Chapter 126: Injuries
The Quidditch season had begun. Everywhere, students were talking of nothing else.
The first match was on Saturday: Gryffindor versus Slytherin.
If Gryffindor won, their place in the race for the House Cup would jump to second.
Accordingly, the hype around both the Gryffindor and Slytherin teams was sky‑high.
The moment Shawn stepped into the Great Hall, he heard someone say, "I am telling you, there is definitely something up with Harry. Every time the Gryffindor Quidditch team has practice, Harry disappears, rain or shine. I reckon—"
At the Gryffindor table, this comment drew a crowd of curious listeners.
Harry, eating not far from Shawn, felt his heart clench.
"He must be off chasing after the balls!"
That line earned a chorus of boos. Harry Potter, the Boy Who Lived, reduced to fetching balls?
The conversation quickly turned instead to his skills – because the fact that he had made the team was plain enough.
Some told him he would play brilliantly. Others said they would run around underneath with mattresses to catch him if he fell. Harry was not sure which idea was worse.
At that moment,
Ron had gotten into another argument.
"I am telling you, Shawn only needed a simple Levitation Charm to take down the troll!"
"Oh, give it a rest, Weasley. I do not doubt Shawn could do it, but I am not about to believe a word you say. Remember? My Levitation Charm is better than yours," Theodore said with a sneer, hearing Ron launch into the story he had already told half the school.
"I bet you do not even know how to make a feather turn once in the air, let alone cast a nonverbal Levitation Charm…"
His answer was Ron turning scarlet and a rat that suddenly seemed much larger – Ron had already launched himself forward. Before Theodore understood what was happening, Ron barrelled into him, knocking him flat.
"I earned twenty points for the House! You only just got out of detention!" Ron shouted.
Afterwards, the whole thing left Ron with a knot in his chest. Every time Shawn walked past, he opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again.
"Do you think he will have us?" he muttered now, far less sure of himself than before.
"Shawn…" Harry was not certain either. There was not a first‑year student in the school who did not know who Shawn was, but apart from Hermione and the Hope Room trio, no one really knew him.
Asked what he was like, people only said, "Oh, brilliant, modest…" They could list a hundred good points, but when it came to what sort of wizard Shawn actually was, even Harry could only think, He is a very good person. Beyond that, he knew almost nothing.
Harry and Ron's intense interest in Shawn – or rather, the entire Gryffindor Quidditch team's sneaky interest in Shawn – had, without their realising it, attracted the attention of a clever, beautiful Ravenclaw.
"Have you worked out what is going on, Roger?" she asked, watching Shawn leave the table.
In the Great Hall,
Shawn, wrapped in a thick scarf, was heading for the doors. Hermione and Justin walked at his side.
Ever since the troll, Hermione had developed a vague new fear of Hogwarts. In practice, it meant she spent nearly the whole day in the Hope Room.
Now and then, during breaks, the three of them would slip out into the cold courtyard… like now.
Moments ago, Hermione had conjured a bright blue flame, which she was carrying in an empty jam jar.
As she lifted the lid, Shawn's wand moved in a peculiar rhythm. Before long, a blue fire salamander scampered out of the jar.
When Hermione snapped the lid shut, it gave a little "guk‑guk" snigger and promptly melted the metal, then darted back into the jar.
Hermione strongly suspected Shawn was behind this. She puffed out her cheeks and glared at him.
"Not me," Shawn said.
Hermione believed him at once. She stared in fascination at the salamander. It hiccupped, spitting a puff of blue fire that nearly singed her eyebrows.
Outraged, Hermione chased it with her wand.
Justin stood to the side, clicking away with his camera. When he developed the photos, he discovered that in every single one, Shawn was in exactly the same pose, sitting quietly and reading.
[You practised advanced Transfiguration once at Proficient standard, Proficiency +300]
His Transfiguration from object to "magic" was advancing at tremendous speed.
So fast it seemed almost unbelievable – until he compared his notes to Professor McGonagall's own progress and realised it was not that fast at all.
He had merely reached her third‑year level as a first‑year student.
There was no end to Transfiguration. Beyond turning objects into "magic,"
advanced Transfiguration also included turning "magic" into objects,
and the transformation from "self" into "living creature," and from "living creature" into "living creature."
The difference between the last two lies in whether you change yourself, like Krum turning his head into a shark's, or someone else, like fake Moody turning Malfoy into a white ferret.
Those were all advanced techniques. Shawn still had a great deal to learn.
Even with objects into "magic," he had only mastered the fire salamander so far. Lately, he had been wondering whether he could turn flames into a fire dragon.
Then he thought of Fiendfyre, which could assume the shapes of living creatures. Could Fiendfyre be considered a Dark spell that incorporated Transfiguration principles?
Did Fiendfyre devour everything because it carried the power of high‑level Transfiguration – the Vanishing Spell?
After all, there were stacking techniques in Transfiguration, like Multiple Transfiguration.
Professor McGonagall had once said that things which vanished were "reduced to nothing, which is to say, to everything."
Consider it. Fiendfyre was notoriously difficult to control. A witch or wizard without enough power who casts it without knowing how to stop it or the counter‑curse would be consumed by the very flames they summoned. Only the strongest could control it precisely.
Now think of Transfigured "living creatures": with insufficient skill, a caster might lose control and be harmed by their own creation.
As Shawn was mulling this over, Hermione came back, still fuming. She had just realised how ridiculous it was to be angry at a magical fire salamander.
The thought made her so annoyed that she ended up laughing at herself.
At that moment, Snape crossed the courtyard. Justin at once noticed that he was limping.
He nudged Shawn, knowing Shawn spent a lot of time brewing in the dungeons.
Shawn looked over.
Right then, Professor Snape was limping towards Harry and Ron. He seemed to be searching for any excuse at all to give them a dressing‑down.
"What have you got there, Potter?"
"Quidditch Through the Ages," Harry said, holding it up.
"Library books are not to be taken out of school," Snape said.
"Give it here. Five points from Gryffindor."
"He just made that rule up," Harry muttered resentfully as he watched Snape limp away.
"I wonder what happened to his leg?"
"No idea, but I hope it hurts like mad," Ron said with relish.