Chapter 6: Chapter 6
The first day of the weekend passed quietly. After a quick breakfast, Harry spent most of his time reading, like a typical Ravenclaw. Right after lunch, he managed to complete reading all the books that he had stored in his mind and was finally able to move on to the books in Hogwarts.
Harry would always have access to the books in Ravenclaw's common room, and there was always someone there reading, so he decided to go to Hogwarts' library. He wasn't disappointed with his decision. The library was massive, filled with a countless amount of bookshelves. He found a spot where there weren't any other students and started going through the books one by one like reading magazines. The ones that he focused on were about DADA and Transfiguration. It took him a few hours to store as many as he was able to find in his mind. It will be quite some time before he finishes reading them.
Later that day, he had a meeting with Dumbledore before he returned to his room, where he would start reading all the new books in his mind. However, Harry felt like he was forgetting something. Something that would end up biting him in the ass. He carefully started revising his memories until he reached the day he departed from New York.
"Logan's going to kill me!" Harry shouted, realizing that he had done absolutely zero physical exercises since then. That had to change! It was too late in the day to start now, so he decided that from tomorrow, he will start exercising.
The next day of the weekend, he woke up early in the morning. As early as he could without an alarm clock to help him. Finding a spell for an alarm clock would be something he would have to look into. He put on a pair of joggers and a shirt before leaving his room and exiting the castle. The lake was the perfect spot for an early morning run.
It was a lot easier when you had a crazy man chasing behind you, but he kept going on until his legs couldn't take it anymore. After catching his breath, he finished today's exercises by doing push-ups before returning to his room to take a quick shower.
Harry sat at his usual spot in the Great Hall, at the end of the Ravenclaw's table. He took a few bites of his food when something unusual happened to him. His skin wrinkled, and a large grey beard sprouted from his face. The entire hall burst out laughing at him, and he looked around to find out the culprits. Harry didn't need to be a genius to realize Fred and George were the ones. Both of them had a glint in their eyes and a challenging smirk on their faces. They were just outside of his telepathic range within Hogwarts, but he was sure that they were the culprits.
Harry shook his head and continued eating his food while ignoring the laughter. His mind, however, was already on the move. He reached out with his telekinesis towards the Gryffindor table. One by one, he grabbed as many plates, food, and goblets as he could, before he threw them all the prankster duo.
"We made him look like Dumbeldore-"
"-but he made us look like Snape," They said with pumpkin juice dripping from their faces and grease covering their hair.
"I didn't even see him move."
"Neither did I."
"I think he won this round, Forge."
"I think so too, Gred."
Both nodded to each other with smirks plastered on their faces. Harry wasn't like how their little brother had described him. They took a peek at him, and Ron was downright furious, staring at Harry with hatred in his eyes. He heard his brothers and realized who was the one that had ruined so much good food! If he didn't like Harry before, he new hated him with every bone in his body.
Harry had finished eating his breakfast and passed the twins on his way out. He wasn't worried about his appearance since he knew such things didn't last forever. It would probably expire by the end of today. With his hand grooming his long beard, Harry told them. "Have your parents told you not to mess with an old man? Youngsters these days, tsk, tsk, tsk."
Both of them laughed out loud before standing up and following him. They placed a hand over his shoulder and leaned in.
"That was-"
"-pretty good, Harkinson."
"Do you mind-"
"-telling us how you did it?"
"Not at all, not at all, young fellas," Harry said, his hand still grooming his beard. Both of them perked up, ready to hear the secret, and leaned in even closer. "Magic~."
"Ohh, little ickle Harkinson is acting as a mysterious old man," said the one on the left.
"Indeed, we would have to step up our game, Fred," said the one on the right.
"This was nothing more than a test."
"From now on, the real game starts!"
Harry pointed at the one on his right. "Fred." Then pointed at the one his left. "George." Before entering a room in the hallway. Hogwarts was massive, and numerous classrooms were unused. Harry entered one of them and planned to practice his magic in it.
"George."
"Fred."
"Even our mother can't guess-"
"-our names when we don't want her to."
"So, how does ickle little Harkinson do it?"
"I don't know, but we shouldn't call him little when he has a beard as large as Dumbledore's."
"You are correct, brother. And I believe we should stop acting like Snape, and actually go and take a shower. We don't want to run from shampoo like him, do we?"
"No, we don't."
Today, Harry wanted to focus on a few DADA Charms. Mainly, the Disarming Charm and the Shielding Charm. Both of them were second-year spells, but they were beyond useful. The Shielding Charm reflected spells and blocked physical objects. The only thing that was able to get past it was the three Unforgivable Curses. Harry would have to look into them in the future and figure out a way to stop them as well.
The Disarming Charm was just as useful as the Shielding Charm. Maybe even more if it was used against wizards and witches since they were almost useless without their wands. Harry could do something similar with his telekinesis, but he planned to hide his mutant abilities as much as possible. It was better to have a hidden card against the Dark Lord.
