Defence and Mayhem

Late Night Visits

Spring was just around the corner when Harrison finished introducing the Patronus charm to the students of the fifth year and above. Usually, seventh-year students needn't know more than the silver shield to get full marks on their NEWTs on the section covering the charm, but Harrison wouldn't have it. He wanted them to be able to defend themselves fully against Dementors. 

He feared what could happen with the war that'll get to England in just a few years. He couldn't exactly bring books about the war with Grindelwald to the past, and he never really bothered with learning about it more than the basics, so he didn't know if the supposed Dark Lord of the current timeline was 'allied' with the vile creatures or not, but better safe than sorry.

So, being able to produce the silver mist would earn the fifth-years five bonus points on their final grade, for the sixth-years a silver shield would do the same for their final grade, and seventh-year students would need a Corporeal Patronus if they wanted the full marks on that section.

Since he had taught this before to the Dumbledore Army, he already knew what helped the students concentrate more and what methods of teaching were the best for it. Most of his students had already managed to produce the mist.

As for those with dark cores, he gave them extra practice on dark magic and suggested a meditation exercise that, with a bit of simple mind arts that could be performed on oneself, helped strengthen the core(naturally, he offered the same for anyone with a light core that took his Dark Arts lessons). 

Light magic was a more free form of magic on the casting part and tended to become personal on the result. All strictly Light spells used a raw emotion as a base, usually triggered by a memory or made-up image. With the Patronus- a happy memory that helped produce the caster's spirit animal, with Riddikulus- a funny image that made the caster's fears become funny.

But Harrison learned that a happy memory wasn't always enough with an actual dementor in front of you. He also knew that some students lacked a happy enough memory. So he introduced another method. Like with Riddikulus, he offered those who needed it to make a happy image in their head, and not a memory, that filled them with enough joy for the spell to work. And it did, work that is. All that was needed was the emotion, the way of producing it was up to the user.

In a few weeks, he'll have the seventh-year students face a Boggart that he spelled to believe that anyone he saw was Harrison so that they could practice against the real thing.

With the progress in his teachings over the year, came also his progress in his relationship with Tom.

The more they talked, and they had talked quite a bit on this and that, the more Tom warmed up to him and the more he warmed up to Tom.

Tom was brilliant, and an amazing conversationalist. The moment Tom felt comfortable enough with Harrison to drop the formalities they began to meet up more and talk more freely, and they now had a habit of conversing in Harrison's quarters over tea and some snacks every Saturday after the Dark Arts sessions. 

The more he spoke to Tom, the easier it was to warm up to him and separate him from Voldemort, and he could see that Tom started trusting him more too. 

It was good that they were getting along better since there was only a bit more than half of the second term left of the school year, and they were going to live together in the summer.

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It started with Tom asking for reading material after the second Dark Arts Session. 

Tom wanted to know what Harrison's sources were, so he could move on with his research, and he didn't think that Harrison would deny him the knowledge. And, as he thought, Harrison agreed. 

And invited Tom for a late-night snack.

"Don't expect to see a mountain of books here," Harrison mentioned as they walked into the man's quarters, "I'm afraid that during the holidays I moved most of what I had that wasn't too useful for teaching to the cottage that we'll be staying in during the summer… " Harrison showed him in, and Tom was surprised at how large the room was. It had an octagonal shape with a high ceiling, and the three walls that were the farthest from him had large windows going from right below the ceiling, to two feet above the floor, their light gray drapes open to show the starry sky. The colors that dominated the room's palette were browns and grays, giving the room a soft look. It was separated into two parts. An office area, and a small living room. Tom was led to the living room, and after an invitation from Harrison, he sat on the cozy beige loveseat, facing Harrison's armchair.

Harrison turned to the office area, and after a minute or so of rummaging in the bookshelves that covered the wall there, he returned with a stack of four books in hand and sat down, handing said books to Tom. "This is all I have here, not much more than a few paragraphs in each book are relevant, but I'm sure you will enjoy the rest of these books as well if you're interested in magical history…" 

Tom was sure he'd enjoy them. Not one of them could be found in the school's library, not even the restricted area(which he had full access to as Slughorn's favorite student), and he didn't see them in any bookstores, in either alley.  He thanked the professor and they moved on to talk about this and that, and Tom found that he enjoyed Harrison's company. After a while, Harrison abruptly stood up, startling Tom.

"I just realized that we didn't fulfill the other purpose of this meeting," he awkwardly said, "I'll bring us some snacks, would you like a cup of tea to go along with it?" Tom was a little confused until he remembered that Harrison did, in fact, mention a snack when he invited him here. 

He agreed to the tea, and a minute later Harrison was seated in front of him, tea in hand and a cookie platter on the table. 

"The house elves gave me a bunch of them yesterday," he said, pointing at the cookies, "I went to the kitchens to get a snack and they made enough cookies to last a month…" The man chuckled, looking at the baked treats fondly. "You have to try these, though, they're heavenly." After eating one (or two) he did have to admit; these were good cookies.

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After that talk, and the talks he had with the man after, he found himself relaxing more around Harrison. While Harrison was a slight bit closed and odd, in this unexplainable way, he was always honest with what he did share, and Tom now knew his views on numerous subjects, school-oriented or not. He agreed with some of these views, disagreed with others, and much to his own shock, Tom was willing to voice his opinion freely around him. 

It also hit him that Harrison wasn't that much older than him. He knew this before, but while teaching Harrison kept a distance, a wall between him and the students, as a teacher should, really, it would be inappropriate to be all chummy in class. 

The man was probably the same age as the older seventh-year students, and when he was in a casual setting it showed. 

Harrison had a childish stubbornness when it came to muggles, always saying that while some were horrible, the majority of them weren't, insisting that they should be treated kindly unless they gave a good reason not to act so. Tom knew better. Muggles, were mostly awful, risking the entire wizarding community with the hate they showed towards magic. Harrison, as much as Tom came to respect him, probably didn't know the damage the muggles could do. Yes, he understood the concept of war quite well, that much was clear, but this was a totally different thing. Muggles were afraid of their image in other muggle countries' eyes, but they needn't be so diplomatic if they were to find out about magic. Tom believed that muggles should be treated with the hostility and carefulness they deserved.

Well Harrison and himself were allowed their own opinion… 

Other than the stubbornness, Harrison looked young, even if tired, and he didn't have that irritating fake sense of superiority that adults often had. Instead, he treated Tom like an equal, which Tom had to admit, they were. 

Tom liked Harrison's company, even if said company never talked about himself in detail. But Tom always enjoyed a challenge, and he'll have all summer to solve the mystery that is Harrison Peverell.

Published on Sunday, 25th of December 2022