What he had found that captured him next, almost as much as his studies on the mind arts, was a text on spell creation in the library. He never knew wand movements had such a profound effect on different spells. He also learned why spell creation was so difficult. The objective was to create a spell that did something consistently. This was hard to do, as a creator modified the spell even as their own emotions and attitudes affected their casting. He resolved to try and make a spell at some point; all the greatest wizards did. He was certain that the silvery instruments in the Headmaster's office had no common enchantments, and that they were all likely created by the Headmaster himself.
Daphne was inordinately pleased with the way Harry had wiped the floor with Malfoy again. There must have been a great deal bad blood between them, or at least their families. If the comments on the train and her pleasure at his victories over the ponce weren't enough evidence, he could also feel her derision for the boy whenever he came up. Daphne was, however, becoming increasingly frustrated with her charms and enchantments. The snitch she had enchanted from his gift set wanted to be caught. It dove at people, and tried to get as close as physically possible. Once, when Harry was practicing some defensive spells with Neville, it nearly flew down the other boy's throat.
"I can get the quill to pull ink from the bottle and use it to write, but the ink always goes back into the bottle after a few minutes!" She was trying to make a quill that she would only need to dip into an inkwell once, that would continue to pull ink from that bottle to write with.
Harry didn't have the heart to explain to her the concept of muggle pens and ink cartridges.
"Well what spell are you using to summon the ink?"
"I wasn't summoning the ink, I was using a recall charm. We won't be using summoning spells until fourth year." She glanced down at her quill and the parchment she had scribbled on for tests.
Harry hummed thoughtfully as he looked it over. "I think you might have cast the charm a bit too well. Sure, the quill is recalling the ink, but when you connected the quill to a new bottle, I think the spell is then recalling the ink back to the original bottle."
Harry was worried about how she might 'fix it' this time. He didn't need to walk around covered in ink, and Daphne would almost certainly hex him if it went wrong. She had once come into potions completely drenched with ink when the quill squirted the entire bottle out like a rogue hose. Pansy Parkinson's giggling and mocking had driven Daphne spare, and he was sure that when Pansy fell down a flight of stairs later that day it was purely coincidence.
"What if we try and stick the ink on the parchment, just to see if I'm right."
They modified a new quill so that it would stick the ink to the parchment, but the recall spell just pulled the parchment into the inkwell with the ink, crumpling the parchment and spilling the bottle. Harry thought it was fairly amusing, but Daphne was glowering.
Eventually, they paired a finite with the recall charm to prevent the recall after the quill had written something. Daphne had been quite pleased, clapping her hands together and grinning excitedly. Harry was sure it was all the sweeter for her, because he was only one covered in ink by the end of it.
Similarly, Harry's successes in class often had other students in Ravenclaw asking for advice. Particularly in potions, where Harry's brews received unusually high marks for somebody outside Slytherin. When Michael overheard him explaining his success to Lisa, Michael had forced him to use the podiums one night to present.
"Professor Snape's teaching style is unorthodox because he isn't teaching us how to brew potions." Goldstein looked ready to walk away and Terry Boot had snorted. "All of the recipes that he gives us are inefficient in at least one major way."
"We're supposed to improve on them?" Mandy Brocklehurst caught on first.
Harry nodded. "If we can improve potions, then we can most certainly brew them. I suspect it prepares us and starts building the mindset for us to invent Potions on our own." Harry believed Professor Snape had invented at least a dozen throughout his career.
"Okay..." Goldstein looked more interested, and Harry even saw second year Cho Chang, one of the chasers for the team, and her friends listening to him. Evidently, they hadn't discovered the secret either. "So, for the Draught of Forgetfulness yesterday, what were we supposed to improve on?"
The potion used honey from French Thristran Bees, a magical creature known for its sting, and blue poppy flowers, which were much more mundane, but had connections to even mundane drugs. Harry thought carefully for a moment.
"You all spent your time juicing the leaves and separating the honey from the honey combs," he began.
"That is what the instructions said to do," Su Li countered.
"Yes, but then why did Professor Snape provide a filter?" He shot right back. "I dumped leaves and honeycomb's straight in and filtered them out at the end. I also could have reduced the temperature, to prevent the Honey from caramelizing, and I could have mashed the leaves before I put them in."
"So, we're trying to be more efficient with the recipes." Michael Corner said with understanding in his eyes. "What else does Professor Snape do?"
Harry paused, Su Li took the opportunity and left to get a parchment to write what he was saying down. He waited for her to return and be ready.
"Professor Snape seems to focus on extracting ingredients, at least for now. I imagine in the future there will be processes to improve, like cooking at a lower temperature, or if the text recommends six stirs try seven for its arithmetic properties. There could be other things as well but..." He trailed off.
Like adding a different ingredient.
Harry was loath to give up all the answers to his success to a group of people who seemed to scarcely like him, but seeing Lisa's wide eyes and smile made it worth it.
"