and inkpots, as well as enough parchment to last him the entire year.
Meanwhile, as they went to Flourish and Blotts to acquire Harry's books, they left his telescope at the astronomy shop for maintenance.
It was with much displeasure that Arcturus entered the bookshop after seeing what was happening inside, a book signing by Gilderoy Lockhart.
The bookshop was filled to the brim with eagerly awaiting witches of all ages, clutching huge piles of books as they waited for their turn to have them be autographed. With how long the line was, it would take them a while.
Despite all the confusion provoked by such an event, they still managed to squeeze in and collect all the necessary books in a quick fashion before hurrying on their way to the cashier in order to pay. If they could have it their way, they wouldn’t be spending any more time than necessary inside while the event was happening.
While they were doing so, the Malfoys stepped into the shop to buy Draco's books. It wasn’t long after they had been inside when they suddenly noticed Harry's an Arcturus' presences and approached them in order to strike a conversation.
Harry and the two male Malfoys were speaking, not that Harry was all that eager to spend time around Draco, when the entirety of the Weasley family alongside Hermione Granger, and what Harry thought to be her parents entered as well. Their entrance causing even more of a ruckus then what was already present inside and eliciting a few shouts from the angry witches that were pushed aside to accommodate them near the doorway.
The Weasleys were all speaking in very loud tones as they bickered with one another and blocked the bookstore's entrance, annoying several of the people on both sides of the door who wanted to either enter or exit and where unable to do so as the red-heads failed to move aside. Others were also annoyed since they were now unable be able to go about their shopping in as relaxed a way as possible, knowing that it had already been difficult before the two families had gone inside.
Harry was observing all this while Arcturus paid for the last of his things when the unthinkable happened. Arthur - Ron's father - upon seeing Lucius near the rest of his family went over to great him, albeit rather impolitely and with a somewhat accusatory and distrustful tone underlying his words - as if the later had been attempting to assault his children or wife in broad daylight. That warranted the confusion of the people who had been watching and listening in to the confusion going on by the door, as prior to Arthur’s approach of the Malfoy patriarch the other hadn’t even been looking in the Weasley’s direction.
The two men, were quite well known for their mutual dislike of each other, but now that people were witnessing their interaction, they started wondering whether it was truly the Malfoy family's fault or if it was prompted by the Weasley patriarch instead. The moment it happened several witches and wizards wondered whether some of the things they knew about both families were true or not.
Draco had gone upstairs in search for a particular book when Weasley's father had spotted Harry and Lucius, and came back just as Arthur was mid-way through his greeting. Ron saw him immediately and didn’t shy away from taunting the blonde, much like his father had done to Lucius.
Not willing to stand the insults being hurled at him, much less when they came from a Weasley, and Ron no less, Draco snarled an insult of his own at Ron. And the red-head, without thinking (most definitely) threw a punch at the blonde, striking him square in the face and throwing Draco to the ground with a surprised and incredulous scream as blood quickly flew from his nose.
People all around gasped at the violence.
Lockhart, who had been engrossed with his book signing, pictures and autograph giving to his fans, was immediately surprised by the scream and drew his wand (in an obviously practiced and staged sort of way), proclaiming with false bravado and rather loudly with a matching smile that he would solve everything. "You have nothing to fear! Because, I, Gilderoy Lockhart will take care of everything."
Reaching the entrance of the shop where all action was occurring, he saw Malfoy on the ground with a broken and bloody nose and Ron with a clenched feast smirking tauntingly at the other; stupid as he was, Lockhart attempted to cast a Body-Binding Curse which ended up tying Ron in present wrappings, whom, with the shock of being tied up and the sudden lack of balance, stumbled backwards and butted Lockhart square in the chin making him see stars as he too fell on the ground clenching his face in pain.
Lucius and Arthur, after the shock of what had happened subsided, began arguing loudly with one another, attracting even more attention to the happenings inside the store, even making a bunch of passer-by's stop in front of the building to see what was going on inside.
The Daily Prophet’s reporters were salivating with what was happening, knowing that they had a huge scoop for their next issue. The camera had yet to stop flashing pictures.
In a feat of rage, that no one had truly been expecting to see among the two adults, Arthur pushed Lucius back, making the wizard to bump against Ginny - Ron's younger sister – and knocking her against the ground with a loud thud. Her cauldron was dropped upon impact and all the books that had been inside spilling all over the floor.
