There was no poultry at lunch, something for which Harry was quite relieved for and Ron seemed distinctly disheartened by. No doubt his red-haired friend had spent most of their transfiguration imagining how his guinea fowl would taste rather how it would become a guinea pig.
'What did Snape want?' Neville asked him between bites of a precariously made sandwich.
'Told me my work was finally passable and that I shouldn't slide back into mediocrity,' Harry replied, as several slices of radish escaped Neville's lunch and made a bid for freedom across the table. They only rolled as far as Ron who gratefully accepted the contribution to his meal.
'That was awfully nice of him,' Ron sniggered. 'Did he deduct points to compensate as well?'
'No. He didn't take any points off me today actually.'
'Odd, normally at least ten are gone in our first potions lesson, maybe he was happy about something and forgot.' Seamus had a point. Harry invariably cost his house at least ten points every potions session, though he felt more of the blame lay with Snape than with him.
'What would Snape be happy about?' Ron asked incredulously through a mouthful of cold beef.
'He's probably anticipating failing all our OWL exams,' Neville cut in gloomily. 'My gran will kill me if I don't get at least 6 OWLs like my father.'
'It's two years away, Nev,' Ron exclaimed. 'Harry has to go through two near-death experiences first, you've got a huge edge.' The table laughed with the exception of Hermione who was still trying to vanish her piece of parchment with a single-minded determination Harry had rarely seen even from her.
'I've had my one for this year, thanks,' Harry interceded.
'It doesn't count, mate,' Ron countered. 'The Bulgarian cheerleader cancels it out.' The guys nodded in agreement.
'She wasn't that gorgeous, Ron,' Harry defended. 'And all she did was carry me while I was unconscious. Hardly anything to be proud of.'
'She was a veela, Harry,' Dean said. 'Those legends about the sirens in the Odyssey are supposed to be based on veela. You've outdone Ulysses.' That brought blank looks from those raised in the magical world.
'It's a really famous story,' Dean exclaimed. 'How could you have not heard of it? Harry, Hermione, back me up, everyone knows about the Iliad and the Odyssey.'
Hermione didn't stir from her attempts at vanishing and Harry was beginning to feel rather guilty.
I suppose I should come clean.
He leaned over Hermione's shoulder to tap his wand against the small fragment of parchment and watched with a small smile as it immediately faded from existence. Hermione whirled around like a viper.
'How did you do that?' she hissed. 'I've been trying since transfiguration.'
'It's not too tricky, you just have to visualise what you want to happen and really focus when you perform the spell.' He shrugged rather helplessly. 'It's like all magic really, but it affects transfiguration more.' She looked scandalised by his casual description and reached for another piece of parchment.
Harry caught her hand. 'It's an advanced OWL year spell, Hermione, plenty of time to practise later. Can't have you starving, and someone needs to help Dean and I defend the Odyssey.'
'The Odyssey,' she responded blankly.
'See,' Ron crowed. 'Hermione doesn't know about it and that means virtually nobody does.'
His friend went rather pink, but shook her head. 'I know about the Odyssey, Ron, it's one of the most famous stories ever written and it's over two thousand years old, but I have no idea why you're all talking about it.'
'Dean said there are veela in it,' Seamus explained rather bravely.
'Are attractive, part-human women all you people think about it,' his friend retorted testily, the flush fading to a more indignant expression. 'I assume he was referring to the sirens that Ulysses encounters.' Harry nodded. 'He's probably right,' she acquiesced after a moment, 'but you can't still be thinking about the Bulgarian cheerleaders, their charm only works when you're looking at them.'
'They were goddesses,' Ron defended, adopting a rather dreamy expression, before bursting into laughter at the reactions of both Hermione and the passing group of Gryffindor girls.
The guys began whisper about the beauty of veela as Ron explained and related the actions of the referee at the World Cup. As much as Harry wanted to join in the discussion his memory of the event revolved all too closely around his close encounter with that Death Eater.
'How did you get so good at transfiguration,' Hermione asked him in a surprisingly humble tone.
'I spent the summer reading up on all the theory,' Harry explained. 'I never bothered before as I'd just picture what I wanted to happen and with a bit of practice I'd get the hang of it. I did it for all our subjects, but I'd imagine transfiguration will be one of my best now since it's quite intent based and very visual. My dad was supposed to be really good at it.'
'Oh,' Hermione nodded, seeming to accept his honest answer. 'I didn't know he was so good at transfiguration.'
'He and his friends were animagi during their mid-school years, Hermione,' Harry laughed. 'Even basic human transfiguration isn't covered until our last two years, let alone full animagus transformations.'
'I guess that does make sense.' Hermione seemed to be struggling with something. 'It's good you've started studying seriously,' she added. She didn't seem completely pleased with it, a touch too bitter to be just impressed.
'Time for charms,' Ron sighed, throwing one forlorn glance back into the Great Hall.
Charms was still in Flitwick's well lit room beside the central tower and thus only a short walk away. It was one of the more useful subjects, but Harry hadn't spent particularly long reading up on it over the summer in comparison to the other subjects and wasn't actually sure what material they would be covering.
'Repairing, summoning and banishing charms,' Flitwick squeaked quite excitedly from his perch at the front of the class when they had all entered and settled down. Harry blinked. Hermione was going to be angry with him again. He knew both of the first two, learning the first to help him with his glasses over the summer and then reading about the second in sufficient detail to perform it at the World Cup.
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