Harry Potter: Don't touch

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On Tuesday after breakfast, the Elemental flew over to Harry's house with a letter addressed to Potter in his beak. Trembling with excitement, Harry picked up the envelope and immediately began to unseal it.

The letter was written by Hagrid, calling him to tea at his hut at three o'clock on Friday afternoon. Harry wrote his agreement on the back of the letter and handed the envelope back to his owl, telling her to fly to Hagrid's place. But before doing so, he fed her well, if two lumps of sugar could be called 'good food' of course.

In any case, the Elemental didn't want to eat anything but sugar anyway. Not bread, not scrambled eggs, not toast with jam... To everything she twirled her beak and looked at Harry like he was sick. The same look Justin gave him when Harry tried to offer the Elemental a banana.

Also on Tuesday, Potter tried his method of arriving for breakfast, lunch and dinner at the times he had calculated. It worked perfectly.

There were hardly any students, and Harry was stared at by one or two people at most. Wednesday dinner was a happy event for him. Everyone was busy devouring their food and not a single person was looking at Potter.

But that wasn't the only thing that made this dinner memorable for him. One student separated from the Slytherin table and slowly walked towards Harry. It was Draco Malfoy.

As he walked, Potter mentally prepared himself for insults and humiliation. The likelihood that Malfoy was, for once, coming with good intentions was less than the likelihood that Harry was not a human but a pink tyrannosaurus.

Potter looked at the teachers' table and found only Potions Professor Severus Snape there. The teachers came into the Great Hall at about the same time as the students came in.

Snape was not the one to be expected to save the day. Harry cast a pleading glance at Justin, who had started coming in to eat at the same time as Harry. Finch-Fletchley showed him a fist and a thumb right after it.

Harry didn't immediately realise what Justin expected him to do. The realisation of what the gesture meant only came over him when Draco almost walked up to him.

"Does he want me to punch Malfoy?"- was the last thought in Harry's head before Draco opened his mouth.

- 'Look, Potter, I'm sorry about what I said before the placement, I didn't mean for it to come out like that... And I'm sorry about the spell lesson too... I was just out of it at the time.'

Harry was taken aback, his already prepared 'go to hell, Draco' response lodged somewhere deep in his throat.

What was he hearing now? Malfoy apologising? The same Malfoy? This just can't be happening!

Harry looked at Justin, his face was strangely stretched and he was looking at Malfoy as if he had just turned into a giraffe right before his eyes.

Did he have the same face? Okay, we need to quickly analyse this event. Consider hypotheses, just like that room that only appears when it's needed.

Condition: Malfoy's an arsehole. Event one: Draco constantly insults him. Event two: Malfoy apologises to him. What follows? I don't know what the hell should follow! The hypothesis method is bullshit. No science can explain Draco's behaviour.

- So, do you forgive me? - Malfoy asked, leaving Harry even more confused.

- What? I mean... Uh... I forgive you, Draco," Harry said feeling like a complete fool.

- 'Thank you,' Malfoy said and headed back to the Slytherin table.

For five minutes Harry and Justin were silent.

- What was that just now? - Justin said quietly.

- 'I haven't the faintest idea... But one thing I know for sure,' Harry replied.

- What's that?

- I need to buy food for the pink Tyrannosaurus," Harry said and left the table.

Justin sat staring at his cold tea for another half an hour. The look on his face was one of utter bewilderment.

* * *

Harry didn't want to continue his experiments just yet, as the notebook with his notes remained in the room with the many pieces of furniture. When Potter could return to it, then he would continue his research. In the meantime, he had plenty to do.

On Wednesday and Thursday there were quizzes on the theoretical aspects of each subject. These were the very first tests to show the freshmen's knowledge.

It started with herbology. It was a fairly simple test, where Harry confidently completed the entire task, and on a question with a detailed answer, he gave a whole dissertation on the use of the Incendio spell in Herbalogy. As it turned out, this spell could be used for more than just fire. "Incendio", when used in another way, causes all plants within a certain radius to wither.

