Chapter 47: Reparations

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15 January 1991, Hogwarts

Cho gave him an unreadable look, "Don't you know? A branch of the Abbot family lived in Godric's hollow. David lost his parents and everything that belonged to them to that fire, the fire that you survived while being completely unharmed. Apparently, he was at his cousin's for the day, so he wasn't there. I'm not saying that it's your fault, but I guess he's still bitter about it. I know I would be too if it was me."

That night, Harry dreamed of cursed flames and screaming.

It had been two days after his duelling session, and Harry was engrossed with the sport. The demonstration of skill and precision that Professor Flitwick and Alex Smith demonstrated was breathtaking, and the Potter scion wanted to surpass them.

He had holed himself in the library as much as possible researching rules and regulations on the sport, and that was fascinating. Apparently, the spell limitations were far more complicated than he assumed. There are multiple levels of duelling circuits separated by age, and rule. There are circuits dedicated to a single magical branch but were more relaxed in the restricted spells, while there are what are essentially fight clubs where you can use any legal spell without being disqualified. Deaths were fairly common in these circuits.

Still, from the sound of it, Professor Flitwick wanted to prepare them in the standard duelling circuit, which is mainly divided by age. The 11 and under tournament was a bit of a joke, where only a handful of spells could be used. The 13 and under tournament also had a relatively restricted set of spells, but it's enough to make duels at least somewhat exciting. The 17 and under tournament also had a restriction on spells, but they can be summarized into a tome per magical field. The allowed charm spells alone were in a book that was almost as thick as all of Harry's school books put together. And that was just a list of spells with their effects, nothing more.

The adult tournament, on the other hand, was far more forgiving. Transfiguration and Charms were allowed, even unknown spells, but there was still a list of curses, jinxes, and hexes, that could be used. Apparently, Dark Magic was simply too dangerous to be used willy-nilly in a sporting tournament. Yeah, Harry could see why this decision was wise. He still didn't really understand what made dark magic, well, dark, but a common property of dark spells was how lasting their effect could be.

Harry had tried to research this topic further, alas, he was completely stumped. There were no books in the library on the matter, and the restricted section was too big for such a broad topic as Dark Magic.

The Room of Requirements was of no help at all, and Harry finally understood why he couldn't really use it to get any forbidden knowledge. Funnily enough, it was in one of the books on the castle in the forbidden section of the library.

Harry had experimented every time he visited the Room of Requirements, and for every topic, the book selection was very random. In the end, he ended up using his spell to look for any book with the words 'Room of Requirements' on it. And yeah, a wizard five hundred years back had researched the Room entirely. He renamed it the Room of Illusions, and from what he had found, it made sense. The Room could sense the thoughts of whoever wanted to enter it and use some kind of expansion enchantment to fit his desires. The rest of the room is filled with conjurations and illusions, nothing more. It wasn't some miracle room that could do everything. It couldn't even materialize the books in the 'Room of Hidden Things'.

The Room was only allowed to conjure things that can either be pictured in the user's mind, or in the public rooms in the castle. It was the same for books. Conjuring a replica of a book was similar to using a doubling charm, and most books, especially ones with delicate knowledge, were protected against such enchantments. It was why every time Harry had tried to get any book, the results will always be completely random, and it couldn't even take a single book from the restricted section, since they're especially warded. Harry will simply have to settle for sneaking in with his cloak.

Although Harry wondered where it had gotten the book on family crests. It must have been hidden either in the Room of Hidden Things or somewhere else in the castle, where the room could find.

Still, the room was very useful for practising spells anyway, so that wasn't a waste. Plus, Harry was planning on raiding the Room of Hidden Things as much as possible to find any hidden treasure inside that might help enrich his house once more.

Alas, Harry was probably going to use the room to practice his duelling. The room could theoretically conjure moving targets that could send projectiles at him. Yeah, having dummies cast actual spells was a little out there, probably impossible so projectiles will do.

Harry was so engrossed in a book about dueling tactics, that he didn't notice someone sitting next to him until they bumped into him.

The Potter scion stiffened in surprise, only to relax at seeing a familiar mess of bushy hair next to him. Hermione Granger had finally deigned to speak to him for the first time in months, "Hey, Harry."

The young Slytherin nodded to her, "Hermione."

The girl was fidgeting in apprehension, "I see that you got into the duelling club."

Harry shrugged, "I'm just a probationary member. I'll be an official one in a month after Professor Flitwick sees if I catch up."

Again, the girl seemed to not know what to say. Harry could understand her pain. He was also extremely socially awkward, "Did you get my present?"

"Yeah, it was a nice book. Thank you. I'm sorry I didn't get you anything. I thought that we weren't friends anymore."

The girl couldn't really hold it anymore, "I'm so sorry, Harry. I didn't know how horribly I treated you. I was like the mean kids in muggle school who ignored me. I hope you could forgive me."

Harry couldn't help but pity the girl slightly, "I have forgiven you months ago, Hermione."

