The Christmas holidays are a wonderful time for Hogwarts students, when they can go home, meet with their parents, and simply take a break from student life away from the freezing and cold castle.
"Except the way home is closed for me. I'm sure my father won't be very happy to see me," I grimaced, having seen my buddies off from the castle without much fuss and now returning back to the Gryffindor common room. A few entertaining books on the use of transfiguration for construction purposes are waiting for me there...
Not that I will need such knowledge in the near future. But having learned how easily experienced and skilled wizards can create their own dwellings, I simply couldn't ignore this topic... In my past life, buying your own home could become an impossible, lifelong goal for many.
Which, however, is also true for this world, but if one of the mages steals a little land from ordinary people, hiding it with special charms and rituals, no one in the Ministry of Magic will be outraged. They will even connect the Floo Network to a house on such a plot of land without any problems, which is almost the main factor in recognizing private property for a specific wizard...
"And I don't care how difficult it is for a single wizard to create a more or less decent dwelling for himself. All the necessary charms, rituals, and transfiguration formulas are in the library, and I didn't work as an architect for almost three years for nothing; I understand a thing or two about construction. And if my own knowledge is not enough, I will turn to the help of other architects from the ordinary world... Otherwise, everything comes down to the amount of effort applied and the time spent on mastering the spells. Which is still better than a mortgage and other delights of an ordinary person's life," I reasoned lazily, hoping in the extreme case, if this whole situation with the Dark Lord gets out of hand, to become a sort of hermit, of which there are already plenty in the magical world.
"No, well, why not? Not the worst idea," I chuckled sarcastically, still not finding much confidence in the future within myself. Damn lycanthropy complicates everything too much... And I won't be able to hide it forever anyway.
"What, Moony, left without your little friends and immediately lost your mind? Started talking to yourself?" Snape stepped out from behind the nearest corner, grinning maliciously. I had been listening to his breathing before, but didn't pay due attention, not expecting such an ambush on the very first day of the Christmas holidays. Besides, it's difficult to determine a person's identity by their breathing.
"If you talk to your own cactus, that's perfectly normal. But if it starts answering you... then there are reasons for concern," I looked at the teenager mockingly, hiding some nervousness behind a smile. This little snake was holding his wand far too threateningly. "What do you want, Snape?"
"Oh, nothing special. I just want to get even with one of the brave Marauders for my ruined robes. Vomitare Viridis!" Snape launched a pale beam of a vomiting spell in my direction, not wanting to give me an extra chance to draw my own wand.
However, he had already delayed anyway, allowing me to prepare for an attack in advance. And even though I really didn't have time to draw my wand, not having a special holster for the instant extraction of my magical focus, jumping aside from someone else's attack was entirely within my power.
And then, when Snape had already started pronouncing the next spell, I didn't falter, throwing my own bag at the boy frozen in his stance. This prevented him from completing his own charm, and at the same time bought me a little time to finally draw my own wand.
"Depulso, Brachiabindo / Protego!" Snape and I exclaimed simultaneously. But while Snape's shield charm honorably withstood my Depulso, the Banishing Charm, the binding spell was able to break through his Protego.
And even though the spell still came out weakened, and instead of shackling the Slytherin's movements, the tourniquet-like rope only forcefully wrapped around his right arm, that was enough for me. The impulse from the cord wrapping around his arm prevented Snape from casting his next spell, severely limiting the mobility of his arm and simply breaking his concentration.
And I didn't need anything more to win.
"Silencio," I calmly cast the silencing charm on the guy, completely depriving him of the opportunity to attack and immediately repeating the binding spell. Thus, Snape was forcefully entangled by magical ropes that did not allow the guy to take a single extra step.
Rather the opposite, Severus's attempt to jerk in the opposite direction from me only led to the brunette falling, during which he hit his head against the wall quite hard, contorting his face in a soundless grimace of pain even before his body completely fell to the ground.
"Yeah, what a sickly guy... And I wasn't going to beat him up or anything like that. But no, this clumsy fool split his own forehead and is now 'bleeding' out," I assessed the situation, thinking in passing what to do with all this mess. "The right thing to do would be to kick the negligent avenger and leave him here. Mages are tougher than ordinary people, so Snape definitely won't die from the cold... But I really don't want to dirty my almost new shoes on this sickly guy..."
"Well, avenger, shall we drag ourselves to the hospital wing? Or should I go straight to McGonagall? I'm sure she will definitely believe in the attack of a vile Slytherin on a proud little lion," I smiled at the defeated opponent, albeit somewhat theatrically, but still maliciously.
The adrenaline that instantly hit my head significantly shook my already fragile nerves, which made me really want to do something nasty to Snape. And the hateful glare of the Slytherin only pushed me towards this... Because in essence, what difference does it make exactly how I treat him now, if this big-nosed guy will eventually decide to take revenge for his own humiliation anyway?
