Sword-Sister 5
"It'll be all right, Harry," assured Annwyl as he blinked at McGonagall while internally panicking. "Just don't look him in the eye. It's unlikely that he would use full Legilimency on you as that's obvious. If you don't look him in the eyes, he can't use passive Legilimency." She added, "And even if he did try non-passive Legilimency, I'd block it."
"All right, ma'am," Harry said, turning to follow in the Deputy Headmistress' wake.
When they arrived at the headmaster's office, McGonagall stated, "Peppermint Toads," and the gargoyle stepped to the side. McGonagall nodded once and gestured with her hand before turning to leave.
Entering the office, Harry looked around curiously, mind recalling the last time he'd been here. Shaking his head briefly, he looked at the Headmaster, "You wanted to see me, sir?" His gaze focused on the man's chin, careful to not look into his eyes.
"Ah yes, Harry. I had heard that there were troubles on the train?" Dumbledore asked, offering a smile.
"Yes, sir. Those horrible Dementor things entered the compartment I was in," Harry said, not having to fake the shudder. Dementors truly were frightening, after all.
"Professor Lupin said that he found the remains of a Dementor in the doorway of your compartment?" Dumbledore asked. "May I ask what happened?"
A frown curved Harry's lips, "I'm honestly not sure," He told Dumbledore, looking down with a furrowed brow as if thinking. If it helped hide his expression to make it harder for the man to read him, all the better. "It came in and I started feeling pretty bad. I began to remember some horrible things. I got up to try to block its path as I didn't want it to get near my friends. Then I heard one of them whimpering and I wanted to protect her. The next thing I knew, I felt really warm, and then the Dementor made this awful shriek and it collapsed," Harry said, glancing up. "Do you suppose it was accidental magic?"
Leaning back slightly as he considered Harry's words, Dumbledore said, "I suppose it must have been. I've never heard of accidental magic harming a Dementor, but I'm not sure what else it could be." He asked, "Do you think you could do it again?"
"I don't know what I did in the first place, sir, so I don't think so," Harry admitted.
"Hmm. That's too bad. It'd be useful to know how to destroy a Dementor," the man stated musingly. "Are you all right now, Harry? It must have been difficult."
"I collapsed afterward," Harry admitted, "But the chocolate Professor Lupin gave me helped, and I feel fine now, sir."
"I'm glad to hear that," Dumbledore said to him with a smile, watching the boy carefully. After a moment, he sighed, "I'm just glad you're all right. I'm afraid that while I spoke against having Dementors here, the Minister insisted." He rose to his feet, "Thank you for humoring an old man's questions. You may return to your dormitory."
"All right, sir."
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Albus Dumbledore watched the boy leave. He'd been tempted to push into Harry's mind but didn't want to risk him realizing what was happening. Things were going well; he'd once more had stepped forward to defend others.
It was a little concerning that Harry'd managed to kill a Dementor; that suggested a great deal of power. Accidental magic could be a strange thing, however.
All was well.
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"See, I told you it'd be all right," Annwyl said to him as he walked towards Gryffindor Tower.
"Yes, all hail Lady Annwyl," Harry thought sarcastically, before adding, "I appreciate your help, though. That was stressful. After all that's happened, I just can't trust him. Plus, I know where Sirius Black is staying."
"Oh, it's nice to see you look up to me," Annwyl teased. "We should have Dobby check on him again."
Harry nodded to himself, and said, "Flittertigibbet," to the Fat Lady, entering the common room. He saw Hermione and Ron sitting on one of the couches and approached them, "Hey, Hermione, Ron."
"Hey, Harry. Where'd you go, mate?" Ron asked, glancing over at Hermione, "Hermione was going spare worrying."
"Professor McGonagall told me that the Headmaster wanted to see me," Harry said with a shrug. "He just wanted to ask a few questions about what happened on the train."
