Chapter 17: Chapter 14: The Curse 2
Harry narrowed his eyes at the figure of the defence professor skulking towards the forbidden forest and cursed. "Fucking bitch!"
What was Twix doing now? Didn't she know that through his reading of the original Harry Potter books, he had a crippling and justified fear of defence professors, especially with his first name being Harry? This woman had already been giving him mini-heart attacks with her cartoonishly suspicious behaviour in the library. Now she was going into the Forbidden Forest at night as well? What the fuck was she doing?
Harry paused and considered for a moment. He looked down at his chameleon-like appearance. He was only one staircase up from where he could exit the castle from the same door that Twix had obviously used. He could probably follow her with his new spell. If nothing else he might finally figure out what her end goal was. What was she seeking in the forbidden forest? She'd been running in the opposite direction of Hagrid's hut so she wasn't visiting the groundskeeper.
He had only a short time to make his decision, he concluded as her form left the castle further and further behind. If he went, he needed to go now. The question was if he should.
The whoosh of an immaterial form common to the Hogwarts hallways filled the corridor and someone else made the decision for him. "Firsties out of bed?" Peeves screamed. "Filch, Filch, flay this fool, Filch Filch find this firstie!" The poltergeist screamed at the top of his lungs when he saw Harry's partially obscured form. He'd likely been summoned by his cursing.
Harry broke out in a run towards the staircase before he was caught and given detention with the unpleasant caretaker. He'd rather get to the bottom of the Twix mystery than spend time with the unpleasant squib.
He flew down the moving staircase and executed an acrobatic jump towards the door, a poltergeist now chasing his loud footsteps. He really should have learned a sound-muffling spell, he lamented.
It was exiting the castle that finally managed to unglue Peeves from his ass. Not stopping to catch his breath, but also in case he lost his sudden courage Harry only set a walking pace once he caught up to Twix. He followed her from a safe distance, partially wondering if this was the stupid decision that would lead to his death and partially wondering if he'd be reincarnated again.
Looking down at himself to confirm that he was still camouflaged, Harry followed the woman until she stood right at the boundary to the forbidden forest. Once there the professor idly waved her wand, probably to apply a warming charm and seemingly began to wait before a particularly gnarly magnolia. She kept fidgeting as if uncomfortable or impatient and her body language in turn made Harry nervous. He resisted the urge to pace around, as he was now close enough to probably be heard if he moved too abruptly.
Suddenly Twix stilled and looked into the forest. Harry strained his eyes to see and made out a huge antlered figure in the shadows of the trees. A stag pranced out of the forest, becoming visible in the moonlight and stopped in front of the professor.
Harry froze, afraid of the possibility that the stag could smell him and give him away to Twix somehow. He turned around to see if there was enough soft grass to walk back on without being heard and flinched when he saw some sort of light rainbowy sheen blocking him off from the Hogwarts grounds in a circle that extended into the forest.
What was this? Was he caught? He should have known this was a horrible idea. Wasn't his whole goal at Hogwarts to not get into trouble? Was this whole set-up to trap him? But if so, what was with the stag, was it a conjuration of some sort? These thoughts flitted relentlessly through his head as he stood there, paralysed.
"It's definitely in the library," Twix said and Harry whipped his head around to see her talking to the stag. "I can feel it, no matter how much it tries to hide between the stench of the books already there. A good hiding spot, I admit. I've been trying to gain access. I should be done soon. Two or three months. I don't know what I will find behind the door though. Probably something horrible." She sniffed. The stag nodded slowly and Twix pulled out a piece of parchment and went on her toes to puncture it onto one of the spikes present on the animal's antlers. "I need it by next week, the usual channel will do," she said and waited for a second. Maybe for the stag to reply? The animal simply snorted and looked up to the castle, the moonlight reflected in its eyes before turning around and trotting off.
