Chapter 29: A Friend in me

If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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25 October 1991, Hogwarts

In the end, Harry would need to wait until the end of the month to figure out more. However, he put the issue to the back of his mind. His curiosity was now abated, and he had more assignments to finish to compensate for the research time he used up the previous day. Afterwards, well, he did promise that he would spend the day with his friends, after all.

The week following Harry's discovery of family crests passed in a strange monotony that was very contradictory to Hogwarts' very nature. It was the calm before the storm, Harry could feel it in his bones. Everything was too quiet, too normal. The whole Gryffindor Slytherin rivalry turned into a strained peace practically overnight. The Weasley Twins stopped pranking anyone, there were few duels and hexes thrown around. Honestly, the young Potter thought that it was too good to be true. He was waiting for the shoe to drop.

As for Harry, he just spent his time either experimenting with his magic or hanging out with his friends. Nothing particularly interesting happened, except for him finding an obscure book on illusions in the library, which he quickly copied using his spell.

The book copying spell that Harry invented must have been one of the most useful things he ever created. Oh, it wasn't anything impressive, and any student with talent in spell creation and the dedication to study it thoroughly would have been able to make it. Although Harry did cheat using his magical hearing to bridge the knowledge gap to craft the spell. It wasn't even a complete spell. It needed to be cast on a self-writing quill, anyway, just turning the dictation aspect to a visual one to be able to scan the pages for it to copy. How people didn't try it out before, Harry didn't know.

Perhaps, people did invent it, but the industry made sure that no one knew of the spell. It couldn't exactly be warded against since the doesn't technically even affect the book in any way. Oh, it could probably do nothing about illustrations since they're animated, and Harry didn't know how to enchant a Quill to draw animated images. He didn't even try to look it up; he knew that it was out of his league.

Still, since most books do not actually have important illustrations, it wasn't that big of a deal. In a way, it was the way Harry was able to have a copy of each book he had read in the library in his everlasting notebook he bought. He had no idea if there was a limit on the pages it could have, and he was probably going to figure it out eventually. In the end, the book would also make sure that he wouldn't need to bother with library deadlines since he stopped actually taking out the books. Madam Pince had thankfully allowed the use of enchanted Quills and inks in the library, as long as they don't endanger the books – which happen to be warded with countless preservation spells.

However, while Harry was proud of his first true original spell, it didn't come close to his fascination with the subject he had just uncovered. The art of illusions was just that, an art. There weren't any spells like most of the magic, only a single one. 'Lux Dolum' was a generalized small-scale illusion spell that can be used depending on the user's imagination. Oh, it was only light illusions, that could be broken by touch or magic. There were similar spells to fool each sense as well any combination of them. It was a book on generalized spells that resembled the minor inanimate transfiguration generalized spell he blundered into creating on his first day.

This was the first time during any of Harry's daily trips to the library that he had seen anything resembling the generalized spells that McGonagall referred to in his first transfiguration class.

Honestly, he loved that spell. He could practice it anytime without anyone saying anything since there isn't an actual spell burst when he used it, so no one noticed. He started with small things and continued enough to get the illusions to be as big as him. That seemed to be the limit of both his abilities and the spell itself. There was also a law of magical intent to be considered where the larger a scale of a spell is, the more difficult it is to control. For illusions, control was a must, and so the biggest illusions tend to be very easily recognizable where small ones were almost indistinguishable.

Still, this was an art that Harry wanted to master completely. He planned to cast all kinds of illusions – visual, auditory, olfactory, etc. – even the mental ones, although the skill in Occlumency needed to do so would be problematic. Oh, Harry of course wanted to learn how to protect his mind, and maybe even how to read others but he wasn't able to find a single book on the mind arts, apart from a few books on compulsion charms.

Considering that this was supposed to be the biggest magical library in the nation, either that title was simply a misdirection or someone had removed all the books – or put them in the restriction section which was very understandable considering their potential for abuse.

Nevertheless, Harry was happy for now. He needed to master the basics before worrying about secret knowledge in the restricted section. The room of requirements would probably help him with that, but Harry was wary of it. The temptation of secret knowledge, of discovering the capabilities of the room, was simply too attractive, but for all its wonder, the room of hidden things contained countless objects whose owner wanted to get rid of, meaning that the number of cursed items was probably abnormally high.

Harry had no wish to die to his own hubris.

Alas, Samhain was approaching, and Harry and the rest of the Slytherin first years were obviously nervous, and truthfully, so was Harry. The ritual weighed a great deal on his mind, especially in regard to the unpredictability of crests' activations in general. No two people ever said the same thing about how it felt.

Currently, Harry was trying to analyze a generalized auditory illusion spell, which was a fancy word for a noise spell. Although he liked auditory illusion spells better – even if musicians often used it to compose songs. Still, it was far more complicated than the light illusion spell since it was very difficult to master. It couldn't even muffle noise in any way, only create noise, not manipulate it. Perhaps analyzing a silencing charm and integrating it into the spell could help create a new spell? It was way out of his league for now, but Harry could see the potential of such a combination.

