Harry's Triwizard Trial

Perhaps if he trained incredibly hard, he might be able to surpass them in a few months, but he would need Salazar to guide him. At the moment, that was certainly not happening.

He was pleased, however, to note that his skill in wandless magic was improving. Harry was careful not to use wandless magic too often; if his wandless casting tired from exhaustion, so would his normal wand magic. He would be completely incapable of using magic for some time, something which Harry certainly was not interested in having to go through.

Unfortunately, his improvement in wandless magic only applied to his stamina. His control was still as weak as ever, and would likely remain so until he properly learnt Occlumency. On the bright side, he was currently in no rush. Compared to his peers, Harry was far ahead of where he should be.

To be fair, my peers aren't Mages. Not exactly an apt comparison.

Harry ignored that part of his mind. Getting up from his spot on the Owlery floor, he waved farewell to Hedwig before exiting the area. If he left now, he might be able to make it to Transfiguration. Harry was bored out of his mind to the point where a Transfiguration lesson with McGonagall was rather appealing at the moment.

Upon entering the Transfiguration classroom, Harry was not at all surprised to find the eyes of everyone in the room on him. Harry rarely attended classes, and it was clear to all that he only ever did it when there was no better option. This had seemingly annoyed Hermione quite a bit, although she said nothing on it. That was likely due to the bushy haired girl still feeling guilty about abandoning him.

And if her red eyes mean anything, she's still upset.

Professor McGonagall had initially reprimanded Harry for skiving the majority of his classes, claiming that they were now more important than ever, considering Harry's involvement in the Triwizard Tournament.

Professor McGonagall stopped commenting when Harry gave a small demonstration of his enhanced prowess, something that had caught the eye of one Hermione Granger. Harry was fairly certain that Hermione was still trying to find out wherever it was that Harry constantly spent his time, and was likely becoming more and more frustrated at each failure she had in discovering it's whereabouts.

The Transfiguration lesson went by fairly quickly, with each of the students attempting to transfigure a rat into a mouse. Harry had initially tried doing this with his wandless magic. The result had been the rat somehow suffering from hair loss, a ghastly sight. He had eventually decided against messing around with his wandless magic, proceeding to transfigure it silently instead.

He had gained ten points from McGonagall for being the first in transfiguring his rat, something which earned him the slight ire of Hermione. Harry had fought very hard not to make a sarcastic comment at the points he had earned. It would not do well to set Hermione or McGonagall into a worse mood.

"Ms. Brown, please collect the rodents from each of the students, and place them in the black bin on my table." said McGonagall at the end of class. Lavender paled drastically, shaking her head.

"Merlin's sake dear, they won't bite!" exclaimed McGonagall, before allowing Hermione to retrieve each of the rodents. The girl moved past Harry's desk without stopping. There was no rat on his desk, after all - Harry had practiced his wandless magic upon it, causing it to catch fire.

Hermione, having seen his actions (although she had not noticed his lack of a wand) had silently panicked - something which likely had to do with Harry setting a living creature on fire. Not that he cared; Harry could tell with absolute certainty that these were merely fruit that Professor McGonagall had transfigured into rats.

Harry understood why, of course. The professor wanted to observe their ability in transfiguring objects that had already been transfigured. It was slightly more difficult than transfiguring a normal object, as the transfigured objects held Professor's McGonagall's will within them. As the students tried to transfigure the objects into mice, Professor McGonagall's will sly fought against it, whispering at the objects to remain in the form of a rat.

Why Professor McGonagall wished to have the fruit returned to her, however, Harry had no idea.

A few moments later, the class was dismissed. Harry slowly got up from his desk, pushing in his chair and grabbing his book bag.

"Potter, if you could please wait for a moment." said Professor McGonagall from the front of the class, causing Ron, Dean, and Seamus (as well as many of the Ravenclaws who they shared the class with) to chuckle snidely. Ignoring them, Harry made his way to the front of the class.

Once everyone else had departed from the classroom, Professor McGonagall turned to him.

"Mr. Potter, I am not sure if you have yet heard," she began, "seeing as you have chosen to no longer stay in Gryffindor Tower, but there is another segment of the Triwizard Tournament taking place on December 25th."

Harry paled drastically. He was not at all prepared for the task in February, there was no way he could prepare for anything overly dangerous with such a small window of time.

I don't even have Salazar to help me get more powerful, or to at least teach me something useful.

That wasn't entirely true. Harry was fairly certain that when Harry told the portrait about this new task, Salazar would stop with whatever research he was doing, and help Harry.

"The Yule Ball will be taking place, a sort of formal ball that is held during the tournament. The champions and their dates are expected to open the ball."

The dread that Harry had been feeling had now transformed into a type of fear he had not felt in quite a while.

"Date?" asked Harry, his voice hoarse, "Dance?"

"Yes Potter, it is clear you have understood my point." said McGonagall, "So make sure you find a date."

"But Professor, I don't dance!" exclaimed Harry.

"You do now, Mr. Potter." said McGonagall curtly.

"Then I'm not going." said Harry stubbornly.

"You will indeed be going." replied Professor McGonagall in an exasperated voice, "It is a part of the Triwizard Tournament, to not show up would mean to forfeit your magic."

Silence permeated through the room for a few short moments before it was replaced with Harry cursing quietly in Parseltongue. Professor McGonagall flinched slightly at the action, though did nothing else.

"You are immensely lucky that I could not understand you, Mr. Potter." said McGonagall coolly.

"Why, ten points from Gryffindor?" asked Harry sarcastically. trying his hardest to calm down. Professor McGonagall was many things, but rude to him was not one of them. Placing his annoyance with the whole situation on the Transfiguration Professor was unfair to say the least.

I really need to work on my Occlumency.

Calming himself slightly, Harry turned to face McGonagall, his featured now calm. Professor McGonagall shook her head in annoyance before returning to her desk.

"On an entirely unrelated subject," began Professor McGonagall, "Both the headmaster and I have been concerned about your recent behavior, as well as your lack of friends."

"I haven't even talked to Professor Dumbledore recently, how could he be concerned about my recent behavior?" questioned Harry.

"The school is filled with students, professors, portraits and ghosts." said McGonagall, "Therefore, the headmaster hears quite a bit, I assure you. If he didn't, the Weasley twins would have likely destroyed the school by now."

Harry nodded, lost in thought. He had not really thought about Dumbledore having potential spies across the school. Well, perhaps spies was not the apt word; students likely did not mean anything when they spoke to the headmaster, and it was likely the same case with most of the professors. It could possibly be the same case with the ghosts.

.....

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