"So, does that mean that we're friends again?" the girl asked with a hopeful smile on her face.

That was a very weighted question. Being friends with Hermione was surprisingly easy. They just connected, oddly enough. But with her having chosen Longbottom and Weasley over him, he just couldn't trust her. And with the boy who lived being a trouble magnet and the centre of attention of Dumbledore and Voldemort, Harry didn't want to get involved. It was why he didn't take credit for saving Hermione from the troll in the first place. A friendship with Hermione was more trouble than he knew how to deal with it at the moment.

"No," Harry simply answered, "I said that I forgave you. I don't hate you nor am I angry at you, I'm just disappointed that our friendship didn't last. Look, all you proved to me is that you didn't think that being friends with me was worth the effort of sneaking away. You chose Longbottom and Weasley, and I will respect your decision. What I will not respect is you changing your mind over and over again. Just stick with the choice you made."

The girl's eyes were teary, "But I'm sorry…"

"Look, being sorry is good and everything, but the reasons why you chose your housemates are not gone. We won't be friends again, but that doesn't mean that we have to hate each other. If you near help with anything, I'll hear you out. At most, we'll be friendly acquaintances. What do you think?"

The girl sniffed, "I guess I'll take it."

Harry snorted and went back to reading his book. A couple of minutes later, Hermione hit him on the shoulder, "Um, there's something I don't understand about our transfiguration assignment. The book says that you need to change the entire set of wand movements to turn the mouse into a snuffbox, and why the spell to do the opposite is a lot more difficult."

The Potter scion inwardly groaned. He had spent an hour the day prior explaining this very topic to Daphne, "Well, the previous semester we were focusing on Inanimate to Animate transfiguration. The most a spell had to deal with was turning a state of matter into another, like a liquid to a solid, and vice versa. But here, you're turning a being that is alive, and when you cancel the transfiguration, you want the mouse to still be alive. This means that excluding the material transfiguration, you need to preserve its consciousness as well, hence the extra wand movements. It's a really advanced transfiguration theory which we'll take somewhere after our OWLs since we'll need to know it before trying out any human transfiguration. It's also why the Animagus transformation is so dangerous. The two forms (animal form and human form) handle consciousness differently, which can somewhat overlap, making the casters react more like their inner animals even in their human forms."

The muggleborn looked thoughtful for a moment and nodded to himself. Harry was under no illusion that she wasn't going to research this on her own later, "What about the snuffbox to mouse transfiguration."

Harry snorted, "That's because you're not really turning a snuffbox into a mouse. You're turning the snuffbox into the body of a dead mouse and then animating it to act like it. It's a combination of two spells, a transfiguration and a charm, hence why it's more difficult, and will learn it after we're done with animation charms with Flitwick."

"How do you know all of this?" Hermione asked.

"I get bored easily," replied Harry while shrugging, "I thought you would do the same, to be honest."

"I get distracted by Neville and Ron's antics. They've been especially restless since Dumbledore decided to make Snape the referee in the next Quidditch game."

Yeah, it was a bit of a scandal when that happened. Apparently, for the first time in a decade, Dumbledore was personally attending a Hogwarts Quidditch game, and Snape of all people, was refereeing. Harry couldn't see the potion master being fair, and the Gryffindors felt the same considering how outraged they all were.

Harry snorted, "I still don't understand why people find that game enjoyable."

"Yeah, it's driving me mad. Ron and Neville spent the entire time practising for Quidditch. They even stopped helping me search for Nicholas Flamel."

The muggleborn immediately panicked; she probably hadn't wanted to reveal that tidbit, especially with the perceived danger involved. Harry really wanted to burst into laughter at her expression, but just gave her a questioning look, "Huh, why are you even looking for Flamel? He hasn't been seen in public for a while, as far as I know. It would be all over the French news if he and his wife did."

"Wait, you know who he is?" Hermione asked him with an incredulous tone.

"Well, yeah. Practically everyone who knows anything about the magical world knows who he is. Half the first years, at least, and almost all of the upper years."

"So, who is he?" the muggleborn questioned with an excited look on her face.

"You seriously don't know. It's like common knowledge. Hell, he's even known in the muggle world, I think," Harry replied.

"Just tell me who he is, will you?"

"Fine, Nicholas Flamel is the single greatest alchemist to have ever existed. He personally taught Dumbledore back in the day, and they made some discoveries about the properties of dragon blood. I didn't really read much on it, to be honest, since I don't know a lot about alchemy. Still, what Flamel is known for the most is his creation, the Philosopher's Stone. It absolutely circumvents the basic laws of Alchemy and can turn any metal into gold, as well as make something called the Elixir of Life, which extends the natural lifetime of its drinker and can even serve as a healing agent, as well as remove curses. There's not much known about his private life, only that he and his wife, Perenelle Flamel, have lived for over six hundred years. So, why are you researching Flamel in the first place?"

Harry barely finished speaking when he saw the Muggleborn girl had run away to another corner of the library. He suppressed a small grin. That girl was so predictable.

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