*****
-Ko-o-ol, good morning! — as soon as I went down to the common living room of the faculty, one noisy blonde greeted me (I'm talking about hair, not a state of mind. Everything is fine here in this case).
"Morning to you too, Astoria, Luna," I said, waving my hand slightly at them. - Why aren't you with the rest of the first years? They had long since gone to the Great Hall for breakfast.
- Well, we said that you would accompany us. You won't leave us alone, right Kol? — Astoria said with a sly smile. In her eyes it was not just demons dancing, but a whole round dance of these horned and tailed "monsters".
Luna silently came up to me and grabbed my hand. Shifting my gaze to hers, I looked at her in bewilderment.
"Take me and Astoria to the Great Hall." After all, I'm such a leisure person, which means Astoria is your friend," she said categorically.
- Hmm, since when did you guys become friends?
"And Luna and I became friends yesterday," Gringras said, hugging Luna. Luna only nodded at her words in confirmation.
After looking at his face for a couple more seconds, I just sighed. Apparently I won't win the argument here, their arguments are reinforced concrete, hmm. This cannot be taken away.
"Okay, follow me," I said, heading towards the exit from the living room. The girls followed me.
Hmm, why does Astoria need this? What is this little bastard up to? Eh, it's good that at least she has sincere emotions towards the Moon. So for now, you can close your eyes to all this, of course, unless she begins to cross certain boundaries. And you can be happy for Luna, she found herself a friend.
Apparently something like that appeared on my face, since the designated girl looked at me with a puzzled look. I smiled encouragingly at her, stroked her head, and moved on.
Arriving in the hall and finding Nev in his usual place at the Ravenclaw table, he headed towards him.
"Morning, Nev," he greeted him as he sat down at the table. - How did you sleep after returning to Hogwarts?
- Kind. "Yeah, that seems good," he shrugged. And then suddenly, feeling something, he looked at me suspiciously. - What is it?
"Well, I thought I'd look at the results of your training tomorrow," I told him, as if this topic didn't mean anything. He nodded confidently at my words. - And based on the results of the test, we will adjust your training. After all, it's worth stopping there, right? _—at the end I couldn't resist smiling a little sarcastically.
I don't know what he was thinking, but his face turned slightly pale. Taking a nervous sip from his glass, Nev finally answered:
- Maybe not? Otherwise, I know how you adjust your training," he said in a whisper.
"It's necessary, Nev, it's necessary," I again grinned slightly at him.
-What are you talking about? "Luna and I are very interested," Astoria said, almost jumping on the spot, carefully different from us until that moment. The second girl did not comment on her answer, only sparks of interest "shone" in her eyes.
- Nothing interesting. It's just that Nev and I, somewhere in the middle of the last school year, have been doing exercises in the morning. "So we were discussing when the next joint training would begin," I answered them, helping myself to a second portion of food. Hmm, I really eat a lot, there's nothing you can do about it.
"Judging by his appearance, you're torturing poor Nev with these exercises," she said, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.
"The Brainsnatchers say that Neville likes it and doesn't like it at the same time," Luna contributed. - How so? "She asked, slightly bowing her head, looking at him.
The poor guy blushed slightly and lowered his head, but was in no hurry to answer. They embarrassed the poor guy.
"Come on, don't press Nev, otherwise one person might think that you're pestering him," I said as if nothing had happened. Hearing me, Nev somehow jerked sharply and looked at me with an indignant look.
- Kol! - the guy exclaimed.
- And who is it? — Gringras the younger asked, starting to look around. Alas, she could not notice anything.
- Nobody! - Nev quickly replied, waving his hands. - Absolutely no one. This is Kol just joking, hahaha.
- Hmm? — in one phrase I expressed the entire range of emotions that I felt at the moment. In response, Nev only looked at me "angrily" and warningly.
"In any case, it's time for you to go," Longobot changed the topic. - There, the headman is already gathering you and will take you to the office where you will have your first lesson. I advise you to hurry up.
Indeed, Crystal, along with the freshmen, had already begun to rise from the table. Seeing this, the girls quickly jumped up from their seats and walked towards the headman.
"Ko-o-l," Nev drawled "threateningly" as soon as they left us.
"Come on, just think I was joking," I waved my hand as if I was driving away a midge. - Better get ready for tomorrow's training. During exercise, I'll see what you've achieved physically, and in the evening, magically, that's it, I'm full.
- Why not today? Your training again?
"Yes," I nodded in confirmation. "I'll be at my practice tonight, so don't bother looking." And if Luna and Astoria want to find me, warn them, okay?
"No problem," my friend nodded. - Looks like we should hurry up too. Moreover, today we have the first one - double potions with Snape. I wouldn't want to be late.
"Well then, let's go," I said, getting up from my seat.
*****
The whole next day was nothing interesting to remember. First, potions, where Snape gave us a mini test so that, I quote: "See how much information flew out of your empty heads."
After potions, we had lunch where Nev and I, as well as Astoria and Luna who joined us, had a fun time.
The girls were simply overwhelmed with various emotions. And if in Luna this was expressed only by a sparkle in her eyes, as well as a whole ton of happy emotions, then with Astoria it was the opposite. No, she was also overwhelmed with emotions, but outwardly it manifested itself much more clearly - an almost complete retelling of two couples (and these were charms), gestures, joy in her voice and many other different details. Yes, I can understand.
