Chapter 146: It’s Only Logical

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I would like to thank my beta, Akisu, for his help in this chapter.

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2 September 1993, Hogwarts

Harry woke up the following day with a start, having dreamt of the burning of Hogsmeade once more. He really wished he could have pleasant dreams, instead of the constant misery, screaming, and flames.

Alas, even when he tried not to think about it, they were always there, in the back of his mind. And by the time the details started to dissipate, hundreds of other thoughts, just as disturbing occupied his mind.

What happened the previous night was weird, specifically, he didn't know what to expect from his new Defense Against the Dark Arts. He knew instinctively that Remus Lupin wasn't the tired, self-loathing werewolf that was in the stories. He was able to see Lockhart's nature in seconds, the prideful yet slightly cunning man who had scammed the entire wizarding world with a few nice words and some books. He took pride in that. Every time a witch asked for his autograph, he felt his ego grow slightly, a thrill of pleasure at successfully conning her. His magic was too untamed to have any kind of experiences that he claimed he did, well, that his books claimed he did.

Funnily enough, the man was still writing. After some investigation and a few witnesses, the DMLE dropped all charges against him, since no crimes were committed. The man even argued that whatever lies he told was just him playing the character from his stories, which was perfectly allowed. Hell, the ponce didn't even get a fine. He must have been very thrilled with that, avoiding any punishments for scamming almost the entire population of magical Britain, even if his readership diminished.

And wasn't that a sad thing, his readership only lowered, but people still bought his books. Harry had to admit that the man was a good writer and played that part of the character very well.

Back to the other professors, Harry could tell that McGonagall was a very melancholic person underneath her harsh exterior. Her song was classical with constant undertones of sadness. Although she really did love children and teaching, since her song brightened up whenever she was in a classroom, there was always this hint of sadness underneath it all.

However, Remus Lupin was just hard to read. Just from his posture, from his clothes, from the way he was just comfortable in front of hundreds of students, Harry could gather that he was probably some successful man with a presence in both the magical and muggle worlds, and that was used to speaking to large crowds.

So, he had to be some kind of businessman. This wasn't really an issue for Harry; he didn't care how successful people were, but if it wasn't for his Arcane Hearing, he wouldn't have noticed what was hidden underneath this velvety exterior. It was hard to believe that underneath the image of the kindly wealthy man, was a bloodthirsty beast that was moments away from attacking anyone that was foolish enough to be close. The beast was so overwhelming that barely any other song could be heard, making them like whispers in a concert.

And the beast seemed to salivate the moment it noticed Harry, it was ready to pounce, and that didn't bode well for the young Slytherin. Yeah, he was going to order a silver knife as soon as possible.

The only person who seemed to have any similar defence was Dumbledore, and that was expected considering that this was the current Champion of Light.

This whole issue just wouldn't leave Harry's mind, so much so that he couldn't even concentrate enough to finish his Occlumency exercises. Seeing them as a lost cause, he decided to just go down to the Great Hall and eat his breakfast.

When he came down, he noticed that neither Daphne, Blaise, nor Tracy were there. So, he decided to look around. Funnily enough, most of the Slytherin boys in his year were there and it was interesting how the house dynamic shifted in just one summer. Draco was sitting down on his own, with a poker face that just felt off. He was obviously angry about losing his position in the house to Nott. Theo, on the other hand, had a kind smile on his face, which made it more impressive since his song was completely different from how he looked. He was irritated at how many people seemed to want to scurry a favour from him, especially Crabbe and Goyle, whom he really didn't like but couldn't send them away.

Yeah, this year was going to be troublesome, he could just feel it.

When he turned to the other houses, the only thing that was worth remarking about was McLaggen and his little group making fun of Neville by calling him insane, while the Longbottom scion sat alone without anyone around him. The boy didn't seem to have a good time, considering how he was clenching his fists and looking down.

As though he was feeling Harry's eyes on him, Neville turned and met his gaze. Harry gave him a comforting smile that the boy returned, his fists relaxing slightly. He still felt guilty about what he put the boy through. He didn't expect his trick to blow so out of proportion. The Daily Prophet once called Dumbledore an obsolete dingbat for one of his proposals at an ICW conference, and the public still respected him. A celebrity was bound to have a scandal of some sort and they were always forgotten after a few weeks at most.

However, it seemed like the wizarding world just didn't want to forget about the boy's unstable attitude. Honestly, it was unnerving. Even if the boy had really been under an illusion, being disoriented afterwards was completely normal. If he had to guess, someone was actively pushing for the boy's reputation to plummet, especially considering the other events that happened during the summer, which were far more impactful than a twelve-year-old's actions in school.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by a small punch from Daphne, to which he returned with a smile, "Good morning to you too. You're up earlier than usual…"

"Hey, you're early too. Don't you usually have your super-secret training thing in the morning?"

Harry shrugged, "You know that it's just me training my Occlumency. I also remember offering to teach you."

She rolled her eyes, "Not everything has to be about training, Harry. My mother already started teaching me the basics and my crest can protect my privacy. How you have the patience to clear your mind for an hour every day, I have no idea."

