Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Harry braced himself then stepped into the Great Hall. Sure enough scorn was immediately sent his way, and he took in the sea of disgust and anger before pausing as he noticed something unusual. The entire Slytherin table was ignoring him, not a single person looking his way. His eyes roamed the table and he saw Blaise, Daphne and Tracey all sitting around Hermione. The dark skinned italian looked up and Harry briefly met Zabini’s eyes, the boy sending him a wink before returning his attention to whatever conversation was going on.
That wasn’t the end of the unexpected however. Harry turned his attention to the Gryffindor table and saw Colin waving him over, a grin on the boy’s face as he sat next to Ginny and a blond Ravenclaw. Harry walked over and Colin shifted, making space for him. Harry glanced over at Ginny who gave him a nod, while the blond girl next to her met his eyes and offered a warm if slightly spacey smile.
“Hey Harry, I saw you found the study club.” Colin said quietly as Harry’s plate and goblet appeared in front of him, courtesy of the magic that catered the Great Hall. Harry started to gather up a small amount of food, his stomach still uneasy from stress.
“Yeah, but why didn’t you just tell me about it?” Harry asked curiously, trying not to glance towards Granger who was sat at the Slytherin table, a book floating in front of her and the pages turning themselves as she finished them.
“Because Granger told me if I wanted to help you, that you should ask the castle. That Hogwarts pointed you towards her simply means she’s the best chance you’ve got.” Colin explained and Harry decided to simply chalk it up to magic. He did that a lot over the years, simply accepting that magic worked in weird ways and that he’d never understand all of it. Perhaps if he’d studied more he’d have a better understanding of things but he wasn’t going to mourn his wasted time, not when he needed to focus on surviving this deathtrap of a tournament.
“I guess that makes sense,” Harry conceded before shifting his attention to his food. He ate in silence for several seconds before Ginny cleared her throat. She glanced around awkwardly as Harry eyed her before seemingly gathering her courage and meeting his eyes.
“I’m sorry, about Ron and before I…” Ginny trailed off and let out a sigh. “I misjudged you. I saw you were Ron’s friend and so I figured, I thought you’d put your name in but after that fight and Ron’s reaction…” Ginny fell silent, clearly struggling for the right words.
“She realized that you’re not like her brother. You don’t want attention, but she was unable to find the right moment to say anything.” The blond girl cut in, finishing Ginny’s thoughts and earning a grateful look from the redhead.
“What Luna said.” Ginny confirmed and nodded to herself. Her confidence built up and Harry watched her eyes steel themselves. “I was wrong about you, so I suppose I’m sorry for that. I believe you now though and I’m a part of the study group to so if you need help just ask.”
“You are?” Harry hadn’t even known such a large study group existed. Ginny shrugged, trying to avoid Harry’s curiosity but she quickly relented.
“I joined during my second year, after, well, after.” Ginny finished and Harry’s mouth clicked shut, guilt burning within him. He wasn’t sure of the full details, only that Ginny had been dragged into the events around the Chamber of Secrets and that the heir had hurt her somehow. It had been Granger who’d solved that particular riddle, putting an end to the heir’s reign of terror.
“Thanks to Hermione, my grades are even better then Percy’s.” Ginny added, smiling proudly and clearly trying to shift the conversation back on track.
“That’s impressive,” Harry knew Percy was a top student. Ron had complained about his elder brother constantly, demeaning him for his studying habits and strict adherence to rules. Harry wasn’t exactly a fan of Percy either but Ron’s complaints were always more focused around his academic achievements rather then his stiff, opportunistic personality. Percy was a prick, who happened to be academically gifted and certainly wasn’t a prick because of his grades.
“It is,” Luna agreed while Colin nodded at Harry’s side.
“Yeah, she’s one of the top in our year.” Colin chimed in and Harry returned his attention to his former fanboy. Colin hadn’t requested a photograph or autograph once. In fact he seemed to be treating Harry as a peer, just another member of the student body, albeit one in need of help. “Though I’m ahead in arithmancy.”
