Chapter 321: Of Investigative Bushes

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

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5th September 1995, Hogwarts (Earth 2)

Hermione Granger watched as Harrold Smith wrote down something in his notebook. He was completely ignoring Flitwick's explanation of the silencing charm. The boy casually pointed his wand at the frog in front of him, without even using the proper wand movements or incantation, and yet the frog's croaks became silent. He didn't even look at the animal, just at his notebook.

He performed similar feats in every class, other than Potions, of course, and it was driving her mad. No one was that good. No one could be that good. It was why Hermione thought that he was an impostor. An adult wizard, who already knew the spells required, would behave the same way. If that was the case, then he was a horrible infiltrator. Smith wasn't even pretending to struggle in his classes, which would have been what any infiltrator would do. He also wasn't using any Polyjuice – she had seen him spend hours at a time without eating or drinking anything – but there were other ways to change one's appearance. She just hasn't found what Smith used yet.

When Flitwick awarded Smith ten more points for his feat, she had enough. She turned towards Harry and murmured, "Hey, can I use the Marauder's Map?"

"Why do you need it?"

"I just saw something suspicious with Umbridge. I wanted to check on her…"

She didn't want to tell Harry that she was investigating Smith. They were strangely friendly. Harry always had a hard time speaking with people and yet he somehow clicked with Smith. It was just odd, and one of the reasons she was investigating him in the first place.

It was her duty as Harry's best friend, after all.

To be fair, Harrold already did a lot of good when he spoke up to Umbridge. Two days later, the Minister announced an increase in the budget of the DMLE, focusing on Auror training. Apparently, what he said got people thinking, and then they complained to their parents, who then complained to the ministry. It was funny that the events of a single classroom could affect the entire country in just a few days.

Umbridge was in a particularly foul mood that day. She had even given Harry a detention for being distracted while reading her mind-numbing book. The crazy part was that Harrold was writing in his notebook with his defence book closed at the time, and yet she didn't do anything. And what was even more odd was the fact that the professor scheduled his detention for the following week, not even during the weekend.

Anyway, when they returned to the common room, Harry gave her the map and the cloak. She hid underneath the cloak and whispered, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good," while pointing her wand at the map.

Ink spread out in the previously blank piece of parchment, revealing the map of Hogwarts. She looked carefully in the Gryffindor common room, and she saw his name 'Harrold Smith'. Damn it. He wasn't lying about his name. But then again, it could be his real name and he's using it to infiltrate there…

She groaned in disappointment and murmured, "Mischief Managed."

The map was a dead end. It wouldn't really reveal much. She was about to return the map and cloak to Harry, but she noticed that Smith and Neville were subtly walking out of the common room. Her curiosity got the better of her, and she followed them out.

She was only doing this to protect Neville.

That was exactly it. Her intentions were completely pure…

Doing her best to stay silent, Hermione followed after them and saw Neville speak in a meek voice, "I don't think I can do it, Harrold…"

Oh, that didn't sound good. Thankfully, Harrold answered him, "Maybe you're right, you can't. You have to try. You need to have more confidence in yourself… You know, confidence is a pretty important thing when it comes to magic."

"Really?"

The new student nodded, "Of course. There's a whole mess of arithmancy behind it, but what you feel is often mirrored in your magic. If you hesitate when you cast, the magic will be clumsy and possibly even misfire, even if you followed the instructions perfectly. But if you're sure of yourself, even if you made a small mistake, the spell will most likely just work… Of course, there's also the matter of your wand holding you back."

"My wand?" For the first time, she noticed that Neville's tone turned harsh.

"Yes. It's not yours. And my guess is that its wielder is still alive. I'm not an expert in wand lore but I can tell you that using someone else's wand is a bad idea, unless you gained the ownership of the wand from them, of course."

"Gaining ownership?" he muttered, looking confused.

"If you beat someone in combat, like actual combat, not some competition, a wand can change its allegiance, submit to the new owner… It doesn't happen a lot, because people are often wary of using their enemy's wand, but there is proof of this phenomenon in history if you look for it."

Neville's voice turned hesitant again, "It was my father's… And people have used legacy wands before."

"I thought as much. I know what happened to your parents, Neville. It is something I wouldn't wish on anyone, believe me. But despite all of this, your father is still alive. A legacy wand works because it doesn't have an owner. The wand in your hand has one. It will never accept you as long as your father still breathes, and you will never achieve your full potential with this wand holding you back."

"It just makes me close to him…"

Harrold's tone turned comforting, "Come on, man. If you think about it, it's actually a good thing that the wand isn't yours."

"How is that?" Neville answered with restrained anger.

"Because it means that the wand recognizes that there's still something left of your father to be loyal to. It means that there might possibly be a way to save him and your mother. I could be wrong, but as long as this wand doesn't submit to you, you will have hope…"

That seemed to have struck him silent, before he slowly murmured, "You think so?"

"Who knows? It could happen. It was honestly why I found it odd that you hated potions so much. It's possibly the field of magic that could help your parents to most. I know I would have been working on a cure the moment I got to Hogwarts…"

"I was excited a bit, at first… But Snape… I just feel so useless…"

Harrold nodded in agreement, "I did notice that your theory was pretty good. It's pretty connected to Herbology, so I'm guessing it's why you like it so much. But you do mess up a lot in the actual brewing. You just forget a few steps or get a few things mixed up…"

"Thanks for saving our potion, by the way. I know Snape wanted to punish you for being late by partnering you up with me."

