The Lion Cub Chapter 104: The mind of a spy (Patreon)

Harry smiled when he saw Katie Bell, with the Quidditch Captain badge pinned on her robes, sitting by her lonesome in the common room.

“Congratulations are in order, Katie. You made Captain.” Harry smiled at the senior chaser in the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

“Thanks.” Katie grinned, “Honestly, I thought you’d be given the badge.”

“Meh. I’m good at finding the snitch. You chasers are the strategists. You’d know more about the game and have more experience than me,” Harry shrugged indifferently.

He was quite happy he was not given the position. He liked flying, and playing Seeker depended wholly on his flying skills. He was comfortable playing the game rather than worrying about recruitment, strategies, and whatnot. That was the core of the game, and he had no interest in putting too much of his energy and attention into it.  

“Are you about to go into the Great Hall for breakfast?” Katie asked curiously.

“Oh yes. I’m starving.” Harry patted his stomach, making Katie grin and jump out of her seat.

“Then, let’s go. I’ve been sitting in that chair waiting for too long.”

Together, they walked out of the common room while the rest of their housemates were only preparing for the first day of school.

“I’m rather mad McGonagall picked me.”

“Why?” Harry raised a brow as he looked at Katie from the corner of his eye.

“How am I supposed to find replacements for the Weasley twins? Those two were rouge troublemakers, but they were fantastic beaters.” Katie sighed in frustration. “Then I’ve got to find two chasers to replace Alicia and Angelina.”

“You hold tryouts and find the best for the positions. It’s not as if any of our positions were permanent. Oliver and Angelina always held tryouts for all our positions.” Harry pointed out.

“I know. But this is not like those times. If we lose against Slytherin, it’ll be like we lost against You-Know-Who.” Katie whispered a look of utter horror dawned on her face, “Oh Merlin! If I don't find good players, I’ll be blamed for losing to Slytherins.”  

“Oh, come on. You can’t believe that,” Harry said with a slight bemusement, seeing Katie hold her head with two hands as if it were about to explode.

“No… no, this is much worse. I’ll have to find the best chasers and beaters and win the games while preparing for NEWTs. I think I’m… I’m…”

“Sit here. Have some tea.” Harry guided a hyperventilating Katie to the Gryffindor table and helped her sit.

Thankfully, the house elves must’ve picked up on his verbal wish. A cup of tea suddenly appeared before Katie on the table.

“Our house has always produced several players with raw talent. Trust me, everything will go smoothly.” Harry patted her shoulder as he sat down next to her.

“What happened to her?” Neville asked, sitting down across from Harry and Katie.

“The realisation that being the captain of the quidditch team involves a lot of work.” Harry said with a grin.

“Uh-huh. Hermione was looking for you in the Common Room. She’s mad that you left her alone to deal with the firsties.” said Neville, taking some boiled egg and bread to his plate.

“She likes to drone on and on about Hogwarts. Let the firsties suffer her for a little while.” Harry snickered.

Neville’s face reddened, his shoulders shook, and he tried desperately to contain his laughter. Katie, on the other hand, laughed heartily.

“Don’t let her hear that,” said Neville, grinning.

“Why do you think I tell jokes only at a reasonable distance from Hermione?” Harry winked.  

As they talked amongst themselves while having breakfast, Professor McGonagall came to the Gryffindor table with several parchment leaves in her hand.

“Bell, Potter, Longbottom. I’m glad I found you three.” Professor McGonagall pinned them all with a pointed stare that made them sit straight.

“Longbottom, I’ve got your schedule on hand, but I see you’ve not applied for Potions. You wanted to be a professional Herbologist and I remember recommending you to put more focus on Potions.”

Neville looked like he had something lodged in his throat as he stared at McGonagall.

“Do you want to put Potions for your NEWTs Longbottom?” McGonagall asked with a hint of frustration in her tone at the prolonged silence.

“But… but I only got Exceeds Expectations Professor. Professor Snape told us he’d only take those with Outstanding in his class.” Neville stuttered out.

“Then you’re in luck, Longbottom. Professor Slughorn accepts those who scored E grades into his sixth-year class.” McGonagall gazed at Neville expectantly, “So, shall I put your name into the NEWT level Potions?”

