Tanya’s Hogwarts Adventures (Youjo Senki, Harry Potter)

[Nicolette]

Ah Lily, never change you adorable little ray of sunshine

 

[Blasterbot]

Perfection.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Update on the Sketch. I believe this is about finished for the sketch phase. I think. I am very happy with it at least.

 

[Nicolette]

That looks very good

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

I promise I am working on the next chapter. Spoiler: It involves tea.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Hermione Granger

A loud clap stirred the bushy haired Hermione to consciousness, groaning as she rolled over to get out of bed to start the day, like she had so many times before with her dorm mates since the beginning of term.

"I'll lead," Parvati said with a yawn as she took the central position as the rest of the girls formed a semi circle around the Indian girl, soft, tired smiles on most of their faces.

At first, the yoga was difficult for Hermione to do as she was not used to bending and contorting her body into the positions while still for what felt like hours, but, after months of doing it everyday, even Tanya's version was becoming easy to do.

None of that stopped Hermione from working up a bit of a sweat first thing in the morning despite how slow the motions were. Unfortunately, none of the books in the school library included anything about why standing in funny positions would be so strenuous.

Regardless, a sweaty and properly awake Hermione grabbed a clean uniform for the day, tossed her dirty nightwear aside, and joined the other girls in the shower.

"Ugh," Lavender groaned under the water stream.

"What's wrong?" Parvati asked, a sudsy lather in her hair.

"We got Defense and History today."

"Ugh, Binns is so boring and I can barely understand Quirrell."

"Must you complain every week?" Hermione asked, rolling her eyes.

"Yes!" Both Lavender and Parvati said.

"Let them complain," Tanya said as she scrubbed her hair. "Better to let it out than allow resentment to build. Oh, and Lavender, I do think that I do not like the haircut after all. Do you know of a way to fix it?"

"I think there is a hair growth potion, but I'll need to check."

"I think I saw it in one of the books in the library while-"

" 'Doing some light reading,' " Parvati quoted as Hermione finished her sentence, the bushy haired bookworm giving a small pout.

"If you could find that recipe, I would appreciate it."

"What kind of hairstyle would you like to try next?" Lavender asked, a gleam of mischief in her eyes.

"Don't know. Probably best to wait till after the potion has done its thing to decide."

Now clean, Hermione turned off her shower and grabbed a towel to dry off before putting on her uniform, packing her bag for the day, and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

The boys trickled down over the next hour, food and conversation being shared.

"Oh, I didn't ask," Hermione said, turning to Ron and Harry. "How was tea with Hagrid?"

"Good, but if you ever visit, don't eat the rock cakes," Ron said around a mouthful of crumpet. "I think he uses actual rocks."

"Ron, please swallow before talking," Hermione requested, her face scrunched up in disgust.

"Didn't you want to ask Hagrid something?" Lily asked Tanya.

"Hmm. I did, but I don't remember what about," Tanya said, her face tightening up in concentration as she tried to remember.

"I think it was something related to an animal."

"Hmm, maybe?" Tanya seemed unsure.

"Next time I go, why don't you come along?" Harry asked.

Tanya nodded agreement and the conversations moved onto other subjects until it was time to head to class where Professor Quirrell was standing at the front. Without prompting, Hermione and the other Gryffindors dug through their bags to pull out their essays and set them on his desk.

The professor had a nervous smile as he said, "Th-thank you cl-class. Today's l-lesson will be a-about b-beast classifications. H-how d-dangerous various beasts c-can be. T-turn to page one f-f-forty three please."

Hermione had to admit to herself that Quirrell was one of her least favorite professors due to his stutter making it harder to follow along with what he was saying, but he was open to answering questions asked in class and was knowledgeable. This lesson in particular had a lot of questions being asked, particularly surrounding trolls and what Tanya did several months ago.

Hermione was not one of the ones asking questions as she remembered the amount of blood flowing from the troll's wounds and the smell coming off it. How Tanya stood covered in the thick blood unbothered by the gruesome demise and was the only thing keeping her safe from causing death.

"Are you ok?" Tanya asked, breaking Hermione out of the memory, a hand on her arm. "You are trembling. Do you feel nauseous? Warm? Cold?"

Hermione gave Tanya a smile. "I'm fine. Thank you."

"You sure? We can go to Miss Pompfrey's office if you are feeling unwell."

Hermione shook her head.

"Is-is there someth-thing you would like to s-say?" Professor Quirrell asked, looking at the two of them.

Tanya smoothly released Hermione's arm and turned towards the professor. "No sir, I was just checking that my used copy had the same chart as Hermione's textbook."

"M-most of the cl-classification h-haven't changed in d-decades. You sh-should be f-fine."

Hermione returned her focus to the lesson, putting the troll out of mind as getting a bad grade would be so much worse than what almost occurred with the troll.

