lomonaaeren

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Chapter Two—Memories

Harry sighed as he surfaced from the Pensieve memories. For a long moment, he considered the white basin of the Pensieve where it sat on the pedestal in the middle of the dungeon rooms he had claimed for his own.

Then he shook his head and reached out with his wand to retrieve the memories.

He knew how pathetic it was to revisit those particular memories over and over again. Especially when they were memories of only one day six years ago.

But that had been the one, shining day when he’d had a friend. So Harry couldn’t stop looking at the memories of the day he’d spent with Ron Weasley when he felt as if he was going to surrender to despair.

He’d made a friend once. He would do it again, once he was outside Britain and away from the people who hated him for his blood status or expected impossible things of him. It wasn’t impossible.

The wards that he had clustered around the door that entered this particular circle of rooms, all connected to each other and hidden within the dungeon walls, abruptly rang. Harry stared towards the door and waved his hand.

The stone walls turned transparent, in his vision only, and faded. Harry snorted when he saw the person standing on the far side of the door. Nott didn’t give up. He had tried to talk to Harry in the common room, sit next to Harry in classes, and invade his library corner, although Harry’s wards meant he hadn’t tried that last more than once.

Nott is weird.

It wouldn’t be that weird if he was trying desperately to lure Harry into some position where the others could bully him, though. Harry shrugged and willed the walls to fade back into regular stone ones. He would simply stay behind the wards, and Nott would give up and go away eventually.

*

Theo stared at the warded door. It had taken hours for him to figure out where Potter was disappearing to, and then longer to confirm that the warded door was actually Potter’s. Even knowing the strength with wards Potter had displayed in the library, he hadn’t been sure.

But now he knew for sure that, yes, Potter had created a sanctuary for himself that was protected by powerful magic, and he presumably knew Theo was there since he wasn’t coming out.

Theo waited a moment more, and then turned away with an impatient sigh. He couldn’t blame Potter for assuming Theo was here to prank him or track him down for someone like Malfoy, based on their past interactions.

But it was annoying to realize that his own past behavior had cost Theo the opportunity to easily make friends with someone who might be the most powerful wizard in their year.

*

“Detention, Mr. Potter.”

“Yes, sir.”

This time it had been for “eating food with atrocious manners.” Harry agreed to the detention without looking up. There was no point in it anyway. Nothing would ever affect or change Snape’s hatred of him, and it was best to try and get it over with as soon as possible.

“I suppose your dead family couldn’t teach you to eat with your fork and spoon like a proper wizard, Potter?”

Harry ignored Malfoy’s taunts, too. They were as predictable as the sun and the sky and the sea and Snape. He finished his mashed potatoes and stood up. His detentions with Snape were always at the same time in the evenings, and he had about an hour before this one began.

A little to his surprise, Nott slipped away from the table to follow him to the library. He either wanted revenge for Harry afflicting his hands with frostbite the other day or he wanted to continue the ridiculous conversation about wandless magic. Harry wasn’t entirely sure what Nott would gain from convincing Harry wandless magic was rare and powerful, but then again, a moment’s fleeting entertainment appeared to be enough for most of his roommates.

“Potter? Can I talk to you?”

Nott sounded weirdly tentative, but Harry knew that was probably just a setup for this prank. He turned around, making sure that he kept enough distance between him and Nott to set up a ward if Nott went for his wand. “Talk.”

“I wanted to say I’m sorry.”

“For what?”

Nott looked briefly puzzled, but rallied to say, “For offering you insults based on blood status in earlier years. For trying to get into your trunk. For treating you poorly.”

Harry shrugged. “Apology not accepted.”

“What? Why not?”

“Because you don’t mean it, Nott. The instant you see some kind of gain for you in pranking me or laughing at me with Malfoy or Snape, you’ll do it. I don’t need to listen to someone who only seems to regret what he did because he thinks the object of his bullying is powerful.”

“I promise, I really do think you’re powerful. And Malfoy and Snape are the ones who are mad if they don’t see that.”

“Uh-huh.”

“It’s true!”

“Uh-huh.”

Nott took a step towards him. Harry narrowed his eyes and twitched his finger. The Chill Ward he’d set up the other day wasn’t powerful or unique or something he’d invented himself, but it did have a twist to it that meant—

Nott cried out and staggered back as ice crystals bloomed across his hands. Harry gave him a faint smile. Someone touched by his wards once essentially carried a tiny sliver of Harry’s magic inside them after that. Harry could inflict the damage again any time he wanted.

He was only sorry that he hadn’t discovered that particular twist when he’d set up the wards that had cut Nott’s and Malfoy’s hands when they tried to get into his trunk. It would have been entertaining to make Malfoy start bleeding whenever he was rambling on about Harry’s blood status in the future.

“Leave me alone,” Harry said softly, and turned around to finish the walk to the library. He only had about fifty minutes before Snape’s detention now, thanks to bloody Nott, and he wanted to finish his study of Summoning Charms theory in peace.

*

Theo stared down at his hands, which were trembling so badly with the cold that he could barely pick up his wand to cast a Warming Charm. He had never heard of a ward’s effect lingering so long like this. Either the ward was broken and gone, or it wasn’t broken and the person who had tried to break it simply stayed outside it.

How is he doing this?

Then again, Potter didn’t seem to know he was breaking the rules of magic any more than he realized wandless magic was particularly powerful.

Giving up, Theo headed for the hospital wing. He wasn’t able to grip his wand, and he was determined to get rid of the ice crystals before someone else saw them and asked or figured out what had happened. For right now, he wanted to keep the secret of Potter to himself.

