Chapter 74: 74 The Knowledge

Harry spent the rest of the afternoon copying out the Geminio spell, the duplicate spell, over and over again. Hermione had been surprised the first time when Harry used one of the quick cleaning spells to clean the ink off of the parchment.

“I didn't know it could do that!” Hermione had exclaimed.

“It's supposed to clean up spilled ink or mistakes, so I just imagine that the whole page was a mistake.” Harry had responded and she nodded in understanding.

When supper arrived, he, Hermione, and Neville went down to the Great Hall to eat.

“Have you had any luck finding that revealing spell they use on the chalkboards?” Harry asked as they sat down at the table.

“No, and the teachers I've asked won't tell me what it is.” Hermione said. “I don't know why, unless it's like secret magic or something.”

“Hermione! That's it!” Harry said. “It's revealing a secret!”

Hermione opened her mouth to say that was silly, then she smiled instead. “It's not a revealing spell at all. It's the result of ending a spell that conceals a secret!”

Harry nodded. “I bet it's like an illusion or something.”

Hermione gasped. “Harry! It must be the Disillusionment Charm!”

“We'll look for it first thing in the morning.” Harry said as the food for supper appeared.

The three of them started eating and their conversation paused. The other first year students came over and sat down around them and Lavender gave them a big smile. Pavarti gave her an odd look and then looked at Harry. She couldn't figure out what was going on there, so she promised herself to ask Lavender after they ate.

“You guys have been busy a lot.” Ron said as he sat down next to Neville. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing.” Harry, Hermione, and Neville said at the same time. They three of them looked at each other for a moment and then laughed.

“What's funny?” One of the redheaded twins asked from part way down the table. “If it's a joke, you have to tell us.”

“Yeah. You can't keep a good joke hidden.” The other tall redheaded twin added.

“You're right. It is a good joke.” Harry said. “How do you keep nosy people in suspense? I'll tell you tomorrow.”

Hermione snorted and covered her mouth so that she wouldn't spit out the spoonful of potatoes she had just taken. Neville barked a laugh and then clamped his mouth shut as his ears turned red.

“HA! That was a good one.” Fred said and looked at his brother. “We've got to try that on Lee the next time we see him.”

“I heartily agree.” George said. “He's always asking us about stuff.”

Harry felt someone touch his arm and he turned his head to see Lavender lean in close.

“That was kind of mean.” Lavender whispered.

“A little.” Harry admitted. “I wouldn't have said it to anyone but them. You know what they're like.”

Lavender looked at the twins and nodded. “I hope you don't say anything like that about me.”

“Are you nosy?” Harry asked.

Lavender opened her mouth to say no when Pavarti spoke.

“Unbelievably so.” Pavarti said with a straight face.

“I am not!” Lavender responded and Pavarti laughed.

“No? Who's been asking everyone where the ghosts are hiding?” Pavarti asked. “That's pretty nosy.”

“Nosy is when you butt into other people's conversations to find out what their business is.” Hermione said. “Lavender's just being inquisitive.”

For us. Harry thought.

“About ghosts?” Pavarti chuckled. “Okay. Whatever.”

The conversation died down after that and Lavender gave Hermione a nod of thanks, then moved slightly away from Harry and resumed eating. The meal ended and nearly everyone went back to the Griffindor Tower common room. Harry couldn't find three chairs together, so he suggested an empty classroom or the library.

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“Let's grab our things and see what we can find on the way.” Hermione said and they did just that. They took a shortcut to get to the second floor and as they walked along, none of the classrooms were open, so they went to the library.

“You have books out.” Madam Pince whispered to Hermione and Neville as they entered.

“We'll have them back by Monday.” Hermione said and held up the book she had. “I'll be leaving this one when we're done here.”

“Me, too.” Neville said and put the book he had onto the desk. “Thanks for the loan.”

Madam Pince took the book and quickly examined it. She saw that it was in the same condition as when she had loaned it the weekend before and nodded. The trio walked by her and went to a table at the back of the library and put their things down.

“I'm glad she didn't ask me what I was carrying.” Harry whispered and put the two very expensive books on top of a piece of parchment to stop them from touching the table. The last thing he needed was to get varnish or something to mark up the covers. He had cast the Impervious spell and the dirt repellent charm on them. That didn't stop other things from marking them up or damaging them.

“She might want to keep such rare books all to herself.” Hermione whispered.

“No doubt.” Harry whispered and Hermione handed him the book. He opened it to the Geminio spell and started copying it out again.

Neville sat down and took out the book Harry had loaned him and started doing the same thing. He had already found some neat spells and copied them out repeatedly, so he could memorize them. It was a great trick for learning and it helped him immensely in both his Charms and Transfiguration classes. That was one of the reasons why he started hanging around Hermione. She was also really nice and didn't get angry at him when he made a mistake.