"I heard from Parvati that a Dementor tried to enter the compartment you were in," Hermione said with a shudder. "It was bad enough when the thing passed by ours, I can't imagine it getting closer to one."
"It was pretty scary," Harry said as he shook his head. "Poor Luna was whimpering, and I wasn't in much better shape if I'm honest."
"I heard from Parvati that you took care of the Dementor?" Hermione asked in confusion.
"It was just luck. Accidental magic," Harry said, wrinkling his nose. "It's not like I faced it down and defeated it, you know?" He really didn't like people praising him for something Annwyl did. It felt wrong. "I'm going to go to bed. I'm really tired."
"Night, Harry," Hermione offered.
"I'll be up later. I wanted to talk to Fred and George," Ron said.
Harry nodded and trudged up the steps. He really was tired.
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The next morning as Harry went down to the common room, he heard Annwyl tell him, "Before you go to breakfast, take a right and head into the other corridor. There's something you need to see."
"Why?" Harry wondered curiously as he obeyed her instructions. Soon he found himself in an empty stretch of corridor, the only decoration a painting of a wizard attempting to teach trolls to dance.
"Walk back and forth in front of the wall opposite the painting. While doing so, think the following words: Cyfrinach Cysegr," came Annwyl's response. "It means 'Secret Sanctuary' in Welsh if you're curious."
"Cyfrinach Cysegr?" Harry asked curiously, frowning slightly as he walked back and forth, "What am I doing?" he added. At that point, a door appeared and he blinked, "Wow. All right, that was cool." He moved to open the door, finding a cheery sitting room with bookcases along the walls. In another corner was what looked like a potions laboratory, and there were bits and bobs that he couldn't recognize all over the place.
Suddenly, Annwyl appeared beside him, releasing his arm. "Welcome to Rowena's Room of Requirement. Much like the Chamber of Secrets for Uncle Sal, the Room of Requirement was mum's personal addition to Hogwarts. And this variation of the room is special even by those standards; it has all of her books and research within it. Also, unlike other configurations, it can duplicate complex magical devices as long as there's one inside the room or someone has entered the room with one at some point. That'll come in handy if we need a pensieve or a time-turner. The only thing it can't create is food or permanent wealth such as gold or silver."
"We're going to use a time turner? That's so cool." Harry asked excitedly. Annwyl had mentioned various magical devices during the time they'd been studying magical history.
"We'll need to. You're learning quickly already but if we want to get you up to speed as fast as I want you to, you'll have to study a lot outside class hours." Tilting her head to the side, Annwyl's gaze went distant before she continued, "Apparently, the room has a six-hour and a twelve-hour time turner available. We'll use the twelve-hour one. You'll do your normal school day, come up here and use the time turner then take a nap. We'll spend the rest of the time on your studies. Then you'll return to Gryffindor to sleep."
Harry frowned. That sounded like a lot of extra work. He opened his mouth to argue when he suddenly remembered Ron lying on a chessboard with a huge bruise covering half of his face. Ginny lying pale and dying on the ground in the Chamber of Secrets. If he could stop things like that from happening, he had to try. He took a deep breath, "All right, I'll try my best."
Annwyl beamed at him, nodding, "Good!" She chuckled, "Don't worry. I'll give you time to relax as well. If I overwork you, you won't learn. I need to focus on a lot of subjects simply not taught anymore too. Our main difficulty will be you learning to fight, though that won't be a problem for a while. I cannot cast magic and while the room can create basic magical dummies for practice, they won't be nearly as good as a real person. Eventually, we'll need to get assistance."
"Hrm, I'm not sure who to ask," Harry admitted, "Professor Flitwick was a duelist, but I don't know if he'd tell Dumbledore."
"As I said, it'll take a while to get to that point, so don't worry. You'll need to train up your accuracy and dodging first anyway," Annwyl said with a shrug, "It's not something we have to worry about right now."
"All right," Harry said. "So, I'll come up here after classes today," He decided, turning to leave the Room. "That will come in handy. Kind of like a personal study room."