"Bloody cold out here," Twix cursed before raising her wand again, causing Harry to instinctively step back. With a twitch of the wooden stick, the barrier disappeared. The woman turned around and began her walk back to the castle. Harry managed to make himself unfreeze and follow.
What was that one-sided conversation she'd had with the stag? What was he supposed to do?. He'd caught Twix in an awkward position twice now. Should he go to the headmaster and tell him what he'd seen? Realistically there was nothing to do here but alert someone. Was it worth it for Dumbledore potentially reading his mind? People could be in danger.
Hadn't he already gone against his principles of non-involvement by following Twix here? It only took a mixture of running away from detention and curiosity for him to break his promise to his aunt, he thought as he slipped into the castle behind Twix and split off from the woman to go towards the Hufflepuff common room.
Looking at his colour-blended but still visibly shaky hand Harry wondered for a short moment if he was suicidal, or if putting one's life at risk was a much easier task than he'd ever imagined. The latter explanation would certainly explain the amount of stupid deaths that have occurred throughout history. He entered the common room, only to pause at the sight of Penny sleeping on one of the couches with a closed chessboard clutched in her arms.
He sighed and sat down next to his friend. He watched her young face, illuminated by the fireplace shift into a grimace as if she were having a nightmare. Reaching out towards her he took the chessboard from where she was clutching it to her chest and squeezed her hands gently while he was at it. He began to set up the pieces and listened as Penny stirred from sleep. He could almost hear her eyelids open from how silent the common room was, except for the crackling of the fire. It wasn't that late yet, and Harry wondered where the later years were, shouldn't they still be hanging about?
"Harry?" Penny asked with a yawn as she righted herself on the couch.
"Sorry for keeping you waiting, the meeting ran longer than expected. Did you have a nice nap?" he asked.
Glancing to the left he saw the girl shrug. "It's ok. I'm sure Professor Flitwick appreciated the company. He seems a bit too energetic for me to really imagine him alone. You still want to play?"
"Let's play a game, promises and whatnot. Tomorrow is Saturday anyway," he said, before admitting. "I should tire myself out for the sleepless night I have ahead of me anyway."
"How come?" Penny asked as she took the spot opposite of him and began looking at the board with her tongue sticking up.
Wondering for a second if it was fair to burden a child with his worries, Harry decided that Penny was a friend, as odd as that sounded and that he didn't have to mention details. "I fear that I know what I must do, but that I don't have the strength to do it."
"But you're one of the strongest people I know!" Penny exclaimed, shocked and looked at him as if he'd just said he was a muggle. "The amount of studying you're able to do is terrifying, you have to be brave for that. Sprout is lucky you're so hard-working, or you'd be in Gryffindor," she said and frantically convincingly waved her arms.
"Academic record aside. I'm just trying to decide between what is right and what is easy," Harry answered while filing away the name of his head of house.
"Well, my mom always says that if you have to wonder so much about what to do before you even have to do it… You should do it because you'll spend an equal amount of time doing it as you will worrying about it." Penny said sagely.
Harry hummed and turned the words over in his head. Rather than worrying about Twix, he could offload the responsibility to deal with the situation on the headmaster, or maybe even his head of house. All that he would risk was his biggest secret, depending on who he went to. However, perhaps it was paranoid to think that Dumbledore read the mind of every first-year who came into his office. One moment of bravery, or months of anxiety and potentially life-long regret if Twix did something unthinkable and he had no one but himself to blame for having had the opportunity of preventing it. The words of Penny's mom were indeed wise.
He concluded, however, that this was not really the context that they had been said for. He raised his head and looked penetratingly into Penny's eyes. "This is what your mom tells you when you're trying to escape doing chores isn't it," he said, causing the girl to sputter and weakly defend her honour.
"No-, I mean-, never-" she eeped out before sighing. "Alright, you caught me," she admitted.
"I hate taking trash out the most. I can smell it on my hand sometimes, it's gross," Harry said.