Snorting, he replied, "It wasn't easy at first, but you get used to it after a while. Speaking of your crest, you did get yours fully unlocked last year, right?"

"Yeah, but my father forbade me from using it until we trained it a bit during the summer. I can't really say more. You know, family secret stuff…"

"Don't worry about it, I was just seeing if you could use it in our next duel. Maybe you'll have a chance at landing a hit."

The blonde glared at him, "You're on!"

Her frown immediately turned into a small smile, "I really did miss you."

"Me too, Daph."

Harry heard a small noise and saw McLaggen try to discreetly hex Neville, but the boy somehow intercepted it. It was a little impressive since the boy hadn't even shown a single ounce of skill in any of his classes. Maybe, he finally started to pull his act together or something.

The blonde next to him seemed to roll her eyes at McLaggen, "That was really short-sighted on McLaggen's part. Rumors of instability or not, Longbottom will be an influential figure in the future. These little school antics might look harmless now, but grudges could run really deep, and I don't see Longbottom as the forgiving type. Although, I have to admire his restraint. I would have hexed them a long time ago. I know you would too…"

Harry shook his head, "I would have cursed them with something that would only affect them later on when I had an alibi."

Daphne giggled, probably remembering how he had revealed the Golden Trio without anyone knowing that it was him who did it. He was proud of that one.

Harry looked at his schedule, which he found on his bed after the opening feast, and saw that his first two classes were in Arithmancy. Well, that explained Tracy and Blaise not being there since they weren't taking the class, something that he really disapproved of. 

If he was completely honest, the last Potter thought that not having a competent understanding or arithmancy really affected the competency of a wizard or witch. A good foundation in this field translated to a good understanding of spells in other fields as well, which made Harry really doubt the competency of the Charms and Transfiguration NEWT classes since they didn't require an OWL in arithmancy to enter.

Oh, Harry had no doubt that this was going to bore the hell out of him since he actually understood the material. But he was doing it for Daphne's sake more than anything else. 

A few minutes later, the two Slytherins had finished their breakfast and walked away to their first Arithmancy class. Harry was somewhat curious about Professor Vector, who was a relatively new addition to the staff, having started teaching five years ago.

The journey took longer than they anticipated; neither of them had been to the Arithmancy classroom which turned out to be in the Northern wing of the castle. They ended up asking a painting for directions, but they still arrived around five minutes early.

When they sat down, Harry noticed a few mathematical formulas written on the walls. He recognized a few, one of them being the standard addition of fire element in a spell, and another was what seemed to be a base for a shock-resistant ward, which could theoretically be translated to a very efficient physical resistant shield charm.

He really liked the classroom, which gave him a slight feeling of nostalgia. At least if he ever got bored, he would study the formulas on the board. They seemed a lot more interesting than the basic character arithmetic divination that they were going to start with.

The second thing he noticed was something that Daphne voiced, "I know that not a lot of people would take this class, but I didn't expect so little."

She was right. By the time class started, there were less than ten students in the classroom. Four of those were Ravenclaws, which included Padma Patil, Su Li, Morag McDougal and Michael Corner. Slytherins were made up of Harry, Daphne, Nott and Draco – which was slightly surprising. There was just Susan Bones from Hufflepuff, and literally no one from Gryffindor. That little fact made Harry feel bad since he was sure that Hermione would have been there… No, it wasn't the time for this and what happened to the muggleborn wasn't his fault.

That was nine students in total, out of forty students. Only a little more than a fifth of their year mates chose one of the most important classes in modern magic and wasn't that a disappointment. This was literally the only class that could help in spell creation and actively encouraged students to innovate. The only one that came close was Runes and even then, it was too dangerous to experiment on them without a good foundation in arithmancy.

Harry's reply was cut short when the professor entered the room and locked the door behind her. She had brown hair and hazel eyes, but what was more noticeable was the fact that she was young for someone who held a mastery in Arithmancy, and that made him curious.

The professor spoke up in a no-nonsense tone, "Good morning. My name is Professor Septima Vector and I will be your arithmancy professor in your time here at Hogwarts. Before we could start, I wanted to have a few ground rules. The unfortunate truth is that most of you will not like my class and by association, me. It's not because I'm some kind of devilish professor, but because we have a lot to catch up on and very little time to do so."

"Catch up on what," Corner interjected, "We haven't even started yet."

Vector glared at the boy who practically wilted, "Exactly. In most other schools, this class is not an elective. Let me make myself clear here. I will not allow any student of mine to graduate with a level of knowledge that is lower than the one recognized by the ICW, and that means that we'll have to cram five years of content into just three. If you have a problem with that, you can leave. We will have multiple tests and assignments and if I see that you have no hope of following up with the pace of the class, you will leave my class. And remember, the only electives that you can switch to mid-term would be Muggle Studies and Divination, so if you only took two electives, you'll be forced to take one of them to substitute."

The entire classroom gulped and the woman smiled, "Now, with that out of the way, let's get started with the lesson."

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I tend to upload drafts of early chapters on there to get people's opinions of them so you can read up to 20 chapters ahead as a bonus.

Thank you guys for your support in these hard times.