Chapter 127: "Weeks of Change and Quiet Forests"
Days had passed since the Defense Against the Dark Arts class and the incident with Gryffindor losing points. During this time, many interesting things happened.
After Charles's altercation with Snape in the Potions class, he was called to a meeting with Professor McGonagall at the Headmaster's office. Harry didn't know what happened in that meeting, but whatever Dumbledore did, it worked. Snape mostly left Charles alone and didn't pick on him as much. Charles also seemed to control himself better and didn't deliberately try to anger Snape.
This was good news for the Gryffindor house and their points hourglass, which was in the process of recovering.
Although Snape still watched Charles closely, looking for any reason to deduct points, Charles managed to keep his temper in check. He wasn't great at Potions, so he had a hard time in the class, but he refrained from fighting back against Snape inside the classroom.
To relieve his anger, Charles started pranking students from Snape's house with the help of the Weasley twins. This restarted the pranking spree in the school, with Slytherin house learning to retaliate with pranks of their own.
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Then came the Quidditch trials for all the houses. As expected by Harry, Charles showed impressive skills for his age. But there was a difference from the original story.
Unlike the Boy Who Lived in the canon, Charles's body shape and skills were more suited for being a Chaser rather than a Seeker. Maybe his father, James, who was a good Chaser, influenced Charles, leading him to learn how to be a Chaser instead of a Seeker.
This created a dilemma for the Gryffindor team. They already had two Chasers, Angelina and Alicia, and the third spot was being contested by the second-year Katie Bell, who showed better coordination with the other two girls. The three of them formed a solid team, but Charles's talent couldn't be ignored, so he replaced Katie. Katie, who was decent as a Seeker, took on that role.
Harry was a little surprised by this change but was very happy with this development. What the Gryffindor Quidditch team lacked was a Seeker, and with Charles being a Chaser, it did not improve their team at all but rather reduced their overall strength. Without a strong Seeker, Gryffindor's chances at the Quidditch Cup were diminished.
Seeing Charles get selected for the Gryffindor Quidditch team, Draco Malfoy, his self-proclaimed rival, also tried to get into the Slytherin team. However, he wasn't successful.
Draco tried to use his father's influence, but the whole house protested against his inclusion, and Draco had to back down. The Slytherin house's desire for the Quidditch Cup was greater than their fear of Lucius Malfoy. They couldn't risk the cup by including Draco.
It looked like Draco Malfoy would have to buy Nimbus 2001 brooms for the whole team next year to secure a spot on the team.
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Meanwhile, Harry's journey through Voldemort or Tom Marvolo Riddle's memories continued during the DADA class. He gained many interesting insights into Tom's life, but the specific information he sought required more time and effort.
Despite the lack of immediate results, Harry remained content. Regularly probing Voldemort's mind was an excellent way to train his mental strength and Legilimency skills. He also didn't have to worry about damaging Voldemort's mind with constant attacks. In fact, he hoped Voldemort would go mad or lose his memories as a result.
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In the Forbidden Forest, Quirrelmort had not yet acted to attack the unicorns. Harry was initially puzzled, but after some reading, he discovered the reason.
Currently, there were no visible problems with Voldemort possessing Quirrell, and thus no need to consume unicorn blood. Quirrell's body was, for now, strong enough to support Voldemort. Over time, Quirrell's body would weaken, and only then would they need to resort to drinking unicorn blood to stay alive. So, Harry didn't need to worry about the unicorns just yet.
The forest was safe for now. Harry just had to pay attention to the state of Quirrell's body. When he became weaker, that would be the time to act and save those poor, pure unicorns.
Harry informed the centaurs of this, and they were relieved. The prophecy the centaurs had received had only warned them of the attacks, but not the timing, so they were happy with the information they got from Harry.
The centaurs decided to wait for Harry's or his alias Arthur's signal before patrolling the forest, conserving their energy for the eventual fight against the Dark Lord.
Harry had also learned how to heal magical creatures like unicorns by now, so he moved on to studying more advanced healing techniques.
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Regarding other things Harry had achieved during this time, he had briefly visited the third-floor corridor to investigate it before planning his quest to get his hands on the Philosopher's Stone.
Using various detection methods to identify high levels of alchemical activity or life signals, Harry discovered that the stone was not yet behind the obstacles.
Harry thought he might have to wait for Dumbledore to obtain the Mirror of Erised and use it to hide the stone. So, according to the sequence of events in the original story, this would likely be after Christmas. That is if the stone itself was real and not a dummy created by Dumbledore to act as bait for Voldemort.
Harry had no way of knowing whether the stone was real or a decoy meant to lure Voldemort before he got his hands on it. There was a risk, but this was going to be his only chance at the stone, so he was going to try.
Harry wanted to study the stone to understand how to make the Elixir of Life, hoping to extend the lives of his close family like Cordelia and Arcturus. He wanted them to be around him for more years, to see him win the war against Voldemort, and to live longer lives.
The Philosopher's Stone and its creation were a mystery to the wizarding world. Only the Flamels, or maybe Dumbledore, knew how it was made. Harry wanted to get it and figure out how to reverse engineer another one for his use.
He was not planning on keeping the stone since there was a risk the Flamels could have used very advanced tracking methods on it. He was not going to try his luck against wizards who had lived for more than 600 years. They surely had ways to retrieve their extremely precious source of extending life.
Harry just planned on studying it for some time while at Hogwarts and then somehow sending it back to the Flamels.
However, all of this was based on the assumption that the stone Dumbledore had was real. Otherwise, there was no point in thinking about the Elixir of Life.
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Regarding other, less interesting things that had happened at Hogwarts, Neville was still much like his canon self—less confident but improving. With encouragement from Harry, Neville had started hanging out with Susan, Hannah, Daphne, and their group. Thanks to their support, he was happy and his studies were going well. The only exception was Potions. One mean look from Snape was enough to make him forget everything and ruin his potion cauldron.
Neville tried to include his friend Hermione in the group, but it didn't work out. Harry didn't know the details, but Hermione had somehow offended the other girls and was unceremoniously kicked out. For now, like her canon counterpart, Hermione was isolated in the castle except for the few interactions she had with other students during class.
Hermione had not come to Harry for anything after their meeting on the train, so he was not inclined to help her adapt to the wizarding world. From what he had seen, even if he wanted to help her, her imposing character made it difficult for her to fit in. She needed to change herself a little to better survive in this world.
While Harry didn't have time to seek out gossip in the school, the Hogwarts rumor mill and his friends ensured he stayed informed of all the juicy news. These small joys added a touch of normalcy to his intense life of magical study. Despite the complexities of his plans and the weight of his responsibilities, Harry found comfort in knowing he wasn't a loner and had friends to share the lighter moments with.