Penny calmed down and shot him a rueful smile, "It's de-gnoming for me, gnomes are dumb."
Harry nodded sagely. "Dumb gnomes," he said before taking a pawn off the muggle chessboard and pushing it two steps forward.
"Your turn."
"So weird that they don't talk," Penny commented on the muggle chessboard Harry had insisted they play on.
"I imagine it as more relaxing," Harry replied, not being able to disconnect the way that wizarding chess pieces interacted with each other from a particularly toxic video game lobby.
Chapter 18: Chapter 15: Limit testing
A few days after his chess game with Penny, Harry found himself standing in front of the greenhouse that served as Sprouts' office. Not because it was actually an office, but because one was much more likely to find her here than elsewhere. His indecision about the matter with Twix had been gnawing at him, causing him to lose out on sleep and focus. In the end, he'd decided to tell a professor about what he'd seen, but not the headmaster. Harry really wanted to get his search function spell to work and to find something on Occlumency before approaching that particular man, even if his worries were most likely unfounded.
Lifting a hand to knock at the glasshouse door he hesitated, one last time, before simply sighing and knocking. A, "Come in!" was heard not a second later and Harry entered the uncomfortably humid glass house. Seeing Sprout at the end of a row filled with what appeared to be pink roses with teeth, he approached the woman gingerly, not touching any of the roses, no matter how tranquil they appeared for the moment.
"Mr. Evans!" Sprout exclaimed happily, putting down her trowel, which she had been using to re-pot a plant that looked like a gigantic bee. "What brings you here?" she asked, but continued speaking, "You spend so much time with Professor Flitwick I sometimes get the feeling you're a Ravenclaw," she said jokingly.
Seeing an easy way to flatter the woman Harry answered. "I've been in need of Professor Flitwick's help often recently due to the project that I'm working on with charms. However, if I ever had a real issue to discuss I would obviously go to my head of house."
Sprout nodded her head and ushered him to the back to the green-house where there was a table with a chair that she sat down at. She idly conjured him a small stool with a spell incantation that he was too distracted to understand.
"You're here to talk about something serious?" she asked, face growing hard in a way that Harry hadn't thought possible of the seemingly always jolly woman.
"Yes, I've witnessed some worrying happenings and I want to get it off my chest so I'm not solely responsible if it results in something unpleasant," Harry began. Sprout simply nodded and bid him to continue. "It's about Professor Twix-" he started, but Sprout cut him off by heaving out a loud sigh.
"The damned defence position," she said with tired eyes. "I'm sorry, please continue."
"I was practising some spells in an abandoned classroom once when she came in with someone I didn't recognize. You see, I hid, as I didn't want to be caught, so I didn't see who it was. But the other was definitely Professor Twix. She was talking to this second person, a male, I think she was trying to brief him about something. Well, anyway they noticed that the classroom had been used and moved elsewhere. This didn't worry me as much, but then last week I saw the professor leaving the grounds at night and I admit that I followed her," Harry said
"You should have gotten a professor if you had any reason to be suspicious," Sprout interjected.
"Well, she met with the stag at the edge of the forbidden forest. Talked to it. She told him that she thought that she had found what they'd been looking for at Hogwarts. Supposedly it's in the library and Professor Twix will need a bit more to gain access. She's expecting to find something horrible in there, she said. So I thought I'd better tell somebody," Harry finished, noting how an odd look passed Sprout's face at the mention of the stag. Was he missing something?
"Five points to Hufflepuff. It was a very brave thing to come to me, Mr.Evans," Sprout said. "Disregarding the irresponsibility of going anywhere near the forbidden forest at night, I'm glad to have heard what you had to tell me about Professor Twix. Ì will have to go talk to the headmaster immediately," she said as she stood up.
"What should I do meanwhile?" Harry asked, getting an odd look from his head of house.
