Mother Magic and the Philosopher's stone

Chapter Eighteen

The following day was a flood of whispered rumours in alcoves and blank stares in their direction. It seemed like overnight the entire school had found out about the fours' tussle with the troll, and no one was more furious than Draco Lucius Malfoy.

"What in Godric's name were you thinking?! You could have been killed going after Granger of all people! I thought you were a Ravenclaw, but I guess I better go ask the sorting hat to try again because Ron bloody Weasley would have been more careful!" His pale skin was flush with brilliant pink, and his eyes were bright, sparkling with anger. The other three looked sheepish at least, Padma patting Malfoy on the shoulder.

"We should have told you what we were doing Draco, I apologise. We were only thinking about Hermione's safety- after all I was the reason she wasn't safe in the first place." Her matter-of-fact tone was befitting of a doctor's clinicality, but it did the trick to diffuse the Malfoy rage and Draco huffed indignantly.

"I cannot believe the rumours Parkinson was going on about this morning." The blonde took his place opposite Harry on the table, spooning a handful of scrambled eggs onto his plate. "Did you really kill the troll? AND you got detention for it? Rotten luck."

"It's better than dying I guess but I understand why they gave us detention."

"Did Granger get one?"

"No, I didn't." Hermione appeared behind them. Her eyes were slightly red-rimmed and black circles ringed honey brown eyes. Her hair was bushier than normal, if it was even possible. She sat down next to Draco, who wrinkled his nose but didn't respond.

"Good morning Hermione." Lewis chirped from beside her; no matter what he always had a sunny disposition. He offered her a ladle, "Porridge? It's rather good this morning."

Harry looked out over the sea of blue to the red. "Do you know where Neville is? He's not usually late to breakfast." Padma's expression soured.

"He's with Seamus and Dean this morning, apparently he didn't want to be isolated in his own house, so he'll spend breakfast in Gryffindor from now on." Harry hummed in acknowledgement, eyeing the cheese scones with intense deliberation. Padma huffed good-naturedly, and moved two onto his plate. "Stars Harry you're skinny as it is, just eat them!"

Cheese scones were his favourite.

--

It was in charms that Harry realised he wasn't going to be able to spend the evening researching runes as he planned. While praising Harry for his natural elegance with aquamenti, (as opposed to Finnegan's explosion of boiling water that no one was positive was possible with such a spell) he slipped a thin white piece of parchment on the desk. The looping cursive script was a date, time and where. His detention this evening with Flitwick. Harry liked Flitwick, he was kind and jovial and seemed to genuinely appreciate Harry's love of charms, which was something only one other person had ever done before, Lady Magic.

After dinner Harry shrugged apologetically to his friends and walked the long corridors to where he remembered Flitwick's office being. The stones seemed to wink merrily at him as he knocked on them, and the stones, turned door, swung open to reveal the charms master.

"There you are mister Potter! Now the headmaster asked me to oversee your detention, and I'd like you to just complete a simple essay about the anima charm. I heard you were quite fond of it from your friend, Miss Patil." Harry smiled, as Flitwick laughed, his face ruddy with glee. "It's one of my favourites as well." The paper cat and dog were long gone from his desk, but a set of trilling paper birds perched on the top of a muggle desk lamp that lit classwork he appeared to have been marking. Harry dropped his bag down on the plush rug and pulled out his quill to begin writing.