"It was nothing, I'm kinda good a potion…"

Neville rolled his eyes, "You literally added random ingredients to save the potion, and it worked, somehow. You're a miracle worker. I just wish Snape wasn't so… Snape… I guess."

Harrold snorted, "I get your point with that. That guy is a massive arse… I'm guessing he was bullied as a student and now he takes it out on other students. Pretty childish, in my opinion, and he shouldn't really have become a professor with that attitude, but you need to realize something very important. He can't do anything to you, not really. His whole scary persona is just that, a persona and nothing more. He can't hurt you without ending up in trouble. Now, what I'm most concerned about is Umbridge. She doesn't seem to have the same restraint…"

"What happened in your detention? People have been talking but no one said anything."

The new student released a chuckle, "Oh, that. She tried having me write lines with a cursed quill. I just stole the quill and didn't give it back…"

"You're joking!" Neville exclaimed.

"I'm really not. When she said that she'd call the Aurors, I just said that she'll need to say what I stole… She kinda shut up after that… It was a pretty expensive thing too. Still, I can see her trying this again with someone else. So, try to avoid getting any detention with her."

Hermione logged that small piece of information. She would need to tell Harry about it, that's for sure. He needed to be warned, especially if he could find proof that she was using something illegal or unethical to punish her students.

But something else also rattled in Hermione's mind. What happened to Neville's parent? It was obviously a bit of a sore point for the boy, and from the sounds of it, it was something terrible. They weren't dead, so that was good at least, right?

Still, she wasn't making any headway with her investigation. Smith was surprisingly nice to Neville, pretty understanding even, but there was something still wrong. She could feel it in her gut. Deciding that she would apologize to Neville later, she cast a small compulsion charm on Neville, getting him to ask, "What about your notebook? What are you constantly writing there?"

"Don't worry, it's not a diary or something… It's a bit of a challenge, you see. My mother hid most of her stuff before she died. I think it's in some kind of hidden vault of some kind. I think she wanted me to make a spell that would open it… She was always like this, you see. She constantly made these little tests when I was young. This isn't exactly something new, but it's far more difficult than I expected. I'm making some headway, but I keep a log of everything in this notebook in case I make a mistake and need to retrace my work… I'm about halfway done, I think."

Neville's voice softened, "Your mom died..."

"Yes, just a few months ago. I'm sad, but it wasn't exactly a shock. She was hit with a curse a few years back and we knew that it was coming… Still, it's a bit of a dick move to hide everything just before she died."

"I thought you would have been more broken up about it…"

Harrold sighed, "We all deal with grief differently. This puzzle is my mother's last legacy, her last goodbye. She wasn't perfect, I know that, and more importantly, I accept that. She failed me in many ways just like I failed her in others. I will miss her… I think her puzzle was a way to distract me from grieving too much. Who knows? I gave up understanding what happened in her mind a very long time ago…"

Neville patted his back and Harrold's expression morphed into a smile, "Well, enough of this gloomy crap."

"Wanna go back to the common room?"

"Nah, I need to send a letter to someone first…"

Neville gave him a weird smile, "Who?"

"Just a friend of my mother's. He's taking care of our dog, you see. We couldn't really take him to Hogwarts… I think my mother hid something in that necklace we got him. She was the one who enchanted it, so who knows…"

"Fine… Are we still on for tomorrow, right?"

Harrold nodded, "I can give you your potion lesson at eight. I should be finished with my stuff by then…"

"What stuff?"

"Oh, nothing much, I'm just trying to find a cup."

Neville gave the new student an incredulous look, "A cup? There are hundreds of them in the Great Hall."

"Sure, there are… But I'm looking for a very specific one. He's pretty important. I think I know where it is, but I'm leaving a bit of time in case I'm wrong…"

"And what's so special about this mysterious cup?"

Smith snorted, "Lots… After all, it's a pretty old cup…"

He didn't say anything else on the matter and Neville sighed, "You're not going to say anything more about that, are you?"

"Of course not! Where's the fun in that?"

"Let's just get to the owlery," Neville replied with a defeated tone.

Hermione couldn't help but feel conflicted. She hadn't really gotten the information that she wanted, but she had gotten enough to feel bad about her spying. Maybe Smith wasn't a spy… There was still something off with him, but she didn't know if she had it in her to intrude in his personal matters again… He had said a lot of personal stuff to Neville.

Smith obviously liked to play the mystery angle, especially since he told Neville so easily about the notebook, but not Hermione. He was probably doing the same about the cup thing too. No, she would just keep a close eye on him, just from afar. If he did anything suspicious once more, she would catch him. After all, she could just use the map to see his comings and goings…

Hermione only hoped that she was doing the right thing. All she wanted to do was to protect Harry, after all.

Unfortunately for her, she failed to notice the slightly smug, knowing, and satisfied look on Smith's face as she walked back to the common room.

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 AN: This chapter kinda feels like a filler. I wasn't really planning on making it, but I had a bit of fun writing a chapter where Harry essentially gaslights Hermione who's trying to be sneaky. I thought about making a confrontation between Harry and Snape, but it just felt a bit unnecessary and would have made Harry look like an insolent guy (I have something better planned for later). Anyway, there are a few hints on what will happen next in the chapter. As usual, please let me know what you think and if you have any suggestions.

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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.