—-

Draco Malfoy

Tanya seeming to suddenly appear around a corner to ask Draco a question was rather startling, particularly with her hard gaze.

"Ah, Draco, would you be interested in joining me for tea Sunday?" Tanya asked.

"Yes?" Draco was a little uncertain how to handle the request, but his father's desire for him to get close to her made him agree quickly.

She nodded after the answer. "I will meet you next to the gargoyle to the Headmaster's Office for afternoon tea," she said before leaving him behind.

"The Headmaster's..?" Draco didn't know where the Headmaster's office was. He hadn't needed to go there and it seemed like it was an odd place to meetup considering he could just meet her at the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room.

Regardless of the meeting place, he would do his duty to his family and arrive at the meeting place to spend time with Tanya and get closer to her. While his father's thoughts about Potter seemed wrong as Potter seemed to be little more than a wet paper bag that is ok at flying Draco supposed, Tanya had something unnerving about her. Something that both were off-putting and attractive. If this is what You-Know-Who had about him, then Tanya being the next Dark Lady seemed likely and following from the start when she begins her reign would be a highly valuable position to be in.

With a shake of his head, Draco continued on his way to pick up Vincent and Gregory from where he left them in the library with a couple of books while he grabbed a volume for himself to focus on. That both of them could read was a relief to find after seeing how poorly they did on the midterm tests. He was concerned about how much effort it could take to help them pass the year, but Tanya had taken up the effort of helping them and that idiot Gryffindor girl pass. Whatever she was doing seemed to be working as both of the large boys had their heads in the books.

Dropping into a seat next to them, he opened up the book he had grabbed to see if it had any interesting spells he could bring to the dueling club. Potter may have gotten lucky, but Draco had the power and skill to beat him.

—

Potions class was one of Draco's favorites. Professor Snape was a great teacher who gave the Slytherins all the assistance they needed and making potions was something that was enjoyable to the scion of the Malfoy family. There was something satisfying about chopping up ingredients and mixing them into the cauldron and getting a magical result in a liquid form.

"We will be learning to bottle strength for when magic is not enough. So most of you fools should pay close attention," Snape began as he waltzed into the classroom, his robes billowing out behind him as he snapped his wand at the chalkboard where instructions and diagrams began appearing. His eyes passed over the class, stopping on Tanya. "Though I suppose at least one of you does not need the help."

With a flick of his wand, Snape sent one of the main ingredients for the potion from a cabinet to each workbench, a mostly red flower with blue spots and fangs on the edges of the petals, especially around the opening. "First we will be going over how to properly collect the fangs from the Fanged Geranium. You want to collect just the fangs with as little of the petal as possible. First cut the petal off the stem…"

Draco paid attention and carefully followed the instructions, getting his fangs cleanly separated from the rest of the flower whole and clean. Vincent managed to get his cleanly separated, but they were in broken pieces while Greggory's fangs had red sap covering the still whole fangs.

After the flower fangs were harvested, they began to grind snake fangs in their mortar into a fine powder. The class was mostly quiet with only the sound of stone on stoneware and slowly crushing teeth. As they transitioned to actually brewing the potion, Draco had a brief moment where he was tempted to toss some of Greggory's fangs into Longbottom's cauldron. He stopped himself as he remembered Tanya talking about how important it was to know where boundaries for his friends were and that it was always better to err on the side of caution. Longbottom was one of Tanya's friends and Draco needed to be on the good side of Tanya and her friends if he was going to follow his father's wishes.

Draco put the fangs into a hidden position and slid some of his properly harvested fangs in front of Greggory before continuing onto the next step of the brewing process.

—

Albus Dumbledore

Peering out of his office window, Dumbledore watched as the students were having a fun Sunday off from classes. Staring out to the lightly snow dusted grounds, a soft smile came to the old man's face. It was moments like this that everything was right in the world. Children being children. The future having fun and shining brightly, even if just for a brief moment.

A brief moment interrupted by his fireplace igniting in green flames and Bagman's face appearing. Dumbledore sighed before putting on a polite smile and turning around.

"Ah, Ludovic, what can I do for you?" Dumbledore asked as he crouched down in front of the fireplace.

"Dumbledore, old bean, I just happened to be looking through some old documents and had a smashing idea. There is this old tournament between Hogwarts, Durmstrong, and Beauxbatons that hasn't been run in years."

Dumbledore frowned at the mention of that tournament. "Yes, the Triwizard tournament. I am familiar with it. It was ended because the casualty rate grew to be too excessive, even getting spectators killed in the last one."

Bagman laughed jovially. "Don't you worry about that. We will make sure the tasks won't be getting out of hand."