Next on our schedule was Herbology, so at dinner the equally happy Neville was added to the happy stuff. Here's someone, but he doesn't need much to be happy - just give him some kind of plant so that Neville can take care of it and that's it, he's guaranteed a good mood for the whole day.
And yes, it was in the greenhouse that I was able to see how much better Neville had become. I had looked at his aura with magical vision before, but in the greenhouse it revealed itself in full splendor.
If in a normal state his aura was comparable to that of a fourth-year student, provided that Nev's aura was in some semblance of harmony with "nature", then, and the greenhouse...
I remember that during my first visit to the greenhouse back in my first year, I noticed that each plant was born to be near Neville, to "touch" him, thereby beginning to exchange mana and prana with him, now... As soon as my friend crossed the threshold of the greenhouse, like its aura, itself, expanded and began to "embrace" all the plants within its radius of action. Now Nev did not need to come into contact with plants in order to exchange mana with them, no. The aura did all this for him. It was incredible, I didn't even know about this property of natural magicians.
By the way, this was not reflected externally; the plants remained what they were. Only there were no more those small "body movements" on the part of the plants.
Of course, the effect of the aura does not extend to prana. I became convinced of this when I used my vision of "life" in the combination of genes.
After Herbology, I said goodbye to Nev and headed towards "my" class.
Having checked it both with the help of charms and with the help of magical vision, I was convinced that no one had visited it for several days. This gives me hope that no one fell in love with him except me.
This is how my first day in Hoga passed after the holidays. I must say, being in a "safe" place where you don't have to worry about being attacked at any moment is an indescribable feeling. It would be wonderful if the whole year went like this, but alas...
I managed to catch a glimpse of Ginny Weasley. What can I say, it looks like she also wore an amulet that hid her aura, just like Percy. Perhaps the deformation of the aura that I saw in her brother after removing the amulet is a consequence of the curse of the blood traitor. However, this is just my guess.
Well, I saw Ginny and so what, you ask. But the fact is that I caught her at the moment when she was enthusiastically writing something in a black notebook. The notebook itself was in no way visible either to magical vision or magical sense. Without a doubt this is Tom's diary. Or something equivalent to it.
Oh, I really wanted to spend this year in peace and quiet. However, the presence of Potter in the castle completely cuts off this possibility.
*****
It's morning, the sun is shining from the sky, the birds are singing, the grass is rustling, and poor Nev is trying to catch his breath after a set of exercises. I'll just stand on the sidelines and wait for him to come to his senses.
"Well, what can I say," I began, seeing that Nev had come to his senses. "It's obvious that you didn't sit in your pants all summer, but actually studied." This cannot but please me," I smiled slightly at him. - So we may well increase the load. I think you can handle it just fine.
Neville did not immediately understand the meaning of what I had said, but as soon as he understood what I was talking about... he just sighed sadly, fully accepting this cruel reality. Well done, he didn't become indignant, he still remembers our conversation at the beginning of training.
Okay, no time to waste. Closing my eyes for a brief moment, I opened them again, but now my eyes see not just the world and magic, but also life itself.
Having made sure that no one was watching us, I tiredly closed my eyelids. Phew, it doesn't seem like I "borrowed" this ability from unicorns for long, but what is the return? The body felt as if after a shock workout. The bones ached, the muscles were there. And besides, the magical beginning also itched slightly. This is what it means to use abilities that can destroy my body.
Finally, having come to my senses, I again turned to Nev:
"Now let's look at your other skills," I wave my wand and a stone wall appears to my right. "First he will test your abilities in strengthening your body," I commented on my actions. - Hit.
- Right along it? — Nev asked me incredulously.
"Yes, right along it," nod.
- But...
- Bay.
- Or maybe...
"Just hit me already, nothing will happen to you," to confirm my words, I created another wall and ran away along it myself. The wall started to crack and then collapsed into large fragments. Hmm, I've become stronger. I'll have to check how much. - Do you see? — I showed the guy my unharmed hand.
After looking at her incredulously for several seconds, Nev finally decided to strike. Approaching the wall, he closed his eyes and raised his hand, taking a deep breath. Looking at him again through the prism of perceiving life, I managed to notice how part of his prana (and it increased, by about fifteen percent. Not a bad result.) Flowed into his hand, and from there into his clenched fist.
With a whistle, the hand rushed towards the wall. There was a small rumble. Out of fright, Nev opened his eyes and, jumping off the wall, looked at her in disbelief. K looked at something: half of the rock was covered with cracks, and at the point of impact, some of the fragments fell down. Hmm, it's not bad I have to tell you, of course it wasn't my blow that destroyed the rock, but that's why I'm a training maniac (And, yes, it's time to admit it within myself - I'm a fucking training maniac. Whenever I don't have a free minute, I immediately start training at least something: body, mind, magic...)
"And you were afraid," I said, approaching Nev, who in disbelief looked from his fist to the rock, and then back. - Well done. Progress is visible to the naked eye," I pointed to the stone wall, and then with a wave of my hand scattered it to the wind. Good thing, this transfiguration of yours.
- Okay, let's go already. Breakfast will be coming soon, and we haven't taken a shower yet.
After falling silent, I headed towards Hog. A couple of seconds later Nev followed me.
Well, the day started off well. Today he will test Nev's magical skills, and tomorrow he will visit the teacher and help out the room. Of course, you shouldn't forget about your training.
Oh, so much to do.