But I’ll have to figure out what he requires other than an apology.

*

“Scrub each cauldron until all the traces of the Swelling Solutions brewed in them are gone.”

“Yes, Professor Snape.”

Severus hid a snarl as he watched Potter roll up his robe sleeves—a proper Slytherin would know a charm for that by now—and settle into the scrubbing. Potter’s spawn was as exasperating as ever.

Oh, he played at being a diligent student, with the hours he’d spent in the library, and a quiet one, given that he appeared to have no friends. But he had somehow convinced the Hat to Sort him into Slytherin. Why would he have done that, if not because he’d thought it a grand lark? Otherwise, he would have been in Gryffindor where Potter’s spawn belonged.

Severus had heard a few times from Albus that his punishments of the boy were excessive. But what would happen if he eased back now? Potter would think Severus had gone soft, that was what would happen. Then he’d start to play the pranks and spew the insults that only Severus’s vigilance had prevented the other Slytherins from suffering so far.

And of course, Potter pretended that the detentions didn’t bother him. But he would have been visibly seething with resentment and calling Severus insults if he thought he could get away with it.

No, better to maintain a firm hand. Potter kept his head down and his hands busy scrubbing the cauldrons, and Severus got clean cauldrons and the satisfaction of knowing that Potter’s spawn wouldn’t try to be a bully the way his father had been, because he was always watched.

Severus would not tolerate the boy becoming a high-and-mighty, strutting prankster. He hadn’t turned into the little hero Albus had thought he would, either, of course. But Severus thought the other destiny well within the boy’s reach. It would remain that way until he was out of Hogwarts.

Then…

Well, Severus felt sorry for the boy’s future co-workers and any witch he managed to trick into marrying him. That was all.

*

“What are you doing here, Potter?”

Harry stood up and moved away from the aisle of books he’d been investigating, which talked about requirements to move to another country and some of the NEWT requirements for jobs there. He was mostly looking to move to the States, or maybe Australia or New Zealand. Parts of Canada were a possibility, too. Harry didn’t want to have to learn a language other than English. He doubted he would be any good at it.

“I asked you a question, Potter.”

Harry turned around with an empty expression that he knew would unnerve the Ravenclaw boy behind him. The boy’s name was Michael Corner, and he had started antagonizing Harry about two years ago. Harry had never known the reason behind it. It wasn’t like he did better than Corner in classes.

“I don’t need to answer you,” Harry said, as mildly as possible. He didn’t want to face down Corner or his friends, a couple of other Ravenclaw boys standing behind him, but neither did he have to dance as carefully around Corner as around his Housemates.

“I want an answer. That should be enough.”

“Looking at books.”

“What?”

“That’s what I’m doing here. Looking at books.”

Corner stared at him. Harry had the feeling that he hadn’t expected the answer, maybe hadn’t thought Harry would answer at all. But then he snorted and drew his wand. Harry tensed, and could tell from the way the boys behind Corner sniggered that they’d seen it.

“I don’t think we should accept that response, should we?” Corner asked softly, eyes locked on Harry. “I think we should make sure the little Parselmouth knows his place.”

Maybe that was the reason why Corner had started to get angry at Harry. Harry remembered hearing that Corner’s father had died a few years ago, bitten by some kind of venomous snake, and that no one knew how it had got in the house. He had evidently decided that a Parselmouth was responsible.

But it was still ridiculous.

Harry decided abruptly that he was done suffering insults and abuse from Corner. He might not be able to do anything about the bullies in Slytherin, where Snape backed them up, but he could do it here and make it look like an accident.

He focused on Corner’s wand, and used his own magic to yank it to the side at just the right moment as Corner fired a Binding Hex. It hit one of his friends instead, who yelped and went down, covered in ropes. Harry smiled a little.

“Mike! What do you think you’re doing?”

“It was an accident, Stephen, don’t be so melodramatic,” Corner snapped, and aimed at Harry again.

This time, Harry sent the Burning Mouth Hex at Corner’s other friend, and made the friend’s Body-Bind land on Corner. Then he stood there and watched as they cursed loudly, waiting for the moment when—

“You were using spells in my library?”

Madam Pince was as fierce as ever, the other reason that Harry spent a lot of time in the library beyond wanting to study for his NEWTS. She loomed over Corner and the other Ravenclaws and huffed and roared, and Harry just stood there, lifting his empty hands when Corner and the others tried to accuse him of hexing them.

“Nonsense, he isn’t even holding a wand,” Madam Pince snapped, and undid the various hexes and herded them out of the library, never stopping her scolding.

Harry smiled a little. Maybe he could defend himself, as long as he did it this way. Wandless magic might be common and not that powerful, but perhaps students in other Houses than Slytherin weren’t trained to watch for it.

He turned back to browsing the shelves. It was possible he might find more countries to visit if he learned the Translation Charms properly.

*

Theo stepped back from behind the shelves where he’d been watching Potter, shaken. He’d thought of accosting Potter, but then the Ravenclaws had shown up, and he’d waited, curious to see how Potter interacted with students from other Houses.

It seemed that perhaps Potter had just taken their insults in the past, but now intended to return fire with wandless fire.

Theo glanced down at his own hands. Madam Pomfrey had melted the ice crystals, but had frowned worriedly when Theo had told her they’d shown up out of nowhere, which was more or less true.

Theo needed to figure out how to confront Potter without making him defensive. Yes, Potter could be an asset and an ally and that was worth treating him well, but…

Theo glanced back at the spots on the library floor where the Ravenclaws had lain.

He had the impression that Potter could also be very dangerous, if handled wrongly.