Harry Potter :Diamond Heart

He had just finished adding scales to the head of his Arithmancy basilisk when class came to an end.

Hermione had eaten her lunch rather sullenly next to him, but he wasn't sure if she was angry with his sudden ability in Arithmancy or because he'd written on her work. She always hated it when anyone wrote anything on her notes. It was well known that the easiest way to annoy Hermione Granger was to get ink on her notes or, worse, on an actual essay. Harry suspected the latter, he wasn't any better than she was at what they were currently studying, just a little ahead.

Ron was equally subdued and still quite bleary eyed.

'Divination was absolute hell without you, mate,' he mumbled. 'I had to partner with Lavender. She was so enthusiastic. It was no fun at all.'

'What's your horoscope?' Harry asked dryly.

'Well I'm not going to die, so it beats whatever yours would have been. Lavender mentioned something to do with fire and veela, but I think she was talking to Parvati about the World Cup.'

'You slept through the whole thing didn't you,' Harry concluded sympathetically.

'It's so warm and stuffy,' Ron complained. 'I don't know how anyone stays awake.'

'It's history of magic next,' Neville interceded, 'no need to for anyone to stir themselves. Even my gran says that the subject is a waste of time while Binns is still teaching it.'

'You know they say that his body is actually still in his office from where he died and that he just kept teaching as a ghost,' Seamus told them cheerfully.

'Aren't ghosts meant to have a reason to linger?' Ron asked Hermione.

'Maybe he hadn't finished marking essays,' Seamus sniggered, when Hermione didn't respond.

'How does he mark our essays?' Dean wondered aloud. 'He can't exactly touch them, can he?'

'Maybe that's why he never notices we don't hand anything in,' Ron grinned.

True to its usual standard History of Magic was lectured to a class that was largely asleep. Harry was sure in the few times he had glanced up from his book on advanced transfiguration that Binns had been addressing the class from within the wall. He shook his head. Having a ghost for a teacher was a terrible idea.

Even Hermione wasn't really paying attention. She had opted to use the time to get started on the essay Binns had set rather than listen to his voice echo out from the wall about goblin tunnel skirmishes.

Harry couldn't blame her one bit. He only looked up from the passage in his book about human transfiguration to nudge Ron whenever he started to snore too loudly.

The theory of the book, A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration, was fascinating and it had been well worth ordering from Flourish Blott's a couple of years before they would get around to using it in class. Human Tranfisguration wasn't something he was about to start experimenting with, however. The stark warning in the preface about becoming trapped in his newly transfigured form if things weren't done correctly was enough to dissuade him. Harry had been quite keen to get to grips with the theory, becoming an animagus like his father and Sirius had while at school was an exciting prospect, but that had rather dampened his desire. He'd probably have to do any actual experimentation in the Chamber of the Secrets so Hermione didn't catch him and tell Professor Mcgonagall. Their transfiguration teacher would probably award him house points, but only shortly before expelling him for doing something so reckless.

Something for a later date, he decided and swapped the book for his copy of Confronting the Faceless. He badly needed to learn some applicable duelling spells. Harry couldn't continue to conjure serpents every time he was in a tight spot. Actually he'd prefer to never have to, because as soon as anyone saw him manage it he'd be lauded as the Heir of Slytherin all over again.

I wouldn't even be able to deny it.

There was quite a nice selection of curse and counter-curses in his new book, many of which were quite advanced and included the nasty purple looking spell he had been attacked with. Lacero was the incantation for a rather nasty adaption of the cutting spell that was intended for flesh rather than inanimate things. It wasn't something Harry planned to use except in the direst of circumstances.

In its later pages Harry found a section on the unforgivable curses, including the Cruciatus curse he had been hit with at the World Cup. There was a spell he would be doing everything in his power to avoid in the future. There was no sensation quite like having every nerve screaming out. Harry imagined Slytherin's burnt magical children might recognise the sensation and shuddered at the thought. It almost justified the basilisk.

The Imperius curse, described over the page, intrigued him. It was the only unforgivable that could be defended against, even if it required very strong will power to do so. The book suggested that practice would make it easier to fight off, but Harry rather doubted any of his friends would be willing to assist him and cast it at him.

You'd have to be mad to risk being caught casting it. It, like all Unforgivables, carried a lifetime sentence in Azkaban for being caught casting it at another person.

He was rather intimately familiar with the final member of the trio of unforgivables. Absentmindedly he traced the scar on his forehead, remembering dreams that always ended the same way. A flash of bright green light.

'Avada Kedavra,' he murmured very quietly. That was one spell incantation he didn't need to be heard repeating. Rather chillingly they were the first words Harry had ever been able to remember on his own. The dementors had forced him to recall everything he had heard before the curse, but the incantation had somehow stuck in his head on its own. He distinctly recalled attempting to correct a magician at one of Dudley's birthday parties when he had been much younger. It was quite a disturbing memory now he considered it.

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