"Bad thoughts, very bad thoughts," I finally shook my head, deciding not to stoop to the level of empty-headed teenagers.
So, instead of an additional beating, I simply dragged the guy to the hospital wing. Of course, he didn't hurt himself that badly, but a split forehead still wouldn't heal just like that. Magic's help was needed here, which was why the trip to the hospital wing had to take place.
True, our school mediwitch, despite my most honest and sincere eyes, ultimately still summoned McGonagall, causing the houses of lions and snakes to lose ten points each, and Snape and I were assigned a week of detentions. Snape with Argus Filch, our school caretaker, and me with Minerva herself, which was arguably worse, come to think of it.
"Understand me correctly, Mr. Lupin. I believe that it was Mr. Snape who started the fight, deciding to take revenge on you at a moment when your comrades were not around. But even so, the Hogwarts charter is the same for everyone. And for starting a fight, as well as doing magic in the corridors, I am simply obliged to punish you with the utmost severity," the Deputy Headmistress said then, making me somewhat regret my chosen decision.
"I should have just left Snape there. That snake is too proud to go complain to anyone later, and I would have avoided a whole week of detentions," I angrily cursed my recent offender, regretting the missed opportunities. "And I had just set my mind to dedicating the entire Christmas holidays to studying construction spells and practicing transfiguration... Now I'll have to give up at least part of my training," I continued to swear mentally.
However, this anger calmed down quickly enough, and I returned to my usual pace of life. And the detentions with the ever-strict McGonagall did not become such a big problem for me. Honestly, they were more like additional practice in transfiguration. And what difference does it make that instead of trying to independently master something from rather large-scale transformations, I helped our Head of House decorate the castle for the approaching Christmas. That also turned out to be quite an interesting experience.
And I also managed to pry some explanations from the professor on the topic that interested me. Fortunately, as an architect who had visited construction sites more than once in the past, I had a rough idea of what exactly I would need to build my own house, which is why my questions were quite specific and detailed.
And McGonagall really liked this approach, even if she complained that it was too early for me to take on such complex sections of transfiguration, but she still jotted down a list of recommended reading. Moreover, knowing perfectly well what charms were in the books recommended to me, the Head of House talked about me with Flitwick, asking the half-goblin to keep an eye on my attempts to use the simplest of the suggested spells.
Which, of course, did not greatly please the Charms professor himself, who actually also had his own holidays, but Flitwick did not refuse to help me, scheduling several additional classes right during the Christmas holidays...
"Got what I asked for. Now they even schedule extra classes for the holidays," I laughed at the situation that had arisen, easily accepting words of sympathy from my housemates who had misunderstood something.
There were actually very few of them, by the way. No more than twenty people for the whole of Gryffindor. At the same time, most of the remaining guys were fifth and seventh-year students who decided not to be distracted from preparing for their Ministry exams. Some of them, by the way, came to Flitwick's extra class with me, which reliably refuted the spontaneity of our Head of House's small request to the Head of Ravenclaw.
McGonagall knew that the Charms professor held electives for fifth and seventh-year graduates, so she decided to attach me to these electives so that I wouldn't chop something off myself in my experiments...
"Well, it wouldn't be a shame to thank our warden for such care. After starting training with mental magic, I, of course, began to end up in the hospital wing less often because of my own experiments with magic, but Flitwick's supervision turned out to be very handy in any case," I made a mental note to myself, which, by the way, has also been pleasing me with its clarity lately.
Several types of meditations, a couple of rather specific spells, and simply gradually accumulated experience in working with my own mind helped me achieve a noticeable, albeit expected, effect—my memory became better. Not to the level of prodigies who, having glanced at a page of a book only once, will remember it forever.
But I was no longer in a hurry to forget the potions tome I read several months ago either. Which significantly facilitated my studies and spurred my desire to continue practicing mental magic... Although, I already have more than enough of this enthusiasm.
Because, to be honest, I was still scared to the point of wet pants that someone would find out about my knowledge of the possible future... Which is why I approached my training in mental magic with all zeal, plunging into the depths of my own mind almost three times a day in attempts to improve the mental defenses that had only just begun to form.
In the morning, before going to sleep, during a run around the castle, resting in the main hall of the Gryffindor common room... I used every opportunity to practice mental magic, which over time began to bear fruit. Even if the guys I knew had already started catching me in a certain absent-mindedness characteristic of a state of superficial meditation, which invariably leads to sometimes rather offensive jokes about my humble persona.
"Well, it's nothing, it's nothing, let them laugh, half-baked jokers... We'll see later how I'll laugh myself, purely instinctively reading other people's thoughts every time I meet a conversationalist's eyes... Although, that's already the highest level of mastery of Legilimency, and I haven't even finished my initial training yet, concentrating more on defending my own mind... Oh well, with time I'll get to this sphere of mental magic too," I mused in anticipation, lazily waiting for the approaching Christmas and simply resting in the Gryffindor common room after another detention with McGonagall.