Harry was working on the Disarming Charm when the door the classroom burst open.
"I found you!" Came the voice of Tracey as she skipped inside with Daphne and Blaise following behind her. The two of them looked a bit nervous, but there was none of that in Tracey.
"You looked better with a beard," she joked before asking him. "We were wondering if you would help with the Transfiguration spell? We heard you did on the first try."
'Is that why Daphne and Blaise look nervous? They think I won't help them?' Harry wondered before taking a peek at their thoughts. That was mostly the case, but it was because they were Slytherins they thought he won't want to spend time with them.
"Sure," Harry agreed and asked. "Why would I not help you?"
"Because we are in Slytherin!" Daphne replied as if it wasn't obvious, which to Harry, it wasn't.
"So?" Harry asked.
"The other houses don't really like us. They consider everyone from Slytherin evil," Blaise was the one to answer him this time.
"And are you evil?"
"Of course not," Tracey answered and sat down on a desk. "Let's start! We even brought our own matchsticks."
Seeing that Harry didn't think badly of them, Daphne and Blaise followed suit and sat down next to Tracey.
Harry took one of their matchsticks, showed them that he could do it without the incantation, and reverted it back to normal. He handed it back to them and began his explanation. About half an hour later, both Tracey and Blaise managed to transform it into a needle without a problem.
Daphne, on the other hand, wasn't as successful, judging by the silvery matchstick in front of her. Both the incantation and the wand movement were done perfectly by her, yet she couldn't turn it into a needle.
Harry knew that the problem stemmed from her mind, so he asked her to do it one more time while he peeked at her thoughts while she was doing it. Daphne was thinking about her family. About her father, her little sister, who she doted on very much, and most importantly, her mother. A few days before departing for Hogwarts, her mother had fallen ill, and Daphne was worried about her.
Harry sat down next to her. "You're not focusing on the spell."
"I'm trying!" Daphne almost yelled at him for being called out.
"Ït's okay, you are thinking about your family," he said, and Daphne looked at him with wide eyes. 'How does he know?'
"I think about my family, as well. Well, they aren't exactly MY family, but I consider them like that. They took care of me for the past five years, fed me, taught me everything I know. I couldn't ask for more, and I already miss them a lot."
"Then how do you focus on the spells?" Her voice was almost pleading for an answer.
"I want to impress them," Harry told her. "I..."
With a cheshire grin on her face, Tracey nudged Blaise with her elbow and motioned towards the door with her head. He nodded to her, and the two silently exited the room, leaving the two to talk with each other.
Once outside, Tracey told him. "They look so cute together!"
Blaise opened his mouth but shut it in an instant. He probably shouldn't ask her the question he had on his mind.
A few hours later, the two returned to the classroom to find Daphne casting Jinx and Hexes at Harry. As a pureblood and heir to one of the Sacred Twenty Eight families, she was taught a few of them before attending Hogwarts. Harry was blocking each and every one of them by timely using the Shielding Charm. They've been at it for quite some time now, and he already had a good grasp on the spell.
The moment Harry spotted Tracey and Blaise, he realized something was wrong. Tracey was looking at the ground, not daring to meet his eyes while Blaise had a complicated look on his face. With a quick check of their memories, he understood what had happened.
Malfoy had been boasting how he was the best amongst the first-years, and Tracey had called him out, saying Draco was nothing compared to him. How the girl had so much confidence in him, Harry didn't know, but it warmed his heart. It felt nice. Draco had then started insulting her and Blaise, and things escalated from there.
"I'm so sorry, Harry," Tracey apologized, her eyes not moving from the ground.
"What happened?" Harry asked, despite already knowing.
"Draco... he was boasting how he was the best out of all the first-years, and I... I told him you were better. He then started insulting me, calling me worthless and trash-" Blaise cut her off there.
"And started calling me a bastard, son of a whore. He then said he would destroy you if you two ever dueled and issued a challenge. Which I ended up accepting in your stead as your second."
Duellists will often have a second in a formal duel. That would usually be a trusted ally, who will act as a replacement for one duellist if necessary.
"The duel is supposed to happen at 11:30 PM in the Great Hall."
The time for the duel sounded odd to Harry. There was a curfew in school, which was 10:00 PM. Any students caught out of their common rooms after that time will be punished. To top it off, he had asked for the duel to be in the Great Hall? There was something fishy about all of that.
"I see," Harry said and thought for a moment. "Could you please bring Draco here? I don't feel like waiting for a few hours, might as well deal with this right now."
"You're not mad at us?" Tracey asked.
"Of course, I'm not!" He easily answered.
A brown blur slammed into him, enveloping him in a tight hug. "Thank you!"
