NOVEL NEXT Chapter 16: Chapter 16
Chapter 16
Harry pointed his wand at the feather, enunciating clearly and performing the wand movement exactly as described. It shot up to the ceiling like a cannonball, its point sticking into the rafters and remaining stuck there, causing his classmates to giggle at his expense.This is getting ridiculous, Harry thought in frustration as he could only shrug at Professor Flitwick's raised eyebrow.
Flitwick asked Harry to stay behind after this lesson. "I hear from my fellow professors that you have been having troubles with your casting," he said.
"Yes, sir," Harry said glumly. "I'm having difficulty with controlling the power level of my spells."
"May I ask what kind of wand it is?" asked Flitwick curiously.
"It's mahogany, with a Kneazle whisker core," said Harry.
"Ah, quite a finicky combination," Flitwick mused. "I taught a student decades ago with a similar core, and it took her years of practice to overpower the chaotic nature of the wand."
"Wonderful," Harry muttered. He didn't have years to spare; he had to be ready for Voldemort as soon as possible.
"I also heard an interesting rumor from Professor Snape," Flitwick said thoughtfully. "He claims that you produced a perfect Shield Charm during a scuffle in between classes. Is this true?"
"Erm...yes, sir," Harry said sheepishly.
"I imagine your father must have taught you that one?" Flitwick said. "Dead useful, that spell is. Also extremely difficult to cast; even my N.E.W.T. level students have difficulties with maintaining shields. Very impressive, Mr. Potter."
"Thank you, sir."
"You're quite welcome," Flitwick beamed. "Could you do me a favor and pick up that chair for me?"
Harry followed the professor's gaze to the corner of the room, where a student had carelessly left their seat upturned on the ground after a hasty exit from the classroom. He strode across the room and set it upright, turning back towards Flitwick; to his surprise, the miniature man had drawn his wand.
"Expelliarmus!" Flitwick bellowed.
"Protego!" Harry said instinctively. A golden shield erupted before him, blocking the jet of red light from Flitwick's wand and sending it back towards him, causing the man's wand to clatter to the ground.
"Oh, how splendid!" Flitwick said with glee, stepping forward to examine the shield. "It's exactly as I suspected."
"What did you suspect, Professor?" asked Harry.
"Your wand seems perfectly capable of regulating power levels," said Flitwick. "But it only does so in moments of danger, when your need is most great. Perhaps that is when your will is strongest, or perhaps the wand is issuing you a challenge."
"A challenge, sir?"
"I suspect the wand wants you to prove yourself," Flitwick said. "Kneazles are clever creatures and aren't easily tamed. As I instructed my last student, you must demonstrate that you're worthy of being listened to, of being obeyed. So my advice to you, Mr. Potter, is to keep pushing yourself and practicing with the wand. Prove your allegiance to it, and it may just give theirs in return."
Harry always hated the way people like Ollivander and Flitwick talked about wands like they were sentient beings. It still just felt like a stupid piece of wood in his palm. But he couldn't deny the point: the wand had clearly chosen him and had proven capable of powerful magic. He would just have to work harder than he had with his old holly and phoenix wand to master its potential.
"Thank you, sir," he said before exiting the classroom. He would just have to add this to the growing list of questions he was pondering in his new life. Even though his life was much the same as his first timeline had been, he felt twice as unprepared and ignorant as he had been before. He hadn't even had time to devote attention towards Voldemort – he'd intended to begin studying right away to prepare for his return. He even had a mental checklist of questions he wanted to answer for himself as soon as possible:
How did Voldemort split his soul? How can you destroy soul fragments? How do prophecies work? What does the prophecy about Voldemort say and mean? How do resurrection rituals work, and can they be disrupted?
Most of these questions, of course, would be difficult to answer without access to the Restricted Section. Harry doubted he would find much of interest about soul magic in his first-year texts. He also didn't want to draw attention to himself so early by checking out books on such salacious topics. He would have to bide his time and slowly build up his knowledge on Voldemort's secrets.
Meanwhile, Harry decided to focus on his relationships with his fellow students. It was odd interacting with kids five years younger than he felt, but he knew most of them well enough already, and was able to build up a natural rapport with most of them. He liked his fellow Ravenclaws well enough, though he doubted he would form a lasting bond with any of them like he had with Ron and Hermione in his past life. He wanted to extend his circle beyond his House and see what others had to offer him.
He also kept an eye on Neville from afar, and to his dismay, the boy did not seem to be faring so well in Slytherin. Malfoy was hanging around him rather often, but Harry could tell that Neville was not fond of the boy, and seemed miserable during meals as the likes of Crabbe and Goyle talked about whatever they found interesting (probably nothing pleasant). He and Ron seemed to be forming a bond at least, but Hermione was almost entirely absent from their social circles.
And Harry quickly realized that he was to blame for that. Being in Ravenclaw with her, he had settled into a comfortable routing with her, leaning on his previous relationship to form a fast friendship with the girl. Hermione was all too eager to have a friend, being an outsider as she was, but Harry didn't feel right about secluding himself with her as he had in his previous timeline. He didn't want a close-knit group of loyals around him – that had gotten him into trouble before. He needed a more fluid social situation, one that let him interact with more people without any one of them influencing his decisions too heavily.
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