Molly gave a worried shout and rushed over to help her daughter.
Lucius, meanwhile, had been carrying with him a black covered book that he intended to store inside his Gringotts vault after his visited to the bookshop, that in the midst of the confusion and fight, had fallen from his pocket and onto the floor among Ginny’s, who unknowingly collected it along with the rest. None of the two would notice until it was already too late.
Arcturus had been watching the entire scene unfold and was visibly (to Harry, of course) displeased with the whole situation if his blank mask and icy eyes were any indication of that fact.
The Daily Prophet's journalist had a huge grin on his face as he recorded as much of the fight as possible, as it was sure to appear in the newspaper and become the talk at the Ministry for a very long time. Things like this, after all, didn’t happen every day.
Finally, taking notice of the confusion they had caused and the attention the whole incident had drawn when a few Aurors stepped inside the bookshop, everyone was quick to scatter and leave the shop with their purchases. The ones that remained inside, were quick to finish them an go somewhere else.
Upon leaving the store, Harry followed Arcturus to Twilfitt and Tattings.
Inside, they purchased some outfits for Harry along with dress and formal robes in Harry's house colours in case he needed to attend a formal event or gathering as heir of his houses during the school year before they eventually went home. Arcturus had now some business to deal with.
****
Arriving at Black Castle Harry went to his room to sort through his purchases and store them away inside his trunk with the help of their house-elf, Mipsy. Meanwhile, Arcturus went to his study where he closed himself inside.
After lunch Harry and Arcturus went to the latter’s study.
There, Harry sat in one of the wooden carved and padded chairs facing Arcturus' desk, which was right in front of an enormous window that had an overview of the estate’s extensive garden. They spent most of the time after lunch speaking about the events of that and some other important matters pertaining to Harry's new status and what that warranted from then on.
"Forgetting the matters of this morning, there is something else I'd like to address.” Begun Arcturus, “Now that you are officially the heir of two powerful houses, there are things you will be expected to do and traditions you should uphold, as such, I as your guardian and Head of House, will have to begin looking for suitable candidates, from which one shall be chosen for you to be entered into a courtship with whom you will be one day betrothed to." said Arcturus staring Harry in the eyes, "With such in mind, I would like to request your input on what your preferences are aligned with and would appreciate it if you thought about the subject during the coming school year."
"I understand great-grandfather. I shall think about it and inform you of my preferences, and of course, in the event that I come across someone I find myself inclined to court."
"You should also become aware that I will be receiving some requests from others that intend to court you, which I will of course inform you about in the event that one of those may be of interest to you." Said Arcturus carefully looking at Harry. "You may go now."
Harry left the study, his mind a mile away as he thought about this sudden new development that he hadn't been expecting to come about so quickly; after all, he was just barely twelve, and such matters had never really crossed his mind. He didn’t think they would for a while.
Harry, nonetheless, would have to start paying a little extra attention to all of his year-mates from all houses as well as some of the upper years that might be of interest. He only had a year to think about, decide and come to terms with all this, no matter how discontent he was about the matter.
It was with such worries that he embarked on the Hogwarts Express the very next day for another year at the school.
****
Theo and him were once again all alone in a compartment of their own, just the two of them in their own world, unbothered by anyone else, at peace. The train ride had gone well until that moment when the silence inside was broken by a knock on the door.
There, looking at them from the other side of the door, was a blonde girl, wearing strange glasses and mismatched clothes, clinching tightly against her chest, a copy of the Quibbler. Standing up, Harry went to the door and opened it up.
"Hello, do you need something?" He asked.
"Hello." She said in a dreamy voice, "Can I seat in here? There doesn't seem to be any Wrackspurts around..."
Looking at one another in confusion, they didn't answer her immediately, yet not seeing any harm in allowing the first year inside, they opened some space and let her in "You may seat with us. I am Hadrian Potter-Black, heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Peverell and heir to the Ancient and Noble House of Potter. This is Theodore Nott, heir to the Most Ancient and Noble House of Nott." said Harry as he and Theo bowed slightly in greeting.
"I am Luna Lovegood, heiress to the Noble House of Lovegood. It is very nice to meet you both." She said, sitting down next to Harry and starting to read her magazine with rapt attention, returning the compartment into its previous state of silence and peace as the three of them sat there enraptured with their own things.
