Harry had received a summons from the Deputy Headmistress to come to her office for a meeting earlier that day. Since she was tied up with other matters (mostly working with the younger students), she asked him to come see her after dinner so they could discuss his progress at school.
Harry smirked at himself: he had gotten a little nervous about the meeting and when he thought about it, that nervousness had stemmed from his thoughts of Professor McGonagall and all the years he'd had her as his teacher. Amazing, he thought, here he was mostly an adult (mentally) but she was still able to affect a case of jitters in him just with a summons to the office. C'mon, Harry, calm down, it's just a progress review, he slowed his breathing.
He knocked on the door.
Moments later a prim and proper Professor McGonagall opened the door. "Punctual, Mr. Potter. I appreciate that. Please come in and take a seat."
Harry looked at the comfortable couch but knew what she really said was to sit in the hard wooden chair in front of her desk so she didn't have to shout at him for reclining on the comfy couch. So he sat on the chair and waited for his professor to ask how his day had gone.
"Mr. Potter, I'm sure you have an idea of why I asked you here," she began, lifting an eyebrow in the hopes he'd answer her unasked question of what the heck he was doing.
"Oh sure," Harry immediately piped in. "My day's going really well. I'm looking forward to the cook-off this Friday."
"Yes, well, that's not exactly what I was going for, Mr. Potter."
"Oh, okay. Well, then, my week's going fine so far. As you know I moved into the Hufflepuff dorm last Sunday and I've already made some new friends. Of course Pam and Edward were the biggest reason for that."
"While it saddens me to see you leave the confines of the Gryffindor tower, that is not why I asked you here either."
"Well then, whatever Neville has to say, I want to make it perfectly clear that I didn't do it. I was somewhere else at the time. On the other side of the castle."
"Yes, well, as much as Mr. Longbottom has brought your antics to my attention, that is not why I asked you here either. And before you say anything else, let me say that I just wanted to see if you had given any thought to your independent school project."
"Oh, that. You'll be pleased to know that I've got something in mind, professor. I've read Hogwarts, A History several times now and as interesting as some of the chapters are, nothing I have found in that book or any of the other books in the library tell how Hogwarts works. What wards were used in its construction? Why the stairs move in the patterns they do? Why did the Forbidden Forest become so Forbidden in 1356? It's a giant mystery of how Hogwarts works the way it does and I want to know all about it. So my independent study project is to de-mystify Hogwarts' construction."
"Mr. Potter, that is an admirable goal, but don't you think it is a bit far fetched? Granted, you are doing very well in all of your classes from what I've heard in our teacher's meetings, but you can't omit your class work to spend all of your time researching the castle."
"Oh, this is going to take me years to research, Professor. I figure I'll be spending most of this year just researching ward construction and then inspecting all areas of the castle for overlays, breeches, and thinning."
"Oh… well, it seems as if you've given this some serious thought then, Potter."
"It seemed to hold my attention better than simply working on a term paper such as The Psychological and Sociological Impacts Saturday Morning Cartoons have on Muggle Teenagers ."
"Cartoons?" Professor McGonagall commented in confusion.
"I'll see if I can't get you some examples, professor. I'm sure some of the muggle-borns would like to see them as well. Japanamation is the best."
"I'll hold you to that promise then, Mr. Potter, but I believe we have gotten off topic. You are sure you wish to continue with your idea to define Hogwarts? I must point out that the last time this was attempted was in the 1500's and the professor working on it at the time never completed his work, instead he went down a corridor in the dungeons and was never seen again."
"You're referring to Gunther Schwertlilie in 1581 I believe. Teacher of History for 10 years who had been working on his own book on Hogwarts when he disappeared mid-term. Speculation at the time was that a student had attacked and killed the man for his tough grading, but nothing was ever proven and the mystery lingers. Truthfully, I figure the couple years he'd been working on his investigation he managed to alienate the one thing you absolutely cannot afford to disaffect."
"And what would that be, Mr. Potter?"
"Why, the castle itself, professor. You do know the castle is alive in a rudimentary way, don't you?"
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