Dumbledore stroked his beard, frown firmly on his face. "I don't know about this. It is a rather large request. And even if you can ensure the tasks are safe, how would you convince the other schools to get involved? Which school would even be hosting it after so long?"

"Oh don't you worry about the other schools. I was talking to my counterparts in the other ministries and they are just as excited to bring this tournament back. As for which school would be hosting, that was the reason I was calling, to let you know that Hogwarts is the next school in the cycle to play host!"

Dumbledore sighed, eyes closing as he realized he wasn't being asked for his opinion, but simply to be be told as headmaster of the hosting school.

"I suppose my hands are tied if you are already this far along. However," Dumbledore stared at the green flaming head in his fireplace with resolve, "I will be kept in the loop every step of the way to make sure everything is as safe as you claim it to be."

"Of course, old bean. I will personally call you every step of the way. There is a lot to prepare, so we won't be ready for at least a year to kick it off. Tah tah for now."

With the flames dying down, Dumbledore took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Bagman was right that there was a lot to prepare. Dumbledore could feel in his bones that the tournament was going to be a disaster, but despite all his titles, despite his position as headmaster of the school to be hosting the tournament, there was only so much he could really do to stop it. Especially without making compromises on other issues far more important than a mere tournament.

Creaking his way back into a standing position, Dumbledore relocated himself to his desk to draft some notes while his mind was busy firing in every cylinder on what he would most likely need to look out for and the various things he would need to put in place to ensure any collateral is mitigated.

It was with several pages of notes scattered on his desk and a migraine forming that he was alerted to a visitor at his office, looking to the clock, Dumbledore was mildly surprised to see he had worked through lunch and it was tea time. Which meant young Ms. Degurechaff and Mr. Malfoy must be waiting. Granting permission for them to enter and giving a sweep of his wand, the notes were all gathered up and neatly stacked to one side of his desk.

The pair of first years arrived to Dumbledore having just finished putting a kettle over his fire to heat up. Typically, he would just have his tea pot arrive already filled with freshly boiled water, but today he was going to be doing something a bit different with a little tea sampler.

Turning to the pair, Dumbledore could see the differences in their body language clear as day. Ms. Degurechaff was confident as she went to take her seat as she bowed her head and greeted him.

"Hello Headmaster."

Mr. Malfoy, in contrast, was a bundle of nerves. No doubt a combination of the boy's father's influence and this being the first time he was in the headmaster's office. Oh, he did an admirable job attempting to hide it behind a mask of arrogance, but Dumbledore had been in politics for decades and a teacher of students even longer. There are always tells, and Mr. Malfoy's were practically screaming at Dumbledore.

"Good Afternoon Professor," Mr. Malfoy said a touch stiffly as he took his seat, sitting far too upright while Tanya was the picture of calm,

"Ms. Degurechaff, always a delight to have you. And it is a pleasure you could join us Mr. Malfoy," Dumbledore said, giving the pair an honest smile and shaking their hands before taking his wand and tapping his desk. Five small tea pots appeared along with six tea cups, five small carefully arranged bowls filled with tea leaves, some milk and a sugar bowl, and a small tower of finger sandwiches. A small tower that Dumbledore noticed had a few more sandwiches than normal for three people. Dumbledore chuckled quietly to himself at the care the elves had for him.

"Oh, Draco, Professor Dumbledore offered to teach magical languages if we could get enough interest to form a club. Would you be interested in joining?"

Dumbledore was highly amused at the panic expression on Mr. Malfoy's face. If Dumbledore didn't know Ms. Degurechaff was twelve, no matter how unusual she may be, he would think that she was a practiced politician for putting Mr. Malfoy into a position where it was nearly impossible for him to decline. In high society it was considered a faux pas to decline an invite being a guest to an event by a fellow guest in front of the event host. Of course, if the host has allowed the guest doing the inviting to invite others, it would be impolite for the host to turn down a guest that was invited by the guest they allowed to give invites, not that Dumbledore would hold such against Ms. Degurechaff nor deny Mr. Malfoy the ability freely accept or decline as he chose.

"What kind of languages?" Mr. Malfoy asked, looking at Dumbledore.

"Mermish and Gobbledegook are the two I would be capable of teaching, though I would also be open to discussions on the other languages. A club would enable us a more open structure in the matter of magical languages than a class would require," Dumbledore said, leaning back in his seat and stroking his beard as he thought about such a club, his eyes unfocused on an empty section of wall above the door to his office.

The kettle over the fire began whistling causing Mr. Malfoy to startle. Slowly, Dumbledore got to his feet and grabbed the kettle.

"I'll join," Mr. Malfoy said a bit reluctantly.

Ms. Degurechaff smiled. "How many students do we need for the club?"

Dumbledore stroked his beard as he thought through the current school rules. "I believe six is the minimum for an official school club to be formed."

"Good. With Draco, we have six."