Time went by and as the sky started darkening, their compartment received some visitors.
Knock! Knock!
Sounded on the door attracting the attention of all three of the occupants of the compartment, as they all looked up, and in the direction of where the sound had come from. Not really wanting to but knowing that it would be necessary, Theo traded a glance with Harry and then opened the door allowing the people standing outside to enter and speak their piece before they would hopefully leave them alone for the rest of the train ride.
"Nott. Potter. How was your summer?" asked Draco as he, Pansy, Crabbe and Goyle entered the now full compartment.
"It went rather well, Draco. Thank you." replied Harry, disguising his dislike for the four people that had just entered, after all, he had to maintain civility when in public. "What about yours?"
"It was also rather good." He replied as he and Pansy sat next to Theo, who was sending them extremely dark glares that they failed to notice.
They held some forceful and idle chit-chat for some time when both Harry and Theo started losing their rather thin patience at the other four whose lack of awareness and useless subjects of conversation were starting to piss them off as they tried, rather unsubtly, and in almost every conversation, suck up to Harry and try to fall on his good graces in order to avoid any kind of possible future repercussions.
Then, as Theo was starting to think about murder, Luna let out a soft sight while closing her magazine.
"Hello! I'm Luna Lovegood, it is so nice to meet you." she said dreamily in a very soft voice "Do you know... Your heads are full of Wrackspurts. Do you want a bottle cap earring? It is highly effective in driving them away..." she added, showing them hers. "Or would you prefer a necklace?"
Everyone looked at her. Crabbe and Goyle in confusion, Draco and Pansy in shock, and Harry and Theo with a small smile full of mirth, tugging slightly on their lips as they assessed the others reactions. When no one replied, Luna was quick to focus her attention on something else, humming a happy tune while looking attentively at the ceiling.
Seeing this, Draco and Pansy, naturally followed by Crabbe and Goyle, were quick to get a couple of excuses to leave their compartment and get as far away from the strange blond next to Harry as possible.
"It is already quite late. I think we will be going now.” Said Pansy.
“We still need to change into our robes and Pansy was going to visit Greengrass and Davies’ compartment before we arrived." added Draco hurriedly.
"Farewell then, we will see each other at the feast." replied Harry.
As soon as the others left Luna stopped humming and said airily "Oh! The Wrackspurts left!"
****
At the feast, the atmosphere although seeming to be as usual, was in fact much to different then it'd been like in previous years; that is, if one looked closely at the various members of house Slytherin.
Harry could feel the numerous stares as he busied himself with eating and quietly speaking with Theo; meanwhile, the rest of his house mates' attention was solely focused on him and being widely broadcast if one knew what to look for.
"Welcome, welcome!" said Dumbledore cheerfully "Now that we are all full, I'd like to make some quick announcements."
"First, Mr Filch as asked me to remind you that no magic his allowed in the corridors and the list of banned items is posted on his office's door; Secondly, I must regrettably tell you that your Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher his going to arrive a bit later into the year, as such, for the next month I will be teaching you." Then, he paused for a couple of seconds, catching his breath while waiting for the whispering to subside, "Finally, I wish to remind you that the Forbidden Forest, as the name suggests, is forbidden to all students.” Dumbledore looked around, pausing for a few seconds as he looked at the Gryffindor table before continuing. “Now, before we all retire for bed, let's us sing the school song."
****
At the common room, the same ritual of the previous year was done, this time; however, it was not them that were spilling secrets but instead the new first years. Announcements and speeches were made, then, finally; they were allowed to disperse and go to their dormitories. As it turned out, instead of what'd happened last year, they were now allowed to choose with whom they wished to share, a room with, as such, even though they'd be able to overhear any gossip and secrets if they chose to room separately, Harry and Theo opted to share a room.
The rooms were practically the same, if slightly bigger, thing, which wasn't all that noticeable. What was noticeable instead was the fact that they now had a rectangular window, right next to the bathroom's door, which gave a view into the Black Lake and all the fauna and flora that lived inside, much to their delight.
They unpacked their stuff, and quickly stored it away in their respective wardrobes, hiding their trunks from view under their respective beds.
"Now that we are here again, we should go explore a little bit better the room we found last year." Said Theo as they put on their pyjamas. "We should sort it out too, open up a bit more space and redecorate; some of the abandoned classrooms are sure to have some interesting things that we could use for decoration."
