Chapter 108: The Year Begins IV

Drifting in the air with the feeling of autumn air on his face, Harry challenged, "You ready?" Terry gave a sharp nod, causing him to open his hand and release the Snitch into the air.

Giving the Snitch a few moments to disappear, he turned to his rival for the afternoon and said, "First to five catches wins, I hope you can keep up." He then turned skyward and accelerated away.

...

For the next couple of hours, they ruthlessly chased the Snitch around the pitch, not that Terry was much competition. He beat Terry five catches to none in the first hour, getting progressively faster with each successive catch. It was a bit like a hunter's instinct; as soon as he got the 'scent,' it was just a matter of time. Once he sighted the Snitch, it was a mixture of flying and trying different stunts and moves to shake off your opponent, which Terry soon grew bored of.

Drifting on his broom, Harry enjoyed the familiar sense of freedom and power of being able to look down on the world below. It felt surprisingly natural just drifting on his broom, like a bird would on the air currents. 'Maybe my Animagus form is a bird,' he thought. 'Hopefully it's a bird at the top of the food chain like a hawk, eagle, or even an owl,' he pondered whilst drifting along. 'I wouldn't mind a raven either.'

The more he thought about it, the more he was certain that he had wings. It just fit, suddenly clicking in his mind like a piece of a puzzle falling into place.

Smiling at his success, he wondered what his dogfather would call him when he found out that Harry was possibly a bird Animagus. Seeing a flock of owls leaving the grounds to begin their evening hunt made him wonder what it would be like to fly side by side with Serenity. Would the transformation help him bond with her, or would she just be like any other owl? Harry sighed at the lack of answers and his own inability to answer all his questions.

Harry finally decided that he needed to find out more about the familiar bond when he noticed that the sun was starting to go down. He was half tempted to keep flying—he wasn't afraid of the dark or falling from his broom—but he did have an Astronomy lesson that night.

Even if he found the whole subject faulty beyond measure, since it was stuck in the 18th century, he still had to attend the class. By God it was frustrating having to remember and recite incorrect facts about the solar system, just because the magical world was hopelessly out of date. As far as the magical world was concerned, Jupiter only had twelve moons; they had yet to discover the other fifty-one that the non-magical world had found. As soon as he could, he planned to drop the subject instead of continuing to learn such outdated information.

At least the teacher herself was reasonable and passionate about the subject, which was an improvement over some other teachers. It was getting to the point that he actively wanted to curse their current DADA teacher for his stupidity. However, it was amusing watching Longbottom acting out the roles of different magical beasts. If anything, DADA this year should be changed to drama classes.

...

Next Day

"Harry," a familiar female voice greeted, as she entered through the door of his personal Potions lab.

"Yes, Penny?" he said in a rather tired tone, resulting from his late-night lesson. At least he had no lessons today now that he was self-studying for Potions instead of having to attend a two-hour lesson.

"How are you?"

"Reasonable," he replied coldly, whilst measuring out the necessary ingredients for the current potion he was required to brew.

"Harry?"

"Penny?"

"Ok stop, what have I done to upset you?" she asked.

"Nothing, I'm just trying to focus on measuring out these ingredients," he answered, whilst chopping up some deer horn.

"I don't believe you," she accused.

"Seriously, I'm just a bit annoyed. Not just at you, but the school as a whole," he replied, before getting the pestle and mortar to crush the horn up into a fine powder.

"Why, what have I done to annoy you?" Penny asked as she sat down on a stool on the opposite side of the lab desk.

Looking up from his work to face her, Harry responded, "I understand that you have your own friends and things to do, but I feel that you've been giving me the cold shoulder since we've returned to school," seeing no point in sugarcoating things. He also couldn't help noticing a couple of worn textbooks in her bag.

"Oh, I've just been so busy this year getting settled back in and whatnot. Plus the NEWT level work is turning out to be a killer. I've already used up three quills since we returned," she said, showing three worn out quills.

"Tonks seems to manage," he said offhandedly. "And she's in her final year with Prefect duties, NEWT exams, and still finds the time for regular duelling sessions with me. If anything, our duelling sessions have increased."

"Harry, I'm taking far more studious subjects than Tonks. Besides, duelling with you can count as revision for DADA, Charms, and Transfiguration," she scolded.

"Fair point," he said, admitting his error in judgement. "But it would still be nice if you actually talked to me or said hi once in a while, unless last year was just an assignment from Professor Flitwick?" Harry asked.

"No, it started as an assignment, but I really did enjoy our time studying together," she confessed.

"Really, so why can't we study together now? What has changed?"

"Nothing! I've just been really busy of late."

"If you say so," he said before reaching for the goat fat.

Several minutes passed in silence before Penny asked, "So this is the Potions lab you've been given to study in?"

"Yes, it's rather impressive. It's fully stocked and has some of the best equipment around. I'm told this lab," Harry gestured with a wave of his hand, "is one out of five originally created for students and apprentices who would be studying for their masteries in Potions under the resident Potions Master. Of course, there is no one studying under Professor Snape, hence the lab was free for my use."

