Chapter 66: 66 The Rest Of The Week

The latest edition of the Daily Prophet was a sensation. It had to go into second and third printings by the time lunchtime came around and it still sold out. Everyone wanted to read about Salazar's monster and how the teachers of the best wizarding school had handled it. There was no mention of Harry's involvement, which meant that the teachers were either covering it up or they hadn't mentioned that it was him that discovered the entrance.

Either way, Harry had a hard time not smiling every time someone mentioned it. He knew, as did Hermione and Neville, that he and Filch had stumbled across it and opened it by accident. The school was becoming famous for something he did. He had thought about telling everyone his part of the story, then realized he was talked about enough. If everyone thought he was trying to put himself into the spotlight and steal attention from the teachers, they might start hating him.

So, the three of them kept their mouths shut and went about their school work. Lessons continued on and Harry kept teaching Hermione the things he had in his spell book. In the evenings, he and Filch cleaned the bathrooms. It seemed like there was and endless supply of them and even Harry was getting weary, until Thursday night and they reached the top floor. There were only two public bathrooms and each one only had five stalls each.

Harry and Filch exchanged looks and smiled. “Race?” They said together, then they both took a bathroom each and scrubbed as quickly as they could while still cleaning everything. Harry wasn't going to skimp on his promise to help clean the whole castle and Filch wasn't going to skimp on doing the job he loved. Not surprisingly, they came out of their chosen bathrooms at nearly the same time.

“Meow!” Missus Norris said and Filch barked a laugh.

“My longer legs did not give me an advantage, you little scamp!” Filch said. “I have to bend down farther!”

Harry laughed and stripped off the cleaning supplies and held a hand out to her. She purred and rubbed against it. “Thanks for trying.”

“Meow.” Missus Norris said.

“Aye, lad. You gave me a good run.” Filch said. “Nearly three weeks and we've cleaned the old girl from top to bottom.”

“On the inside.” Harry said.

Filch laughed. “Sorry, lad. We're not allowed to touch the outside. It might mess with the protective enchantments on the castle.”

“Really?” Harry asked.

“It's supposed to look like an old run down castle. We can't very well make it look like new, eh?”

Harry chuckled. “Okay, I can understand that.”

“Then our work here is done.” Filch said and put a hand on his shoulder. “Thank you very much for your help.”

“Even if it was for detention?” Harry asked.

“I expected to take three times as long while I dragged your sad arse all over the castle dungeons.” Filch said with a twinkle in his eye. “Instead, you forced me to clean like normal and then it was me that had to keep up with you.”

“Some of the cleaning stuff is great, isn't it?” Harry said. “I can't believe the wood polish came out so well.”

Filch chuckled. “It's like the wood just pops when you look at it now.” He said. “Now, about the floors...”

“I'll keep an eye on them.” Harry said. “It's just an anti-dirt charm that Madam Malkin taught me. I figured if it worked on clothing, why not the floor?”

Filch gave him a surprised look.

“It should last a while.” Harry said. “I haven't had to redo my clothing yet and it's been two months.”

Filch smiled and gave his shoulder a squeeze. “All right, lad. I'll leave it to you.”

Harry beamed a smile at him. “It's been fun, Mister Filch.” He said and knelt to hold a hand out to Missus Norris again. “I'll pop by whenever you need me to refill the buckets.”

“Lad, you've given me years worth of cleaning supplies.” Filch said. “You don't need to keep helping.”

“I know.” Harry said and scratched the cat's head. “I'll see you around, Missus Norris.”

“Meow.” Missus Norris said and twitched her whiskers at him.

“Bye.” Harry said and waved to them, then walked away.

“Meow?” Missus Norris asked when Harry disappeared down a stairwell.

“I'm sure we'll see him again.” Filch said and gathered up the cleaning things they had used. “The castle's not that big, eh?”

“Meow.” Missus Norris agreed.

*

Harry had the rest of the evening to keep looking at the two spells that Amelia had given him the weekend before. He had looked at them in the mornings when he had the chance and now he had several hours before curfew to practice them. He found an empty classroom and moved the desks out of the way, then conjured the target to shoot at.

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“Bombarda!” Harry exclaimed and a fireball shot out of his wand and hit the target on the outer ring. He shook his head, because the recoil of the spell had thrown off his aim. He would need to do the wand movement, compensate for the extra movement as the spell was released, and still aim. He worked for the entire time he had before curfew and had nearly hit the center of the target when casting the spell.

Harry went to bed quite happy that he had almost completely adjusted his aim and had also cast it silently. The silence charm worked well to hide the small explosions he was letting off. He hadn't thought of doing that at first, until a ghost had happened to float by and asked about the noise. He exorcised it and from then on silenced everything.