“Uh… yes, ma'am.” Neville looked a strange mixture of happy and worried.

“You’ll do fine, Longbottom. I was impressed with your Transfiguration work.” McGonagall looked at Neville with a hint of a smile.

“Thank you, Professor.” Neville grinned.

“Good.” McGonagall nodded before turning her eyes on Harry, “Now, Potter. Your schedule.”

Harry happily took the offered parchment.

“I’m happy to see that you’re taking all your OWL subjects to the NEWT level. Your schoolwork has improved considerably, and you did fine work in your OWLs despite last year's unfortunate events. Keep up the good work.”

“I’ll keep that in mind, Professor.” Harry nodded.

“Good. Miss Bell, I assume you’re ready to assume the responsibilities as captain of the quidditch team.”

“Umm…” Katie looked troubled as she became the centre of attention.

“I was under the impression that you can manage the team, Miss Bell. Was I wrong?”

“Uhh… It’s just that I’ve got the NEWTs, Professor.” Katie said rather lamely.

“Hmm…” McGonagall looked at her with an unimpressed stare.

“Katie will be fine with the position, Professor. I’ll help her if she’s overwhelmed by schoolwork.” Harry offered.

“Believe it or not, I did consider other options, Miss Bell. I had a talk with Miss Johnson, and she recommended your name.”

“Oh.” Katie looked like she didn’t know what to say.

“Anyways, I hope you’ll do your position proud.”

McGonagall breezed past them, leaving an awkward silence at the table.

“Funny lady, huh?” Harry said airily, feeling a bit guilty seeing Katie’s hopeless expression.

He had worked hard last year, indirectly convincing Angelina to recommend Katie as the captain. It took a lot of subliminal messaging, but his hard work paid off. He had to ensure Katie was the captain because he had other plans this year. The last thing he wanted was for his precious time and energy to be wasted on quidditch. He enjoyed the game and flying, but not enough to harm his training.

****

The first class of the day was Ancient Runes with Professor Babbling. The NEWT level runes deal mostly with enchantments and the pairing of wand work and runes. To accomplish this, some substantial skill in charms was necessary, while the basics of enchanting objects were also a major focus in the curriculum. But there were also some chapters on ancient languages, especially Latin and Sumerian.

The first class itself was focused on Sumerian and Latin script, as most enchantments were recorded as spells, and those needed to be broken down to their base forms to be converted into runic arrays. This was a field of study where ancient languages, arithmancy and runes met in common ground.

The talks of ancient languages immediately captured Harry’s attention. He had an old script in his possession that needed better translation. So, he was interested in gaining any source material to read the script in his possession. When the class ended, Harry stayed back and approached Professor Babbling.

“Mr Potter. Is there something you need help with?” Professor Babbling asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, Professor. I couldn’t help but notice that you said the NEWT level runes engage in more ancient languages.”

“Yes. So far, we’ve touched on Celtic and Anglo-Saxon runes. At the NEWT level, the same will continue, but there’ll be cuneiform writing systems of ancient languages like Sumerian, Hittite and Akkadian.”

“Right. I was wondering if you’ve come across this script?”

Harry abruptly scrawled a few letters off the top of his head that he remembered from those old scrolls in the Chamber. He gave the parchment to his professor and waited patiently. When Professor Babbling saw the letters, he could see a microscopic twitch on her face. Even his magic somehow alerted him that his professor knew those letters.

So, he was surprised at the answer he received from Babbling.

“I’m afraid I’m unfamiliar with these letters, Mr Potter.”

Harry stared keenly into his professor's onyx eyes. While his professor could keep a mask, her magic, on the other hand, told all that he wanted to know. Professor Babbling immediately recognised the letters, which meant the woman had studied the language quite thoroughly or recently.

If it was the latter, he suspected he was standing before an informant of his grandmother. It was a wild assumption on his part. Professor Babbling could’ve simply chosen not to share her knowledge of the language for other reasons.

However, his gut told him Babbling was not as clean as he thought.