"No need to guess the reason why. Seven years is more than enough of his company," Penny said, voicing an opinion similar to his own.

"Indeed, students used to fight for the chance and the prestige of being an apprentice of the Hogwarts Potions Master. Now it's rare to get even a single student studying for their masteries or doing an apprenticeship," he replied, whilst looking around the lab, wondering how many past Potions Masters had studied and experimented in the room.

"Do you mind if I use it as well?"

"Depends," he said, curious about what his friend wanted.

"Well, it seems like a means to kill two birds with one stone. One, it gives me a place to study in private, and two, it allows me to spend some time with you. Isn't that what you wanted?" she expressed.

"Hmm, I guess. As long as you don't mind potion fumes and boiling cauldrons," he said with a shrug of the shoulders.

"I'll manage. So what are you brewing?" she asked, looking over his ingredients.

"First a basic hair growth potion and then a burn healing potion," Harry answered as he pointed towards the troll fat and goat fat.

"Eh... nice," she said with a disgusted expression. "What about that potion over there?" pointing to a slow boiling cauldron, filled with a light purple liquid.

"Farting potion," he said straight-faced, wondering how Penny would react to it.

"I can't remember that being a part of the second-year brewing requirements," she said sternly.

"It's not, it's for a prank of course," he said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, whilst feeling the finely powdered deer horn.

"I hope that's not for me," she said jokingly, but eyeing him warily.

"Nope, it's for a couple of Snakes," he said, thinking over Daphne's plan to start subtly undermining Pansy's position and self-confidence.

"Do I want to know?"

"Nope. But do you want some? I've got plenty to spare if you like." There would be far too much for just pranking Pansy and Draco. "It doesn't do any permanent harm if that's what you're worried about, just a couple of days of being windy. If you don't want to do it yourself, I can always prank the person for you."

"Hmmm... I'll think about it," Penny said, taking the safe way out.

"My offer stands."

"Thanks."

"By the way, the password to access this room will be Asclepius the Healer," he stated clearly, having no intention of repeating himself.

"After the Greek god?" Penny asked with a thoughtful expression.

Harry smiled in surprise as his friend got it in one, confirming the reason why she was in Ravenclaw. "Indeed, how did you know that?"

"In primary school, we had to pick a classical god to represent in a play, and one of the boys picked Asclepius," she said with a bit of a blush.

Putting the powder down, "Let me guess, you picked Athena, patron of Athens," he stated with certainty, already able to picture a mini-Penny dressed up like Athena, with a toy bird on her shoulder.

"Nope, I wanted to, but another girl got chosen for it. Want to try again?" she answered, turning the question into a makeshift game.

Harry quickly accepted the challenge, even though he knew there were dozens of gods and several who were really the same god with a different name when the Roman Empire conquered the Mediterranean world. "I need a clue, there's just too many. It would take me hours to recite them all and even then I may not know it."

"Greek and was often given deer carcasses as tribute," she said thoughtfully after a couple of minutes pondering his request.

"Artemis, sister to Apollo and the Mistress of the Hunt and the Wild," he said with certainty.

"That was fast, I thought it would take longer if I mentioned deer rather than a bow," Penny said with a bit of disappointment.

"Apollo just happens to be one of my favourite gods from the classics. Anyone can be Zeus, Hades or Ares, but Apollo brings the dawn," he said, feeling a tad foolish at his statement, since it made no sense in hindsight. It was probably because he always associated the coming of a new day with the possibility of escaping his relatives.

"Yeah, that's true. I remember all the boys wanting to be Ares or Zeus. It's funny looking back at it, how much I wanted to be Athena."

"You think anyone can guess the password?" he asked, wanting to move the topic away from his own youthful foolishness of wanting to be Apollo in his daydreams of escaping his terrible childhood. This reminded him to pay a visit to the Dursleys soon for a little payback.

"I doubt anyone will get it, Greek history isn't exactly covered here, is it? Maybe a couple of Muggle-borns could work it out, but I expect it to be safe. My question is why I was able to get in here?"

"Because I haven't yet chosen a password or a door guardian, hence it was unlocked," he said.

"Oh."

"Yeah. By the way, I still have that gold for you. I came to give it to you a couple of days ago, but couldn't find you. I didn't want to leave the pouch lying around where it could be stolen, so it's still in my trunk," he offered in explanation.

"Ok, want to give it to me after you're done here?" Penny asked.

"Sure, if you don't mind. I kind of want to get this done."

"That's fine, I don't mind waiting and it gives us a chance to catch up."

"Yeah, it does," he said, nodding his head.

"So what have you been up to since we last talked?"

"Hmm, besides freeing Sirius and getting that all sorted out, I've been training for the Seeker position and am hoping I'll be the best at the tryouts. I also have been working on becoming an Animagus," he said, picking up the troll fat for the burn potion he had just started, not noticing Penny's shocked expression.

"However, I have yet to reach the point of identifying my inner animal, but I know it has wings. I can feel it," smiling as he expressed his delight.

...

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