Of course, hanging around Hermione immediately put him into Harry's group and he had been adopted as a friend without so much as a 'why are you here', unlike every other time he had tried to make friends with people. To say that he was developing an attachment to the both of them was a bit of an understatement. When Harry had given him the money pouch and didn't ask him for anything in return, that cemented his loyalty completely.

Neville had already sent another letter to his Nan to explain why he was buying a wand and where he got the money. He didn't tell her how much he had, though. He was keeping that information to himself. He had also told her that Trevor, his untrustworthy and quite absent toad, had run away and couldn't be found. He suspected he had gotten to the Black Lake and found a nice place to live, well away from humans.

He almost laughed and caught himself, he was in a library after all, and felt a little jealous that his toad had gotten away and was probably having the time of his life.

*

“That was a very delicious croaker, my handsome devilfish.” The merman said to his wife as he hugged her.

“Oh, you!” His wife said and blew bubbles as he nibbled playfully at her gills.

She had found the very nice plump frog stuck in the grindylow's weeds and rescued it. It barely fit into her cooking thingie that the bearded wizard had gifted the merpeople. She didn't know how it could cook underwater and she didn't much care. It worked and it made the food she prepared for her husband quite delicious.

“I think I'm in the mood, dearest one.” The merman said and she giggled, because she always enjoyed this part. The two of them quickly swam out of the room and towards their prepared area. She sincerely hoped they would get at least two spawns out of this attempt, then all thoughts fled her mind as he got to work and took her right then and there.

Yes, she definitely enjoyed this part the most.

*

Severus Snape sat in his office and stared at the only two crystal vials that had complete potions in them. One was a very slightly off color, which meant it hadn't sit long enough before bottling. The other... was perfect. The color, the aroma, and the consistency were exactly what they were supposed to be.

It bothered him, because he had honestly thought that none of the students would have caught on to the layout of the recipe and figured out to do the ingredients in the order of time and not in the order of the list. He hadn't even bothered to tell them to read the entire recipe first, like he had during both of the other classes he had with the Griffindors.

That irked him as well, because several promising Slytherin students from his own House, had barely completed half of the potion. He gave them all the grade of Acceptable, because he didn't want his own House to perform so badly. He pushed aside the almost perfect potion with the Exceeds Expectations mark he had put on it to look at the perfect one.

Snape picked it up and his mind and heart warred with each other. On one hand, the student had been very cheeky and had even walked out of his class after passing in water for the potion he was supposed to brew. On the other hand, now that he knew what the student's home life had been like, he was reluctant to admit that he was the one that was out of line by assuming he was a spoiled brat.

He hated Harry Potter's father with a passion that all long lived hatreds thrived upon. He had been bullied for years and James Potter and his friends were responsible for nearly all of his humiliation. The problem he had was separating that from the son. He had let his own preconceptions color what he saw in the boy and that had influenced his actions.

Snape had acted rashly and caused Harry's retaliation and accusations. Accurate accusations, now that he could see it from a wronged boy's perspective... namely, his own perspective when he was a boy. People treated him badly when he was a student and he went right ahead and did the same thing to Harry.

He sighed and his quill hesitated on adding the grade to the potion. He didn't want to inflate the boy's ego more than it already was, and yet if he didn't give him an appropriate mark, the boy would know that he wasn't marking him fairly. He sat there for a good ten minutes before he marked Acceptable on it and added it to the box.

Snape frowned at his decision, mainly because he couldn't get past the fact that Harry was James Potter's son. The sins of the father had been unwittingly transferred to the son and that was a lot for Harry to fight against. Snape knew it was unfair. He knew it was. He also couldn't let it go.

There was something inside him telling him that there was something wrong with the boy. He wasn't sure what it was and he knew he could never ask the boy what it was. Not only would it let the boy know that he was looking into his situation, it would also openly declare himself hostile. At the moment, all he was, was an annoyance to the boy.

Snape would have to continue playing that role, mainly because the Dark Mark on the inside of his forearm hadn't faded after Quirrell's death at Harry Potter's hand. The funny thing was, no one seemed to be investigating Harry after that death. Not only that, Quirrell's family hadn't made any kind of fuss and just quietly buried the ashes in the family plot. There wasn't even a notice in the Daily Prophet about his passing.

He looked at the small stack of papers that he had copied from Dumbledore's office. Several of them contained detailed information about using the Mirror Of Erised to hide the Philosopher's Stone and to give it to Harry, just so Lord Voldemort would come after the boy. Snape shook his head at the idiocy of using a cursed magical artifact to manipulate a boy into fighting the spirit of the man that tried to kill him when he was a baby.

Insanity and inanity. Snape thought and pushed the top sheets aside. The sheets underneath were almost as convoluted and complicated as the 'tests' Dumbledore had prepared for Harry to face to get to the mirror. He saw that the mirror was still involved, except it was a precursor and a tease for other events that the headmaster had planned.

Snape shook his head again and started to write several quick messages. If he was lucky, he could get a school owl to deliver them anonymously and he could stop the old fool's delusional plan before it started. He just hoped his tips were enough proof for them to act.

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