"Among other things. Remember, the Room can change itself to meet your needs. It can call a copy of any book found in the Hogwarts library or the Professors' rooms. That will really come in handy, especially when we start learning more esoteric subjects," Annwyl told him. She took his hand and turned into a wand, which he slipped back into his sleeve as he left the room.
Behind him, the door slowly disappeared.
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"All right class, quiet down." Harry was in Ancient Runes, sitting next to Padma and Hermione. Professor Babbling had just finished an introduction and was speaking. "I figured that we'd mix things up a bit seat-wise for the year," she said with a smile. "And try to encourage inter-house cooperation as well. I will call peoples' names; these people will sit and work together as a group this year. So everyone stand please."
Standing up and moving to the side of the room, Harry watched curiously, the students sitting down at tables as their names were called. Finally, he heard his name. "Padma Patil. Harry Potter. Blaise Zabini."
Moving towards the next table in the row, Harry slipped into the middle seat, Padma sitting beside him. "Harry Potter," he said, offering a hand to the dark-skinned Slytherin who sat on his other side. As he introduced himself, he saw Hermione being grouped with Susan Bones from Hufflepuff and Daphne Greengrass from Slytherin. "Please, call me Harry."
"Yes, I don't think anyone in the school is unaware of who you are." Blaise's voice was laden with humor, as he accepted the hand, shaking it firmly before releasing it. He smiled at Padma, "Blaise Zabini, Miss Patil. You can call me Blaise."
"Padma Patil. Padma's fine," the Indian girl said, her voice amused at the Slytherin's manners. "I'm surprised they're separating us like this. If you notice, the groups seem to be composed of people from different houses."
"I'm mostly surprised they're trying," Blaise said. "Some in my house would never stand for greater interaction. Nor yours, P--Harry."
Harry chuckled, "I think you're right." He didn't bring up any names, not wanting to seem petty. "Oh, Professor Babbling is talking," he said, quieting as he turned to listen to the teacher.
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"Now class, before you go, I thought I'd suggest something fun," Professor Babbling stated with a smile. "As I mentioned earlier, part of your grade will involve a group project. You will work together to create an outline and runic design for a small enchanted item: whatever you wish. I will look over and implement your designs and the group that I deem to have the best design will win a prize. Remember, you are not to try creating the object yourselves. It's far too dangerous; you won't be working on even simple enchanting until your OWL year. Feel free to discuss it among yourselves until the end of class," she said as she turned to sit at her desk.
Excitement could be felt from many of the students in the room and Harry felt a bit himself. "What do you think? I admit I'm rather competitive and wouldn't mind winning. Want to put in some extra time and really work on this?" He glanced at Blaise and Padma inquisitively.
"Slytherin," Blaise said dryly, "I aim high. I'm in."
"It should be fun!" Padma considered, "I have an idea, actually. Most people will be using Younger Futhark, maybe some Elder Futhark, as that's what we learn in class this year. Those sorts of runes are best for high-power, straightforward applications. Why don't we use Devanagari runes? We can try for something more intricate and it might give us an advantage on the judging. Both you and I have a book on them and you can let Blaise borrow yours?" She added to Blaise, "My books are in Hindi or I'd offer mine."
"What's the difference?" asked Blaise. "I'm not familiar with Devanagari."
Harry spoke first, explaining, "Well, Futhark runes were designed to channel lots of power. They have the capability to channel a lot of magic but cannot handle intricate spell effects. It's like a raging river. Great for things that need a lot of power like wards or to stabilize big spells. Devanagari runes were designed for utility and are more like, oh..." He trailed off. "The pipes in an ornate fountain. Try to channel too much and the fountain shatters, but you can do far more complicated effects with them. Not a perfect metaphor, but whatever." He shrugged, "The book I have has a really simple example: a Futhark rune cluster can create a really bright light, maybe change its color. The Devanagari rune cluster lets you shape the light into images and even change it in some pattern. That sort of fine-tuned control isn't possible with Futhark."
