The disillusionment of celebrity
Back at the mansion, I quickly put the vanishing cabinet in my room. Now that I have all the pieces in hand, I can continue my preparations to counter what will happen at the end of the year, starting with the books I just bought.
<Powers You Never Knew You Had and What To Do With Them Now You've Wised Up> is just a bunch of bullshit, The only two interesting pieces of information in this book are about the Animagus potion without explaining its composition or how making it, and a method to check if one has the talent for divination. After two attempts where I almost killed myself by falling from the stairs, I realized that either their method was wrong or I'm not talented.
A fun part of my study that I don't do too badly is dueling. I waited until my dad got back from work to ask him to teach me.
"Dad, could you teach me how to duel?" He seems surprised by my request when he has just come in and put his coat on a coat rack next to the door.
"Duel? Where did you get that idea from?" It does seem weird when a request comes out of nowhere.
"Um,... I saw a book about duel at Flourish and Blotts today. I thought you should know how to fight since you're an Auror." He seems to think for a moment before giving me his answer.
"Why not, after all. It might be good for you if you decide to become an Auror like me." I'm not really correcting it, but clearly, I don't particularly want to be a lackey of the ministry.
We go to the garden where we stand in front of an old tree that will serve us as a training target. My father starts by teaching me the basic postures before moving on to the basic spells, stupefy and protego. I already know these spells, but I had never used them in real combat before.
"Great, your posture is not too bad for your first time." He stands in front of me about twenty steps away. " How about we fight for real this time to see what you've got?"
I nod and get into position. When the fight begins, I attack him first with a stupefy that he deflects without great difficulty. He still seems surprised by the power of the spell.
"That's right, you always have to take the initiative in a duel in order to impose your pace on your opponent."
Since he decided to play defense, I take the opportunity to play offense. I throw stupefies with my wand to keep him distracted while I prepare a binding curse with my free hand, I hide it just behind a stupefy that he deflects one second before finding himself swaddled like a sausage.
"Not bad, not bad at all. I'm going to have to teach you to cast your spells with a continuous movement of your wand, but you did well considering it's your first time." I appreciate the compliment even if I cheated a bit. But after all, I don't learn to fight for the sport, but to survive later.
I let my father rest and go back to my room to finish reading the last two books. A simple glance confirms that these are clearly extremely black magic. The creation of alchemical manticores looks very much like illegal hybridization of magical creatures and the possibilities are interesting. But compared to blood magic, it's only child play. The book contains dozens of spells that can cause cardiac arrest, blood bubbling, blood poisoning and the most interesting of all, stealing the essence of a living being.
I'll still have to be relatively careful with these spells. I don't know how perverted this kind of magic is. The most extreme case I know is Voldemort, but Grindelwald was also a very powerful black mage and yet he kept a normal and even quite attractive appearance. There must surely be several levels of black magic and the creation of Horcruxes must surely be the most corrupting act possible that I know.
On January 5, I take the train back to Hogwarts. Susan went to another compartment to make the trip with her friend, Hannah. Styx is rolled on my lap, taking a nap. He is now three feet long and he is still growing. However, I don't think it's going to be possible to take him in class with me anymore.
The door to my cabin suddenly opens to the person I least expected to see, Harry Potter. He seems to have lost his fan club because he enters alone in the cabin and sits in front of me.
"Yes? Can I help you?" The surprise on my face should have made him understand that I didn't really expect him to sit down.
"I'm just looking for a quiet corner" He looks out the window and doesn't even give me a look.
"Is there a particular reason for that?"
"Why do you care?" He turns around to face me, obviously angry. It's not really the time to alienate him, I still need him for the philosopher's stone.
"Well, you enter without knocking on my cabin or saying hi, so I'm just wondering what's on your mind."
Long minutes pass without him answering me, the gaze lost again in the landscape.
"What do you think of me?" He turns around and looks at me in the eyes. I'm pretty surprised by his question.
"You ask me, a Slytherin, what I think of Gryffindor's prodigal son?"
"You seem like the most honest person in your house, and I need honesty right now, not bowing and admiration."
"Um, if that's what you want. Remember what Snape said to you in his first class?"
"Hum no, I don't really pay attention to his classes, he doesn't like the Gryffindor and gives us bad grades." He simplified things a little bit too much for my taste. But It is true that Snape hates Gryffindor students because of his past with James Potter. But he is also not unfair to the working students.
"That's not true, it's just that Gryffindor is not known for there academic knowledge. But coming back to our sheep, during the first class, Snape told you that celebrity isn't everything. And although he said it to hurt you, he was right. You rely too much on your celebrity and make no effort in class. On top of that, you're despicable with peoples who don't fit in your narrow definition of good people." He looks at me like I have just grown a third head. "One of the main reasons Malfoy is going after you, in addition to his paternal influence, is because you're even more full of yourself than he is. And I'm not gonna lie to you, it's also been so nerve-wracking that I've sometimes helped him." Maybe it was a little too honest, but when I think I ruined the extra wish I negotiated to get just one arrogant kid, it makes me a little angry.
He turns visibly angry and seems ready to attack, but a moment later all I see in his eyes is sadness.
"You still don't want to tell me what's wrong?" I need to know if he's gonna be able to follow the main scenario. My first plan is based on his ability to take care of Quirrell for me.
"When I returned home, Dumbledore had sent a letter to my parents because of a duel in the trophy room at night. And his letter was accompanied by a teacher evaluation that assured my parents that I would not spend a second year in Hogwarts with my current results. But I don't understand, I've always been told that I was special, that Hogwarts would be a piece of cake because I take after my mother, that everyone would listen to me because I'm the One Who Survived."
"And you just realized that just because you were lucky enough to be born famous doesn't mean people will bow down at your feet and do whatever you want."
"But that's how it should be! I've always been told that my destiny was to lead! To fight if a new dark lord ever should appear."
"Well, the first step to become a real leader is to lead by example. And right now you're not an exemplary student."
He takes all the information I have just given him and seems to process them while lost in his thoughts.
The train finally arrives and I get in a carriage with strangers in order to reach the castle. We're right on time for dinner.
I sit down at the Slytherin table next to Edward, who is incredibly happy to see me again.
"Sean! If you only knew how bored I was here all alone! I was so bored that I had to play chess with a Ravenclaw to pass time."
"Glad to see I'm just a distraction for you."
"What?" He seems surprised by my answer. "Oh no, I'm glad to see you again! Did you had a good holiday?" He's trying to change the conversation, but it's a little too obvious.
"Not really, I had to go to the Minister of Magic's Yule party first and then I stayed home without doing anything special. And I also started dueling training with my father who is an Auror."
"That's great, we can train together!" I'm a little surprised, I didn't think he knew how to fight. "Don't be surprised. My parents taught me to defend myself because some of the animals they raise are dangerous."
It might be fun to not train only by myself. We'd have to find a place where there aren't too many people if possible. Well, clearly not the room on requirement since I use it as my laboratory. But maybe we could go to the Shrieking Shack by taking the secret passage under the Whomping Willow.