Thank you to my new P/. atrons: TheLostGolem, deyi zhang, Jason Chukwu, Prince George, Peter Tahy, Jaeger of the end, AnotherB Account, RookVibadag, Malcolm Haynes, Hudson McBay, FillerArc, Slicedtoad, 01anon, Jacques Tshilemb, Mike Mix, Travis Good, BlueImpZero, Dylz,thelittleboss2, Spiff, Arf, Atoll, Trey
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'Another year done, huh?' Chanithachuah said, invisible, from atop Harry's head as the boy packed his luggage.
"Another one bites the dust," Harry muttered in reply, making the hat hum.
'Good song, perhaps the Queen records deserve another listen once we arrive in Surrey. Have they released anything new?'
Harry paused awkwardly. He'd known about it beforehand and heard about it this Christmas, but had forgotten to inform his leathered friend.
'Queen dissolved, the lead singer died,' he replied.
The hat remained silent for a few moments at the news before giving a tired mental sigh.
'Another one bites the dust.'
'Indeed.'
'A new band from America released a pretty good album, Nevermind by Nirvana,' Harry eventually said.
He was collecting the records, not just for the monetary value they would have in a few decades, but also just because it was cool to own the first editions of some of the most famous albums in existence.
Money would never be an issue for him in the future, considering his investments and the fact that wizards could just build their own houses and grow their own food, but a safety net and some collectibles would be fine.
Magic didn't generally interact well with electricity, but it turned out that as long as there was no charge in an item, it could be repaired to perfect condition.
Records were mechanical in nature, the grooves in the material helping the player produce music. That meant that, unlike muggle collectors, he could actually use the items he treasured and still have them in perfect condition.
'I'll look forward to that then,' the hat said.
'Also, we'll be attending a few concerts with Tonks.'
'Good,' the hat replied happily. 'Your legilimency is making great strides with your two pupils, although I doubt it will reach the level of your occlumency.'
'I simply don't use it, or need it as much,' Harry said as he packed the last of his items into his large brown leather trunk and closed it with a wave of his hand. 'Thousands of hours of occlumency, harder to train the attack since I can't multitask it while multitasking occlumency is the goal of the disciple.'
"You ready, mate?" a male voice said from the door of the dorm room as Cedric entered to check in on his friend.
"Yeah, last of the stuff." Harry stood up and lifted the trunk with a wave of his hand. It obediently followed behind him as he exited the room, leaving behind the bed he used for most of the year for the last three years.
"You're usually not this late in packing. What's up?" Cedric said, running down the stairs, three at a time.
"So many talks with the professors, last time that they'll all be in one space."
A shortcut brought them outside of the castle relatively quickly, catching one of the last carriages that Penny had held up for the two of them.
"First, McGonagall wanted to give me the material I'll need," and the one on animagi he'd won in the bet. "Then I had to have a word with Flitwick, and then I had a chat with the headmaster."
"I get why you talked with Flitwick, but what did the headmaster want?" Penny interjected as the three of them settled into the carriage, letting the thestrals pull it along the road towards the train station.
The usual, really, checking in on Harry to see that he wasn't going down the wrong path. "He said we could see about creating a pensieve if I manage to bring him one sufficiently complex enchanted object next year."
"Do you ever take a break?" Cedric groaned. "Duelling tournament, transfiguration O.W.L and now also enchanting?"
"Blame Penny," Harry joked, "she's been infecting me with her studious attitude."
The blonde-haired girl rolled her eyes at him. "Harry, I'm going to be trying to advance one year in Potions. You advanced two in arithmancy, one in Charms, and now you'll be trying for two in transfiguration again."
"Yeah," Harry replied with a smirk. "But I'm actually a genius, it's not weird when I do it."
"Go jump off a cliff," the girl replied simply.
"Haven't learned unassisted flying… yet. Maybe next year."
"You're both horrible," Cedric muttered. "I tried talking to McGonaggal, see if I could do the same for transfiguration, but she said no."
"Cedric," Harry consoled. "You're aiming to be a Quidditch star, don't bother with the academics. At least one person in this group has to be the cool one."
The brown-haired boy seemed to consider that for a second, before nodding. "You're right," he eventually determined as the carriage arrived at the train station.
They hopped off and made their way on the train just in time. It whistled sharply and started chugging along barely a minute after they'd gotten on.