Before he could realize what's happening, Tracey was already dashing towards the door. She grabbed Blaise's hand on the way and pulled him out of the room. "Let's go and find that blonde ponce!"
"You're really not mad them? After they accepted a duel instead of you?" Daphne asked after they left.
"No. They stood up for me when they didn't need to or have reason to," Harry answered her.
"Tracey likes you," Daphne told him after a moment of silence.
"I like her too," without hesitation, he told her.
"But not the way she wants you to," Daphne said after studying his face.
"Ah... Well..." Harry was a bit embarrassed at that. "I don't think I'm going to have any relationships with witches."
"What do you mean by that?" She asked, all kinds of weird conclusions swirling in her head.
"I don't know how long I will be staying in the Wizarding World. I don't feel like my place is here."
"What?" Daphne exclaimed loudly. Out of all the theories in her head, some which involved Harry with another boy or a man, this was not what she expected to hear. Before she could question him further, Tracey and Blaise returned, followed by Draco and his two goons. She shot him a look that meant 'We will talk later!' and decided to drop it for now.
"What do you want, Potter?" Draco question, but Harry was already looking through his head.
Malfoy apparently had no plans to meet him at 11:30 PM. He wanted Harry to get caught outside of curfew and get expelled? For a moment, Harry was confused. Did Draco not listen when they were informed that rule-breaking would result in losing points for your house? Malfoy clearly wasn't the brightest out there. And there was no way Dumbledore would expel him. Not unless he does something atrocious.
However, Harry didn't stop there. He dug deeper through Draco's memories. He wanted to know why Malfoy had planned to ally with him. What he found disturbed him.
Lucius Malfoy, the boy's father, believed that Harry could end up becoming the next Dark Lord because, obviously, only a greater Dark Lord could defeat another, especially when he was only a baby. Lucius expected him to rally the other like him, Death Eaters, and finish what Voldermort failed to do.
This information was disturbing, and Harry wasn't sure what he was supposed to do with it. Was he supposed to tell Dumbledore about it? Or should he speak with Xavier and seek his advice? Or should he tell neither and try to deal with this on his own? He wasn't sure what's the correct choice here.
"What is it, Potter?" Draco asked again since Harry kept quiet.
"Were you that scared of me that you set the duel after curfew and didn't even plan to follow it up?" Harry asked with a mocking smile.
"Who do you think you are, Potter? I'm Draco Malfoy, heir of house Malfoy! I'm scared of no one!" Dracon proudly declared.
"So, you wouldn't mind having our duel right now, would you?" Harry saw hesitation and fear in Draco's eyes before the blonde puffed up his chest.
"So be it, Potter. I will show you true skills," Malfoy declared and turned towards Daphne with a leer. "Greengrass, as a pureblood, I trust you would at least be able to count us off. If anything else."
Harry was in no way planning of losing, especially when Dumbledore had warned him that he couldn't afford to lose. He wasn't sure why, but the old man made it clear that should he fight, he should make sure to win. Now that Draco took another jab at one of his friends, he was going to stomp him.
"I would love to, Malfoy." Daphne had been practicing with Harry for the past few hours. She knew what he was capable of, and she was sure that he would win. Daphne would find pleasure in seeing Malfoy humiliated.
Both Draco and Harry took their positions.
"Bow first, as per the rules." They did as told, and Daphne started the count off.
"Three!"
'I will start with the hex father taught me, before hitting him with curses until he begs me to stop!' Draco was planning how to start the duel, unaware that Harry was hearing everything on his mind.
"Two!" Daphne counted, and both of them were already tense and ready to start.
"One!" The moment her words left her mouth, Draco's wand was already in motion. "Petrificus Totalus!" He yelled and pointed his wand at Harry, yet nothing happened. During his wand movement, Harry had ever so slightly nudged it with his telekinesis without Draco realizing. He wasn't going to play fair when his opponent had tried tricking him at first.
"Expelliarmus!" A scarlet light shot out of Harry's wand and hit Draco. Malfoy's wand flew out of his had, but that wasn't all. The moment the scarlet light hit Draco, Harry timed his telekinesis and pushed. Malfoy was lifted off his feet and thrown against the wall behind them.
The classroom turned deadly silent. Everyone was staring at Harry with eyes as wide as saucers. They had no idea he had used his telekinesis to push him away, and to them, it looked like a pure show of magical power.
"Well, Malfoy. Why did you challenge me to a duel when you couldn't even cast a spell properly?" Harry asked with a mocking smile.
Draco stared at him with fear in his eyes before saying. "Wait till my father hears of this!"
"Hears what? That you failed to befriend me? That you failed to ally with me? Oh, yes, he would be happy to hear about your failures. I'm sure of that." From what Harry saw, Lucius Malfoy was not a forgiving person.
There was no further response from Draco, who got carried away by his two goons.
With a smile from ear to ear, Tracey hopped next to him. "That was so cool! Can you teach me?"
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