While he maintained eye contact, he let his magic flare to life. The aura around him shifted to one of hostile intent, and he immediately saw Babbling’s magic coiling around her body in a protective manner.

“Is there something else, Mr Potter?” Professor Babbling asked with a straight face.

Harry didn’t reply; he merely directed his magic to manifest physically and channelled his hostile intent. The effect was immediate as the air around them heated up, bearing down on Babbling. She became alarmed and raised a protective shield using her wand. The shield flickered as Harry imposed his will on the defensive layer. It crumbled entirely when he placed his palm against it and channelled a wave of destructive force.

“So, Professor. How long have you been working for Lady Lilith?” Harry asked, pinning down his Ancient Runes professor with his stare and magic.

He could feel several runes flare up across Babbling's arms, which immediately made Harry amused. But his reach with magic was such that he could simply overpower the amassed magic in his professor’s body despite the clever augmentation of magic using runes.

Harry was also surprised that his control over wandless magic was so strong that he felt like he had his claws clamped tightly on all magical energy. It was almost second nature to him now as he beat down Babbling’s magical power and started to siphon her power from the runes engraved on her flesh.

With a thought, a ward covered the whole room, and Harry stared intently at his Ancient Runes professor.

Professor Babbling looked around the room, desperately looking for an exit before her shoulders slumped in defeat when she failed.

“Professor, the truth shall set you free.” Harry said serenely, “One way or other, I’ll learn the truth. It’ll be safe for you to come clean with the truth with me and insulate yourself from my enmity.”

“Yes, I’m an informant to Lady Lilith.” Babbling admitted while letting out a sigh.

“What does she want with me? What are her plans?” Harry demanded.

“I do not know. I was told to watch you and report your movements within the castle.”

Harry didn’t wholly believe her, but he had bigger fish to fry.

“These letters, you know them, yes?”

“I do.” Babbling looked pained while admitting that.

“Good. I want you to give me all the information you have on this language.”

“That’s impossible. I can’t…” Babbling tried to protest.

“You will share that information, or I can tear apart your mind to find what I seek. It's your choice.” Harry said coldly, which stopped Professor Babbling's protests.

“I’ll be happy to share the information, Mr Potter.”

“Good.” Harry smirked at the black-haired woman, “I’ve got some other questions as well…”

*****  

Harry walked out of Babbling’s classroom with a spring in his steps. He had gotten what he wanted out of his grandmother’s pet spy. The woman thought she could stammer and delay the inevitable until Harry lost his patience and invaded her mind to know what he wanted without the slightest bit of concern. His newfound power had even affected his blunt Legilimency skills. Somehow, he could instinctively poke and prod the weaknesses of an occluded mind with ease now.  

He was not complaining about his newfound jump in an unnatural finesse in magic. Usually, he needed to augment himself with planetary magic to achieve that level of perfection. But somehow, something had changed within him after destroying the soul shard infesting his curse scar.

Even the lightning bolt scar on his forehead had disappeared. Harry had gotten used to that nice forehead tattoo, and now he was missing it... somewhat.

But still, it was a happy day for him. He had gotten quite a lot of juicy details from Babbling’s mind. The woman was involved in many shenanigans right under Dumbledore’s nose. His first instinct was to take some good, honest revenge on the woman for daring to manipulate him. But he gradually developed a grudging respect for his professor the more he dug into her mind.

After scrying through Babbling's mind, some of the missing dots were now connected. He knew much more about the Flamels’ intentions and true reach.

A frown came to his face as he thought of his grandmother.

‘A seer. It’s no wonder she has been ahead of her enemies. And she is a patient one, waiting out a century in hiding to leave her enemies to naturally die off instead of directly confronting them.’ Harry thought worriedly.

He got a lot of interesting information about his grandmother and the precursor language to Latin, but he knew nothing about Nicholas Flamel. That man remained an unknown in all of this. That was a bit concerning.

Whistling a jaunty tune as he wandered through the corridor, he encountered Luna, who looked at him with a dreamy smile.

“Hey, Luna.”

“Hi, Harry.” she blinked like a sloth, making Harry grin.

“A free period?”

“Mmhm.” she nodded very slowly and walked with very slow steps.

