More Classes
As Harry was the last in the class to perform the spell Professor Flitwick gave a short talk on the history of the spell before assigning the Hogwarts' students their homework for the lesson. Harry was not sure if he should do the homework or not for he was planning on auditing classes randomly among the various Houses and years he was not sure if it would really matter. As he had no trouble with the Charms lesson Harry thought about the list of subjects Headmaster Karkaroff had passed on to them as they road over on the Fredric the Great II. Harry had noticed that Hogwarts taught a class on Magical Creatures and as that subject would not have any magic taught in it he might actually learn something new.
As the Charms class let out Harry asked Marcus where he could find the classroom for the Care of Magic Creatures and was directed to the castle's grounds. As he left the castle, Harry saw a group of students gathered around a paddock near a large hut. Harry also noticed that this class seemed to be a mix of students from the four Hogwarts Houses and were from their Fourth Year. Spotting both Hermione and her distant cousin in the crowd he made his way over to them. "Hello Hermione I see you are acquainted with your Magical relative," Harry said as he sidled up to the group.
"Wait they are in this class?" Hermione said shooting a hopeful look at the four Huffelpuffs that took the class.
"Yes," Harry said, "according to your auras you are related to Miss Bone here."
"Say what now?" Susan said having only been half-listening to the conversation until she had heard her name.
"Well according to your aura, chi, whatever you are related to Miss Granger here at least as far back as a shared line a few generations ago," Harry said as the pair of girls goggled at each other while the rest of the students looked on in shock. At least until the teacher, who Harry saw was another Half-Giant like Madam Maxine, showed up and had the group of students into the paddock.
"Now I believe the reasons we have been having issues with the Skrewts are they have too much energy so today I want you to take them for a walk," the large Professor said.
"And where do we attach the leash around the stinger, blasting end or the sucker?" the girl Pansy asked.
"Around the middle like so," the man said as he took out a leash and began tying it around the middle of a fire crab/manticore type of Chimera. While not having a visible mouth Harry was able to hear the creature.
"Stupid ropes. Stupid man can't even feed us right." Harry heard the Skrewt say.
As the Hogwarts students grubbled and headed to their own Skrewts a lot of them headed towards the Professor so they would not have to try attaching a leash to their own Skrewt.
Harry had no qualms as he headed to the largest Skrewt and knelt before it. "Hello there," he said to the creature.
"A two-legged speaker how fascinating," the Skrewt said sounding shocked. "Maybe you can help the large two-legger he can not figure out what we eat. He keeps trying to feed us blood which while good, it is not the right flavor and makes us hyper. Tell the two-legger we want Fobberworms."
"Hey you, be careful there," the half-giant called having spotted Harry kneeling before the Skrewt.
"It is alright," Harry said straightening up and dusting off his knees. "Do you have any Flobberworms?"
"What, Blast-Ended Skrewts too much for the great Harry Potter?" Pansy asked.
"Not really I have never had an issue with any type of Chimera before," Harry answered. "No, the Flobberworms are for my Skrewt."
"I believe I still have some leftover from the year before," the man said as he digs into a pocket of his large overcoat. "Here you go," he said passing them over to Harry.
Taking the Flobberworms from the man Harry laid the group of worms before the Skrewt. At once a sucker dropped from the being's abdomen as it sucked the worms off the ground. The change was almost instant as the red colorization of the creature changed to the same brown color of the worms and seemed to become rather docile. "Ah that is better," the Skrewt said with an almost purr. Suddenly there was the sound of multiple blasts as the other Skrewts zoomed over with cries of wanting their own serving of Flobberworms. Hagrid looked mystified at the change of the Skrewt which were acting like normal pets during meal times
"What is going on?" Hagrid asked as the entire class was dragged forward by the Skrewts rushing to get some Flobberworms.
"Well as several species of creatures that are classified as a Chimera or Creature-Hybrid your Skrewts have a taste for blood, but whatever blood you have been using was the wrong type. It seems your Skrewts are meant to feed off the blood of a Flobberworm. Feeding on the right blood looks to make them a little easier to control," Harry said as he reached down and actually scratched the recently feed Skrewt under one of its armor plates making the creature wiggle its body in delight to the Hogwarts inhabitants utter shock. "Skrewts might actually be able to be domesticated if fed the right diet, though I could be wrong after all this is just the first time a Skrewt had their preferred food source so anything can happen when it gets hungry again." Wanting to see if what happened to Harry's Skrewt had just been a fluke or not Professor Hagrid went in search of more Flobberworms to give to the Skrewts.