The next day was Friday and he had double potions class, which took up most of the morning. The potions professor didn't even look at him as he came in and gave Hermione her backpack and Neville his things as well. Without a word, the teacher pointed to the chalkboard and a potion appeared there. It seemed simple, since there weren't many ingredients. The problem was the preparation time and the cooking time.

One of the other students put their hand up to ask a question. “Professor...”

“Unless it is a question about the potion on the board, you will remain quiet.” Snape said and the girl's hand slowly lowered. “I have had enough questions about the basilisk to last a lifetime. Two lifetimes.” He said and looked at Harry.

Harry immediately diverted his gaze and thought about the preparation of the potion ingredients. He flipped through the school book and compared it to the potion on the board. His eyes squinted as he read the both of them. He couldn't let it go and put his hand up.

“Mister Potter.” Snape said.

“Why are your potion directions different from the ones in the book?” Harry asked.

“I am a potions master.” Snape said.

“What does that mean?” Harry asked.

“It means that I know a lot more than a children's school book about brewing potions.”

Harry looked down at the book and then at the board. “Then why did we need to buy the book?”

“It is required by the course outline.”

“But, if it's wrong...”

“It's not necessarily wrong. It is just a very poor version of the proper potion.”

Harry couldn't stop his frown. “So, spending time reading ahead like Hermione and I did was a waste of time.”

Snape gave him a pointed look. “You still gained knowledge...”

“The wrong knowledge.” Harry corrected. “How many other potions are wrong in this book?”

Snape didn't say anything and Harry clapped the book shut.

“I'm glad I didn't have a normal house to live in.” Harry said and missed Snape's eyes flinch. “I would have been brewing them and made them all wrong by following the book's instructions.”

Snape stared at Harry and didn't say anything. Harry put the book away and used his expensive set of auto-leveling scales to quickly portion out his ingredients, then he did precisely what the chalkboard told him to do. It really was a simple recipe, if you followed the proper instructions. The ones in the book were right and did produce results... most of the time. It had a tendency to fail, because a few of the ingredients weren't prepared properly.

Snape had corrected the mistakes with the ingredients, which changed the directions for making the potion and made the time almost double... and guaranteed a success if followed precisely. He watched as Harry copied the recipe down and actually read ahead, knowing he had to take one of the last ingredients and start with that one first. It had the longest prep time and Snape had to give the boy credit for actually reading it first before starting.

*

Hermione asked Harry questions about why he was doing the ingredients backwards. He told her it was to save time later, which she didn't understand, until he told her to read the whole recipe and not just the directions. It was then she noticed the prep times for everything and understood.

“Thanks a lot, Harry.” Hermione said and started copying him. She could sometimes get lost in following the directions as they were written and that would have been disastrous for a potion like this. She would definitely have gotten a Poor or even Dreadful if she had read it like a list and did each one as she went, rather than looked at the recipe as a whole.

The two of them worked, almost completely in silence and brewed the ingredients like the recipe called for, then started adding them to the potion in the proper order and at the right times. It was taxing work to maintain a slow and steady pace, which was not something she was used to. She had always rushed to get things finished, so she could move on to the next thing.

That was one of the reasons she liked helping Harry with research, because it let her do exactly that. Hermione could hunt information down like a bloodhound and it gave her a sense of satisfaction that she craved a bit too much for her own good. She hadn't had any friends in normal school and she had expected that to change at Hogwarts. It hadn't, because girls were just as cruel, and she had still been bullied for the first little bit.

It wasn't until Harry had stepped in and straightened everyone out for her that they backed off. She wasn't as ridiculed and they didn't pick on her for trying to offer help. Of course, she had stopped trying to correct the obvious mistakes the other girls would make in their homework in front of her. She sometimes caught them looking at her as they worked, just to see if she was going to correct them, and she fought her instincts and stayed quiet.

Hermione's dorm life had improved significantly and she felt very grateful to Harry for it. If he hadn't taken the attention from her, she would probably still be bullied and she would also be suffering in silence about it, just like at her other school. Not even the teachers seemed to care about what she was going through. Only Harry.

She looked at his concentrating face and then she looked at his baby soft skin that didn't have a single blemish. Her hand tingled as she remembered touching it and then her face went a little red as she remembered that he touched her cheek as well and told her that it was as smooth and soft as his.

Hermione tore her eyes away from him and continued to work. If her guess was right, only she and Harry would have a completed potion by the end of the class. Neville would be a close third, thanks to both Harry and her whispering instructions. Her thoughts drifted to the slightly plump boy and she smiled.

He's just like Harry and myself. Hermione thought. Even though he is a pure blood wizard and I'm muggle-born and Harry's a half-blood, the three of us have suffered at the hands of others and were bullied. It didn't matter where we came from, we are the same.

She smiled at the thought as she brewed her potion and it matched Harry's almost exactly. She worked diligently and focused her mind on her task.

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