"So power versus precision. Well, we certainly don't need power for this. And more knowledge is always useful. Okay, I'm in," Blaise said, "Let's do it. Any ideas what to do?"
"I actually have an idea," Padma said hesitantly, "After what Harry mentioned. We could create something that tells a small story. Basically, each rune sequence shows a few seconds of a story. We wouldn't have sound, but it could work?"
"So basically a silent movie?" Harry said musingly and grinned, "I think it can work. Do you think we could, if not voices, do something for a bit of music? Really go into the silent movie thing, you know?"
"I actually know of a rune cluster that will record a sound for later playback," Blaise said after a moment. "I saw it in a book in my mum's library."
"This will be fun," Padma said with a smile. "I'm available any evening. When should we meet?"
"Myself as well. I'm going to be dropping quidditch, so will have a lot of time," Harry admitted.
Blaise blinked at Harry, "You're quitting quidditch? That's a surprise."
Harry shrugged, "I made a decision over the summer to take my education more seriously," he explained. "I sure can't do that with all the practices Wood likes to schedule. If he could, he'd have us practice every evening."
He heard Annwyl whisper in his mind, "I'm proud of you, Harry."
"You must be serious if you're quitting quidditch," Padma observed. "Parvati always told me how much you love it."
"Honestly, I more love the flying and the competition. I think I'd enjoy being a Chaser more, but the girls are great Chasers and they needed a Seeker, so." Harry shrugged. He chuckled, "I don't really look forward to Oliver hearing about it. I sent Professor McGonagall a letter over the summer. She wasn't happy herself."
Blaise chuckled, "Considering her ongoing feud with Professor Snape about the Cup, I'm not surprised. Without you as Seeker, Slytherin has it in the bag. Unless there's a good Seeker waiting in the wings I don't know about." With a shrug, he returned to their prior topic, "All right. How about we meet in the library this evening to discuss things further, as class will be ending in a moment."
"Works for me," Harry said while Padma nodded as well. He slowly began to pack his books away into his bag, and slid it onto his shoulder, "See you both then," he said with a smile.
"Annwyl?" Harry asked a few minutes later as he moved through the halls towards his next class. "You've been kind of quiet since we arrived at Hogwarts, is something wrong??"
"Of course not," Annwyl told him. "We're around people more now and I don't want to distract you. If I make you laugh or you forget and actually talk to me, people will get confused or suspicious, that's all. Besides," she teased, "watching you is kind of entertaining."
"Oi!" Harry thought.
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When Harry arrived in the Gryffindor common room that night, he was exhausted: even with the nap he'd taken before he'd returned to studying. "I might need to make the nap longer. I'm so tired," he told Annwyl.
"It is a lot of work. We'll eventually settle on a schedule that works for you," she assured him.
"I hope so," Harry responded as he gave a massive yawn. "I'm going right upstairs to bed."
"Harry!"
Wincing as he turned towards the speaker, Harry yawned again, "Hey, Hermione. What's up?" She was sitting at a table in the common room, a pile of books in front of her.
"I wanted to know how you were doing on the project for runes. What did you three decide to do for your project?" Hermione asked.
"Can't say," Harry told her with a smile, "Padma and Blaise would kill me. We met at the library earlier and did a fair bit of planning, though. I think this will be fun."
"Fun?" Hermione stared at him, "Who are you and what did you do with Harry." She shook her head once, "You sure you don't want to talk to me about it? I can help out," she offered. "Maybe find the mistakes in your design when you get that far?"
Harry frowned slightly at her words; he didn't like how she'd phrased that. After a moment, he shook his head as he yawned, "Nah. I'm sure we'll find any mistakes between the three of us. Listen, Hermione, I'm exhausted. I'm heading up to bed."
She blinked, "Oh. Okay. Sleep well, Harry," the girl offered before opening one of her books and beginning to read.