Dumbledore looked at Ms. Degurechaff with a smile. "Really now? Who have you gotten to agree to join the club?"

"Myself, Harry, Hermione, Padma Patil, Lisa Turpin, and now Draco."

"I see. How about we gather together for tea time for the club meetings on Sundays to start?" Dumbledore suggested with a smile. "We can adjust the club meetings later if needed."

"I will inform the others," Tanya said as she looked closer at the bowls of tea leaves.

"I suppose we should be getting to the tea tasting, shouldn't we?" Dumbledore asked. "I have five teas for us to try today and even did a little research into the ones I am not familiar with." Dumbledore picked up a bowl full of strands of dark tea leaves. "First, we have what should be one of the more familiar teas, a good, standard, black tea. Add a bit of bergamot and you would have an Earl Grey. Process it further and you get a nice breakfast tea. Today we will be sampling the loose, whole leaf version, though when I stopped by the shop and mentioned I was doing a tea sampling, the friendly young lad that was helping me suggested this should be the second to last of these we sample today as it has a much stronger flavor compared to some of the more delicate offerings."

Dumbledore picked up another bowl with tea leaves that seemed to have been clumped together. "Poo wear tea," Dumbledore said carefully. "I have not tried it as it is apparently rather rare and expensive, but from what I have gathered, puer tea takes the longest to produce because it goes through some sort of aging process that results in a very intense experience. This will be the last one we will be trying today."

Mr. Malfoy looked rather curious about the puer tea while Ms. Degurechaff seemed to simply be attentive as she sat there listening.

Setting the bowl down, Dumbledore grabbed the next bowl, filled little brown balls of tea leaves. "Oolong tea I have had plenty of times, including during a few of our previous meetings Ms. Degurechaff. In many ways, it is similar to black teas and I thought we would actually be best served by tasting it at the same time as the black tea, to really compare the two."

With that, Dumbledore grabbed the last two bowls. One had strands of vibrantly green leaves and the other looked like a bowl full of dry leaves one might find in the yard, being shades of green to light brown. "First though, we will be trying green and white tea at the same time as these are the most delicately, and lightest flavored teas. When I asked the young lad about these, he told me that they are both the least processed teas on the market. White tea is taken from the plant and dried immediately and green tea is cooked quickly then dried. The other teas go through other processes before being dried."

Having said his little introduction, Dumbledore dumped the two bowls into the tea pots before following them up with steaming water from the kettle. As he waited for the tea to steep, Dumbledore set a pair of tea cups in front of both Mr. Malfoy and Ms. Degurechaff.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Thanks to https://twitter.com/a_Yoshikage for the image and The-AnonyM0US3-Otaku on Space Battles for the text. I don't know if Anonym0US3 does commissions, but Yoshikage does, so feel free to pop by their twitter for any SFW or NSFW images you want commissioned.

 

[Doomsought]

Ah, Tanya is teaching Draco how to act his class with a little help from Dumbledore.

 

[Simonbob]

This is really going to screw with Draco's head.

I approve.

 

[RageKnight]

Thanks to https://twitter.com/a_Yoshikage for the image and The-AnonyM0US3-Otaku on Space Battles for the text. I don't know if Anonym0US3 does commissions, but Yoshikage does, so feel free to pop by their twitter for any SFW or NSFW images you want commissioned.

Click to shrink...

ayo title art!

 

[ChiChi]

Tanya closed her eyes and took a deep breath in. "Vansaai ia cram cross tser los. Jessubay nam guo war." Paravati was certain it wasn't just her jaw that dropped as Tanya belted out whatever those words were in such a crystal clear and pretty voice.

"Schpetzy kazagrem schommy shatzgem. Toad tangerloo worm. Szar. Szar. Crow."

Click to shrink...

What song is she singing?

 

[Imperator Pax]

What song is she singing?

Click to shrink...

I think its from the light novel, buddy says its the empire's anthem


... i still haven't read volume one or watched the tv show of this series

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

What song is she singing?

Click to shrink...

The Empire's Imperial Anthem. Which is mostly nonsense meant to sound good and like an Anthem.

 

[Piknos]

I like the art! Seems like Tanya is fitting in just fine, I'm kind of expecting Voldemort to be comedic relief at this point. Imagine trying to manipulate Draco after a few years of Tanya.

 

[Spelloyal]

Thanks to https://twitter.com/a_Yoshikage for the image and The-AnonyM0US3-Otaku on Space Battles for the text. I don't know if Anonym0US3 does commissions, but Yoshikage does, so feel free to pop by their twitter for any SFW or NSFW images you want commissioned.

Click to shrink...

