May Day, Hogwarts Castle, Room of Help, Evening.
Room on demand or Help Out Room. This room has many names. Each generation, the one who is lucky enough to find it and, partially, solve the mystery, gives it his own, new name, until, in the end, he learns that this room was found long before him and many times after. It has its own name, which, alas, was lost for centuries.
What is the Help Out Room for ordinary schoolchildren? Well, everyone has their own answer. For some it is a place of training, for others it is a place of relaxation, for others it is a place for rituals, both dark and not so dark. For still others, this room is a place where you can hide from the world and escape, at least for a while, from your problems into the wonderful world of fairy tales. There are even those for whom she is a legend.
But few of them could have imagined that such a room could become a real grove, a piece of "living" nature, within the walls of the castle. Yes, you heard right. Under certain circumstances, that is, upon request, this room can become an impenetrable grove, worse than the Forbidden Forest, if you don't go too deep.
What is a grove? Oh, this is a whole ecosystem, cut off from the world, original, wild, but no less beautiful. True, it is not known whether this "little world" is real or not. Only one thing can be said with absolute certainty; even Calder, with the help of magical vision, cannot be sure whether this world is genuine or not. Although he tried, ever since he discovered this grove for himself. And the situation during which he was able to find out about her is quite strange.
After a memorable chase in the forbidden forest, a question arose. How to actually escape if you managed to break away, but there are no ancient trees of the Forest nearby? Here you are standing in an open field, and a whole "army" in miniature is running at your heels, thirsting for your blood. Many will say to apporate, but this cannot be done from everywhere, just as it cannot be done in any state, and he did not yet know how to do this. So the young metamorph came up with one very effective idea.
"Complete metamorphism," the guy realized after reading another book dedicated to this topic. - The ability of a metamorph to take on the full appearance of an object, be it a person or an animal. If there is no way to just hide, then why not fly away? A bird is a rather simple and elegant solution to this problem," a smile gradually blossomed on the boy's face. There was no longer that sadness and puzzlement as before, no. He found the answer, now all that remains is to implement it.
After a long and thoughtful analysis, the choice fell on two birds: the needle-tailed swift and the peregrine falcon. The first is the king of horizontal flight and can reach speeds of up to 170 km/h. Incredible speed for a bird of its size. The Sapsan, in turn, has a much higher speed when diving, up to 360 km/h. That is why the maneuverability of this bird is much greater than that of the first.
Of course, there are also magical birds that can develop much greater speed, but there is a small problem. Such birds are much easier to detect due to the banal presence of mana in them, but the first option does not have such a disadvantage. Of course, if the metamorph is strong enough, somewhere at the level of a fourth-star apprentice, then the magical birds will not stand out, but Calder has not yet reached such a level in this school, alas.
The boy's choice also fell on a different plane. If you can fly in the skies, why not hide on the ground, among the grass and stones? Initially, Calder wanted to follow in the footsteps of Rita Skeeter and learn to turn into some kind of beetle, but a problem arose. The guy's current strength is not enough to turn into such a small creature. His current limit turned out to be an ordinary mouse, or an animal of similar sizes. The choice was between a rat and a mouse; in the end, the second one won. It's all thanks to the size, although it's much more difficult to maintain this shape.
To transform into one or another animal there are few genes; you also need to know the full structure of the creature, both physical and magical.
As soon as the guy wondered where to get mice and swifts, the Room to Help, right along with Calder being in this room, began to transform. The shelves, columns and runes disappeared. In their place came an ordinary meadow, full of them. Its size was amazing.
Green sea in the rays of the setting sun. The breeze blows both on the ground and in the sky. Both flocks and single birds fly overhead. Small animals are swarming on the ground, in the grass. There are only two things that spoil the idyll.
The first is the door leading outside from this room, which simply hung in space. The second is the soft chair on which Calder was sitting at that moment, which doesn't fit into this picture.
From that moment, the guy began trying to find and dissect, in another way - alas, in no way, the swift and the mouse. With the help of the Help Room, he managed to thoroughly study their structure. In total, about twenty individuals of one and two species were needed for this. Now he was faced with another question: where to actually find the Genes of these animals? No, you can do without them and simply take on your appearance, but then you will have to learn to control your body again.
Alas, Calder had to learn to fly on his own, unlike the mouse, of which there will be more and more of them with the onset of spring, needle-tailed swifts do not live in England.
Just half a month after studying these forms, Calder began to pay quite a lot of attention to the practice of flying. At first, in emergency situations, he helped himself with the help of telekinesis, but for a couple of days now the metamorph has been flying on his own.
Right now you can see how a black swift was flying between the tree trunks and their branches, dodging obstacles that came along the way.
A sharp flap of its wings and the bird flies up into the air. Having gained sufficient height, she rushed down with a whistle. With every second its speed increased, but when there were five meters left to the ground, the winged one made a sharp "somersault" in the air. At the moment of the end of the somersault, when the paws were directed towards the ground, the bird in a matter of moments turned into a young man.
Almost feeling the ground under his feet, Calder was already happy, but alas, no one canceled the inertia, and he flew head over heels to the ground, raising whole clouds of dust.
After a couple of seconds, the dust settled, revealing what it was hiding. On the ground, curled up in a ball on the floor, lay a boy. His legs dangled from top to bottom, in front of his face.
Rising, Calder shook the dust off his clothes, and then smiled at something.
"Hmm, that didn't turn out quite well," the guy scratched the back of his head with his hand, looking around the space next to him. - Still, it's too early for me to do such somersaults. You need to take care of yourself, otherwise you never know," the cheerfulness became even broader.
Having collected his things, the guy headed out. Dinner is approaching, and a new day follows.
*****
May 2nd, Hogwarts Castle Library, noon.
