We finished our written exams and our practical exams, so we were just attending classes for the next and last two weeks to give us a summary of the years education and a small overview of the same, and a brief introduction to next year's syllabus for learning. Hermione and a few Ravenclaws were probably the only ones to actually paying attention to their classes.
The fifth and seventh years were just sleeping through most of their classes and the professors did not stop them. They were beyond tired. It is after all called Nastily Exhausting Wizarding Tests for a reason for the seventh years. And the Fifth years had never worked harder in their lives and also felt as mentally and physically tired and exhausted as the seventh years. It was a given.
The Quidditch pitch was almost always booked by either of the houses since all the students were given permission to use it.... with supervision of a professor or Hagrid in our case. Since Hagrid was a friend, we called him as often as he had free time, this resulted in Gryffindors having more time to use the pitch. We played 7 Vs 7 within ourselves, whilst Wood and I started scouting the players. We needed substitute players badly. To return the favor, I would go to Hagrid's garden and help him out with magic to make things easier for him.
In the weekend Lee Jordan, the Twins and myself (under the Invisibility Cloak) made use of the tunnel system to visit Hogsmead. Bought ourselves a lot of candy and joke items with the money we won making anonymous bets on ourselves on winning the Quidditch cup. Lee Jordan was the middleman this time since the Twins were playing in the match itself. I went to the local bookshop and picked up my order that I had placed a week ago.
It was a series of three five books. The books were about woodworking, stone sculpting, metal forging and gem cutting and Enchanting them after finishing the product; respectively. Although the Enchanting part was purely theory and had only basic enchantment that are thought in Hogwarts in the seventh year. But it did give give out pointers on how and where these enchantments are to be used, which was pretty useful if you ask me. Must be because the technique and spells used to enchant items are either regulated by the Ministry or it is a trade secret or something like that.
I immediately got into studying them, starting with the least difficult one- wood working.
Woodworking starting with the simplest task: whitling. I started whittling wood into chess piece shapes like I was some convict in prison. The classes and the Gryffindor common room started having wood shaving, that thankfully no one noticed since House-elves clean it off before anyone notices. After a week of practice and a lot of cuts on my fingers, I made decent progress. The pieces started having definition and more detailed shape to it.
But my knife that I "borrowed" had dulled during this period. I flipped through the pages of metal forging, trying to find the spell I had read about while browsing the book, while reading it casually. It was in the last pages that it was written down {Acuere}- this spell was to sharpen the blade, but it last only an hour or so, but it still was enough to do the job.
It was hard work, but after finishing a piece I felt fulfilled and started working on the next piece. Although sometime I wished I could just transfigure them.
Sure, I could use transfiguration to shape the material, but it would not be permanent. And yes, I did look up.... there is no such thing as permanent Transfiguration. I was slightly heartbroken when I asked this question and Professor McGonagall looked at me like was some kind dunce.
I found that Transfiguration became my bread and butter for most things as I was good at it and I figured that trait was probably from James Potter. Speaking of that.... I looked up on self-transfiguration and Animagus. Turns out I'm not old enough to be attempting it. There are two ways to go about it.
In the African continent somewhere in Uganda, there is a magical school named Uagadou (pronounced as Wa-ga-doo) that teaches all there students to become animations by using Occlumency and meditation. The other way was using a potion that has a lot of complicated steps and procedures, like having a specific leaf in your mouth, day in and day out, for a specific time and the user is supposed to drink it only if there is a naturally occurring thunder storm outside and recite some words.
The only difference between the two ways is that, the meditation and Occlumency is far riskier but more rewarding. When one achieves the Animagi status through the use of the potion, they require a wand for transfiguring yourself to your animal (unless you stay in your animal self for extended periods of time). But for the other method, they do not need a wand to Transfigure themselves, since they would have a deeper and stronger connection with their animal selves. But they also risk the loss of their human thoughts, since it is very easy to get lost in the mind of the animal on their first try and not return back to human form.
There is also the matter of transfiguring the person's clothes. The potion users cannot transfigure their clothes as they are changing, but the Occlumency users can transfigure their clothes as they change into their animal forms.
I have to make do with the use of the potion. I'm pretty sure they would not divulge their secrets just because the "famous" Harry Potter is asking them. I'm sure that my popularity is highly exaggerated and only famous in the European nation. The other nations could give a damn about another country's dark lord and who defeated them.
The Animagus potion was on my to do list and was in the back burner. I had collected all the ingredients and safely stored it away ready to be used right before my third year.
Anyways... my woodworking skills were half decent and the amount of wooden figurines and mini-scuptures of magical and non-magical creatures started popping up everywhere and people started asking question to which I acted oblivious and uninterested but was happy that they thought the figurines were well made and cute.
.
.
.
It was in the evening and Quirrell-morte was nowhere to be seen. Snape was on a manhunt moving restlessly with an ugly expression on his oily face. I went to the Headmaster's office like I do most days and tapped on the helmet of the suit of armour outside Dumbledore's office. "Hello? Is Professor Dumbledore available?"
The suit of armour shook its head. "Is he even in the school grounds?" The suit of qrmour shook its armour again. "Did he leave to the Ministry?" To this it just stood still stayed silent. "Is Professor McGonagall in charge right now?" To this it nodded its head.
I went to the History of Magic class and gave my attendance, before I decided to go and confront him instead of being passive. I took out the Marauder's map.... and lo and behold- he is where I thought he would be.
I raised my hand while Pofessor Binns, the resident ghost teacher who takes History of Magic was droning on. "Yes, Halbert?" *sigh* he never gets anyone's name right. "May I be excused Professor. I don't feel so well." And just like that I was let of by the ghost.
I took out and wore my trusty Invisibility Cloak and sprinted to the third floor. I reached the third floor and pointed my wand at the locked door, "Alohamora." I unlocked the door and sleeping inside was a giant, three headed Rottweiler. Since I had no time to pet this fluffy Good Boy. Awww! Look at that cute little-
Anyways.... I quietly opened the trapdoor and snuck inside, careful not to create a single, but as I dropped inside, I saw Fluffy looking at me in surprise as I dropped out of sight. It was about the lunge at me bugde the trapdoor closed, snuffing out the only light source as I dropped on top of a bunch of leathery plant roots. Knowing what this was I quickly took my wand out and pointed it to the ceiling, "Lumos Solum!"
A bright light flashed all around the room, illuminating everything and bathing the room in warm, bordering on hot white light. The roots which were slowly creeping to me, writhed around as if being burnt and retreated into the many holes in the walls which made me drop down a few more feet.
"Arresto momentum." The descent was slowed down as I stepped on the marble floor. I walked a few funded feet until I came to a massive room with flying keys fluttering about. I looked for a few minutes till I found the right one- one of its wing was damaged. Most probably by Quirrell-morte. I took a broom and quickly caught the already damaged and slow key while the other keys were chasing me. I dropped to the floor and rolled towards the exit as a few keys peppered the place where I was standing before.
Not to be swerved by those keys I hurried up and opened the door to the next room where a massive chess set was waiting for me. This was where I wasted a lot of time playing four games before I checkmate the king and went to the next room. As soon as I entered the room, both the sides were covered in flames. The entry that I came through was enraged by purple flames while the next room's entry was barred by a curtain of black flames.
There were bottles of Potions in varying sizes and shapes and a riddle to solve it. It was in the same order as in the book, so I took the second smallest bottle and gulped it down. A chill spread across my body and and I confirmed that I was not poisoned, confidently walking through the black flames.