I think it turned out very well, except for one detail. I thought the direction she was looking in looked a little strange, I personally think with her looking up towards the wand it could have looked better. Or not, after thinking about it again I'm not sure if looking up would look better, but I really think the eyes look a little weird, the rest is perfect.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

New chapter this Saturday to celebrate my birthday. Chapter available now on my Patreon.

 

[Demensional Wonderer]

New chapter this Saturday to celebrate my birthday. Chapter available now on my Patreon.

Click to shrink...

Happy birthday!

 

[Nicolette]

New chapter this Saturday to celebrate my birthday. Chapter available now on my Patreon.

Click to shrink...

Happy Birthday! Hope you have a great time!

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Tanya Degurechaff

I could safely say that even after death, I still preferred coffee, but I could learn to appreciate the world of tea rather easily. The green tea took me back over a century to my first childhood and spending time with my grandfather. I hadn't thought about him in so long that I could not even remember his face. I couldn't even remember whether he was my mother's or my father's father.

Likely I would have to get comfortable with forgetting loved ones as I continue living lives, making new acquaintances, and existing as a semi-immortal being who would only be reborn upon death in a new life. I would just have to ensure the time I did spend with those I would eventually forget was as precious as possible.

The white tea was lovely, though I would likely not be keeping any on hand should I decide to keep a tea set. Some black tea I would need to keep some on hand considering the prevailing preference in England for that particular leaf, likely several different ones, though I far preferred the oolong in the side-by-side comparison. There was a certain complexity to oolong that I found more interesting to explore, more like drinking whiskey than black tea's single note of flavor.

But the one that I found to be the most pleasing was the puer tea. Without tasting like it, it reminded me of some of the best coffee I have had, even taking me back to some of the good moments of the first war, my adjutant serving me some of her perfectly prepared coffees. Lieutenant Serebryakov as she was known at the time, though MdR Serebryakov would be more accurate after the war. Such an intelligent young woman who was always eager to learn, and used my lessons to go into politics after the war, becoming a national representative.

I never got a chance to tell her how proud of her I was. I was in hiding after the war and meeting with any of my men would be too dangerous, so I could only visit them at their funerals, always staying in the back, to pay my respects before leaving early. I know I was recognized during those visits, but my cover was thankfully never blown.

How long before I forget her name? Before I forget what she looked like? Would it be this life? The next?

"Wotcher, what are you doing there? Come down before you get hurt!" A voice behind me said. Turning around I could see it was a prefect with a rather vibrantly purple shade of hair.

"Sorry. Was just thinking and it is peaceful here," I said, getting down from the parapet I was sitting on.

"What are you thinking about?" The prefect asked as she started to lead me back inside the castle.

Shrugging, I answered. "Life. Death. Tea."

"Do you, uh, want to talk about it?" The prefect seemed a bit uncomfortable about the topic.

"I'm fine. I was just ruminating on someone I used to know." Looking up at the prefect, and seeing the concern, I couldn't help but notice the similarities in my former adjutant and the prefect. "Besides the hair, you kinda look like her, actually."

"Really? Usually people tell me I look rather unique," the prefect said as her nose changed into a snout and her chin lengthened. Considering some of the things I saw Serebryakov eat, the comparison to a pig was amusingly adept and I felt a small laugh escape. "Feeling better?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "About what?"

"Whatever you were thinking about."

"I guess. I wasn't really all that upset, I just hadn't thought about any of it in a long time."

The prefect looked me over with a frown before nodding to herself. "Listen, the name's Tonks you need to talk to someone about anything, come find me. I'll always be willing to listen. Even after I graduate at the end of the year, feel free to write to me, and I'll get back to you as soon as possible."

"Thank you Tonks, I will keep that in mind. My name is Tanya," I said, offering my hand. Such a kind young lady willing to offer an open ear so freely.

—-

Rubeus Hagrid

Rubeus Hagrid, or simply Hagrid as everyone called him, was a large man. A half-giant on his mother's side. He towered over all at Hogwarts, yet despite his intimidating frame, he was a man with an extremely kind and gentle heart. His large size and kindness made him very well suited to the tasks of being the Gameskeeper of Hogwarts. Tending to the grounds of Hogwarts took a fair amount of work as there were several gardens to tend to and a good number of animals that needed care. The Owlery needed regular cleaning, which took a strong back to shovel out the old straw bedding and bring in fresh bedding for the floor.

Currently, Hagrid had a large bucket of bloody steaks and was patting the leathery neck of the equine thestral as he fed the beautiful creature. There was always a small feeling of loss as he looked at the reptilian faces of the herd he had taken care of for decades. Hagrid was only a boy, still a student at Hogwarts when his father passed away. It had taken time for him to really understand what had happened, and even today Hagrid missed his old man.

Mostly though, Hagrid was just happy getting to care for the animals.

