Case of the Cintimani Stone: A Hammer Mystery

Chapter 10

 "Is that him?"

"They say he calls himself The Hammer."

"Where'd he get that name? Is he really Harry Potter?"

"Potter-Mason is what someone said, he hides the scar under that hat."

"Do you think the hat's magic?"

The rumours and gossip surrounding Harry started almost immediately after he had gotten up. It was the first day of classes and in spite of his best efforts, relatively few people actually called him The Hammer - or even acknowledged that his name was Potter-Mason rather than their figurehead hero, Harry Potter, the boy who lived. Harry was used to the stares - dressing like Bogart tended to bring those on in the age of MTV and car phones - but he wasn't used to the hushed awe and admiration. There were rumours floating abound how he was the chosen one - someone even Rowena Ravenclaw might even pass her diadem to for how clever he was meant to be.

In reality, Harry figured he got on alright - above average but he wasn't going to win any awards for it. That honor fell to Hermione: no matter the subject, she was already ready for it and easily rocketed past everyone to the top of the mount. If there was a queen of the library or empress of academics, the Hammer was sure it would be her. She had the incandescence of the noon-time sun every time she received house points for being helpful and knowledgeable, and even before the end of the first week Harry was convinced she was leading the school, much less just the Ravenclaws.

"Right, welcome back to Charms class everyone," Professor Flitwick greeted them from atop a pile of books he was standing on, beaming at all the blue and yellow trimmed students. It was a doubles class of nothing but Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws, "Since the majority of you have mastered the levitation charm Wingardium Levioasa, we'll be moving on today to the wand-lighting spell whose incantation is Lumos with the counter incantation of Nox." The small statured man demonstrated with a deft flick of his wand, creating a bright white light like a torch at the end of his wand and then extinguishing it. Harry was part of the group that had managed to lift more than a feather with the previous class's spell, but Hermione had gone from lifting the feather to other students by the end of the last class.

Reading from the Goshawk text, he attempted to emulate the proscribed method, producing some light sparks from the tip of his wand but not much else. This repeated for a while. Frustrated, he turned to see Hermione already with clear, bright torchlight at the end of her wand.

"Hey, sister, what am I doing wrong?" He turned and asked her. She cast the counter-incantation and came over to him. Stopping in front of him, she stood with her arms crossed and a mildly sour expression on her face.

"Well?" She asked.

"I was kind of expecting that you'd hit me before helping me, but - " He tried the spell again. The bit of sparks at the end of his wand splayed out like a cheap sparkler, points of blue and white light fizzling out on the floor.

"Your wrist movement needs work." She grabbed his wand hand and dragged it through the motions, "like this. The book describes it as a flick of the wrist, but I like to think of it like sparking a fire."

She let go of his hand and let him try again on his own. Remembering a scouting trip from the previous year, Harry gave the wand a flick and watched it come to life with a solid point of white light warming the tip of his wand.

"See? Simple, right? Just a change in perspective was all you needed." She said.

"I suppose so, sweetheart. Thanks for that." She gave him a light tap on the back of the head with her wand.

"That was for both of those."

"Oh, wonderful Ms. Granger, 5 points to Ravenclaw!" Professor Flitwick saw her conclude her tutoring, "Do keep it up! If you would please go help the students who are still having issues with the Levitation charm."