"I was thinking about it too. We should probably start tomorrow, since our time will be less occupied with extra studying and run-ins with the Gryffindors."
****
The next morning they woke up extremely early in order to have as much time to go about their things as possible, much to their luck, the previous day had been a Friday and as such they'd be having the whole weekend for their explorations and other activities while having little to worry about during the mornings since much of everyone slept in.
Breakfast was a quiet and quick affair since most of the students were absent at such an early hour, enjoying the small privilege that that weekend provided before the school year officially started and they were no longer able to so. After breakfast Theo and Harry went to the first floor where they were quick to enter the secret passage that led them to the hidden library.
Inside, everything was covered in numerous layers of dust that spiralled in the air when they passed due to the flow of air, urging them to cover their mouths and nose to avoid all the dust from getting in and sending them into coughing fits.
They had decided that they would be starting with a thorough cleaning of the space, that is, after they'd installed some lighting around.
"Well, this is really dirty. We'd better start cleaning this if we want to have anything done before the weekend's over." said Harry, looking around. “Perhaps use some spell to purify the air, it’s really stale.”
"Good idea. We should light up some torches as well, our Lumos can't provide that much light and this way it would warm the space a bit to, it's freezing in here." said Theo, "Perhaps there is a fireplace installed somewhere around, it would definitely do wonders to the place."
They went around the walls, searching for torches that they could lit, thing which turned out to be impossible seeing as there was no torches in any of the torch handles in the walls.
"Did you find anything on your side?" asked Theo, "In here, there isn't a single torch on the walls."
"Here neither, how strange. Where should we go to find some?" said Harry.
"Maybe... we could nick some from other floors. They aren't lit right now since it's daytime so it would be quick to carry them around and bring them here. A few missing ones wouldn’t be noticeable either, I think."
"Let's do that then. We'll begin on the first floor and go our way up if we need more."
In the end, they found torches for every single torch hanger stuck to the walls of their secret room. Mostly every floor of the castle however, was now missing at least two torches, thing which wouldn't come to notice until much later.
Several Incendio's later and the room was looking much different, warmer (if barely noticeable), well-lit and cosier. Now that most of the room was illuminated, they noticed the fireplace near one of the walls and sighed in relief. It would be most helpful in the winter months when the cold grew unbearable without anything to warm up the place.
Having taken care of one problem, they started taking care of another much more time consuming one. They shot Cleaning and Scouring Charms liberally around the space for several hours - with some breaks in between - until everything was as spotless as they could make it in the time they had.
It was now time for phase two, and for them to start cataloguing what books they had lying around in the numerous bookcases, organizing them according to subject across the many bookshelves.
They spent hours looking through the books, dividing them in piles around them and all over the several tables around as they cleaned the dust in each of them by hand as they came across each new one.
Time passed by so fast while they were busy that they didn't even notice it that lunch had gone by until their stomachs were rumbling in hunger, they would need to find a clock, otherwise they'd completely lose track of time whenever they were inside.
After an incredible lunch (way past the time they were supposed to have eaten it) the duo was preparing to go up and continue what they'd been doing when they were stopped by Ron Weasley and Seamus Finnigan, who'd most likely been trailing after them.
"Hey! Snakes! What are you doing here?" asked Seamus.
"Something slimy I'd bet. You snakes are always up to something." added Ron looking at them full of loathing and suspicion.
Harry and Theo merely looked at them with deadpanned faces while thinking about how stupid the other two were.
"Well? Aren't you going to say something?" taunted Ron, while the two Slytherins looked at him as if he was the dumbest creature they'd ever met, which strictly speaking, was probably true.
"Let's go Theo. We've already lost a lot of time due to this two." said Harry, turning around and going on his way.
"You're right." replied Theo, walking away with him and turning around just once to say to the two Gryffindors "Oh, and one thing. Stop following us or I will report you to a teacher for harassment."
Having avoided a fight or any unnecessary arguments, Harry and Theo cautiously made their way to their hide-out and resumed what they'd been doing until much later in the afternoon when they finally finished it. The room hadn't had a lot of books after all.
"We're finally done." said Theo with a relieved sight, feeling the exhaustion in his bones.
"That's right, but now we have to put them all on the shelves again." replied Harry with an amused smile as he looked at the other, much to the latter's consternation.
