"Excellent work, Mr Potter!" Professor Flitwick cheered, bouncing with joy. "Masterfully done! A brilliant example of the summoning charm."
"Thank you, Sir." Harry grinned as he stared at the book that he had just caught, the charm's teacher's energy was infectious and Harry couldn't help but find himself enjoying learning under him.
Which wasn't all that hard since Harry had slowly started to feel better given that he had not been forced to return to Snape's class, apparently Professor McGonagall had agreed to him getting a private tutor, and Snape since returning had been doing his best to avoid Harry, limiting himself to nothing more than a hate-filled glare. Harry wasn't sure how long Snape would be able to last without antagonising him but Harry was willing to enjoy it while it lasted.
As of right now, Harry was currently in one of the extra lessons that Professor Flitwick had agreed to give Harry, Harry found himself really enjoying these lessons since they were all pretty much practical. Harry didn't know if that was because Professor Flitwick realised that he would prefer practical lessons or because he didn't really want to add more homework onto Harry's already growing pile, either way, Harry wasn't going to complain.
Harry tossed the book into the air before pointing his wand at it. "Accio." Harry cast the summoning spell and the book didn't drop to the ground and instead flew towards him, letting him catch it again with his spare hand.
"I'm very impressed with you, Mr Potter, that's a fourth-year spell," Professor Flitwick told him.
"Now, you've done as I asked and learned the banishing charm theory, yes?" Professor Flitwick asked, giving Harry a questioning look.
"Yes, Sir." Harry nodded respectfully. "It's the opposite of the summoning charm and it sends something flying away, basically it just blasts stuff away." Harry summed up.
"It's a simplified explanation but you do at least seem to understand what you're talking about,"
Professor Flitwick hummed. "Can you please tell me the incantation for the spell?"
"Yes, Sir, it's 'depulso'," Harry answered.
"Excellent, now, let's try it out." Professor Flitwick suggested before flicking his wand several times, one of the walls became padded before a small desk was brought in front of it. "Please try and banish the desk at the wall."
"Okay, Sir." Harry nodded before he aimed his wand at the desk. "Depulso." Harry cast the spell but unfortunately for him, nothing happened.
"Don't be discouraged, you'll get it," Professor Flitwick encouraged him. "Try again."
"Okay." Harry took a deep breath. "Depulso." A spell shot out from his wand and struck the desk, pushing it forwards slightly.
"Very good, very good," Professor Flitwick praised. "Now, try again, Mr Potter. Just a touch more power to it, if you don't mind."
"A bit more power," Harry hummed. "got it." Harry aimed his wand at the desk once more
"Depulso." Harry cast the spell again, this time with more power. The result was not at all like what Harry expected would happen, once Harry's spell connected with the desk he ended up shooting it straight into the wall at an impressive speed that Harry was positive would have resulted in the desk shattering against the wall if not for all of Professor Flitwick's protective spells that were put in place.
Still, despite the spells in place, Harry could still hear the impact of the crash and even felt the vibrations from it. "Whoa."
'That was awesome!' Venom's voice said and Harry couldn't help but picture a Chesire grin filled with tons of sharp teeth. 'Do it again! Find Snape or Draco and do it again!' Venom encouraged.
"I think you might have put in a bit too much power." Professor Flitwick commented in a slow voice.
"Really?" Harry asked, not totally able to keep all of the sarcasm out of his voice.
"Just a tad, yes," Professor Flitwick nodded, either not noticing or ignoring Harry's sarcasm.
"And then that old bat just starts predicting my death," Ron rolled his eyes.
The group were currently sitting outside in the courtyard, Ron was sitting on the floor with Hermione, the former was holding a quidditch book in his hands while Hermione was reading through the charm book that Harry had allowed her to borrow. Meanwhile, Harry was lazily lying down on the bench next to them with his head resting on one hand while the other held up a book on transfiguration that he was reading through.
"Again?" Harry snorted as he used his thumb to turn the page.
"Yeah, again," Ron said, ranting about his latest experience in the divination classroom. "I like the class, it's really easy and according to old Trewlany, I can read tea leaves with the best of them. But sweet Merlin, it's getting really old listening to her predict people's deaths. Even Neville isn't afraid of it anymore."
"That bad, huh?" Harry laughed, remembering the other students' reactions after leaving their first divination classroom, apparently, the teacher had predicted that Neville would die and everyone had stared at the chubby Gryffindor like they thought that he would collapse at any moment. Neville had been the worst though and had flinched at everything, small or big, he had damn near wet himself that day when he turned a corner and nearly ran into a first-year girl. "You know, it's not too late for you to change classes and join Hermione and me in one of our classes," Harry suggested.
"Are you joking?" Ron blurted out, staring at Harry as if Harry had just suggested he ask Snape to supervise Ron getting circumcised.
"Personally, I think that's a wonderful idea," Hermione spoke up, finally looking up from the book in
her nanas.
"Yeah, you would." Ron snorted.
"I'm serious, ancient runes and arithmancy are both very fascinating and interesting topics, not to mention that they are both far more useful than divination," Hermione said, all in one breath
"Harry?" Ron asked his other friend.
"Arithmancy is a lot of math," Harry said with a small sigh. "It's not particularly exciting and it does drag on a bit at times, but it's not terrible, just a brainy sort of subject."
"No wonder you like it," Ron commented to Hermione who rolled her eyes.
"Runes is great though," Harry continue with a small shrug of his shoulders. "I mean, it's not always interesting but for the most part it's fun. You get to learn a lot of the history involved in the runes as well, our last class had us looking at Norse runes. If you had to change into one of our classes then I'd recommend that one.'
"I don't know," Ron sniffed. "Personally, I think I'd rather just stick with divination. I mean, listening to some crazy woman fail at predicting your death seems worth it for an easy grade."