Harry started writing small arithmetic calculations to see the viability of this theory. He was so focused on his calculations that he hadn't noticed a bushy haired Gryffindor sneak a peek at his work. "What are you doing?" the girl asked.

The last Potter stiffened and shot up, "Granger, it's nice to see you."

The girl gave him an intense look, "What are you doing?"

Harry pretended to be unconcerned, "Learning magic, of course."

The glare that the girl had given him was as threatening as a small kitten, still, Harry started to fear that the girl would have a stroke or something and so he snorted, "I'm trying to learn a sound making spell that I found."

The Gryffindor tilted her head, "But what were you scribbling about?"

"Just the arithmetic formula of the spell. I found it in the book and wanted to study it…"

"You know arithmancy?" the girl shrieked.

Harry shushed her, "We're in the library, Granger, keep your voice down. Do you want Madam Pince to ban us for life?"

The Slytherin had to stifle a chuckle when he saw the horrified look on her face. The girl hit him on the shoulder and whispered, "You know arithmancy?"

"I was bored before Hogwarts, so I taught myself advanced mathematics just to pass the time. With that as a base, it didn't take me long to get a feel for the basics of Arithmancy and how it worked. I'm still a beginner but it's very interesting. Whenever I learn a new spell, I write down its formula and try to understand it. It doesn't work most of the time, but after a while, you start to notice patterns which helps during casting."

The girl gave Harry an odd look, "Do you think you could teach me?"

Huh, teaching was always a passion of Harry's in his past life. He enjoyed his job immensely, and there was this sense of satisfaction at the thought of helping someone build a passion for his subject. Hermione Granger was an ideal student; she was hungry for knowledge and wouldn't mind working hard for it. If she was taught how to be more selective with her learning, she could grow into a formidable witch. Honestly, if Harry was older, he wouldn't mind tutoring her, but he wasn't and he barely scratched the surface of the potential of magic, and he knew it.

"I don't think I know enough to teach you, to be honest. We've only been there for less than two months; I don't have a good enough grounding in magic to teach anyone anything," Harry replied, "But there's no reason for me to not answer any question you might have, or help you with a topic you're researching."

The girl looked downcast but brightened at his offer. She leapt and enveloped him into a hug, "Thank you, thank you."

The girl then quickly released Harry and blushed in embarrassment as if realizing what she had just done. Harry couldn't stifle his amusement anymore and snickered at her behaviour.

The girl sent a glare without any heat in it, "Git!"

Harry continued snickering and was joined later by Hermione as well. After a minute, they both calmed down, but Harry noticed that Hermione was still melancholic, "How do you do it?"

"Do what?"

"Be as smart as you are, and still have friends?" the girl elaborated.

Harry hummed in thought, "I don't know. I never had a friend before here. They just felt boring, if you know what I mean. It was like their priorities didn't make sense. I've never been the best with people, and I expected nothing better when I came here. Then Blaise sat in my compartment, and we were sorted in the same house. We just stuck together, and then Tracy and Daphne joined us. I didn't plan it. And I still don't really understand how we became friends, but I'm not complaining about it."

"Do you think I'll ever have a friend?" the girl asked with a vulnerable tone.

"I don't see why not. You're smart, funny, and a little bit of a stickler for the rules, but it's nothing horrifying. Although, you might scare people by how much you keep correcting them. It makes you look a bit condescending, but I honestly don't care." Harry replied.

The Gryffindor seemed to get herself ready for something before she steeled herself and spoke up, "Would you be my friend?"

Harry really should refuse. If any Slytherin ever realized about him being friends with a Muggleborn Gryffindor, then he would be in big trouble. For all the surprising lack of bigotry in the common room, Muggleborns weren't looked at favourably by Slytherins in general. It would practically destroy any standing he might have with his peers or even when he starts playing house politics when he's older.

Still, Harry couldn't bear to destroy the sheer hope shining brightly in the girl's eyes, "Alright, Granger. I guess we're friends now."

The girl had small tears in her eyes and a small yet blinding smile on her face, "Thank you so much."

After she enveloped him with another hug, they looked at each other for a few minutes awkwardly. Harry just sighed, "I wasn't lying when I said I was horrible at this."

The girl snorted, "Yeah, we both are. Have you started to transfiguration assignment yet? There's something that's still troubling me…"

The conversation flowed from there. And hours later, when Harry went to bed, he thought of the bushy-haired girl with fondness and realized that he had fun just talking with her about magic and their classes. What an odd turn of events.

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AN:

For those who are freaking out about the Hermione thing. Look, the pairing won't be Hermione, and well, I'm ahead in terms of chapters and I won't spoil anything, but I'm honestly just using Hermione as a way to interfere with the Golden Trio, nothing more. So, all of you calm down. Harry won't be closer to her than his Slytherin friends. They won't be best friends or anything like that. And please don't ask about the pairing. It's too weird at this stage of the story (they're 11). I haven't decided yet, but it definitely won't be Hermione.

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If you want to support me check out my patréon at https://www.patréon.com/athassprkr

I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.