"Why, nothing," she replied. "You're a student, Mr Evans, you've already exposed yourself to more unpleasantness than necessary. And this is likely exactly what it is, unpleasantness, I suspect, nothing dangerous," she said, causing Harry to slump on his stool. The amount of relief that he felt at hearing that the situation wasn't something dangerous was difficult to describe.
"I'll go talk to the headmaster. Hopefully, we can resolve whatever this situation is. You go enjoy the rest of the day, well if you've done your homework that is," the woman said.
Harry nodded quickly. "I did, I did." But Sprout was already rushing off, a fast walk that seemed more displeased and perhaps a tinge angry, rather than panicked. Harry counted his blessings. He looked down to see a vine getting a bit too close to his leg and he took it as his cue to leave, but not before manifesting a small flame in his hands to taunt the carnivorous roses with. "Don't think I'm scared of you, you little fuckwads," he muttered as he made his way out of the greenhouse, carefully avoiding all plant matter.
Magical plants were weird, he'd rather transfigure a broom into a mop any day of the week rather than watch and work with the disconcertingly sentient plants that seemed to make up the magical botany encyclopaedia. It wasn't his cup of tea, similar to potions, he thought as he exited the green-house and stepped onto the snow-covered fields behind Hogwarts.
"Harry?" a voice asked, and the boy turned to see Tonks standing next to the green-house, looking at him. "Are you the reason Sprout ran off like a bat from hell?" she asked.
"I guess", he muttered in response.
"What did you do?" Tonks queried further, "Sprout doesn't run, she doesn't even walk fast. She ambles," she said before narrowing her eyes. "Don't think you're forgiven for the shit you pulled on the train either, 'touch my tits' indeed you little pervert," she cursed as she pulled out her wand.
Harry carefully backed away from the clearly dangerous and deranged woman. "What're you planning on doing with that?" he asked warily as he pulled his own wand, only to remember that he really hadn't been focusing much on his duelling ability since arriving at Hogwarts.
"Considering your shitty taste of humour, I have a bunch of jinxes that you would probably find absolutely hilarious," Tonks said threateningly as her hair turned from pink to flaming red. She walked towards him, as Harry continued backing away. He concluded from the situation that she really hadn't appreciated the joke he'd made on the train.
"Now, now," he said while raising his hands placatingly. "I'm sure we can figure something out, what do you want, money, women, status? I can grant it all, but only if I remain unharmed," he haggled diplomatically, causing Tonks to grow red in the face as well.
"You littl-" she began and raised her wand menacingly, but that's as far as she got because Harry slashed down his wand and cast a wordless flipendo. Something that he'd needed to stall for so that he could gather enough focus in the awkward situation. Tonks was thrown back into the snow. Not that Harry could see, he was already running away as fast as he could.
"You'll never catch me alive!" he shouted as his feet carried him towards the castle.
"Get back here!" Tonks screamed from behind him. Harry obviously didn't listen, but he did retort once he saw that he was about to pass a group of older Gryffindor who were watching the chase with a curious expression.
"I'm really sorry that it has to end this way, Tonks, but I just don't see myself ready for a relationship like that with a much older woman!" he shouted while beginning to huff from exertion from running and talking at the same time. Seeing the Gryffindors laugh at his words and start cheering him on, he added, "The truth is, you're just too demanding in bed, I can't keep up!"
Perhaps it was his insistence to taunt while he ran that eventually ended up in him getting caught by Tonks. She never replied to a single thing he said but had simply run after him, seemingly fuelled by sheer embarrassment and hatred.
-/-
"Still not rid of the pink hair? It's been more than a week," Flitwick said with a chuckle.
Harry sighed. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, apparently."
"Indeed, a valuable lesson to learn in one's first year," Flitwick said as he turned towards the almost completely empty room that he had available in the back of his office for particularly volatile charms work. He pointed at a single piece of paper lying on the ground. "Now here is today's test subject," he said and turned to Harry, who furrowed his brow.