“Same here. Are you intentionally acting slow…” Harry asked curiously before hastily adding, “…for fun.”

“I’m trying to see whether the Bumbling Mungus around you would say hi to me. They respond positively to sloth-like behaviour.” Luna explained.

“Uh-huh. Are they communicating?” he raised an eyebrow.

“No, not really.” Luna shrugged her shoulders.

“That’s a shame.”

“It is.” Luna nodded, holding her silver-grey eyes on him, “Will you be floating away into wisps of white smoke now?”

“Huh?” Harry suddenly eyed Luna incredulously at the weird question.

“Hmm. You’re close enough to go poof,” Luna said airily, gesturing with her hands to show an explosion.

“Your mind works in strange ways.” Harry eventually said after gaping at the sandy blonde-haired girl.

Strangely enough, his comment made Luna quite happy.

****

After spending his free period with Luna discussing inane things like imaginary creatures and strange hobbies like her butterbeer bottle cap collections, he finally arrived at the DADA classroom. Strangely enough, he felt like there was a feather-light charm on his body and mind after some fun talks with Luna.

Thankfully, he was right on time. Not giving Snape an excuse to play his petty games ensured he went through the day without the urge to murder the greasy git. Avoiding headaches was generally his policy, and Snape's rebranding as the DADA professor didn’t help it one bit.

When he entered the class, he could see Daphne and Tracey sitting on the Slytherin side. He scooted over to the Gryffindor side and slipped into the front bench while the remaining benches were taken. Neville and Ron were sitting a row behind him, and the rest of the Gryffindors were seated behind them row after row.

“Where were you?” Ron asked once Harry dropped his bag next to his seat and made himself comfortable, “Hermione was looking around for you.”

“I was having a chat with Professor Babbling. Why was she looking for me?”

“Something about escorting First Years to their class.” Ron shrugged.

“Ah!” Harry winced.

He had forgotten that schedule he and Hermione had agreed to beforehand. She was supposed to escort the firsties to their first class, and then he was supposed to do the second one.

“I don’t suppose she was mad at me.”

“Oh, she was pissed, mate.” Seamus grinned before he perked up, “Oh, look! Here she comes.”

“You! Where were you?” Hermione scowled upon seeing Harry sitting in the front row without a care.

“Ah, I was lost on the road of life.”

“Lost in the what?” Hermione looked like she was about to explode.

But she sat down quietly when the resident dungeon bat swept into the classroom with a bang.

Harry amusedly noted that Snape had needlessly used a charm to slam the open doors against the classroom wall for dramatic effect. As usual, Snape’s robes billowed behind him as he swept into the room with a sneer plastered on his ugly visage. The drama queen came to a halt at the centre of the room, and with a flick of his wand, the light in the room dimmed.  

Harry had to struggle not to laugh at the parlour tricks Snape was pulling.

‘Getting the DADA post must’ve made Snape happy. He is pulling no stops to make himself more important and mysterious.’ Harry thought.

“Have I asked you to take out your books, Miss Granger?” Snape sneered when he saw Hermione opening her bag and taking out the DADA textbook and several pieces of parchment.

“No, sir.” Hermione said demurely, averting her eyes.

“Then don’t make a ruckus in my class, Granger. Keep your books in your bag.” Snape glared around at the class, making sure everyone had a good look at his ugly mug.

“Headmaster Dumbledore has tasked me with teaching you dunderheads how to defend yourself now that the Dark Lord has risen. Your previous teachers have left you with subpar instructions and lessons that impaired most of your skills in the subject. I’m here to correct ‘all’ of their mistakes.” Snape seemed to gloat as he stared into Harry’s eyes as if insulting Remus was somehow a score in their little game.

Harry didn’t hold back this time and grinned crookedly at Snape, daring the man to go further. Dumbledore’s protection could only go so far now. If Snape stepped one little toe out of line, Harry could take up the matter with the Ministry and have the man removed from Hogwarts despite what the Board of Governors said. He didn’t like using his influence to attack a petty bully like Snape now that he had better things to do. But Snape needed to know there were lines he ought not to cross.

