Terry somehow convinced Susan and Hannah to go fly some on the school brooms, death traps as they were. Apparently Madam Hooch gave supervised flying sessions occasionally, and he had roped the other two into it.
Harry was on a mission. Moving much faster than he looked like he should be able to, he was dashing from intersection to intersection, leaving threads as markers at each one. Every time he started to cross an old path Wisdom would let him know, as he worked his way randomly through the old and complex structure.
He found some hallways that only worked in one direction, a staircase that only let you climb it if you went backwards, one room that had no exit until you closed your eyes, and at one point he was sure he had bumped into himself somehow. At least he had apologized to himself, he did appreciate good manners.
He had found the other common rooms easily enough, since they had constant traffic through the day. LOTS of empty class rooms.
The death door Dumbledore mentioned... well, he gave a wide berth to.
Harry hadn't completed even half the castle, but he did mark suspected secret passages. Occasionally Wisdom would hear someone getting close and would catch how they managed to open them, and she would add the knowledge into his Hogwarts map so he could explore it himself later.
He already knew passwords for the other three common rooms (Hufflepuff was more of a keypad that uses barrels of wine instead of buttons, but the other two used words or phrases). Not that he really cared about their common rooms right now, but it was neat to know.
As the time got closer to curfew, he was happy at the progress he had made. It wasn't perfect by any means, but now he had a fairly good grasp of the layout... oh, right.
He pulled out the paper he had gotten at dinner. His class schedule had seemed important for about three seconds before someone they had started talking about his Dad... Merlin his dad was cool.
Harry gave it a once over. Herbology three times a week sounded fine, nothing wrong with Charms... Oh Potions. Potions was going to suck. At least it was on Friday, so his friends hopefully had a chance to get their defenses up.
Still, it really couldn't pull him too far down after how well his day had gone. As he fell into bed Harry grinned as he thought about all his new friends, friends he could tell the whole truth to, magic and everything. Merlin, he had already shared more truth with some of them than he had with anyone... and it felt good.
Sunday he wanted to get more exploration done, maybe with his friends. But Monday... Monday he would begin to learn magic. Oh not just the Charms and Transfiguration classes, but the stuff in the Library, the stuff no one thought about learning in years...
His smile made it hard to fall asleep.
'Good Morning Sir. Area is secured, and it is time for you to awake.'
'GAwamaada.'
'Indeed, quite droll Master. Now up.'
'... Wrath?'
'Yes Master?'
Harry's bleary eye opened. There was light out the window, but it still was TOO BLOODY EARLY for anyone. Or anything. Even the Sun wanted to go back to sleep.
'Goodnight, Wrath.'
'Should I ask Miss Wisdom to help wake you?'
'FINE, Bloody fine. She would probably find out how to hit me with a water balloon or something.'
Harry dragged himself into his morning routine. 'Is there any reason why I feel like I have been punched in the mouth Wrath?'
'I blame society Master. And how late you stayed up, the high speed you forced your body to run at yesterday, and the amount of magic you fed through your friends while they worked on their mind.' Harry thought he could hear tea cups clinking. 'Mostly society though.'
'Fair enough.' Harry yawned as he slumped down to the common room. As he collapsed into one of the couches he tried to wake the rest of his mind up. 'Hey, what is Jim up to?' 'Just drills today Master. Wouldn't want the troops getting restless, waiting for the next skirmish. Oh, and he had a report for you.' Harry straightened. Jim never wasted his time. 'One minute then. Jim?' 'Quack.'
'Good morning to you too. What is the situation?' Harry felt a decidedly nervous duck on the other end of the line.
'Quack.'
'... wh... what? How can a team member be MISSING?' 'Quack. Quack.'
Harry was NOT awake enough for this. But as far as Jim could tell, that bastard Potion Professor had somehow made a connection LONG ENOUGH for one of Delta Squad to sneak into his head.
How the heck was Harry going to retrieve a duck from someone else's mind? Maybe he would attack again. God this was a weird problem. Leaving it behind was NOT an option.
Harry Potter would not abandon one of his own.
'Master, if I may make a suggestion?'
He sighed again. 'Yes Wrath?'
'When the greasy one attacks again, I can hold him here until the Delta Duck could be retrieved.'
Harry thought about it. It would require waiting until Friday unless they got lucky, but it may be the best option right now. Delta was a tough team, a week in hostile territory would be easy for them to handle... fine. 'Jim, you got the new orders? Be ready by Potions on Friday.'
'Quack.'
He faded back to reality as he waited on the couch. As much as he loved his ducks, sometimes they really added to his stress.
A few minutes more and Padma, Hermione, and Terry were all down in the common room. They were also poking at Harry, who had fallen asleep again. It was entertaining.
"How long until he wakes up?" Hermione was now using a corner of her book to poke the boy.
"He may be up already and is just enjoying the poke-massage." Padma was focusing her poking along his back. She never liked the idea of needles, but finger-pokes didn't hurt anyone.
Terry picked up a pillow. "Well, let's upgrade the poke." As the projectile got close to the child, his body seemed to twist and everything stopped. Padma was mid poke, Hermione had just pulled her book back, and Terry was staring into some empty sockets with two dying green embers deep inside them.
"Oh. Pardon me, Mr. Boot. I was unaware of what new tool you would be poking my Master with."
The voice was crisp, polite, and TERRFIYING. It brought back MANY feelings from the train with Draco, which Hermione recognized.
She gulped slightly. "Are you... the new aspect Wisdom was talking about?"
The tiny green sparks turned to her and she felt exposed and undefended. "Why yes, Ms. Granger. You may refer to me as Wrath. A pleasure to make your acquaintance." Padma seemed to have almost lost her grip on... well, just about everything. "Is... Is Harry around?"
The boy with terrifying eyes seemed... annoyed. "As a matter of fact, yes he is. However, Master Harry has been VERY reluctant to wake up today. In fact, as long as we are on the topic..."
His wand seemed to appear from nowhere, as if grown from the edges of his fingers as he delicately waved it. Pointing it upwards, his mouth barely moved... "Aquamenti."
A perfect arc of pure blue water hung in the air for a moment... before splashing on Harry.
"OH BLOODY HELL ON A BROOM!"
Ah, THERE was Harry. Hermione was grinning with relief. "Good morning sunshine!"
Harry looked at her in disbelief. "Did you just... soak me?" She grinned more. "Nope, apparently Wrath has a good handle on a few advanced spells."
He looked at the wand in his hand with a bemused expression. "Well... that... huh. Kind of hard to retaliate when your own mind pulls a prank on you."
Terry started draging everyone to the door. "Strange Harry stuff later, bacon and eggs now."
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