“That’s just because you went to muggle schools. It’s really an unfair advantage.” Ginny pointed out, earning a smug grin from Colin who nodded in agreement. Harry listened to them banter amicably for a few minutes and noticed it was distinctly different then what he was used to. The two were more academically focused then Harry’s year and there was an almost playful spirit of competition between the trio of third years. The way they spoke of their classes and magic was all tinged with wonder, rather then viewing it as academic drudgery.
“Something on your mind Harry?” Luna asked and Harry blinked before meeting the blond’s light blue eyes. She had a dreamy expression on her face and despite looking directly at him, somehow managed to look like her focus was light years away.
“I guess, it’s just odd to hear people so excited about school?” Harry offered, earning two incredulous looks simultaneously.
“God Harry, it’s not school we’re excited for it’s magic. Hogwarts barely scratches the surface really and sure competing in class is fun but nothing beats learning about all the weird and wacky ways to use magic. It’s really a shame people don’t realize we’re surrounded by magic! Literally honest to god magic! The sky is the limit and somehow most of the school and the wizarding world are just content in their ignorance.” Colin’s words were brimming with passion and his eyes came alive as he spoke. Ginny nodded along in agreement while Luna smiled happily.
“Did you know you can walk on walls or water without a wand? It’s really easy and almost everyone in the study group can do it. A few can even walk on air.” Colin explained excitedly. “There is magic to let you see through walls, speak with animals and just so much more. Last year Hermione set up an illusion tied to an enlarged telescope and projected the Apollo 11 landing site for the study group to explore.”
“If that isn’t enough, how about something more practical?” Ginny chimed in eagerly. “Want perfect hair? There’s a spell for that. Want to stay at the perfect temperature year round? Enchant your clothes. Don’t have the right clothes? Reweave the fabric rather then transfiguring it and boom, new outfit.”
“And you learned this all from the study group?” Harry asked, because he was fairly certain most of what he’d just heard hadn’t been covered in any of his classes and he was a fourth year.
The trio nodded, confirming his question and he let out a surprised breath, eyes unconsciously seeking out Hermione who was currently giving Draco Malfoy a disgusted look, as if he was refuse she’d accidentally stepped in. Harry watched with fascination as Malfoy quailed and silently realized he hadn’t heard a peep from the Slytherin bully all of last year. In fact the house of snakes had been remarkably well behaved following the Chamber of Secrets fiasco.
“Harry?” Luna’s question pulled Harry’s focus back to the trio of third years. “If you remember where the study group meets, you’re free to join. Hermione isn’t always there but if you want to do homework, get away from your reputation or just want some company, feel free to drop by.”
“I suppose I should formally welcome you to Hermione Granger’s collection of lost boys and girls.” Ginny quipped and Harry raised an eyebrow at that. He’d noticed the girl was definitely the de facto leader of the large study group, the force behind it, but seeing such obvious admiration towards another student was odd. Usually people put him on a pedestal and heaped expectations upon his shoulders, expectations he just couldn’t meet. Seeing it from the outside was new and certainly a nice change of pace.
***
Harry walked through the halls of Hogwarts as quickly as possible. Yesterday’s dinner had been eye opening to say the least. The way the members of Hermione’s study group spoke about magic brought back his own forgotten wonder over discovering the wizarding world and learning about his own magic. He thought he’d finally found a home, a place to belong only to have that dream ripped away from him by his celebrity status and Voldemort’s constant attempts on his life.
Reaching the library, Harry stepped inside and made his way up to the second floor. The library was deathly silent, with only the occasional scratch of a quill or the rustle of a book being pulled free from its place among the shelves providing any relief from the stillness that Madam Pince zealously enforced.