"How will we go about that, by the way." asked Theo after a few seconds.
"I'm not really sure. We should first re-arrange the bookshelves and put everything that we aren't going to use in one corner, at least for now."
"That's fine, but maybe we could use the extra bookshelves to create a divider, that way we could have a free space for other things."
"That's a great idea, although, a tiresome one." said Harry with a smile, "At least we will get to practise our Levitation Charms."
After a long break, they resumed work. It was heavy and intensive work and as the afternoon came to an end, the two found themselves completely knackered. Despite their efforts, and the long hours spent inside the library chamber, about half of the bookcases were still misplaced, disorganised and in need of being moved to their appropriate places so they could create their preferred layout for the room.
Nonetheless, they were satisfied with what they had managed to accomplish with the last few hours of work they had put in.
They went to dinner feeling starved. But they didn’t completely rest after entering the Great Hall, and instead took advantage of the mealtime to observe the first-year students that had come to their house, their interactions and personalities, carefully all information they could acquire about them. The first year Slytherin’s were not the only ones subjected to their scrutiny, but those of other houses as well. Mainly the Gryffindor and Ravenclaws, which were the ones sitting the closest to them.
Among the amalgamation of students, they spotted a familiar face, Luna Lovegood who had ridden the train with them the previous day and was quietly sitting among the Ravenclaws.
A soon as they finished with dinner, the duo hurried to the common room, intending to speak quietly by the fire before going upstairs to their dormitory to finally rest.
When they arrived, they were however disturbed moments after they had taken their place on the settees near the fireplace. The culprits being the rest of the second years who were attempting, rather forcefully and unsubtly to mend the broken bridges they had creates last year.
"Hello Harry, how was your summer?" asked Tracey.
"Did you enjoy yourself? I heard from a cousin of mine that you went to France with your great-grandfather." said Millicent in a raspy troll-like voice that perfectly matched her brutish appearance. "I went there twice and found it to be quite enjoyable."
After that, several other upper years went near them to make small talk and assess the situation. Not wanting to make enemies unnecessarily both Harry and Theo entertained them for a good half an hour before finding an excuse and retiring to their dorm, no longer being able to endure the Slytherins downstairs. Luckily not all Slytherins were brainless, spineless and a bunch of bootlickers, and the ones with an hint of pride and self-preservation knew better than to try and approach Harry in such a way that made it completely obvious what their intentions were, some others were simply embarrassed and fearful now that they were aware of the truth.
The rest of the weekend went by in the blink of an eye and then it was Monday, and the official beginning of classes.
Their first day would be a taxing one, they would be having both Transfiguration and Charms in the morning, and then, after lunch, Defence Against the Dark Arts.
****
Arriving at the Transfiguration Classroom, the two along with the rest of the Slytherins sat themselves and quietly waited for the Gryffindors to arrive. McGonagall was already inside the classroom and currently charming the blackboard to have all the lesson's materials written before it begun.
Slowly, the classroom begun to fill in until there was only one person left, Ron Weasley, whom as usual, was late.
Just as McGonagall was about to close the door and lock it to begin the class without disturbances the hated Gryffindor arrived stumbling in his own robes, completely dishevelled and panting from having run a long distance. 'Weasley...' thought Harry with an eyeroll, 'He must have fallen asleep again, just like last year.'
"Mr. Weasley, I thought we were already past this." said McGonagall in a disapproving tone. "10 points from Gryffindor. Go and sit yourself."
"Today we will be attempting to Transfigure a beetle into a button. You must all know from our lessons last year that to transfigure an object into another object is much easier and less taxing than to turn an object into an animated being, the same thing for the opposite; that is, to turn an animal or person into an object or an entirely different creature." she started, "For this piece of magic you will all begin by reading the first chapter of your textbook and practice the required wand motion before attempting to do anything else."
They all begun to do as required and soon it was time for them to start practising with the beetles.
Class was going well and without problems or any other major issue, this should have been warning enough to alert them that something wasn't right, because not long after something did happen.
The incident came about because as he kept falling and falling to cast the spell on his beetle (that kept running around) Ron quickly got frustrated and sloppier in his attempts and as he attempted once more, Ron completely misspoke the incantation. The spell that he managed to cast at his beetle (who was supposed to become a button) made the creature explode into hundreds of colourful confetti that quickly spread through the whole classroom much to McGonagall's irritation, what really did it though, was when Hermione, who had just been attempting to cast the spell once again was so shocked by the explosion that she gasped mid incantation and inhaled several of the coloured papers through her mouth. The confetti were quick to block her wind pipe, sending her into a severe coughing fit that left her terribly red faced, until she ended up vomiting all over the floor.