"Hey! What are you doing?" a young voice asked behind him. Turning, Hagrid saw it was Harry's red-headed friend… Ron! The youngest of the Weasley boys. Good kid. Less of a troublemaker than his twin brothers, but not as stiff as the prefect brother. Hagrid was reminded a bit of the eldest two Weasley boys when they first arrived at Hogwarts.

"I was jus feeding the thestrals," Hagrid said, patting one of the mares on the neck as he pulled out a piece of steak to feed her. Seeing his hand make contact with the animal and the meat getting consumed would be enough for them to know something was actually there.

"Oh, is that what those pegasi are called?" the blonde girl standing a step behind Harry asked, causing the other three to look at her.

Hagrid gave her a polite smile, understanding what the question really meant about her. "Aye. Beau'iful aren't they?"

"In a way," She answered politely, taking a step closer to get a better look.

"How can you see what he is talking about?" Ron asked.

The blonde looked at the young Weasley, but Hagrid was the one to answer with a bit of a sigh. "Death. Ter see a thestral, yeh have ter know death. Seen someone die, los' a loved one, really internalized tha' we all will someday die."

Four sets of eyes were staring at Hagrid, focused on his impromptu magical creature lesson. Setting the bucket down, Hagrid motioned towards the hut. "Let's head in. I'll put some tea on an' we can talk 'bout it."

The kids nodded and made to go in. Harry looked at the ground before he said, "I lost my parents, but I don't see the thestrals."

"Aye lad, I suspect yeh wouldn't," Hagrid said. "Yeh were a little thing when they died. Too young ter understand wha' was happening. It is abou' knowing in your heart tha' yeh will die someday, tha' wha' happens ter others will someday happen ter yeh. Yeh can know intelligently tha' ev'ryone dies, but tha' don't matter ter the thestrals. It is on'y when death is really felt tha' the thestrals will reveal themselves."

Hagrid rinsed off his hands before setting a plate of rock cakes onto the table the kids gathered around.

Ron was looking at the blonde before he asked a question that made Hagrid wince at the inappropriateness of. Hagrid was not the most high class of people, but he knew it was not good to ask, "Who did you see die?"

Hagrid looked at the blonde girl as she looked off into the distance before looking at the blunt redhead.

"The troll," the bushy haired brunette answered, causing Ron's face to flush in embarrassment.

"Right," he mumbled before he looked at Hagrid. "But we were there too, why don't we see the thestrals?"

"You arrived after I had killed it," the blonde said.

"Aye," Hagrid said with a nod as he filled his tea pot with steaming water. "I've heard o' some bein' able ter see the thestrals after visitin' a sick relative tha' died soon after, but it isn't often summat like tha' happens."

The conversation died down for a moment before the bushy haired girl turned to the blonde. "How do you do it? How are you able to stay so calm after what happened with the troll?" Tears were in the girl's eyes and she was curled in on herself, looking even smaller to Hagrid.

"It was not the first time," the blonde answered. "As wasteful as death can be, eventually you get numb to it. It is still sad to lose someone or realize you will never see someone again, but dwelling on it forever is unproductive. Moving forwards and living your life as well as you can is the best way to honor the fallen."

Hagrid thought about the many people he knew that were no longer among the living as he began pouring cups for his guests. "Aye. I believe yeh are righ'. They would wan' us ter be happy."

—

Harry Potter

Harry didn't know what to do about his friend and fellow orphan having apparently had to deal with a lot of dead people already. Tanya didn't talk about her life much before coming to Hogwarts outside of the fact that she was from a nun-run orphanage. Harry had complained about his family the times homelife came up plenty, but Tanya always remained quiet on the topic unless directly asked. Harry was a little worried that he was maybe being a bad friend by not asking more about that stuff, but neither Hermione nor Ron were doing so either. They seemed to know how being a friend worked a bit better, so maybe this was one of those things you just don't talk about.

His mind dwelled on this all the way to Sunday where he went with Hermione and Tanya to the Headmaster's office for the first meeting of the Magical Language club. They were the last ones to arrive at the statue that apparently lead up to the office, Draco and the two Ravenclaws having arrived already with Draco quietly leaning against the wall next to the alcove the statue sat in. If Harry remembered correctly, the two Ravenclaws were Paravati's sister Padma and Lisa Turpin. Harry didn't know much about either, but had seen Paravati spend time with her sister on multiple occasions.

"Well, seems we're all here, let's get this started," Draco said, turning to the statue to speak to it. "Let Dumbledore know the Magic Language club is here."

After a moment the statue moved out of the way to reveal a spiraling staircase the students took up to the office door, the Headmaster calling out as soon as they arrived at the top to come in.