"That's it?" the student asked dubiously, wondering if he was simply misinformed about the danger of spell-creation, or if what he'd read about wards, runic circles and non-magical surroundings to avoid contamination had been made up. "Is it safe to try something in the castle, what about magical contamination?" he asked, causing Flitwick to chuckle.
"That's definitely one thing one should consider when dealing with dangerous spells without properly crafted arithmetic equations," the professor said.
Harry nodded and realised that for all that he had Flitwick as a project supervisor, he hadn't yet felt secure in plumbing the man for whatever information he desired. He weighed the thought in his mind and decided that the man had proven kind and interested enough in furthering Harry as a wizard that he could bring up some less-than-traditional topics for a Hogwarts education.
"I also read that during spell-creation it was safer to use runic circles to anchor a protection ward?" Harry asked.
"I see that you're more prepared than most for the spell-creating process, and while the things you've been mentioning are important when creating combat spells, or conjurations, your spell is a fairly benign construct. I don't see the need, really. Would you like to do it, just so you can see how?" Flitwick asked and Harry considered the offer.
"Perhaps we can keep these things for a future in which I create a more dangerous spell," Harry said. "We're here to bring to an end a half year of work. Maybe I'm just nervous at the thought of failure. That I've wasted so much time," he admitted.
Flitwick smiled kindly. "Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there. The words on the paper I wrote are 'the book.' Why don't you give the search a try?" he prompted and waved him off as if trying to disperse his worries with his tiny hands.
Harry stood there like a muppet for a few seconds. The fact that the theory and the invocation he was supposed to cast were of his own design, written on a proper stapled-together research proposal, instead of an ancient tome, baffled him. It was just weird, magic was supposed to be found in dusty books at the end of a shelf. It was supposed to be found in between the mad ramblings of an 18th-century gnome enthusiast; a spell for making the perfect linguini.
"Fuck it," Harry said, stopping his stream of consciousness. The professor laughed and hopped from foot to foot. Harry quickly pulled out a piece of parchment from his pocket and wrote the word onto it with a quill. He specifically used these materials because these were the ones Flitwick and any other magicals were likely to use. Harry then raised his wand over the piece of parchment, focused his intention on the typography of the word 'book' and waved his wand in the complicated pattern. "Littera revelio," he carefully incanted, feeling the tug on his magic and peeling his eyes open to see any result, only for nothing to happen.
Harry looked down at the stone floor and then at the piece of paper in the middle of the room. It was a few metres away.
"When casting the homenum revelio spell I find it helpful to imagine an expanding circle of awareness with me at the centre" Flitwick commented.
Harry nodded, cringed at the fact that he'd forgotten to visualise, concentrated, took a few steps towards the paper and cast his spell. "Littera revelio," he said and watched as the something on the piece of paper began glowing, he was too far to distinguish properly if it was the word. He took a few more steps and picked up the paper, 'book' being clearly highlighted in a dim shining gold.
"It works," Harry breathed before sitting down to stare at the paper, which was gradually losing its glow.
"May I see?" Flitwick asked, causing Harry to pause. He'd never given Flitwick permission to cast his spell, had he? Was it something that even needed allowance? It was probably a cultural thing. It could just as well have been possible that by asking for his help, Harry had invertedly allowed Flitwick the use of his creation, just as it could be the case that using someone's spell without their permission was a highly insulting act.
"Go for it. Use the spell as you desire, professor. It was never a magic meant to remain secret," Harry said, not turning around to look at the man, but continuing to stare at the paper, only a slight shimmer still illuminating the word 'book'. His words had less weight when one considered that one industrious muggle-born would have certainly created a similar spell after the advent of the computer.
"Thank you," Flitwick said perfunctorily, "littera revelio," he cast, not bothering with writing anything down and whooped in delight, telling Harry that for him as well, the spell had worked. Harry began laughing and let himself fall backwards onto the floor, not minding the scourgify he'd need later.
