Chapter Text
Monday Afternoon
Harry walked as quickly as he could without running through the delightfully ominous dark halls of the dungeons. His very own laboratory and work station lay in wait somewhere around here. At least according to the piece of parchment that hadn't left his hand since he'd gotten it. After the last class of the day, Harry took off at a run with a hurried 'I'll explain later!' to his friends. Following Scruffy's advice he'd turned in a form requesting a spot on the list. When he reached the scholar's section after what felt like a million years there was his name down near the bottom. He'd made it!
Scribbling the room location down, Harry left once more. He passed his friends again on their way to study hall. He gave them a wave and skipped cheerfully down the hall. He was so freaking excited!
His very own place to experiment and practice magic.
Harry rounded a corner and walked right into somebody.
"Oomph!" He fell back on his bottom. Embarrassed, Harry started apologising. "Gosh, I am so sorry. I totally wasn't looking. I'm just in such a rush, you see, because I-"
"Look, it's the Black." Said a wide-shouldered boy.
His two friends snickered. "And he seems lost." Said another boy with chestnut hair, a triangular face and slanted eyes. He looked surprisingly fox-like. Would it be rude for Harry to ask about it? Were werefoxes a thing?
Harry huffed. "Yes, well, I'm not lost actually. I'm looking for a room. You're not even Slytherin, shouldn't I be calling you lost?" He pushed himself to his feet, annoyed, scooping up his parchment and picking up his bookbag. "Now if you'll excuse me-"
"Wait, hold up Black. Where are you going?" The first boy side-stepped into Harry's path, sharing a grin with his friends.
"Yeah, don't you have time to socialise?" Asked werefox boy.
Harry would believe it until proven otherwise.
The third boy, who'd been quiet until now, said, "Maybe he's late to study his Dark Arts some more. I heard he had a lot to say about them today."
"Yeah, I heard that too." Said boy number one. "Is that it then? Off to do some voodoo?" He shoved at Harry.
Caught off guard, Harry stumbled back into the fox boy. "That's not...honestly." Harry's face shifted into one bright and cheery. "I just said what I read in a book, okay? Same as Granger. I really do have somewhere to be going now, so if you don't mind?"
Voodoo? When do they think he would have had the time to fly to Louisiana and learn that?
The boy did, in fact, mind apparently. He snatched the parchment with Harry's lab number. "Something important?"
Harry leapt after it. "Give that back!"
"What? This?" The boy held it out.
Harry's face flamed as he jumped, trying to reach it. He knew he was small for a first year but these kids had to be in third or fourth. It wasn't fair at all, and he felt incredibly embarrassed. "Just give it back. Please? I need that." Harry tried.
Boy Number One held the parchment with two hands. "Maybe we can share?" He started tearing it down the middle.
"Don't!" Harry tried to stop him, only to be held back by fox boy.
To his right, the third in this nasty trio cheered at boy number one. "Do it!"
"I said stop!" Harry ordered. A burst of wind swept out, pushing the other boys back about a foot. Boy Number One laughed.
"Accidental magic? You're such a baby." He started ripping the parchment more.
"Stop. Stop. STOP." Then Harry's mind went still and he felt detached as magic moved down his body and into the stone floor. It filled the corridor, rising, and when it hit the leader of the bullies, it flowed up and over him. Moving him, spinning, his body thrashing high in the air. Faster. And faster.
Like he was drowning.
No...this was wrong. Harry should...couldn't like this. Harry panicked. How did he make it stop? His guard friend from Gringotts flashed into his head.
CPMs.
Harry felt inside of himself for the pulling feeling in his middle. When he found it, he yanked back just like he had done that day in Diagon Alley. His magic cut and the boy fell to the ground with a frightened yelp.
Harry stood there in the middle of the hall, frozen. With wide eyes, he looked from one boy to the other. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It...it was an accident. I didn't mean to. I swear it!"
Boy Number One struggled to his feet. He crumpled Harry's parchment and tossed it at him. "You can keep it, freak."
Harry winced. He kept his eyes on the ball of parchment at his feet while the boys ran by and around the corner. He knew -deep down- that he wasn't a freak. He was a wizard. He had magical powers. He belonged in a magical school. He knew all of that.
Still, it did something to him to hear that sort of thing. There were bullies in every world. Harry shouldn't have forgotten that. He wouldn't forget it again. He would just have to get strong enough that no one would dare call him that. Not ever.
The first step was finding his lab so...
Harry knelt down and scooped up his parchment. Carefully, he unravelled it, minding the tear at the top. He looked up at the room closest to him. He should be near it. Harry walked along, glancing up at each door he passed until finally he found it. Full of cheer once more, Harry turned the handle, pushed it open and...
"This is it?" Harry demanded of no one in particular. It was a small room with one workbench to the left, some shelves to the right and a collection of cabinets at the other wall. And...that was it. There was nothing else. No materials. No space. He wouldn't get a whole lot done in here. Harry leaned against the wall by the door and slid down it to the ground. He let out a harsh breath in a heavy puff of air that mussed his bangs. This was not what he was expecting. Sure, he knew he wasn't a high priority when it came to these things and that he hadn't earned anything yet. He was only getting a foot in the door because of his pseudo-apprenticeship with Master Ollivander.