The way Snape turned his head away and stalked the classroom instead of going further indicated that the man was aware of his limits. As Snape continued his lecture about DADA and veered off into extolling the intricacies of the Dark Arts, Harry discretely eyed Draco Malfoy.

The Malfoy heir was sitting at the farthest corner of the room with Theodore Nott. The sullen look he saw on Malfoy’s face was not surprising. Usually, the blonde git was overly eager for Snape’s lessons. But now, there was no trace of joy or gloating usually seen on Malfoy’s face. There was only a grim sort of acceptance and the weight of a herculean task.

All in all, Malfoy looked like an emo bitch who got the rough end of the stick lodged up his ass.  

Harry cast his eyes back into the blackboard while Snape continued his monologue. Thankfully, Snape must’ve realised that his boring monologue was not necessary for the class. Instead, the man gleefully declared that a practical session would be held to practice the shield charm.

If Snape thought to overwhelm the Gryffindor students with his ‘superior’ Slytherins, he was sorely mistaken. All Gryffindor students of his year were competent in using the basic shield charm. The disappointed frown on Snape’s face when he saw many of his vaunted Slytherins failed to do anything substantial, and the greasy git switched tactics to non-verbal spells.

Throughout the lesson, Snape pretended that Harry didn’t exist, and that was perfectly fine as far as he was concerned.

He ended up partnering with Lily Moon, who was an introvert, according to Tracey. He raised an eyebrow when she nonverbally cast the stunning charm, which splashed harmlessly against his shield.

Looking around, Harry confirmed that no one had pulled that right off the bat. Even his Knights were not that proficient in silent casting.

“Impressive.” Harry said as he silently cast a stunner at the auburn-haired girl.

Moon hardly blinked as she defended herself, nonverbally erecting a shield. Her response to his compliment was a quick stunner that splashed harmlessly into his shield, which he hastily erected.

He grinned at the girl, who remained expressionless but held a silent challenge in her brown eyes. He was more than happy to take up that challenge.

****

Bathsheda Babbling scowled at her trembling hand. The sheer terror she had felt as she felt the full might of Potter’s power had left her vulnerable. Unlike most witches employed by Lady Lilith, she was not a warrior. She was a researcher, and her academic interest made her a perfect spy in Hogwarts. Not even Dumbledore could see through what she really was.

Yet Potter managed to successfully break through the charade she had been running. How? She didn’t know. She didn’t know what gave her away, and frankly, she was least bothered by that right now.

No. The thoughts that bothered her right now were about Harry Potter. She had severely underestimated the boy and suspected her benefactors were also making the same mistake. She suspected that Potter had easily surpassed the Dark Lord and Dumbledore in sheer power. No wizard could wield magic as brazenly as Potter, and the ease at which the boy performed wandless magic was stupendous.   

It was now out of her hands anyway. Potter had easily entered her mind and learned what he wanted, leaving her position in Hogwarts vulnerable. Potter now also possessed sensitive information about her research into the precursor language of Latin. She didn’t know what was his interest in that language, but seeing as Lady Lilith was also interested in that language, she knew the situation had gotten out of her hands.

The runes on her arms flared up as she channelled magic into them.

“Lady Lilith.” she called, looking at the glowing runes.

Magical energy swirled on her palm for a few minutes before coalescing into a miniature head of her mistress.

“Bathsheda. Why have you called me at this hour?”

“Potter has learned of my allegiance. He invaded my mind and learned everything that he needed to know.”

“He invaded your mind?” Lady Lilith asked sceptically, “Why did you not defend yourself?”

“I couldn’t, my lady. It was unlike anything I’ve ever encountered. He suppressed my magic and slipped past my defences with ease. He…” Bathsheda took a deep breath to steady her trembling body as she was assaulted by the memory of the event.

“Potter was using wandless magic with ease. He is far more powerful than we ever imagined.”

“He used wandless magic, you say?”

“He broke my shield with a flick of his finger. He invaded my mind by holding my head in his hands. It was surreal.” she explained the ordeal she went through in detail.

After she was done explaining, Lady Lilith remained silent.

“It seems I need to have a word with our young friend.”