"Six months," he whispered to himself. A doubt crept up. This had been simply testing the spell in the presence of one piece of paper. Would doing so in a library work? He banished the thought, because no matter what, the hard part was done now, now it was just time to experiment and grow experienced with the spell. One day it would expand into querying for meaning, not form. He'd also need to learn to cast it wordlessly and without wand gestures since he doubted Pince would appreciate him waving his wand around in the library. Also, he needed to get rid of having to write the word first, like Flitwick had managed.
Flitwick coughed, to gain the boy's attention. "Well, Harry, it's at this point that I have a reward for this amazing extra-curricular project. I already discussed it with the rest of the staff, what should be done in case you succeed in your endeavour, and what should be done in case you don't," he said, catching Harry's attention.
"What would have happened had I not succeeded?" he asked curiously.
"Well, you would have been awarded 50 points, I shan't say the name of your house, or else it will actually happen," he chuckled. " In addition, you would have automatically passed your Charms exam with an O, no test required. The amount of magical theory knowledge and the rest of the charms work I have seen you do, are at such a level that I don't doubt that you would be able to pass next year's exam as well if left with the spell list for a few weeks. Last but not least, although most of our pupils, unfortunately, wouldn't consider this a reward: You would have gotten more lee-way in class and be assigned more advanced and personalised instruction in the context of staying within the classroom. Of course, this would only happen in classes where you aren't being challenged, so likely not in Potions."
Harry tilted his head at the deluge of information. "Seeing as it worked, did I pass the Charms exam?" he asked somewhat stupidly. It was irrelevant anyway, seeing as how he'd been keeping up in all classes and even doing more in some of them. He wouldn't have to study for the exams anyway.
"Yes, with an O, even. Funnily enough, this wasn't something that would have changed depending on success or failure, you can still sit them of course, if you want." Flitwick said.
"I might not want to stick out too much, but also I can still aim for an O+. What's the difference in the reward then, if that part is the same?"
"Well, you won't be getting points for one. You'd deserve about 150, but it was decided that this would destabilise the entire point system."
"If one good project could swing the whole battle between houses, nobody would avoid committing misdemeanours just to avoid losing points. I never wanted them anyway," Harry agreed.
"Would you rather have an acknowledgement in the trophy room then? If you allow your spell to be taught by me, then you will definitely deserve at least a plaque. Students get those for being the youngest seeker in a hundred years, I think your achievement is more impressive," Flitwick sniffed, causing Harry to raise an eyebrow.
"The spell is not done yet, we have to see if extending the-" he began to retort, at which point Flitwick shrugged and interrupted him.
"It's already developing to be extremely useful and thus, I'd love to teach it along with the other charms in the curriculum."
Harry mulled it over. There wasn't really any reason to keep the spell a secret, it would even benefit him if it wasn't. What if one day a researcher created something only because he'd found the necessary literature fast enough to catch their deadline? He'd been a proponent of open science even in his last life, and he didn't see a reason to stop now.
"Sod the award," Harry said. "I want everyone who wants to learn the spell to be able to do so, teach it, expand on it, change it. I don't care." He shrugged, teasing an approving small from his teacher.
"Releasing the spell, but refusing an award. How…" he trailed off, seemingly lost for words, "refreshing. It could be a great advantage over the other students, you know?" he asked, causing Harry to give him a confused look.
"Is there a competition I wasn't aware of?"
Flitwick seemed to consider his answer for a moment. "I guess not unless having the highest grades in the year means something to you. I imagine it doesn't, since creating a spell means more in life and to any potential employer down the road than being the valedictorian."
"And the last factor you mentioned, being given more lee-way in class?" Harry asked, causing Flitwick to beam.
"Well, seeing you now showed that you can follow such a heavy extra-curricular load while keeping your grades in other subjects at an acceptable level, it's quite clear that you are perhaps one of the students who doesn't need to be forced to learn. I imagine that if you would approach Professor Slughorn for a way to improve your potions grade in some extracurricular manner he would be much more willing to compromise than he would with a student who'd never shown any initiative."