"That's up to you, mate." Harry had barely gotten his sentence out of his mouth before Hermione started arguing that Ron was being lazy which prompted Ron to start arguing about her. Harry rolled his eyes and chose to not get involved and instead focus on his book, or at least he did until he heard a giggle. His gaze shifted to his left and he saw a trio of Gryffindor girls from the year below him, including Ron's little sister, Ginny. The girls were all whispering to each other as they walked, though Harry couldn't help but notice that their gaze kept shifting to him.
'Wink at them.' Venom suddenly ordered.
'I beg your pardon?' Harry asked.
'Wink at the girls,' Venom told him.
'No.'
'Do it.'
'No.'
'You'll look cool.'
'I don't know about...'
'Wink at them with your stupid face.' Venom commanded.
Harry mentally sighed before doing as Venom said, when all the girls stared at him he winked at them and sent them a flirtatious smile or at least it was a smile that was as flirtatious as a thirteen-year-old boy with no experience in flirting could manage. Fortunately, for Harry, it appeared to do the trick as the two other Gryffindor girls began giggling louder while Ginny's blush had become nearly as red as her hair. Harry watched as the trio of girls turned a corner and disappeared from view.
'I am not going to lie, that went better than I thought it would.' Harry told Venom as he gave himself a mental pat on the back for successfully managing to flirt, though he did pause and consider the fact that he had flirted with Tonks before, or at least had had a few interactions that felt like flirting.
Harry was interrupted before he could think more about it, he felt his body shift and experience had just told him that one of Venom's tentacles had popped out of his body. Harry barely had time to think about it before he felt the tentacle retract and just before it had fully retracted he felt it change direction and slide up his clothes until it poked out of his sleeve with a piece of parchment.
'Look,' Venom told Harry who stared at the parchment and quickly realised it was Hermione's timetable, Harry was about to protest when he saw that many of Hermione's lessons were scheduled at the same time just like Harry had thought.
'She's taking every elective there is, except for divination.' Harry knew that Hermione had dropped divination since she really didn't like the subject and according to Ron, she hadn't been that fond of the classroom or teacher either.
'Weird, isn't it?' Venom commented.
'Sneak her timetable back before she realises it's gone,' Harry told Venom, knowing that the alien symbiote had most definitely already memorised the entire thing. Venom did as Harry had said and the tentacle pulled itself out of Harry's sleeve before quickly and discreetly placing the timetable back into Hermione's pocket as she continued arguing with Ron. 'How is she doing that?' Harry wondered.
'If it was a mistake on her timetable then Hermione definitely would have gone to Professor McGonagall and had it fixed.'
'But she's also apparently been showing up in every class, Venom said, beating Harry by a second.
Harry nodded along, he remembered Hermione complaining about divination and Ron commenting about her being in the class, but that wasn't possible since ancient runes had been happening at the same time and Harry was positive that Hermione had been in ancient runes with him at the time.
Plus he recalled hearing Hermione complain about how outdated the muggle studies class was. 'I have a theory.'
'What is it?' Harry asked.
'What's been different about Hermione this year?' Venom asked before sending an image of the necklace that Hermione had been wearing this year.
'What do you think about it?' Harry asked, recalling that it seemed to have spinning parts and a sand clock without Venom's help, it was a pretty weird looking necklace.
'Perhaps it's a magical object, maybe it lets her clone herself,' Venom guessed. 'Or maybe something that could be much worse, or much better.'
'As in?' Harry asked impatiently.
'Time travel.'
'Time travel?' Harry repeated, not entirely able to stop himself from sounding disbelieving. Though he immediately chastised himself for it, after all, it was only a few years ago that levitating objects with a stick was out of the realm of possibility for him.
'It's obviously time travel, the thing has a little clock in it,' Venom said, referencing the sand glass.
'It's possible, I suppose, but we can't really be sure, can we?' Harry frowned.
'There's one way to check.' Venom lightly commented.
'Are you thinking what I think you're thinking?' Harry asked.
'Since I know what you're thinking, yes, yes I am.' Venom confirmed.
'You want to steal it?' Harry asked with disbelief.
'You read my mind, Harry.'
'You're in my mind, Venom, and no, I'm not stealing from my friend.' Harry refused.
'I figured you'd say that, so how about I offer you something in exchange for doing it?' Venom asked
in a casual voice.
'Like what?' Harry asked, not even bothering to keep the interest out of his voice. Venom, quite frankly, had an unfair advantage as he could tell what was going on in Harry's brain so Harry wouldn't bother pretending.
'Like uncovering the mystery of Sirius Black.' Venom purred.
'What mystery?' Harry asked, sounding quite confused. 'What does the guy that got my parents killed have to do with Hermione's ridiculous timetable and that necklace?'
'Well, I am not sure but I do think it just might be possible that Sirius Black didn't betray your parents,' Venom told Harry, causing the young wizard to suddenly snap up to a sitting position, interrupting Ron and Hermione's argument.
"Are you okay, mate?" Ron blinked as he and Hermione stared at Harry.
"No, no, I...I'm not feeling well," Harry fibbed as he stood up.
"Do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione frowned.
"No, I...just have. to go...I...I have diarrhoea." Harry lied as he began walking away.
"Diarrhoea?" Ron blinked.
"Explosive diarrhoea." Harry clarified as he got farther away.
"Are you sure you don't want to go to Madam Pomfrey?" Hermione called.
"Nah, I'll just go find a corner in Malfoy's room," Harry called back before he got out of their sight, Harry quickly decided to walk to the owlery since he was positive that nobody would be there right now. 'That's not the kind of sentence you just drop on a person.' He mentally hissed at Venom.