"Mr. Weasley! What are you doing? Haven't you read a single word of what I assigned you?" she snapped at him while approaching his and Hermione's table. "How are you Ms. Granger? Can you breathe?" she quickly added worriedly while trying her best to help, and vanishing the vomit with an absentminded gesture of her wand.
"Mr. Weasley! Take Ms. Granger to the infirmary!" McGonagall said when Granger continued to cough, face rapidly approaching a purpling colour. "Quickly!"
In a hurry, Ron, who was extremely red faced and embarrassed, stood up and exited the classroom with Hermione, dragging her outside as quickly as he could. "The rest of you, focus on what you're doing so nothing of the sort happens again." she said furious. "In case you are having difficulties call me so that I can aid you."
Soon enough the class ended, mostly everyone managing to turn their respective beetle into a button by the end of class, some faster than others and some buttons way more realistic than those of the majority.
Charms was next and no one stood idly chatting in the hallway since they had a long way until they arrived at the classroom (it was on the other side of the castle). Hermione missed Charms, apparently one of the confetti had gotten stuck in her throat and she had been required to stay in the Hospital Wing resting after it had been removed.
"Welcome to Charms class. Today we shall be learning the Skurge Charm." said Professor Flitwick cheerfully. "The Skurge Charm was invented sometime after 1492, it is a charm most commonly used to clean away ectoplasm and can also be used to scare away ghosts, poltergeists and other spirits."
Professor Flitwick continued with the explanation and after a few minutes, they were all taught the wand motion and incantation of the spell; soon after they were all attempting to vanish the ectoplasm that Professor Flitwick had conjured through the use of the Ecto Spell, which the Skurge Charm was the counter-spell to.
No problems arose during this class, and everyone had fun learning the spell since it could greatly help them whenever they were targeted by Peeves in the hallways, thing that everyone would be grateful to avoid. As such, it served as a great incentive to learn and quickly master the spell.
Despite all the fun that they'd had during the lesson, the continued use of the spell exhausted most of them a great deal and as such, by the time class was over, they were all hurrying to the Great Hall in order to fill their rumbling stomachs and recuperate some of the lost energy before their afternoon class.
As announced in the beginning of the year feast, Dumbledore would be temporarily teaching Defence Against the Dark Arts and so it came as no surprise that he was already inside and waiting for them when both Slytherins and Gryffindors entered the classroom.
"Good afternoon, good afternoon." said Dumbledore, greeting everyone cheerfully as they all sat. "Today we will be learning about banshees. Who knows what that is?" he said with a smile, eyes twinkling as they looked at all of them. "Yes, Ms. Granger?" asked Dumbledore as he ignored the several other hands in the air and focused his attention solely on the Gryffindors.
"A banshee is a dark creature categorized as a spirit whose screams are fatal much like those from a mandrake."
"Well done, Ms. Granger." said the headmaster with a small clap of his hands. "10 points to Gryffindor."
"A banshee is indeed a spirit. It mostly inhabits Ireland, and some witches and wizards regard them as heralds of the death of close family members. Banshees have the appearance of a woman with floor length black hair, a skeletal face, grey skin, and long black nails. They are also known to like cold climates and rain." said the headmaster, "To repel a banshee it was found that the most effective way was to use a Laughing potion, but the use of an Exploding or Skurge Charms can also help drive them away."
While the headmaster was explaining in great detail all that was known about the creatures everyone was writing furiously on their pieces of parchment while paying rapt attention at everything that was being said, a novelty, since most of the time all that the Headmaster spewed during dinner time was mostly useless and repetitive, or otherwise incentives to get his students killed like he'd done the previous year. Besides that, the headmaster was apparently a decent teacher and after last year they all wanted to learn something while they could.
After the lesson, everyone scattered away. The Slytherins hurried into their common room where their studying session would soon take place, since they had quite a lot of homework to go over. The Gryffindors someplace else, no doubt to play pranks and games and do nothing about their school work, as usual.
****
The next day was also quite exhausting. They had a three-hour long Potions lesson, followed by two hours of Herbology right after lunch.