"Well, Kol, please," Nev continued to persuade his friend. He's been trying to persuade him for an hour now, but he still won't give up.
"We've already discussed this enough, Nev," the metamorph answered, continuing to read a book on charms for the sixth year. - I have no desire to get involved in this, why? What will this give me? And why exactly did they need me? — the guy asked a rhetorical question, turning into the void. However, the question reached the addressee, judging by the emotions that were coming from behind the shelves of books that were behind the guy's back.
"I see you're a notorious Slytherin, Wilson," Six's angry and slightly arrogant voice was quite expected. His emotions simply burned with a bright fire of hostility. This phrase was aimed mainly at him.
"It's not civilized to eavesdrop on someone else's conversation, and even interfere in it, Mr. Ronald Weasley," the guy's cold words expressed his attitude to this situation. "We need to be more modest and a little more sensitive." This will help you a lot in life," Calder gave free advice to Ron.
"I don't need advice from a snake," he spat. A little more and it will simply light up on the spot. He's too emotional. Or are all children like this?
"As you wish," the metamorph shrugged. - Well? Why do you need me? — Calder turned to face the golden trio.
There was a slight silence. The three looked at the guy with hostility, and a drooping Neville sat behind his shoulders. He asked the trio not to interfere, but to wait until he reached an agreement, but they did not listen, and besides, they eavesdropped on their conversation. For this the guy was doubly ashamed.
At that very moment, as if reading his thoughts, his friend half turned to him and smiled knowingly. This smile lifted a huge stone from his shoulders. He worried in vain, Calder is not offended and not angry.
*****
Turning back to the trio, I stared at them expectantly. At the moment, my face was like a wax mask. This unnerved them quite a lot, as Granger hesitantly looked around, just so as not to make eye contact with him.
- Well? How long will you stand in front of me like first-year students at Snape's detention? Or do you still deign to say something?
- Do we have anything to talk about with you, traitor? — one of them, in particular, the Sixth, finally took the floor.
- What a loud statement, don't you think? And why did you decide that I am one?
- What do you call a person who refused to help a friend? - Ron said as if telling everyone a well-known truth. At that moment his face was so "crooked" that you wonder. Is he a man? Not everyone can portray the same face.
"As I already told the two present here," a nod towards Nev and Hermione. "It was not he who needed help, but you." I refused to help you and not him? I hope it's clear now?
"That doesn't change the fact that you're a traitor!" - Ron roared like a wounded bear. How small. Although he is like that... We shouldn't forget this.
"Okay, okay," Kol raised his hands in a defensive gesture. - Consider that you are right. Just be quiet, otherwise they might kick us out of here.
And indeed, Madame Pince was looking painfully closely at our group.
- OK. Let's get back to the topic of our conversation. What do you need? Only now you're Hermione, otherwise I'm afraid Ron won't move on to this topic any time soon.
"We don't want you to tell anyone about the philosopher's stone," she said matter-of-factly.
My palm met my own face. Well, how could they come up with exactly this? Couldn't you think of anything else?
- And it's all? — I said slightly surprised. "Is THIS why you terrorized me for a month?" They pestered not only me, but also Neville for this? Have nothing to do?
"Don't be impudent, Wilson," Ron said threateningly, as he thought.
"Make sure the mini volcano doesn't explode," I said casually. - Do you even realize how stupid this sounds? Why don't you tell anyone about this? And even later you could not say about it? Well, let's say in ten, twenty years. Then I certainly wouldn't tell anyone," I nodded. The grin still didn't want to leave my face. This situation was too idiotic.
"We realized a long time ago that you won't help us," Hermione said and after my nod she continued. "That's why we want you to be silent."
- What if I don't promise you this? — the atmosphere instantly became tense. There was a feeling of nervousness in the air. And anger began to appear more and more in my emotions.
"If you don't shut up, I will." I can't do it, others can," Ron's face distorted into an ugly grimace.
"Calm down Ron," Nev entered the conversation, standing up from his seat. - You won't achieve anything with this.
"Shut up, you bastard," said Ron.
"Oh, you…" Nev began to get excited.
- Ron! - Hermione shouted. - What do you allow yourself? He's your friend.
"He's friends with him," he pointed his finger at me. "That's why he's not my friend." "I'm not friends with snakes and their hangers-on," he finished with obvious mockery.
In an instant, Neville fell onto his chair as if knocked down. There was disbelief on his face. Hmm, I didn't expect this. But what is most interesting is that none of them had an ardent denial of these words in their emotions. Only Hermione is angry at Ron, but that's all. There was nothing at all in Potter's emotions other than interest.
"Be careful with your words, Ron," I said slightly threateningly. --- You never know what can happen in the castle. Even "others" will not be able to help.
"I think that's enough for today," Potter said in a slightly muffled voice. "I hope you understand us, Wilson," he looked at me. "Let's go," he nodded to them and headed out. The others followed Potter, casting angry and apologetic glances at us.
"Don't pay attention to Nev," I said after several minutes of silence. — There are all kinds of people, not only kind ones. We'd better get out of here.
"Uh-huh," he answered somewhat sluggishly. Apparently this hit him much harder than it seems. You will need to talk to him about this.
The conversation, if I can say so, went as expected - quickly and with a sea of threats. It's true that I didn't even think about such a stupid, no other reason.
Ron and Hermione behaved quite as expected, and their emotions spoke much more clearly for them. With Potter everything is much more interesting. Once again I am convinced that he is not what he should be, even approximately. His emotions are dominated by only boredom and slight interest. For a child his age, this is quite strange, and he is a child, since the emotions of an adult and a child are different. That's why he seems even more mysterious than before.
After walking Nev to the living room, I headed to my room. There is still a lot to prepare, and time is getting less and less. But still, who are you Harry Potter?