Finding a compartment was easy, as Tonks had kept one open for the trio.
"You could just apparate, no?" Harry asked the pink-haired graduate, who was thoughtfully looking outside the window and watching the castle atop the hill disappear in the distance.
"It would be a shame to miss the view, no?" Tonks replied simply. "I'll miss this place."
"Life's better when you have a job and your own life," Harry reassured her. "Unless you hate your job."
"Hear, hear," the girl replied.
"Anyway, get that flat with your first academy paycheck, or just ward an area in the wilds and install a floo. I promise you'll never miss school or living with your parents again," Harry said and pulled a letter from his pocket.
"What's that?" Penny asked curiously.
"It's my results for the year, the headmaster gave it to me during the meeting. They needed to process it faster because of the O.W.L." Harry cracked open the Hogwarts seal without much trepidation.
He'd been an alright student in his last life, but never good enough to not worry.
Here? He didn't even think about the results. It was a bit more motivating to study how to bend the rules of reality than formal logic and the history of philosophy.
"What'd you get?" Penny asked. "Slughorn told me my Potions grade and loaded me up with a bunch of supplementary reading material for the holidays so I can prepare for the exam."
"O+, right?" Harry asked, receiving a nod in return. Then he promptly read his own results.
"Almost the same as last year," he determined. "EE in Astronomy, History of Magic, Potions and Herbology. O in Arithmancy, Care and Runes. O+ in Charms, Transfiguration and DADA."
"What will you even do with all the time you'll have if you finish Transfiguration two years early and Charms one year early?" Tonks asked curiously. She'd relaxed a lot ever since she'd gotten her grades and the acceptance letter to the Auror Academy.
Instead of answering the question, Harry turned to Penny. "What did Slughorn tell you?" he asked.
"Well, it hasn't happened yet, but I'd be the first student in more than a decade who would manage. Last one was Snape," Penny said, swirling one of her braids around her finger. "He said Snape left because he did all his N.E.W.T.s early-"
"Still one of the craziest things I've heard, by the way," Tonks interjected, before waving her hand for Penny to continue.
The blonde girl pouted. "Well, Slughorn said I could either focus on my other subjects, or get a private lab actually sponsored by the school, in which I would do independent research to upgrade my portfolio for when I apply for an apprenticeship. He also floated the idea of trading in one hour of personal instruction for him in return for correcting, per year, the homework of the years up until the fourth. So basically anywhere between 1-4 hours a week of personal instruction in return for homework, depending on how much I want to do."
"That's basically an apprenticeship," Harry informed her. "Most supervisors give their students only four hours of their time per week anyway."
"You had a similar deal, right?" Penny asked. "How long did correcting the homework take?" she asked.
"I wouldn't take correcting the homework as work since it really engraves the information in your mind. But basically, per year, it takes around two hours a week. So doing the max would be eight hours a week, you'd get four hours of personal instruction, and the rest you'd have to put into your other subjects," Harry quickly calculated.
Tonks looked doubtful. "Doing your N.E.W.T.s, even if it's one subject less, while missing 12 hours per week, would be rough. Really rough."
"That's true," Penny muttered. "Attending Potions at N.E.W.T level would only take three hours per week, in addition to three hours of study time. This would basically double the Potions workload."
"Well, yeah," Harry said with a roll of his eyes. "But it would basically mean you could write being a teacher's assistant on your application. It would prove you can do exactly the brain-dead tasks a master would ask of you in return for an apprenticeship. Additionally, you'd have more time to impress Slughorn and get a good recommendation letter. The man has clout; he's one of the few people in the world who can brew felix felicis. Having what is essentially an apprenticeship with him, a recommendation letter, a one-year early graduation from the subject, along with some other good N.E.W.T.s? You'll basically be able to pick which lab you go to." He hummed. "Think about it, one year of being overworked, but then you have the best C.V. for Potions of any graduate in more than a decade."
"Under those conditions, were you Potter's apprentice as well last year?" Cedric suddenly asked with a snicker.
"And You Know Who's," Tonks said darkly.
Harry sighed. "Will you guys ever let me forget that?"
"No!" three voices said loudly in unison.
