Harry Potter: Pandora's Box

Chapter 8: Runes

Summary: Ah yes, bored Harry is going to take over the world. But first, movies!

Chapter 8: Runes

Harry was bored.

Again.

Things had gotten better for a while. The introduction of Quidditch to his schedule had helped a lot. Not only did practices take up time, but so did actually interacting with his teammates. Katie was even becoming an actual friend! Despite being in different years, they'd bonded over being the two new players to the team this year. Not to mention that the slightly older girl had a vibrant, snarky personality that Harry enjoyed.

The fact that Katie's year was just as small as Harry's, having all been born at the height of the Blood War, also helped. There was only a single other Gryffindor girl in Katie's year, and the two didn't get along all that well. Before Harry, Katie had hung out almost exclusively with Angelina and Alicia. Who weren't on the same schedule as her. In fact, since the two were now third years, they now had electives that made that even more true. It was, however, good for Harry. He was free at a lot of the times that the other two chasers were not, which had resulted in Katie cheerfully inviting herself to hang out with him. The fact that Harry was honestly ahead of Katie in magical theory, despite the year gap, only made it easier, since they could do homework together without any issues.

That, plus the excitement around Halloween, had broken up Harry's boredom and social isolation. The following couple of weeks had been fine, too. The news that Quirrell had fled the school and he himself had defeated a fully grown mountain troll, had made the following few days interesting. And the rotating members of staff temporarily filling in as Defense instructors had been a nice change of pace as well. Harry was far less versed on dark creatures and household pests than he was on dueling magic, leaving many of the first year Defense classes actually informative now, instead of the half-assed nightmare they'd been under Quirrell.

Unfortunately, it was now nearing the end of November, and the various distractions and new experiences were starting to become routine or irrelevant. Gryffindor had thoroughly flattened Slytherin in their first Quidditch game, Harry having advanced so far in Seeker tactics that he could break up the occasional opposing play, while still performing just fine as a Seeker. He easily accredited that fact to a combination of naturally good situational awareness and flying talent...and secretly having the best possible training aid in Pandora. He had specifically not gotten any aid from her during the actual match, feeling that doing so would definitely be cheating. But they'd worked together liberally during practice to refine Harry's awareness and precision to a level far beyond what any first year really ought to be capable of.

The result, unfortunately, was that Quidditch practice was becoming rather rote for Harry. Drills, physical conditioning, and a bit of practice with the chasers. That was about all he could do, since the team wasn't big enough to actively run an opposing side to practice against. Nor did they have someone else that was a good enough Seeker for him to really practice against. This left him mostly unable to advance farther outside of actual games, even if he still loved the flight time it gave him.

The same issue was true for the Defense classes, though thankfully to a lesser extent. Harry had read right through not only the textbook, but several of the various professors' preferred reference works, and now had a solid handle on the creature portion of the year's material. Though in-class demonstrations were still useful, as virtually all of the temporary rotation of teachers were willing to bring in or conjure the minor monsters that were most of the year's bread and butter. Combined with Flitwick and McGonagall continuing to give him a bit of extra work for their classes, Harry wasn't going insane yet. But...