'Do you reckon they'd send you to Azkaban for getting caught down there?' Harry wondered aloud. Sirius had said something about one of the Order of the Phoenix getting captured.
'Probably,' Neville nodded. 'If it's as high security as it sounds.'
Fleur wants d'Énigmes, Harry awfully similar.
to
work at the remembered. That
Bureau sounds
He made a mental note to ask her about it as soon as he could. 'Sounds interesting,' he shrugged nonchalantly. If he was lucky Fleur would know enough for him to be able to convince Sirius to tell him what he needed to know.
'Mr Potter, Mr Longbottom, I severely doubt that you are discussing the Doubling Charm, so I suggest you get on and start practising,' McGonagall called from the front.
'Geminio,' Harry muttered, flicking his wand at the bottle-cap an envisioning a second cap beside it.
A second bottle top formed, but the letters were blurry, and the colours slightly different shades. It was a passable first attempt, but Harry was too busy trying to figure out when he could talk to Fleur to really focus on the spell.
Neville repeated the spell next to him, flicking his wand, but his new one was slightly longer than his father's and he caught the tip on the desk and dropped it. The bottle caps continued to multiply at an exponential rate, showering off the desk and onto Neville who had bent to retrieve his wand.
Professor McGonagall swept over immediately. 'End the spell, Longbottom,' she instructed tersely, as his friend managed to get back on his feet.
'Finite,' he muttered, looking embarrassed.
'That is the perfect example of the as of yet unexplained mystery of this charm,' the transfiguration teacher commented. 'If the caster is interrupted before the spell ends, the item continues to multiply.'
Around her the copies of the bottle cap were collapsing into nothing, handfuls at a time, until the original sat innocently on the desk, unmoved from when Neville had first cast the charm. 'More practise, Longbottom,' McGonagall ordered, bustling away to deal with Ron, who'd managed to turn his top into what appeared to be a button mushroom.
Harry spent a few minutes perfecting the spell, concentrating on replicating the cap once perfectly, but the moment he managed it he sat quietly next to Neville pressing his hand against the locket under his robes waiting for the lesson to end so he could speak to Fleur.
Transfiguration dragged on painfully slowly.
Professor McGonagall came to disturb him twice, demanding he demonstrate his ability with the charm, and twice he performed it perfectly, even though his thoughts were elsewhere.
Sitting in the back of the class, watching everyone else struggle or talk amongst each other he realised something he had yet to notice about himself.
Hogwarts no longer feels like home.
Harry still loved the school. It had been his gateway into a world without the Dursley's, even his fame and Voldemort could not make him wish things were otherwise, but the aura of belonging was lost. It was no longer coming to Hogwarts that let him relax his guard after summer with the Dursleys. A willow tree in France, and the company of Fleur had taken its place.
'Can you tell Professor Sinistra that I'm feeling ill?' Harry asked Neville.
'Are you feeling sick?' Neville looked slightly skeptical.
'Of a sort,' Harry answered honestly. Homesick.
Everyone was beginning to pack their things away, wands disappeared into robes and books back into bags. Harry passed Neville his essay, shooting him a grateful smile and joining the line of students that filed out of the class.
When they turned left to head towards the Astronomy Tower he lingered and then walked right towards the stairs to the second floor as fast as he could.
The corridors were full of students, so he ducked in to an empty room a few doors down from Myrtle's bathroom to wait until he could go in unobserved.
It's taking too long, Harry decided impatiently.
He disillusioned himself, hurrying past the few straggling groups of students and darting into the bathroom. Hopefully anyone who saw the door move would simply blame Peeves, he was the usual suspect for odd happenings across the school.
Myrtle was absent, for which Harry was grateful, since he didn't want to stop and talk to her, but he would offend her if he just rushed past.
Harry splashed quickly across the floor, frowning at the onset of dampness around his feet, and hurried down into the chamber.
The moment he was on the stairs he pulled the locket out from under his robes and snapped it open, whispering the activation phrase and waiting hopefully as the three edges grew warm for Fleur to reply.
A single, summer sky blue eye appeared in the mirror. It blinked, then it was replaced by Fleur's face as she drew back. 'Harry?' She asked, looking worried.
'I need to talk to you,' Harry told her, surprised by the strength of the relief he felt at hearing her voice. It had only been about a week since they had last met, but he had missed her.
'That's an interesting coincidence,' Fleur said. Her voice was trembling, and Harry realised that she was far more upset than he had ever seen her.
'Do you want to meet me at the willow?' Harry asked, striding into Salazar's study. The portrait remained quiet, but watched him curiously as Harry shifted his cloak to retrieve the hand drawn portkey.
'I think that would be a good idea,' Fleur agreed. 'I will see you in a moment, then.'
Her face faded from the mirror, leaving Harry with a nervous knot in his stomach and a dry mouth. He hoped she wasn't upset with him. He hadn't done anything to upset her, not that he could think of.
'Argent,' he whispered, his voice cracking slightly.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Ready to lose yourself in an epic tale? Download the full PDF now and start reading from page one!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
https://fictiontopia.tiendup.com/