"I'd more consider myself Flitwick's apprentice," Harry muttered, going back to the original question. He was sure he could cut a similar deal that Penny was talking about with McGonaggal and Flitwick if he finished early. Flitwick was already teaching him without asking for anything in return. If he freed up a bit of his schedule in the seventh year, a bit of homework correction would go a great way towards increasing the instruction time. Same with McGonagall, Harry had barely scratched the surface of transfiguration's combat potential. Dumbledore was living proof that that was probably a mistake. Also, if he really got a time-turner from the ministry next year, it would be easier to argue to keep it as long as he over-capacitated himself in future years as well. It would allow him to trade more hours of his time for personal instruction.
"God, this compartment is full of overachievers," Tonks suddenly complained, catching a weird look from Cedric.
"Isn't it really hard to get into the Auror Academy?" he asked. "It's the most popular department. Dad tells me the acceptance rate is below 3%, and that includes people who worked as hit-wizards for years after their graduation and have actual combat experience."
Tonks groaned and put a hand to her chest. "Right where it hurts," she croaked.
Cedric grinned proudly. "I'm the only normal one here!" he exclaimed proudly.
Harry could only roll his eyes. Cedric was slowly becoming a very good seeker. Better than he'd probably been in the books. He was probably getting infected by his friend's work ethic. Hufflepuff had actually won the Quidditch cup this year, a fact that left McGonagall and Slughorn looking like they'd sucked on a lemon at the end of year ceremony. Sprout, meanwhile, had almost exploded. Hufflepuff had also won the house cup for the third year in a row.
Cedric was also Triwizard champion material, which made it a bit insane that he was currently the least accomplished student in the compartment. Well, that description would last until he started attending the junior summer training camps of different professional Quidditch teams. That would likely start happening next year, Harry would have to remind his friend to apply.
The train chugged along, carrying the valuable cargo of future human resources that would stand at the forefront of development for magical Britain.
The three students and one graduate chatted with each other, making jokes, playing a few games of exploding snap and overeating on the sweets from the trolley lady.
"One day we will leave Hogwarts for the last time, huh?" Harry suddenly realised as the train started pulling into London, the plains, fields and forests changing, turning into a grey and drab cityscape.
"Not even halfway there yet, mate," Cedric replied through a mouth full of sweets.
"What will you miss the most, Tonks?" Penny asked curiously.
The pink-haired girl awkwardly rubbed the back of her head. "Can't believe I'm saying this, but probably the library. That new word search spell came at the perfect time. Go in, use it, and find five books related to whatever topic you want. I'll still have the same friends that I did at Hogwarts, but alumni can only access the library in the summer, or if it's urgent, with a permission slip during the year."
"That's actually a good point," Harry muttered. He, too, spent a lot of time inside the library.
He'd actually been thinking about enchantment recently.
He wasn't as far along as he'd hoped, but he also wasn't hopeless. He'd successfully created an animated broom for his aunt and understood almost half of the vanishing cabinet's enchantments. Additionally, he'd mastered the Mists of Moria, even if it had actually taken almost a year.
Dumbledore had told him he'd guide him in creating a pensieve if he created a sufficiently complex enchanted object.
"If only there was a way to take the library with us when we graduated," Penny lamented.
Harry's mind shifted to the seemingly endless books common in the wizarding world. Journals that had as many pages as one needed. He remembered the copy spell he'd long since mastered and that he had again used to take some reading material from the library for the summer.
An enchantment that made a book have infinite pages. A spell that could copy books, albeit one page at a time.
There was something there.
Something that merited further exploration.
"It'll be a busy summer," he determined out loud as the train ground to a stop in King's Cross.
"Maybe your summers wouldn't be as busy if you weren't such a nerd," Cedric informed him in a deadpan manner.
Harry laughed, "Maybe, maybe," before standing up and taking his trunk.
"Call me when you have your own place," he told Tonks.
"See you next week for the study session," he told Penny.
Last but not least, he turned to Cedric, who was looking at him expectantly. Harry faux-grimaced at him. "See you in September, break a leg," he said, exiting the compartment and the train into the busy train station.
A smirk tugged at his lips.
"I fucking love magic."
-/-
AN: Year End. What a time to be alive. Hope you enjoyed year 3! If you'd like to support me and read ahead, there's always P/. atreon :) (Over there the plot is almost on the christmas vacation of year 4). Anyway, hoping you're having a great april!