When the Half-Giant returned he dumped a large bin full of Flobberworms onto the ground as the Skrewts rushed forward to eat. After the creatures took in the brown magical worms the things became more docile as their color changed to the same shade of brown that the worms had. After a while, Hermione also pointed out that despite all the time that had passed none of the Skrewts had not had their back end explode moving them forward which from what she said her notes on the creature showed them always doing so every at least five minutes or so. As the Hogwarts students looked rather happy with the change to the Skrewts the Professor did not, looking rather bored at the creature he was meant to be teaching them all about. Harry knew that there were studies that stated that Half-Giants sometimes gained some traits from their Giant side, and while he had not noticed any in Madam Maxine this Professor seemed to have a Giant's love of violence but through other creatures rather than doing it himself. Harry did not think such a trait was a good idea for a Professor who was meant to teach the Hogwarts' students about ways to take care of Magical Creatures, but this fact had not even scratched the problems he had found at the British School since he arrived just two days ago.
Seeing this class would not test his limits either Harry just turned on his heel and headed back to the main castle thinking he might just have to check out Hogwart's D.A.D.A. class since it looked to be the class that most of the focus was put into at the school. He had just reached the doors to the main castle when the bell rang signaling the end of the previous class. Recalling the way to the classroom Harry easily navigated the halls finding that despite the size of the school compared to some of the others he had been to the actual population of students was rather small even taking into account the visiting student.
For once Harry found the class he was sitting in contained students younger than himself as he spotted a redheaded girl he recalled Ronald had pointed out as his little sister who was in her Third Year. This time Harry took a seat in the back of the room to not block the view of one of the younger Magicals taking the class as he took in the room. The Professor of the subject seemed to have some odd taste as hanging from the ceiling and blocking the view of the board in some seats, was the bones of a flying creature. There were also some portraits showing dark spells being cast on unprotected people showing their effects, on the person. Harry felt a small bit of magic coming from what appeared to be a statue of something in the corner covered by a tarp. Harry would have found that strange if not for the fact that a small wardrobe was sitting before what appeared to be the teacher's desk also had some magic leaking from itself as well.
Several of the students, who seemed to be made up of Gryffindors and Slytherins, gave him odd looks as they took their seats and pulled out their wands waiting for the instructor to arrive. "Good day class, even though it is after Samhain or Halloween it is time for us to move onto what you have all been waiting for. Testing yourself against a Boggart," the man said arriving dressed in a dark checkerboard robe and his thinning hair a deep back.* Harry thought the man must be working on the statue in the corner as he felt the Magical Signature as the same being bleed off the thing under the tarp. Harry was actually excited to face off against a Boggart knowing that the dark creature was able to feed off a person's fear by becoming what terrified someone the most. As he had never met one Harry wanted to see what his biggest fear was having never really given it much thought over the years at all. Harry did not pay attention to the Professor of the class as he told of the way to banish the Boggart, as the dark beast could never actually be killed.
After giving the Third Year students to think of a way to push the Boggart back Professor Quirrell had them all line up to have the young students face the creature down. Harry was once more disappointed with Hogwarts thinking that as the Boggart showed what one feared most the testing of the spell to repulse the creature should be done in private and not in front of the others which might give ammunition for teasing to students who may not like each other. Harry entered a Meditative State as he waited for his term to give the students some privacy at least from him, all the while trying to determine what his biggest fear in fact was as well as make it something less terrifying.
Harry had still not concluded as he reached the front of the line. He was so deep in his meditations that Harry did not even notice the Boggart's reaction to him until he heard some gasp. Bringing himself back to the present Harry saw the creature seem to cycle through various items, people, and visions right in front of him but none of the things it turned into caused him the least bit of alarm. Not seeing the Dark Lord Sauron appearing alive wearing the fabled One Ring, not a Sith appearing with a red lightsaber. In fact, the only image that caused him to experience anything other than amusement was the vision of the Donkey-Headed Dragon he had seen in his dreams, but still, that was more curiosity than actual fear of the strange creature. The flickering of the Boggart began to get faster as it tried to find something Harry was afraid of, yet even the old cupboard under the stairs he had as a bedroom as a kid did not raise a single ounce of fear in him. There were some gasps as the Boggart itself seemed to give up as it continued to shift its form while slowing backing away from Harry as it retreated into the wardrobe and closed the door behind itself.
"In all my years I have never seen such a thing happen like that before," Professor Quirrell said dropping the pad he had been using to grade how his students were doing. As Harry looked at the dropped pad, however, Harry saw no marks for grades but the man had been keeping track of what his students feared the most. Harry did not feel like such information should be kept as he sent a small wave of magic aimed at the pad making the ink seem to come alive and writing out different things behind each students' name. "Um please read the chapter on Boggarts and write a scrolls worth on them for the next class," Quirrell said dismissing everyone before the bell.
As it was time for lunch Harry joined the group of Third Years headed down to the Great Hall to eat. Having sat at all four of the tables in the last two days Harry decided to sit down next to Fleur again to get the French Quarter-Veela's assessment of Hogwarts. Speaking in a little-used French Veela dialect the pair compared notes. Harry soon found that the Beauxbatons Champion was as impressed as he was at Hogwarts. In other words, not at all having found the lessons she sat in on stuff she had learned in her Fourth and Fifth Year, and considering she was only going to classes with students her own age was not a good sign. Harry had told her about the three classes he had sat in on and how little he thought of not only the classes themselves but also the bad teaching job of the Half-Giant and the man in charge of D.A.D.A. who he thought would never get hired at any other school than this one. Considering Sirius and Remus spoke so highly of this place Harry was even more disappointed wondering if the school had just gone downhill since his parent's time or if it had always been as bad as it was now.
