"You've gone bonkers if you believe Dumbledore. Nobody sane would trust Dumbledore over the Ministry of Magic. Everyone knows Dumbledore has gone senile." Seamus argued at the top of his lungs.
"Oh yeah, right. Dumbledore is senile for telling the truth about You-Know-Who while you believe the words of the Ministry that still can't find the Death Eaters who attacked the Quidditch World Cup final. Sometimes I wonder what's in your head, Seamus." Ron snarked.
The two Gryffindors were arguing back and forth at the top of their lungs, and this was the scene Harry walked into.
"Nope. Not getting involved in the lover's quarrel." Harry said before turning on his feet and making his escape from the dorm.
A loud guffaw followed his exit from Dean Thomas, who fell on the floor from his bed, laughing his heart out. Harry merely shook his head and summoned his Transfiguration book along with some parchment and quill before he shut the door behind him.
"Hey, Harry. Are you not going to sleep?" Neville asked upon coming across Harry, who was exiting their shared dorm.
"There is a shouting match going on between Ron and Seamus. I thought I'd finish the Transfiguration essay on vanishing spells in the common room before calling it a night." said Harry.
"That bad, huh?" Neville frowned at the closed door.
"That bad." Harry nodded.
"Just save a seat for me. I'll be right back." said Neville before climbing into the dorm.
Harry fell into an armchair in the common room and sighed in relief. He could feel the tension built up on his back dissipate as the cushioning effect of the magic on the furniture worked its magic on his spine and the muscles nearby.
"Oh, yes. I definitely need more relaxing time." Harry muttered before opening his Transfiguration text, searching for the chapter on vanishing spells.
Neville shortly joined him, dropping into an adjacent chair carrying a few books and parchment.
"They still going at it?" Harry asked.
"With renewed vigour." Neville said, both of them sharing a grin.
"So, vanishing spells are of two types…"
Harry and Neville spent the rest of the night concentrating on tackling the essay in the dimensions required by Professor McGonagall. Vanishing spells were not exactly rocket science, but as always, wizards like to overcomplicate simple things. There were two spells that came under the umbrella of vanishing spells. There was one for vanishing small objects like a rock or a pin. Then there was the other spell used for vanishing objects larger in size and mass. The wand movements and incantations were polar opposites making it rather complicated. Considering the whole thing was a giant waste of time when it required no unique wand movements or incantations if you master silent casting, Harry considered the energy and time spent learning the two vanishing spells a giant waste of his time.
Unfortunately, the OWLs test requires all these silly wand-waving stuff and incantations. At least, the practical exams of Charms, DADA, and Transfiguration were supposed to be a little more liberal as the only requirement was the smooth performance of the spells. Harry hoped it was the case because learning all this inane stuff for the written exams was one thing, but if he had to perform this circus in the practicals…
'I hope that's not the case.' he thought.
It'll be like asking a pilot to fly a plane using the theory of bicycling. In the end, both are modes of transportation, but the scope between the two was not the same.
"Harry!"
"Oh, no. The boss lady is back." Harry muttered, making Neville shake with laughter.
Putting on a pleasant face, he faced Hermione, hoping to use the excuse that he was working on the Transfiguration essay instead of patrolling the third floor as he was supposed to.
"Did you see this?" Hermione slammed what appeared to be a flyer of some sort on the table they were working on.
Harry exchanged a look with Neville when he saw the familiar-looking flyer that the Weasley twins distributed in the Gryffindor tower. The flyer asked students to take up a part-time job as their guinea pig in return for gold.
"Well…" Harry coughed into his hand, trying to gather himself under Hermione's scrutiny. "This seems to be one of the Weasley twins' special brand of pranks."
"You don't know anything else about this?" Hermione asked suspiciously, looking between Harry and Neville.
"Why would I?" Harry shrugged innocently. "What would I know about what the twins are up to? They're not called the chaos twins of Hogwarts for nothing, Hermione."