Moving through rows of books, Harry reached the area where he’d found the study group and it was like he’d walked into an entirely different library as soft conversation reached his ears along with a gentle ambiance that accompanied a large number of students gathered together. Vivid green eyes quickly found the distinctive golden brown curls of Hermione Granger who was facing away from him. standing and taking a head count.
“Harry, good of you to finally show up. Herbology right? We have class together, you know there’s a secret passage that leads from there to just outside the library’s third floor entrance?” Hermione asked, turning to face Harry, her expression all business. Harry was vaguely aware the passage existed, he owned the Marauder’s Map after all but he’d never thought to actually use most of the secret passageways on the map. Still he nodded, ignoring the blank look that answered him as Hermione motioned to the students standing behind her.
“We’ve got a practical day today, which means that only those working on homework will be staying in the library. The rest of us are heading out to the grounds to work on our spell casting.” Hermione explained as she finished attendance and then began walking. Harry paused before scrambling to follow after her, earning a few amused looks from the other members of the study group as they made their way out one of the library’s many side exits.
“Did you find anything out? About the tasks?” Harry asked awkwardly as the group made their way through the halls. Hermione had apparently timed their exodus with the bells and the halls were filled with students, effectively hiding the procession as they slipped through a few secret passageways with practiced eased and exited onto the castle’s grounds.
“We found out quite a bit.” Hermione answered calmly as she lead the group through a crumbling gatehouse and behind the wall that skirted around the courtyard where the Womping Willow stood. From here they were out of sight of most of the grounds and yet close enough that if anything went wrong help was well within reach. “So, the first task is simple but not what most would consider easy. Daphne, if you would be so kind?”
“I’m not sure exactly how much of the grounds are visible from Gryffindor tower but you might have noticed the jets of flame shooting up from the forest? They’re visible from the astronomy tower if you’re paying attention.” Daphne explained and Harry blanched, remembering the previous conversation. He’d hoped that the task wouldn’t involve live dragons but clearly his hopes existed to be ruined. “Yes, live dragons. Nesting mothers in fact, which is to say the most violent and aggressive kind of dragon, regardless of species. Mothers will assume anything within proximity to their nest is a threat and considering they’ve been dragged from their natural habitat and across half a continent…”
“So I’m dead then.” Harry stated, earning an annoyed look from Hermione. Daphne didn’t answer, instead turning her dark green eyes to Granger. “You have an idea?”
“Yes and if you’d let Daphne finish perhaps you’ll even manage a few yourself.” Hermione’s tone was decidedly short and Harry grimaced, internally berating himself for cutting the blond Slytherin off. These people were helping him, not for free, but they’d done more for him, a complete stranger, then his house had and they’d done it in remarkably short order. Ron had insisted that Slytherins were evil, dark witches and wizards who were only out for themselves but that seemed less and less accurate by the minute.
“As I was saying, the first task involves nesting dragons. There are four present, which considering the short notice is suspicious.” Daphne let those words hang in the air for several long seconds. Harry didn’t miss the way everyone exchanged glances around him. Suddenly he felt almost embarrassingly ignorant. Nobody seemed shocked or surprised by Daphne’s words and while everyone was clearly listening, intently, all of those present seemed to accept the fact that there was something very wrong with the tournament this year as a given.
“The first task is to retrieve an enchanted golden egg from the dragon’s nest. You will have to do so without being killed and preferably without being maimed, though that is optional I suppose. There is no time limit so you can’t run out the clock and the magical contract forces you to make an actual attempt at getting the egg or…” Daphne trailed off and then shrugged. Harry swallowed, suddenly reminded of the consequences should he try to run. Not that he was planning on it but he didn’t exactly appreciate remembering just how screwed he was.