"Makes sense," Harry said, before pausing. "Could I then technically approach the arithmancy professor to do some course-work in the summer?" he asked, "Now that I've created the spell I don't see myself using arithmancy much and I don't want the skill to rust."
"You'll have to discuss it with Professor Vector personally. I would recommend you do it fast, while she remains impressed with your creation. I'd bring the calculations you needed for the project to showcase what level you're at. But what's this about not creating any more spells?" Flitwick asked with a raised eyebrow and a somehow disappointed voice, as he conjured himself a chair to sit on now that it seemed that the conversation would drag on for a bit longer.
Harry scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He didn't want to admit that he'd only made the spell out of sheer frustration and a wish to find material on the Mind Arts. On the other hand, maybe he could trust Flitwick enough to tell him that spell-creation wasn't really what he'd set out to do when he came to Hogwarts. "Well, I only made the spell because I hated how hard it was to find anything in the library and while the project was fun it's not really something I'm planning on repeating unless there is once again a need for a spell that doesn't exist yet. There is so much interesting magic out there that I don't need to create first to learn. Spell-creation seems sort of inefficient considering how long it takes to create something like what I just did," he admitted, causing Flitwick to grumble.
"And here I was thinking that your interest in Charms was what drove you to take up this project," the man said sadly. Harry couldn't help but snort, causing the man to frown, at which Harry defensively raised his arms.
"You misunderstand, professor!" he exclaimed, "Charms are awesome! They're the magic I've been working on the most. I particularly like the hygiene and cleaning part of the whole business, it just saves me so much time that I decided to master the household branch first."
Flitwick laughed. "What pragmatism, I bet many adults tell you that they wish they'd been as smart as you when they were your age, huh?" he teased, causing Harry to blush.
"Anyway, I also want to learn the Patronus charm at some point, it seems like a really awesome spell and I'd be really curious what my animal guardian would be," Harry admitted.
Flitwick rubbed at his chin. "You sure have a knowledge of many obscure spells for a first-year who claims to have issues finding things in the library," he said suspiciously.
"It's because it's hard to find anything that I keep randomly stumbling on interesting books."
"You really would have fit into Ravenclaw," Flitwick said while casting a silent tempus and humming. "There was one more experiment I wanted to suggest before you have to turn in for the night, so I'd suggest we shelve the conversation for the moment and turn to that, no matter how fascinating it's been."
"What's the experiment?" Harry asked.
Flitwick smirked and flicked his wand, revealing that on the stone floor, behind the initial paper that had 'the book' written on it, there were many more. They'd just been made invisible. "The experiment is already done, we just have to repeat i-" Harry cut the man off by jumping off and scrabbling for the pieces of paper, seeing that they all had the same words in the same writing.
"Why didn't I think of that!" Harry cursed loudly. "Of course, we should test if sight is necessary for the spell to work."
"Not sight, but awareness," Flitwick interrupted. "How about you turn around so you're not looking at the notes and cast the spell." The short man suggested, causing Harry to spin around towards the door, hold up his piece of parchment and quickly wave his wand. Nothing happened and it was only when he turned around to look that he saw that the papers were all glowing, even the ones far away on the other side of the room. It seemed he was getting better at the spell.
"This is interesting, homunem revelio is not sight-based, but lets one know where people are hiding, no matter the sight. Why are they not behaving in the same manner?'' Harry wondered.
"Perhaps because written words are a purely visual medium, whereas someone's life force can be experienced in a multitude of ways," Flitwick suggested.
"I see that we have a lot of limit-testing to do before I can even understand the spell I created," Harry said with a sigh, before clapping his hands. "Let's get to it."
Weekly Power Status
200+ Power
Ranking 
7 Power
stone 
Paragraph comment