Chapter 57
The prefect's bathroom was something of a legend at Hogwarts.
From first through seventh years, there were many who spoke of this sensual and titillating place that was built as a hard-earned reward for the tired and overworked prefects and how it stood in magnificent contrast to the rickety showers and plain stalls that the rest of the castle had to live with. Rumors of its contents included a pool sized bath, a massive diamond-encrusted chandelier, and multicolored crystal faucets that gave perfumed and soapy water to the desired combination of the lucky one who had the fortune of using it.
But getting in and experiencing its joys was not easy.
The door to the prefect's bathroom was entirely too well guarded. A massive metal armor stood across its door, blocking the path of anyone intending to access the bathroom. It only let people in after they said the password, which was a jealously guarded secret amongst the prefects. Even people who were dear friends or romantically involved with the prefects and did get to see the bathroom, never knew the password. Furthermore, the rumors of the knight getting violent towards anyone who tried to bypass it without the password, magically or otherwise, were not entirely wrong.
The protections on the bathroom were almost entirely impossible to get past.
Thus, it wasn't much of a surprise that Harry had managed to bypass the protections within five seconds.
Inside, he floated in the massive bath, holding up a book in one hand and a wand in the other while Hedwig flew around the room with cheerful trills, exploring around and doing aerial loops and turnabouts. The mermaid that was painted on the stained glass window delightfully clapped and giggled at the phoenix's antics.
Saturday mornings had classes for upper years and were completely free for first years, so no one was there to catch him mucking around. Besides, Harry had decided, wasn't this the real reason first years had the weekend off? So that they could explore the castle?
Blue screens kept popping up in Harry's vision as he progressed through the book.
Ping!
Spell learned!
Reparo
This charm is used to seamlessly repair a broken object and works on most materials.
-25 MP per use
Ping!
Spell learned!
Periculum
This spell is used to send out red sparks from the wand with a vast range. Often used to signal that one is in danger, and thus in need of help.
-15 MP per use
Ping!
Spell learned!
Mucus ad Nauseum/Febribus ad Perdere
This spell is used to opponents a cold and a runny nose. Counter Febribus ad Perdere cures cold
-10 MP per use
The fact that he automatically learned the counter to a spell if he learned the spell and vice versa was something Harry felt was a very exploitable facet of the Gamer abilities.
He had an inkling of a suspicion that his ability to pick up on magical currents was what had made it possible for it to happen, but there was no way to make sure. But he did have a sound theory behind it. His Gamer's Mind could feel the magical waves of the spell he learned, so it simply reversed the frequency, mana patterns, and phase characteristics of the spell, and voila! He automatically knew how to cast the counter-curse. All he needed after that was the incantation, which was provided in the notification that popped up.
He'd been lucky until now.
So far, the magical waves were simple enough that he could easily learn the counters to them, but he had a strong suspicion that it would get much more difficult to pull off with more complex spells.
Spell learned!
Leviosa
This spell is used to make things float. Its often used with a prefix.
-5 MP per use
With that one last spell, Harry swam over to the edge of the pool and climbed up, putting on his clothes.
"Com'ere Hedwig."
Hedwig burst into flames right where she was flying a second ago and appeared with another burst right on Harry's shoulders. Waving a goodbye to the mermaid on the glass, Harry walked over to the door of the bathroom.
He left the bathroom the same way he'd entered, popping into his Instant Dungeon's dimension, blowing a hole in the wall, walking through the hole and then breaking out of the ID.
The red sky outside shattered, showing the bright blue skies of the sunny day in Hogwarts, and a random kneazle that was passing by the door jumped a foot into the air and ran away as an eleven year old boy appeared into existence out of nowhere.
He let Hedwig go free to play in the forest and jogged off towards the Ravenclaw Tower.
Harry walked into the common room to find Terry, Stephen Cornfoot and Michael Corner on one of the tables, each thumbing through their own books, writing what Harry soon realized was their Monday's Transfiguration essay.
Harry paused and frowned. He had been remiss in making friends with his dorm-mates. He had talked to each of these guys throughout the last week at various times, but he liked to work and spend a lot of time alone, so he didn't really know any of them really well. Luckily for him, his celebrity status often worked in his favor and gave him an advantage in social interactions. Most people already liked him and were quite friendly with him, so he didn't have to worry too much about them hating him from the moment they met him.
Harry was glad for that.
"Hey, Harry!" Terry's voice broke him out of his thoughts.
"Morning, Terry," Harry chimed back, "How is the Transfiguration essay going?"
"It just never ends, does it!?" Michael exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air. Harry and Stephen dodged the droplets of ink that flew from the quill in his hand, "How are we supposed to explain why Metamorphmaguses-"
"Metamorphmagi," Stephen corrected.
"-Metamorphmagi can change their appearances! Isn't that contradicting itself! How can it not kill them if they can transfigure themselves? And don't they teach human transfiguration in the sixth year! How does that even- Argh!"
Harry listened to Michael's rant with a bemused smile as he pulled a chair out and sat on it.
"You've finished the essay haven't you? Why don't you help us out here?" Terry asked curiously.
"Alright then" Harry pulled a parchment and a quill to himself. "Well, its a bit like this." He drew three circles on the parchment before writing down, 'Metamorph' 'Human Transfiguration' 'Animagus' in them.
He pointed at the circles and spoke to the three Ravenclaws around him. "These are the primary oppositions that most people make with the whole 'No transfiguring people or stuff that goes into people' theory. The Professor explained why Animagus wasn't outright free transfiguration last week-"
"It's limited," Terry interrupted, "They can't go transforming into whatever they like. Limited transfiguration isn't free transfiguration, so it's not the kind of Transfiguration that we're doing."
"Exactly," Harry agreed, "It's the same with Metamorphs. They are limited too, otherwise, the ones that had fought in the last war would've been able to turn into a horde of bees or…I dunno… ten dragons… and destroyed the Death Eaters. As far as I've read, they can change only their facial appearance, bone length and skin color. That's pretty limited. And like Terry said, limited transfiguration is not free transfiguration."
Harry crossed off the Animagus and Metamorph circles before continuing.
"And human transfiguration is usually done by spells, since it's impossible for anyone to know a human's anatomy and the target transfiguration well enough to imagine it all in their head. I think I read about it in some book from the common room shelf last night."
He neatly wrote down the word proficisentor.
"Pretty sure that's the spell that is used in human transfigurations. So, if you have to make your hair yellow, then you just add the prefixes and suffixes and it comes down to…"
He paused to remember what the spell was, before writing down pilorum proficisentor flaviosa on the paper.
"This spell. I mean, it looks pretty hard to do. That's probably why they teach us that in NEWT year."
Stephen, who had been quiet the entire time, spoke up. He had a small smirk on his face. "I think I have a pretty good idea of why McGonagall was warning us against practicing human transfiguration."
Harry looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
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