“Thank you Daphne. Now, everyone off you get, I know you’ve all got personal projects to finish. Let me know if any of you need help as I’ll be focusing on our newest member and won’t be as attentive as I normally am.” Hermione clapped her hands and Harry watched as the ten or so members of the study group present all split off, a few on their own but most in groups of two or three. Daphne Greengrass stepped away with Tracey Davis and he watched as the two girls drew dulled longswords and then applied cushioning charms to their bodies before charging each other. Nearby Blaise was concentrating on a rock with his hand out and wand away, a look of absolute concentration on his face as the rock wobbled and then lifted off the ground.
“It’s amazing what people are capable of when they’re passionate.” Hermione said softly, twirling her wand through her fingers, the tip coming alive with magic as an illusion of four dragons popped into existence. “These are the specific dragons you’ll be facing. The Chinese fireball and Hungarian horntail are the worst of the lot.”
Harry looked at the dragons only to startle when steel rang against steel. The sound of the two swords was immediately cut off and he looked towards Hermione who had cast a silencing charm around them.
“You’ll have to excuse Tracey and Daphne, sparring is their love language.” Hermione’s tone was saturated with humor, though her smile quickly fell away as she watched Harry. Her eyes filled with concern as she looked over him.
“You know if you’ve got problems, besides the tournament, I’ll listen. I know we’re strangers but helping people is kind of my thing.” Hermione’s comforting smile was charming, trustworthy and Harry wondered how he’d dismissed her as a simple bookworm for all these years. Even with Ron’s continuous string of insults directed her way, he should have noticed her yet he hadn’t. Most of the school hadn’t in fact, save for the students in her not so little group.
“I’m fine,” Harry said quickly, too quickly and he hoped he hadn’t given anything away. Hermione’s eyes were sharp, they saw far too much and he really didn’t want to talk about his home life with her. He was happy for her help and he felt he could trust her but he wasn’t ready to talk about the Dursleys, especially when he knew she couldn’t help. Not even Dumbledore had helped him after all.
Hermione gave a Harry a graceful nod then motioned at her draconic illusions.
“I have several plans, in order from the most likely to succeed to least likely. Let’s start with the obvious. It is likely the eggs have an imperturbable enchantment on them. That will keep summoning and similar magics from effecting them. But that is no reason not to practice the summoning charm.” Hermione aimed her wand at a branch nearby and slowly moved her wand in an arc before saying “accio.”
The branch leapt off the ground and the witch caught it before turning to face Harry.
“The summoning spell, the wand motion is a simple arc and the incantation is accio. It helps to say the name of the thing you want to summon, I apologize for forgetting as I learned this spell in first year.” Hermione explained and then tossed the branch, propelling it further away with a wave of her hand. Harry watched the casual display of power, no longer surprised by this particular witch. In fact he’d have been more surprised if she’d admitted that she couldn’t use wandless, wordless magic.
“Alright, so left to right, half circle and accio stick?” Harry asked and Hermione gave him a nod, standing to his side with her wand at the ready. Harry focused on the branch she’d tossed and moved his wand in an arc, “accio stick.” Harry stated and felt the spell take. The branch flew towards him on his first try and he caught it out of the air. “Wow, that’s useful.”
“Yep, just a basic spell, simple. Anyone can master it quickly enough but you have to remember to focus on what you’re calling for or nothing will happen. If you really mess up, you’ll summon everything nearby which can hurt quite a bit.” Hermione grinned, her eyes sparkling dangerously as she finished speaking. It wasn’t an expression he would expect to see on the infamous rule abiding bookworm but after only a few hours Harry had become numb to surprises where Hermione Granger was concerned. “Now just practice that a few times, get a feel for it then we’ll make sure you can do it wordlessly.”
“I can’t cast wor-” Harry was cut off as Hermione’s expression shifted from friendly to stern. Her amber eyes almost looked orange as she glared at him and Harry felt his mouth clack shut.
“Wordless magic is hilariously easy. Think the spell name, in your mind. The hard part is making your magic do what you want through will alone, that’s what Blaise is working on with those rocks. He’s trying to make them move with pure witchcraft, rather then rely on wizardry.” Hermione explained and while Harry hadn’t known there was a difference he remembered his Hogwarts letter mentioning both. Of course even as poor of a student as he was, he knew that it had never once come up in class but like everything else he just accepted it and moved on.