Hermione scrutinized him a little more before turning her sights on Neville.
"Well, do you have anything to say, Neville?"
"Me? Nothing. I know nothing." Neville stuttered out, sweating bullets.
"Hmmph!" Hermione let out a huff before she power-walked her way into the girls' dorms.
"Now's the time, Neville. She'll wring the truth from Parvathi or Lavender. We need to make our escape before she returns." said Harry, hurriedly packing the books and parchments.
"But Seamus and Ron…" Neville reminded Harry.
"I'll take them over, Hermione, any time of the day."
The following day Harry felt like his head was just about ready to explode after the dressing down he received from Hermione. She had rightly found out that he was involved in keeping the side business of the twins away from her hawkish eyes. He had even patted himself on the back by keeping the flyers a secret for a whole week. It was, after all, for a good cause. But all was for nought as Hermione discovered the ploy over the span of a single night.
"You all right there, Harry?" Angelina asked from down the Gryffindor table, looking concerned at his half-dead state at breakfast.
"I think so. My head is killing me, though." Harry grouched.
"Is that so? Maybe you volunteered to be experimented on by the twins." Hermione snarked.
"Oh, please drop it, Hermione. How many times do I have to apologize?"
"Not nearly enough, Harry. Who knows what could happen if those two are allowed to test their… merchandise on unsuspecting students." Hermione fiercely argued.
"But they are not unsuspecting students. The twins made clear the risks involved in helping them out refining their prank items. Not to mention these prospective volunteers are promised suitable compensation for their time." Harry defended the twins for the umpteenth time, as any good investor should, considering the situation.
He could not afford to have Hermione spill the beans, so to speak, to someone like McGonagall. He certainly didn't want the news to spill into Umbridge's ears. While the resident Ministry stooge has so far given him a wide berth, Harry didn't want to provide the woman with any reasons to go after him. He was thrilled with Umbridge ignoring him and going about her business in Hogwarts. After all, he was pretty busy with a lot of other things that demanded more of his time, like becoming an animagus, for instance.
"It is wrong. The only reason I'm not going to McGonagall with this is that you assured me the twins wouldn't go through with this stupid plan. And don't you think I didn't notice you skipping your patrol duty last night."
"Oh, come on, Hermione. All the other prefects do this. How else do you think we can find time to finish our assignments, keep up our studies and attend classes every morning?" Harry asked.
"I'll make a schedule that will not interfere with your prefect duties." Hermione offered, making Harry groan at the very thought.
Harry was starting to think Dumbledore didn't assign him the position of prefect to wield some form of power in the school or even as a reaching out to mend broken bridges. He suspected the headmaster wanted him mentally and physically exhausted.
'I'm turning into a whiny little bitch who always blamed Dumbledore. That is not healthy.' Harry thought.
XXXXXX
Professor Binns was once again going through his usual lecture, droning on about some Goblin war. It was interesting at first, with some references to battles that were fought between the goblins and wizards. But that interest quickly dissolved when the ghostly professor began droning on about the personal lives of some of the main characters involved. Harry quietly switched his history textbook for the notes he had prepared for his animagus transformation.
The long, arduous process of becoming an animagus would hopefully end today. Tonight was a full moon night, and he hoped to have the mandrake leaf removed that had been sticking to the roof of his mouth for this entire month. If tonight was cloudless, he could remove the mandrake leaf from his mouth and treat it with a nice dose of moonlight. The rest of the ingredients for the animagus potion, like the dew untouched by sunlight and chrysalis of a Death's-head Hawk Moth, were ready on short notice, safely stored under Sirius' custody in Grimmauld Place. It would be one exciting night if everything went according to plan.
After History of Magic, Harry, and Hermione were left with two free hours while the rest of his Gryffindor peers suffered their first lesson from Trelawney.
"Good luck Neville. I hope Trelawney's inner eye is not focused on you this year." Harry said, as Neville split from their group.