The situation was worse with the history of magic test. Harry could only remember half of the first lecture, so he could only answer two questions out of ten. On the other eight, he tried to apply logic. What would he do if he were a goblin who led a rebellion?

Defence Against the Dark Arts was also not a particular favourite with Harry. Quirrell hadn't explained anything about anti-ghost spells or sparks of different colours. All he talked about was vampires. So Harry had written some nonsense about vampires in the question with a detailed answer, and in the test he'd used his own method of randomising the answers.

But the theory test on spells had gone well, not perfect, of course, but much better than History of Magic and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Harry couldn't remember the most important factor in the successful use of spells and, remembering his experience with Colloportus, wrote "correct pronunciation" in the answers. The wand movements for the levitation spell also remained an unknown mystery to Potter.

Harry had prepared for transfiguration very thoroughly, but the questions on the test were so intricate that he wasn't sure he had answered at least half of them correctly. But he did get back on the detailed answer task, where he had to point out the most important aspect of transforming inanimate objects.

Potions, surprisingly, went well. Harry knew roughly what exactly he should expect from the test, and ran his eyes carefully over the basic information about the plants included in the simplest potions. Potter had learnt the recipe for a boil remedy by heart.

And his efforts had been rewarded. The questions were exactly what he had expected. Harry confidently coped with twelve out of fifteen, and in the remaining three he wrote the answer simply by using logic.

And the last subject, astronomy, went the worst. The nonsense that Harry wrote there could not be put into words. He wrote zero answers that he was sure of, and on the assignment with a detailed explanation he wrote pure water, hoping that he would get any points at all.

All in all, Harry was dissatisfied with his knowledge of some subjects. In the evening that same day, he visited the Gryffindor drawing room. There he met with Ron and asked him about his astronomy test. He needed to make sure he wasn't the only one failing. Weasley crinkled his face and briefly tossed back 'horribly'.

Their mutual 'success' with astronomy was due to the fact that they had been playing tic-tac-toe in their last two classes. It's a fairly simple but addictive game that had drawn Harry in a lot.

The rules are simple. Players took turns writing their sign in the unrestricted cells. The object of the game was to get five crosses or zeros in a row faster than your opponent. So far, Harry had lost every round in this game, but he was sure that once he learnt how to play and developed a strategy, he would definitely start beating Ron.

Thursday evening, as planned, was spent playing chess, a game in which Harry was even more unlucky than at crosses and tic-tac-toe. The rules were very complicated, and Potter didn't understand them for quite some time. It seemed to him that the knight went diagonally and the king was the strongest unit in the game, but even when he finally figured out how each piece moved, he still lost to Ron's rubbish.

The game was usually over in five or six moves. Weasley was quick to checkmate him, which he called 'child's mate' for some reason. The best result Harry could get was in the penultimate game. The game had lasted until twenty moves, and Harry had even managed to kill Ron's knight, even though he was adamant about the strange word 'eat'.

Well, what was "eat"? Who in their right mind would even call it that? Your white queen blows half a poor black horse's head off and then carries his breathless body away from the board. Of course, maybe she'd eat the horse meat afterwards, but Harry didn't really believe it, if only because that queen was killed by a black rook three moves later.

To Potter's great surprise, the Gryffindor students treated him with great friendliness, they didn't try to touch him or ask him about his escape from the Great Hall; the lion students just came up and made casual conversation.

Harry had a good chat with Neville Longbottom; they discussed the Herbalogy test, who had written how much about the Incendio spell. Fred and George told him about the pranks they had put into practice in their second year. Percy Weasley gave him a lecture on how bad it was to break school rules, and especially on the first day of school. Hermione Granger had asked him about why he had lied to her about his last name before he started school. After Harry's confused explanation, she smiled and told him how many P's she should get on today's theory test. As Harry was about to leave, Angelina Johnson came up to him and gave him a stack of Quidditch magazines that she had read long ago.