Once more Harry wondered if he could get away with Relm Walking to find some actual competent teachers to learn from as he waited for the First Task to take place in a month but he was not sure if Relm Walking would constitute a breach of the Magical Contract which would cause him to lose his magic. Thinking he might just join Viktor who had told everyone he had no plans in auditing the classes at Hogwarts, even if he was made Champion scout out his competition, but would spend his time at the castle in Hogwarts' Library. As he finished his lunch Harry got ready to head to the library to see if at least he could find some good books to read when a hand dropped onto his shoulder. Looking up Harry saw a dour man with greasy black hair glaring down at him. "Potter, the Headmaster wants a word with you," the man said.
"What does Headmaster Karkoroff want?" Harry asked.
"Not Karkoroff, Headmaster Dumbledore is the one ordering you to meet with him," the man said.
"As I came with the Durmstrnage contingent at the current time my Headmaster is Karkoroff so Dumbledore can not order me to do anything," Harry said.
"I don't really care, Potter, the headmaster wants to see you and he will, the man said tightening his grip on Harry's shoulder as if that would force Harry to obey.
"I don't care either, as I will not be meeting with him and nothing you can do can make me," Harry said as he suddenly recalls some tales from Sirius and Remus's time at school and realized who this was, "so I would suggest you let go of my shoulder, Mister Snape."
"You are just like your father brat," Snape said as he began to dig his fingers into Harry's shoulder even harder as if to once again force Harry to obey.
"I would not know I have no memory of him," Harry said simply up at the man giving with a bored expression.
"Oh yes tragic, Potter, my father is dead pity me," Snape sneered.
"That is not what I said at all. All I said is I have no memories of him. Though I can change that," Harry said as he creates a small orb in his hands as one of his old masters had taught him. Focusing on the orb he sent time-based magic into it so he was able to look through the orb and see Hogwarts as it appeared in the past during his parents' time at the castle. Harry also made sure that only he, and by extension, Snape could see what the orb was showing to not display this type of Magic to anyone.
Harry heard Snape gasp as the grip on his shoulder lessened. Holding the orb up to eye level Harry sent the image of the orb to seek out his father while he had been at school What Harry found was that James seemed to be rather arrogant as the image showed him sending a spell at the young Snape. Not liking how this looked Harry sent the image back a bit to see if his father had a reason for his actions. Harry soon found his father did have a reason as he saw a girl with red hair he recognized from Remus's photo album of his young mother. His mother seemed to be the young Snapes friend as the pair were chatting before Lily excused herself to go to the bathroom. As soon as she had left the young Snape got off his chair and went over to where Lily had been sitting and pressed his face into the seat his large nostrils twitching as he licked the seat. Harry was utterly disgusted by the act, as was James who had witnessed it before he cast a spell on Snape for being an absolute pervert. The grip on Harry's shoulder tighten once again but Harry did not even feel it as he sent the orb to see how good a "friend" Snape was to his mother.
What he found horrified Harry as he saw Snape telling the other Slytherins not to mess with Lily claiming she was his and his alone. Harry felt sick during the next scene which showed a young Snape jerking off to a Magical Photo of his mother. What was worse was the photo also contained a young Snape who as soon as the seed of the young boy hit it caused the photo version of Snape to try to force himself on Lily. Harry was slightly glad to see Photo Lily kneeing Photo Snape in his crotch which turned to disgust in a moment as he saw a wet spot appear in Photo Snape's pants, as well as a look of excitement, come to the photographed boy's face showing that Photo Snape had gotten off from the blow.
Harry was glad that he had never heard of the reasons James had focused on Snape from Sirius or Remus finding it all too sickening. Harry was not sure if it was just his underlying thirst for Magical Knowledge or some other reason that made it that he had no interest in anything of a sexual nature. But he knew one thing and that was he might find people attractive he found the whole idea of sex to be utterly disgusting. So seeing from the orb the acts of a sexual deviant who may turn into a predator turned Harry's stomach. "Remove your hand at once," Harry said his voice going cold as he turned to glare up at Snape.
"I don't know what that was Potter but I think you need a detention," Snape said with a sneer.
"I don't think so," Harry said as he reaches up and using a move he had learned from Gandalf's Ranger friend, Strider, forced the man to remove his hand. Snape gave a small cry of pain as Harry twisted the man's fingers until he let him go. "You can claim you were the victim of my father's bullying but it seems he was doing his best to protect my mother. So yeah I guess I am like him after all for I would never allow something like that to happen to anyone." Harry said as with a simple turn on his heel Apparated away leading to some gasp from the few students who had not headed out to their afternoon lessons to see someone Apparate inside Hogwarts with the Wards still in place.