Potions turned out to be a rather interesting lesson as they learned the Fire Protection Potion which was quite useful in numerous situations and something most student were eager to learn. Herbology, while not as fun to most people, wasn't all that bad as they focused on learning about Leaping Toadstools, a kind of magical jumping mushrooms that turned quite interesting to learn about.
Wednesday and Thursdays were rather taxing as well.
On Wednesday, they had Magical Theory, and Herbology one after the other, followed by Charms after lunch, and on Thursday they had Transfiguration, History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Both days giving them almost no breaks in-between lessons to relax.
As soon as Friday arrived, they all let out sighs of relief. That was their most empty day of the week, with only a two-hour long History of Magic class in the morning and Astronomy late at night, and also just before the weekend.
On Friday, Harry and Theo were then finally able to return to the work they had been dedicating themselves to during the previous weekend. All that was left now was to finish organising the various shelves and books, and then they could finally decorate the space. For that, they would have to start looking around the various floors in order to find anything that could be of use.
For the next couple of weeks, all that they did whenever they had available time was to go up and down the castle, thoroughly searching the various floors for anything they might be able to use for their space. Like that, and after a month and a half, they finally found what they'd been searching for on the seventh floor, in a room next to the painting of some dancing trolls; a room full of furniture that was no longer used, cabinets, sofas, tables, chairs, chests and even wardrobes. Amongst the piles and piles of thrown away and lost items there were also a variety of other things, like the gigantic harp that had been on the third floor corridor inside the room guarded by the Cerberus, a gigantic mirror, huge skeletons of dragons and a variety of other creatures, as well as a great many deal of other things, sometimes things so strange that they hurried past them, others completely useless.
As they went through the corridors of pilled junk, they finally found something that could be of use to them: a big black leather couch that must have once belonged in the Slytherin common room. Carefully levitating it, they put it close to the entrance and went looking for other useful furniture and things before they left with everything they needed for the moment.
They found several books that they could add to the many many shelves they had at their disposition, a rather fluffy and nice-looking carpet in silver and black as well as several blankets and pillows, a coffee table, a glass-fronted cabinet and some duelling dummies they could put to good use.
A week later, Harry received some unexpected mail during breakfast while he was still mostly alone at his House’s table (Theo was sleeping as were most of the others since it was extremely early still, Hadrian’s body, however hadn’t been agreeable to let him rest any longer, and as such, he’d been forced to get ready and eat). Seeing the brown paper wrapping of the package, Harry was hesitant to touch it before giving it a thorough examination and determining whether it was cursed or charmed in any harmful way.
After a few minutes, he finally deemed it safe enough to be touched.
Carefully, Harry unwrapped it and looked at what it was.
A strange silvery cloak laid on his lap, barely even a second later, and Harry’s legs had turned invisible. ‘Who would send me something like this? Invisibility Cloaks are incredibly rare and expensive.’ He turned him around from one side to the other, before storing it away inside his school bag, careful to keep it from catching any unwanted attention.
Harry took a bite of his breakfast. ‘I guess I’ll be writing to great-grandfather and grandmother tonight. They should know about this.’
That night, Harry and Theo went to the seventh floor corridor under Harry's Invisibility Cloak and promptly spent several hours levitating all the things they’d previously set aside to the third floor, going through the secret passage inside the cupboard and into their hide out where they left everything to be organized during the following days, first making sure that there was no curses in any of the objects that they'd brought (that had taken several hours of extracurricular research all on its own).
Luckily for them, it was the weekend, and they had a lot of time to spare.
When everything was set on their designated places, they finally sighed in relief. They would now be able to only enjoy and make use of the space without worrying about anything else, only adding things as they found a need for them as the essentials were already all there.
Looking around, they grinned in satisfaction.
The balcony that served as a connection to the staircase up to the third floor was turned into a comfortable sitting area they could use to relax in, the dummies were put on the ground floor near the artificial wall made out of bookcases (that were now held in place through the use of a permanent Sticking Charm, courtesy of Walburga Black who'd been all too pleased to teach her grandson how to do it), since they decided that it would be good to have a duelling space where they could practise spells and safely see the effects of the ones they didn't know.
The two were rather content when they finally went to sleep that night, not knowing or even suspecting that the room up on the seventh floor had much more to it than it appeared to.