The office was a large, round room with several wide windows and portraits of the previous headmasters hung up around the room and little silvery devices on shelves producing bits of smoke, spinning, and doing all sorts of things. Harry looked around in awe as he moved towards the oval table setup in the middle where he would have thought a desk would be. Instead seven chairs were arranged around the table with several tea sets and a pair of tea sandwich stands on either end of the oval table with a wide assortment of sandwiches available.

"Welcome welcome," Dumbledore said, with a beaming smile from where he sat at the center of the table wearing pink robes with purple stars. "Feel free to help yourselves and we can get started."

The students took seats around the table and began fixing themselves up cups of tea and grabbing a few sandwiches.

"Now, first thing, do any of you already know any magical language? Even if it is just a few words," Dumbledore asked as he looked around.

Draco raised his hand along with Padma who was a little more uncertain. Harry raised his hand slightly as well.

Dumbledore looked directly at Harry while stroking his beard. "Oh? You know a magical language Harry?"

"Uh," Harry could feel himself shrinking in on himself as everyone's gazes turned to him. "Does talking to snakes count?"

A gasp went around the table from most of the students, causing Harry to shrink in further into himself.

"Parseltongue, yes," Dumbledore answered. "Rather interesting, but I suppose it is a bit expected considering who gave you that scar."

"Voldemort," Harry mumbled, earning another round of gasps at his use of the name.

"Yes. Likely it was when his curse rebounded, a connection was formed between the two of you that allowed you to gain his ability to speak it as a Parselmouth."

Tanya raised her hand politely at this and when Dumbledore motioned for her to speak, she asked a question. "If he gained the ability to speak it in such a manner, is there a way for the rest of us to learn parseltongue?"

"Hmm," Dumbledore stroked his beard in thought while the other students turned to Tanya in shock.

"That's a dark ability. Only dark wizards know how to talk to snakes," Lisa told Tanya.

Tanya rolled her eyes. "It is just a language. That would be like saying German is an evil language because the Nazis spoke German."

"I have to agree with Tanya on this," Dumbledore spoke up, looking at Harry as he said this. "The language itself is not a sign someone is inherently evil, merely that they know a language that happens to have been used by some very bad people in the past. In fact, I believe there is a gentleman in Brazil that can speak parseltongue who runs tours of the Amazon river. To answer the question though, we will have to see if Harry is able to give us lessons another time."

Harry gave Professor Dumbledore a grateful smile.

"What about you Mr. Malfoy?" Dumbledore asked, changing the topic.

"My father taught me a bit of gobbledygook. He said it would be good to know what the goblins at Gringotts were saying when we visit."

Dumbledore nodded at that explanation. "To be expected. And what about you Ms. Patil?"

"I know a bit of Prakrit, but I don't know if that really counts?"

"I have not studied Prakrit," Dumbledore said, "but I believe it would be akin to Ancient Runes as far as magical languages are concerned, an ancient language used by members of the magical community that is no longer in common use, though I do believe Prakrit also has a fair amount of muggle text associated with it while the Ancient Runes seemed to have been completely lost to the muggles."

Padma smiled at that, seemingly glad to have something relevant to add.

"So, that gives us four languages we can work on learning as I will be leaving Ancient Runes to Professor Babbling. Hopefully you all will decide to take her class in third year. I will have to gather some materials for Prakrit and, Harry, we will need to discuss the matter of your parseltongue another time to see how possible it will be for you to try teaching it."

Harry nodded with a smile as the club moved onto discussing how they would go about studying the languages as Dumbledore wouldn't be assigning any homework or other classwork as it was merely a club and not an actual class, so a bit of a more freeform style would be fine and they would focus on whatever bits the students found they were interested in at the moment. It sounded like it would be a lot of fun to Harry as they chatted.

—

Letter

Dear Father,

My closeness to Tanya has paid off. Harry Potter is a Parselmouth and Tanya has expressed interest in learning it. Dumbledore is hosting a magical language club where it seems we will be learning Parseltongue as one of the languages. He says knowing the language isn't itself a sign of being a dark wizard, but he also said that Harry likely stole the knowledge when The Dark Lord attacked him.

I will continue this friendship with Tanya to learn as much as I can and will keep you updated as I learn anything of import.

Respectfully your son,

Draco Malfoy

 

[Nicolette]

Wooo! Back to Tanya throwing everyone for a loop while thinking she is having a normal conversation! Thanks for the chapter my dear kitten, it was great fun. Though I have a minor gripe as well, the language is called Parseltongue, while those who speak it are know as Parselmouths.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

Wooo! Back to Tanya throwing everyone for a loop while thinking she is having a normal conversation! Thanks for the chapter my dear kitten, it was great fun. Though I hae a minor gripe as well, the language is called Parseltongue, while those who speak it are know as Parselmouths.

Click to shrink...

Where is the mixup? I need to fix it.

 

[Nicolette]

Where is the mixup? I need to fix it.

Click to shrink...