"I don't know Harry. Maybe she'll take pity on me and leave me alone since I didn't become dragon food as she predicted last year." Neville said his goodbye before hastily following Seamus, Dean, and Ron.
"So, what are we doing?" he asked Hermione since they were free till lunch.
"Well, I have the Transfiguration essay to complete. I guess I'll be going to the library." Hermione said, smoothing her skirt and hauling her backpack over her shoulder. "What about you?"
"I'll join you shortly in the library. You go ahead." said Harry.
"Where are you going?" she asked curiously.
"Well, I was hoping to have a word with Fred and George if they have a free hour or…" Harry searched for an excuse as Hermione looked on expectantly. Suddenly an idea clicked in his mind.
"…or I was hoping to run into Daphne." Harry was relieved to see Hermione take his excuse at face value.
"All right. I guess I'll see you in the library." Hermione said before taking her leave.
'All right, Potter. You earned yourself some time. Let's use it for the cause.' he muttered before calling on Dobby and teleporting himself into the Chamber with his elfish friend's aid.
The 'cause' as it turns out, was not that intent on making it easy for him.
Harry looked at the immobile snake in the glass prison in suspended animation.
"Did it give any trouble, Dobby?" he asked, walking around the glass prison of Voldemort's familiar.
"The mean snakey has always been asleep, Harry Potter sir." Dobby said happily.
That was a relief for Harry. So far, Nagini looked utterly out cold, leaving it open for experimentation. The only trouble he found was the time of feeding the snake. That was when the glass prison was most vulnerable. Nagini was fed using essential nutrients in fluid form, just enough to sustain the snake's life.
"All right then. Time to get to work." Harry rubbed his hands together excitedly. "Dobby, open the glass."
With a snap of Dobby's finger, the glass prison opened. Harry levitated the snake out of the glass prison and strapped Nagini to a table using a series of charmed metal clamps. The sheer size of the snake made him a little queasy, and the fact that he was dealing with one of the darkest pieces of magic known to wizardkind made him walk around the snake on eggshells. After all, Voldemort intentionally made Nagini a Horcrux. There was no telling what sort of abilities Nagini had besides higher intelligence. The data he collected and his experiences with the Horcruxes suggest that the host containers facilitate some kind of perk for the soul shard, which acts as a defence mechanism. For the diary, it was the ability to absorb magic and life force. Slytherin's locket tries to prey on fear, while Ravenclaw's diadem offers wisdom and knowledge to lead the host into a trap of some sort.
Anyhow, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Therefore, Harry used some sensory deprivation charms on the snake to ensure the Horcrux could not act out against him with full force. After confirming the snake was covered with all the security charms in his repository, Harry went forward with the spell that facilitates the splitting of the soul in the Horcrux ritual. From the notes he unearthed in the Chamber and the books he took from the Black Library, the Horcrux process was not so cut and dry as killing someone and then splitting the soul. There was a ritual involved that opened the soul for tearing away a soul fragment before the murder was committed. Another interesting fact was that the Killing curse had to be used for the murder. It was the only way to create a fissure in the soul. He wondered why another spell, like a powerful cutting curse, would not work as a substitute for the Killing curse.
"Anima rescindo."
Harry drew a small circle with his wand on the snake's skin in the anti-clockwise direction and pulled. He could feel his magic latching onto something initially, but whatever it was didn't seem to like what he was doing. The magic in his spell was abruptly cut off as if there was nothing to be plucked using the spell.
"Hmm."
Harry took his notepad and wrote down what he felt on his first attempt at the spell and the intent he used behind the spell. It was his logbook for this experiment, and he wanted all details recorded for future reference. Setting the logbook down, Harry looked at the massive form of the sleeping snake.
'That's the first attempt. Here goes the second.' he thought, using the spell repeatedly with little result.
In the end, he had to call it off after successive failures, and he was cutting it close to the lunch break.
