Rune stone path

Prodigies, Parents and Philosophers Stone

After the Troll Incident the students had practically been climbing over themselves to get Harry to explain in vivid detail just how he had managed to kill a 12 foot mountain troll. The attention had nearly sent him into hiding and he'd taken to spending as much time in the Common Room as possible over the next week. The good thing about that was he got to talk quite a bit with Hermione and Neville. Neville's Gran had berated the boy pretty harshly about breaking his father's wand, but she had apparently switched gears and couldn't seem to stop praising him when he finally managed to explain what happened. She had swept into the Common Room and proceeded to give Harry and Hermione a bear hug thanking them for "bringing her Neville's lion to the surface". Hermione just blushed and replied that she hadn't really done anything at all while Harry nodded and flashed a thumbs up to the beat red Neville.

Hermione on the other hand, barely left his side anymore. Something he was quickly growing to like. He had initially come to think of Ron as a friend but it took barely two days of spending time with Hermione to realize how an actual friend acted. Hermione never insulted his research and she listened when he tried to explain what he was looking for. She helped him with his homework and showed him why his wand movements were wrong. She apparently liked to hug him too – something which always sent a very odd warm feeling through him. He knew about hugs academically speaking of course but…well, the reality of them was much better, he thought with a blush.

Ron had taken to grumbling every time one of the trio passed him and he scuttled out of the way if Harry even so much as turned in his direction. Not quickly enough to hide the glares or mutterings, but fast enough for Harry not to have to repeat his warning about staying away from the group. Fred and George on the other hand tried grilling Harry on some of his experiments and whether or not he was intending to go farther. Harry had just stared dumbfounded when they showed him some of their own plans for incredibly intricate pranks that they couldn't seem to finish setting up yet. He'd promised them he'd think of a few rune clusters that might be able to combine or simplify aspects of the job as long as they promised to tone down any pranks on First Years in general, regardless of House.

It took Harry nearly a week before the furor had died down enough that he could make the time to talk with Professor Babbling. He was practically bouncing in anticipation as he walked up to her office with a huge grin on his face.

"Ah, Harry, come in, come in!" Babbling said sliding a few pieces of paper off to the side of her desk and waving him forward. Harry plopped down in one of the seats as the teacher came around and hopped up onto her desk. "So, let's see what we've got to work with, shall we?" She clapped her hands together with a smile. "Check out this table over here. Can you tell me what these runes are?"

Harry peered at the runes and snorted. "Well that's Protection, that's Synchronization, there's Light, that's Quiet, that's – "

"Okay, okay! That's obviously far too easy! How about this one?" Babbling gave her wand a flick and the table of prime runes was replaced by one filled with clusters.

"It's still pretty easy, Professor. That cluster would ignite a small fire but immediately snuff itself out once the item it was etched on burnt up. That one should resize clothes. That one there looks like it's designed to work in a set of four to set up a sort of barrier but it…has a flaw here that would burn it out less than a minute after activation."

"Really? What flaw?" her voice was carefully neutral and Harry grinned slightly, enjoying the test.

"Well Absorption is upside down and entwined with Protection. It should be integrated into Power because then it can use any spells that impact it to reinforce itself instead."

"Huh, I hadn't thought of that," Babbling leaned down to squint at the cluster. "Integrated into Power you say? I intentionally flipped it upside down yes, but I've never seen this cluster drawn with Absorption twined with Power. That should work though. Hell it might just double or triple the damage the barrier could take…"