"Parselmouth, yes," Dumbledore answered. "Rather interesting, but I suppose it is a bit expected considering who gave you that scar."

Click to shrink...

Tanya raised her hand politely at this and when Dumbledore motioned for her to speak, she asked a question. "If he gained the ability to speak it in such a manner, is there a way for the rest of us to learn parselmouth?"

Click to shrink...

In fact, I believe there is a gentleman in Brazil that can speak parselmouth who runs tours of the Amazon river. To answer the question though, we will have to see if Harry is able to give us lessons another time."

Click to shrink...

I will have to gather some materials for Prakrit and, Harry, we will need to discuss the matter of your parselmouth another time to see how possible it will be for you to try teaching it."

Click to shrink...

Dumbledore is hosting a magical language club where it seems we will be learning Parselmouth as one of the languages.

Click to shrink...

These should be all, I think.

 

[Half_Baked_cat]

These should be all, I think.

Click to shrink...

Fixed.

 

[Xintax]

I hope Tanya is a parselmouth or learns extremely quickly (since I think you mentioned she speaks a bunch of other languages which should make it easier to learn) it would add more chaos since Draco may think she is the Dark Lord's daughter as for Voldemort he may end up confused too... like did I really abandon/have a kid I left in an orphange. I wonder what his reaction to that would be, part of me just imagines he would be mortified and try to do right by his* daughter.

 

[Dacraun]

Frankly outstanding.
The story feels honest and lifelike, as do the characters.
The portrayal of the different points of view actually bring something to the table. Usually I get tired of those, but here I find myself looking forward to them.

Dumbledore and Lucius each pursuing different paths to explain Tanya's origin is exciting, and I can not wait for more. And I'm kind of excited at the idea of both paths of research colliding sometime.

 

[Kloudianorici]

Good to see this updated, and another great chapter. Honestly, I myself never really got the reason that parseltongue was considered a dark power either. The only advantage that knowing the language gives you is to talk to snakes, which yes are associated with Slytherin, but that house isn't evil either, just ambitious. Then again, people can be superstitious of idiotic things, so that tracks.

 

[Xintax]

Good to see this updated, and another great chapter. Honestly, I myself never really got the reason that parseltongue was considered a dark power either. The only advantage that knowing the language gives you is to talk to snakes, which yes are associated with Slytherin, but that house isn't evil either, just ambitious. Then again, people can be superstitious of idiotic things, so that tracks.

Click to shrink...

Historically/mythologically speaking it is often associated with medicine, it is only with the rise of monotheist traditions that speaking with snakes would be considered a bad omen.

I would not be surprised if this was a point of contension between different cultures/religions during the founders era. We do know that there is a weird prevelence of chrisitanity in the magical world during canon one of the ghosts is a friar and they have a St Mungos... so it is rather strange. They celebrate christmas and not yule/saternellia.

Walpurgis is a saint revered for killing witches historically, and Tom Riddle named his death eaters the knights of Walpurgis. (Real subtle there voldemort)

It seems all rather too modern, albeit this is a childrens book and expecting for kids to pick up/know about the wheel of the year or more historical festivals is a fools bet, so I get why JK didn't include those terms in there, that and it would be easier to symphasize/do the mental gymnastics to justify the magical NAZIs if they were fighting for something non-retarted.

 

[Valmond]

The Slytherin are ambitious and cunning never seems to actually pay off.
Slytherin seems to come of more like the house of mediocre trustfund kids.
And their ambitions seem to largely revolve around keeping their station, instead of anything actually interesting.

 

[Xintax]

The Slytherin are ambitious and cunning never seems to actually pay off.
Slytherin seems to come of more like the house of mediocre trustfund kids.
And their ambitions seem to largely revolve around keeping their station, instead of anything actually interesting.

Click to shrink...

I do have to agree with your assesment, it would be interesting if that impression is only due to the year group Harry was in. Namely in the fact that there is a bunch of heirs/last of their lines present. Maybe other year groups are more interesting, I'd like to see a fic where the Slytherins find out about muggles landing on the moon and getting affronted by it so they decide to prove their supperiority by making it to the moon and further themselves, probably as a multi-year project of some sort. Stuff like that where you can see the supperority complex but it is constructively used by a true Slytherin MC.

 

[Valmond]

I think the Slytherin being utter mediocrities with delusions of grandeur and a chronic backstabbing disorder is very fitting.
They are the "pure blood" and "old money" house after all.
These are the people whose ambition is aimed at being exactly the same as the last 5+ generations of their family, or at most being slightly more so than their fellow Slytherin.
Their cunning is limited to schoolyard bullying and pranks, and only reason they can get away with any of that is class priviledge enforced by classist social mores in general and Snape in specific.

A perfect, and almost certainly purely accidental, analogy of upper classes.