All in all, the Gryffindors weren't approaching Harry because he was some sort of outstanding person, but just to socialise. Or maybe in these two weeks everyone had already got used to the fact that the great Harry Potter was studying with them. He decided not to think about it, though.

On Friday, the grades for the theory test came in.

Potter's marks were as follows:

"P" - Excellent. - Herbalogy.

"B" - Above expectations. - Spells, Potions.

"U" - Satisfactory. - Transfiguration.

"C" - Weak. - History of Magic.

"O" - Disgusting. - Defence Against the Dark Arts.

"T" - Troll. - Astronomy.

Could be worse. It was the only way Harry could characterise his marks. Some of the results had exceeded his expectations, though. For example, he didn't think he'd written Herbalogy perfectly, assuming he'd made at least a couple of mistakes.

What surprised Harry the most was the "B" in Potions. It wasn't a grade, but something out of the ordinary. He'd hoped for a "U" at most, and that was assuming the teacher didn't notice his signature in the top right corner. Suddenly there was an entire "B." How Professor Snape had managed to overcome himself and give him a good grade, Harry had no idea.

After thinking about it carefully, he decided that there were only three ways to explain such generosity: one, Snape hadn't really noticed that Harry had written the paper; two, the Potions teacher, though he didn't like him very much, was fair in his grading, so he had graded his answers "Above Expected"; three, Harry's work had been so perfect that Snape hadn't found anything to pick on, so he had been forced to give him a "B".

Harry didn't believe that Professor Snape could be fair in any of the parallel universes, so he didn't even consider option two.

By the way, not all of Harry's grades suited him. A T in astronomy was something he hadn't expected at all. He had hoped that he would at least get a "Weak". But alas, the first Troll, and now Harry had to try to catch up with the school curriculum. Eh, Tonks had told him right, if he failed astronomy, he'd be in big trouble.

Despite the fact that the theoretical test had been passed, the practice had not started: Flitwick had reiterated once again that the use of spells should not wait until October, and McGonagall had said that complex transformations would only take place when the students had learnt the material.

The only subject that went to practical lessons was herbalism. On Friday, they began their class where they worked with the plants in the first greenhouse. Professor Stebl, who had a birthday that day, happily announced that almost everyone had written the test to satisfactory marks and that this was the best present for her.

In spite of all these events, Friday's lessons were rather ordinary. There were no notable events, apart from the fact that Peeves had poured a bucket of slop over Daphne Greengrass's head during the spellcasting lesson with Slytherin. Ron had also told Harry that the flying lesson between Gryffindor and Slytherin had been interesting: first Neville Longbottom had managed to take off before the whistle blew, then fall and break something, and then Draco Malfoy had thrown his reminder on his broom onto the roof of Hogwarts.

To Malfoy's disappointment, this act was noticed by Minerva McGonagall from her office window. She immediately convened a faculty council headed by the Headmaster. The question of Malfoy's punishment was being decided. To the deepest regret of all the students of Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff, Draco remained among the students of Hogwarts. Harry, after Malfoy's unexpected apology on Wednesday, was no longer sure if he wanted Draco expelled. Despite the fact that Malfoy was still a Hogwarts student after all, he couldn't get away with it. He was being assigned detentions for the rest of the year, as well as having some Slytherin points taken off.

How many? Neither Harry nor Ron were aware of it, but on Friday night, Slytherin had about minus fifty points. Which was thirty more than the Hufflepuff faculty, who had managed to gain a little on points. This was to the credit of Potter, who had not had his points taken off, but even on the contrary, added to them. He was able to earn ten points when he clearly told all the possible classifications of spells at spells.

Oh, and Tonks apparently wasn't doing much mischief either. From minus one hundred and thirty points, Hufflepuff was able to go up to minus seventy-five points. And that's fifty-five points in just a week, which is a lot.