The failure was not surprising. After all, Harry was expecting something along the lines when he decided to go through with the attempt. It was not as if he was expecting success on the first try. The chances of failure were glaring, considering there was no recorded event of anyone attempting to remove a Horcrux from a sentient being in the long history of wizardkind. That thought brought him to a halt as Harry realized one crucial element he was missing while using the spell. He realized that the soul-splitting spell was not actually designed to pull out a soul shard after making a Horcrux. As intent, wording, and wand action does matter, there was a considerable chance that the sentience of magic recognizes the spell as something to be used on Horcrux creation, not for pulling a soul out of a Horcrux.
'I need to deconstruct the spell to its basic form and reconstruct a new spell to work specifically for removing a soul shard from its container.' he thought.
In hindsight, he should've seen this coming, especially after he found out the reason why most cultures insisted on using Latin words and silly gestures with wands. The magical energy prevalent in the world was sentient to a certain extent. This sentience implies that magic has some form of arbitrary memory it draws on to engage with the broader world.
In simple terms, magic held a long memory, and every spell was remembered by magic for producing certain results. The ICW, in a bid to organize the magic of the world into one conscious entity, suggested the use of one language above all for constructing spells so that they could judge their legality cross-culturally. He was not exactly sure about the ICW's involvement because it could be said that magic pushed wizardkind into one umbrella so that magic as an entity would not be constrained by language barriers. After all, words take on different meanings in different languages. Having one single language for spells universally used for spell crafting made it easy to use cross-culturally and streamline it for the magic to encapsulate the intent behind the spell. This was also one of the reasons that wizarding schools across the globe focused on verbal spells from an early age, as it helped to streamline the intent and imagination behind the spell.
Otherwise, magic would happen in a wild and crude manner, much like accidental magic.
"Looks like one more additional project just fell into my lap. I need to create a spell to pull out the soul shard from a Horcrux. Yay! Lucky me." Harry muttered, rubbing his eyes tiredly before taking his leave from the Chamber.
The rest of the day was thankfully not a drag as his morning turned out to be. The afternoon classes were thankfully Arithmancy which was turning out to be his favourite class thanks to Professor Vector's engaging way of teaching by giving the class small assignments. There were no page-long essays in Arithmancy, only small arithmetic codes and keys used in designing spells and wards. The OWL year curriculum of Arithmancy focused heavily on combination keys used in some of the most popular charms, like the summoning charm. The most challenging portion of the OWLs exam, according to Professor Vector, was the Arithmetic framework commonly used for wards.
Anyway, he was just happy to end the day without any assignments that would consume too much of his time during the night. After an hour of Quidditch practice, where once again Angelina was drilling them nonstop to find a worthy keeper for the team, Harry was back in Hogwarts with more patrol duties. Of course, he once again escaped the patrol duty halfway in preparation for the first significant step in brewing the animagus potion. Everything was prepared beforehand, and he was quite giddy at the prospect of starting his journey to becoming an animagus.
So, when the time came as the night settled in, all of Harry's hopes lay crushed into fine dust. Out of nowhere, the night sky was covered in rain clouds, and he could not see an ounce of moonlight on what was supposed to be a full moon night. He waited as long as he could, but the moon remained elusive throughout the night. When Harry finally turned in for the night, he was not carrying the Mandrake leaf in his mouth, nor was he pleased about the prospect of once again starting over with the Mandrake leaf from the next day till the next full moon.
'Now, I understand why Sirius said the need for a lot of patience for this to work.' he thought morosely as he lay in bed with his eyes trained on the night sky.
On a more positive note, he did have another ritual he could try out, thanks to Riddle's notes in the Chamber. He had secured all the ingredients needed beforehand during the summer vacations, but one more crucial ingredient was needed. Fortunately, Hogwarts was rampant with that particular ingredient, but it would not be easy to acquire.
'I'll worry about that tomorrow.' Harry thought before closing his eyes and slipping into sleep.