But dang this sucked.
"Son of an ugly witch!"
Harry nodded. "Exactly." He blinked. "Wait."
Harry leaned around the door to see a familiar wizard in the hall. He had a bunch of folders in his arms, a briefcase, a leather bag and a crate of vials he was trying to levitate. It wasn't going well. Harry stood, slung his own bag around his shoulder and stepped out.
"Do you need some help?"
Sloth looked up. "Hey kid." His eyes flickered over Harry's shoulder. "That your lab in there?"
Harry tried to look optimistic but some of what he was feeling must of shown on his face.
"That bad, huh?" Sloth asked, resting the huge pile of folders against him. His other hand wiped sweat from his forehead.
Harry sighed. "It's the worst."
Sloth gave him a wry grin. "Isn't it always? Here you can carry the crate. Come on."
Harry picked it up dutifully. What in Narnia was in this? Harry examined the tiny vials filling the crate while he tried to lug it along after Sloth. There didn't even seem to be anything in them but some clear liquid that could have been water. How could it weigh so much? By the time they reached their destination Harry was panting and sweating as bad as Sloth. If he did that more often, he'd be as big as Ron Weasley in no time! Harry waited rather impatiently for Sloth to undo the locked charms on the door and let them in. As soon as the door was open Harry made a beeline for the first table he saw.
With a groan, he set the crate down and started shaking out his arms. He needed some blood flow STAT. When the tingly feeling started up, which told him his arms and hands weren't permanently damaged, he turned around.
"Where do you want...want...these..."
Sloth's lab was amazing. There weren't enough words in his vocabulary to describe how brilliant this was. Shelves lined the walls from floor to ceiling. There were chests and cabinets and small tables absolutely everywhere. All of it loaded with all sorts of stuff. There were work tables throughout the room. Chalkboards with complex diagrams. Posters and maps hung all over the room on whatever available surface Sloth had found to put them. And it was organised. There was a point to where everything was.
This is more like it.
"Leave them there for now." Said Sloth absently. He headed over to a large metal work table in the middle of the room. On it, Harry could see algorithms and runic layouts he didn't understand. Beside it was a tiny mechanical grasshopper.
Harry stared at it, a smile forming. "How cool! Is it steam power? Clockwork? Do you have a power source? Can it do anything?"
Sloth paused. "Do anything?"
"Yes. The grasshopper. Are you just playing with anatomy, or are you going to have it do something?"
Sloth tilted his head. "Like what?"
"Well, if you have a recording device in it somewhere, like a pensive, that stored specific information...like a predetermined set of commands for it to follow? It could carry out simple orders for you. Of course, it would need to be animated. You'll need to reconfigure it to move. Clockwork and steam are great alternatives to electricity, but you'll want some way to store magic within it so it has the ability to understand its commands and so it'll be protected from anyone who wants to hurt it. Maybe a power gem? I haven't seen anything like that here yet. I imagine they're possible, though. Get a good conductive piece of...say...quartz? And let it sit in a potion that amplifies sensitivity to magic? Maybe create a non-solid construct to work as its mind, storing a memory of its tasks and of its purpose? Secure the gem to it and voilà. You may have to power it up, though? Like a Compressed Power Monolith, you know? Store some of your ambient magic within it for it to use."
Sloth was looking very awake now. "What are your alternatives again?"
"Oh, I'm learning about constructs and enchantments. Mental Alterations."
The wizard started pacing. "So you'll be under the Experimental Department." He stopped abruptly. He turned to Harry, surveying him slowly. "I have a proposition for you."
Harry shifted on his feet. Sloth was doing that thing again, where he was seeing stuff about Harry that was telling him more than it should. It made him nervous. "You do?"
"Yeah. How would you like to be my assistant?'
The small Slytherin's mouth fell open. Well, he hadn't been expecting that! "Don't I have to be an official member of the professional staff or a two-year temporary staff in order to even qualify?"
"Yep." Said Sloth, starting to grin. "I'll give you the lab connected to mine over there." He pointed to a doorway at the far right of the room. "It's about a quarter of the size of this, but still a hell of a lot bigger than what you had. It has benches and cabinets, and everything already. You can use some of my materials that I don't need or have in surplus. If I get something cool that I don't need, I'll offer it to you before I try to trade it with someone. In exchange ,you'll do the crap I don't want to do. Grading papers, fact-checking essays. Picking up parcels and stuff like that. Don't tell anyone you're doing it for me, do a good job, and I'll even throw in an allowance. You in?"
Harry found himself beaming. "Yes! That'd be so great. Yes, I'll do it."
"Awesome." Sloth dumped the pile of folders on a small desk. "This is your workstation and these are your assignments for the week."
Totally worth it.