Harry hadn't had a chance to talk to Tonks since they had never met in all this time. But he wasn't too discouraged, they had a great place to talk to each other. McGonagall's homework hadn't been cancelled yet.

* * *

At two thirty Harry reluctantly took his mind off reading a magazine about the best racing brooms for Quidditch, walked out of the Hufflepuff living room and headed towards Hagrid's hut. He already knew the way, so he reached it rather quickly. As he approached the door, he knocked three times. There was a deafening bark. The giant didn't open it right away, Harry had to wait about two minutes before the barking stopped and the door swung open.

- Hi Hagrid, can I come in?

- Sure, come in. Back off, Fang, back off," the giant pushed the large black dog back with his foot. - Why are you here alone, without any friends?

- Well, you only called me, didn't you? I didn't think it was polite to bring someone else.

- Oh, well, that's okay. You can bring someone next time. Make yourself at home, tea's on the table.

There were only two rooms in Hagrid's hut: the common room and the pantry. In the centre of the common room there was a table with three cups of tea on it, obviously Hagrid still expected Harry to take one of his friends with him. In the corner was a small bed covered with a patchwork quilt. Harry had no idea how Hagrid fit on such a small cot.

- So, how are you doing? How are you enjoying your first fortnight at school? - Hagrid asked, setting a plate of muffins on the table.

Even though it was lunchtime two hours ago, Harry wanted to try them.

- It was unusual at first, but it's fine now. I made a friend, his name is Justin. I also met Tonks, she's a senior in our department," Harry said, taking a cupcake.

- It's the first time I've heard of Justin, but I know Tonks, she's a....

What Hagrid knew about Tonks, Harry never found out, because that was when he took a bite of the muffin. There was a crack, a flash of pain, and he spat out his tooth.

- Merlin's beard, Harry, I didn't mean to, I didn't think cupcakes could be tough. I've had them for ages, I've been eating them in peace and I'm fine. They're probably not good for your teeth," Hagrid apologised.

Harry touched the empty spot in the top row of his teeth with his finger and jerked his hand away, it hurt. The tip of his finger was covered in blood.

- It's nothing, Hagrid, that tooth has been loose for a while, I've been waiting for it to fall out," Harry lied.

Hagrid gave him a cloth, which Potter immediately put in his mouth to stop the blood.

He decided that he would be sure to stop by the Hospital Wing on the way back. Justin had said that magic could be used to regrow bones, and, consequently, there shouldn't be any problems with restoring teeth.

That incident aside, Harry really enjoyed chatting with Hagrid. The giant told him a great many things of interest and even treated him to some chocolates he found in one of his countless pockets. Oh, and the tea wasn't too bad either.

The information he received from Hagrid was not so much useful and detailed as it was interesting. Harry was curious to know how Hagrid saw the world. And the giant answered all his questions, even when he didn't know the answer, which was quite often. Take for instance his story about the platforms at the railway station:

- Listen, Hagrid, tell me, how can huge crowds of students get through the barrier to platform number nine and three quarters unnoticed?- Well you found someone to ask, how should I know? I've never been on that platform. I meet students already at Hogwarts... - Hagrid thought for a moment. - There are probably many platforms all over London. When I was a student, I didn't think much about it. I was very happy at the time that I'd been accepted into the school at all. Because of... Never mind, anyway. I didn't think about it. And I wasn't travelling to Hogwarts the same way you were... I had, like, a different train station and a different platform number. What's it called? А! Six and one quarter. All these architects have a weakness for quarters. They can't get the aisles right. They have to get it right.

Harry didn't leave Hagrid's hut until it was dark. He realised that he had missed dinner, but he didn't really care, he didn't feel like eating. Entering the castle, he went straight to the Hospital Wing, contemplating his fate.

He had friends for the first time, Justin and Ron. Nice acquaintances in the form of Tonks. Malfoy had apologised to him, and if Snape also punched himself, it would be a fairy tale, not life at all.

Harry reached the Hospital Wing in high spirits.