After a few minutes of practice, Harry found Hermione had been right about wordless casting. Thinking the incantation in your head was hardly difficult and while he had to make sure his thoughts stayed focused, it wasn’t exactly challenging.
“Good, seems you’ve got the hang of it.” Hermione stated, clearly satisfied with Harry’s progress. “I should mention, wordless magic tends to be weaker. Shouting focuses the spirit, it boosts the emotional energy you put behind your spells. Your form when you cast has similar effects and can weaken or strengthen your spells though we’ll cover that some other time.” Hermione explained and then flicked her wand at her book bag. She didn’t even draw an arc yet a notebook still whizzed into her waiting hand.
“Wand movements help a witch or wizard focus and form their magic for a given spell. The more control you have over your own magic, the less wand movements you need. Of course skipping wand movements weakens the spell but for most things in life you don’t need the extra oomph that words or movements provide.” Hermione was a veritable fountain of magical facts and Harry felt he’d learned more about magical theory by spending a few minutes with her then he had in all his years at Hogwarts.
“Take this.” Hermione handed the summoned notebook to Harry. “There are a list of useful spells in there. Spells that should help you in the first task, along with several strategies in order of least dangerous to most dangerous. Practice the spells, memorize the strategies and if you have trouble call for me.” With that Hermione gave Harry a nod, then turned her attention to the rest of the students present. Harry watched her move through the groups, giving advice and generally being a helpful friend.
‘I’m glad Ron’s not here for this. He’d totally lose it.’ Harry thought opening the notebook and stopping on the first page. ‘Presence or fighting spirit is the easiest way for powerful wixen to subdue magical creatures. By exerting their magic witches and wizards with an overwhelming amount of magic can intimidate or outright terrify magical creatures into obedience.’
Harry frowned, unsure he had enough magic for such a tactic but Hermione had put it at the top of the list. There were no wand movements or incantation for this particular form of magic and her explanation on how to use it against the dragon was remarkably simple and boiled down to, use your magic to scare it into submission, then pick up the golden egg.
He glanced at the curly haired witch, wondering if she was capable of such a feat. He wouldn’t be surprised either way, though he doubted even Dumbledore could stare down a dragon. Perhaps Voldemort could though, the man was honestly terrifying. ‘I’ll leave that for later then.’ Harry thought, turning the page and reading through the next strategy. It was simply gluing a piece of cloth to the egg then summoning the cloth, bringing the egg with it. ‘That seems really easy but avoiding the dragon while I do it will be difficult. Perhaps the invisibility cloak?’ Harry noticed Hermione’s suggestions and saw she’d been thinking along similar lines, recommending he hide behind terrain to avoid drawing the dragon’s ire.
The next strategy was conjuring a lasso and magically roping the golden egg while distracting the dragon with pranking tools like a few ever bashing boomerangs or magical fireworks. Hermione’s warning that illusions wouldn’t work was rather ominous but Harry was sure that his father’s invisibility cloak would hold up. Turning the page, he began to regain some of the confidence he’d lost upon hearing that he’d be up against an actual dragon. Hermione’s plans were well thought out, remarkably detailed and included natural transition points to other plans if one didn’t work out.
‘Perhaps I’m not going to die after all.’ Harry thought as he smiled and got to work practicing the spells he’d need. He noticed Hermione glance his way, and she flashed him an amused grin before turning her attention to Colin Creevey who was currently standing horizontally on a tree without his wand in hand. ‘I’ll ask her about presence once I’ve got the rest down.’ Harry decided then dove into the list of spells and was surprised when everything just seemed to come to him, his magic eagerly answering his call, as if all he’d needed was a bit of confidence and the right words to put things into perspective.