Gaunt's Shack
Daphne sat on the seat beside the 1st years and sighed.
She knew that she would fail in her exams and that she would have to sit with the first years once again but knowing about something and then truly experiencing it are two whole different things.
Her reputation had taken a sharp nose dive ever since she failed in her exams and people were now calling her scratterbrain, idiot, beauty with no brains and other such names behind her back.
Thankfully, her friends Tracy and Blaise had her back all the time and the smarter ones in the Slytherin realized that there was no way she could have failed in all of her subjects so they didn't comment on her failure for now.
Plus, Professor Snape had been a huge help to her and had allowed her to stay with her friends who had not advanced to the 2nd year.
It had come as a surprise to her that the man whom so many other students feared could be so caring in his own ways.
After all of the students settled down in the class, it took only a short amount of time before Professor Snape strode into the class with his cape flowing behind him.
He stood in front of the whole class and gave the students the same speech that he gave them the year before.
The whole experience was a bit surreal to her and it didn't take long before he started asking questions to the students in order to unnerve them.
She would be lying if she said that he didn't unnerve her even after she knew about his kind side but all such thoughts were pushed aside a he looked at her and said "And what are you doing Miss Greengrass?"
Her breath hitched in her throat as she wondered if she had done anything wrong. But regardless of any mistakes she might have made, she gathered her courage and answered "I'm noting down the answers Professor."
"And why would you do such a thing when you already know all the answers?" he asked and for once, she had no reply for him.
After all, what would she say.
Because that's what everyone else is doing.
That answer made her feel like a sheep who would just follow the crowd and do what everyone else did.
But thankfully, she didn't have to reply as he continued speaking after the short silence.
"If I remember, you failed in your first year rather spectacularly Miss Greengrass." He drawled "But that also means that you have all the notes I taught you in this class. So you don't need to focus on theory anymore."
She felt her eyes burn at the humiliation as the whole class started chuckling at her.
Some of the girls were even looking at her sympathetically but that only made her feel even worse.
Why did he have to bring up her failure in front of the whole class.
"Go to the back of the class and started working on a Skele-Gro potion. We'll see if you can pass my subject this year." He said and it took a moment for her to process the words in her mind before her eyes brightened at the implication and she cheered in her heart.
A Skele-Gro potion was a 5th year potion.
If he really wanted to punish or humiliate her then he would have given her a 1st year potion to make but he must have found out that she was very advanced in potions and did this to make sure that she be do something productive in his class instead of wasting her time.
She bowed her head and thanked the professor in her heart before moving on to the cabinets where all the ingredients were kept.
As she picked up the ingredients, she wondered what Harry was doing right now.
Unlike her, he had been mostly unaffected by his failure.
None of the students in her class or any other class ever bothered him about it. Not that he would have cared about them but still.
It made sense to her.
Because despite failing in his first year, he was probably the richest student in Hogwarts right now not to mention the most famous and most influential as well.
And if he kept doing what he had been doing up until this point, then his wealth, influence and fame will only continue to grow so getting on his bad side would be a horrible mistake.
Plus, he was a certified genius.
In fact, she had no doubt in her mind that he could practically waltz into the 7th year transfiguration, charms or DADA class and perform all the NEWTs level spells without any problem at all.
So yes, failing 1st year had not affected him as much as it did her but that didn't meant that she would let herself be crushed by the circumstances.
No, she would not let herself feel downcast for her circumstances.
Especially not when she had the support of people like Harry Potter, Andromeda Tonks and Severus Snape.
With that thought, she put the selected ingredients down on the table and started creating the 5th year potion.
—————
"Harry. Are you sure this is safe?" Hermione asked, worry laced in her voice.
"Yes." He replied with confidence. He might not have the largest amount of magical power inside him at this point but that doesn't change the fact that he was probably the most perspective one.
At this point, he could literally go in the Magical dungeon in Egypt and do a far better job of finding the treasures there than the Cursebreakers hired by the goblins.
Especially if Selena helped him in the process.
With that, he started walking toward the old, dilapidated shark in front of him. And instantly felt the magic around him change.
As if they had entered some kind of ward, which they probably did.
Then he felt the footsteps following him stop at once and turned around to find that Hermione had stopped walking behind him and was looking around with a lost expression.
He had no doubt in his mind that if she was not wearing the ring that protected her from outside influences, then she would have turned around and walked away from this place.
The repelling wards around the shack were just that dangerous.
"Where is the wardstone Selena?" he asked the Horned Serpent who immediately started flickering her tongue in order to find the source that was powering the wards.
It was not like he would not be able to find the wardstone on his own but it would take some time if he tried to do it on his own while Selena could just do so within mere moments.
As if to prove his thoughts corrects, Selena looked at him and said "It's the cross made from Ash wood beneath the far right tree."
As soon as her voice reached his ears, he sent a magical pulse and disrupted the connection of the wardstone with the wards.
Hermione's eyes instantly regained their focus and he felt the magical influence around him disperse.
Then he pointed his hands at the cross which flew toward him and entered his bottomless purse without stopping.
There was no point in destroying such a powerful wardstone when he could rewire it at some later date and use it for his own benefits.
"Harry?" Hermione asked as she caught up to him on the way to the shack.
"There was a ward around the shack." He replied "A very strong repelling ward that cause other people to turn around and go back to their homes. The ring I gave you last Christmas was able to negate most of it's effects but the wardstone was rather powerful and some of effects of the ward seeped through to your body which was why you became confused."
In hindsight, such a thing should have been obvious.
Voldemort might be a lunatic but he was also a very powerful wizard and would not hesitate to give the best protections to his soul pieces.
"I… see." Hermione said with a downcast expression, no doubt thinking that she was a mere burden to him.
Well, she was being a bit of a burden but that was to be expected as despite her prodigious talent, she was just a 12 year old girl at this point.
But the reason why he had brought her here with him was to make sure that he didn't made the same mistake as Dumbledore.
The reason Dumbledore died in the movies was because he didn't took the horcrux seriously enough and fell into the trap created by Voldemort.
He would not make the same mistake as Dumbledore.
With that thought, he shouldered on and entered the shack.
Author's Notes:- For those who thought I forgot about the Horcruxes.
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