Harry Potter and the Heir of Slytherin

Fly or Bust

The first two weeks passed by incredibly quickly for Harry. Between his schooling, his friends, his exercising (which now involved a few of his friends), and his continued studying of alchemy, the young boy had his hands full. He could only imagine how busy he would become once he added Quidditch practice to the list. Thankfully, Oliver Wood had yet to make a move on that yet, which left Harry with a bit of free time.

Despite it being a Sunday morning, Harry woke up just as early as he usually did. That was the one problem with being a skilled Occlumens he found out. Because his mind was so organized and only needed the time that allotted towards restoring the bodies energy while at rest, he only needed four hours of sleep to feel completely rested.

This was both a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because it meant he had more time to work on his independent studies when all of his friends were still asleep. It was bad because it meant if he ever wanted to sleep in, he wouldn't be able to. Harry just had too much energy to sleep in and didn't like to waste his day by laying in bed like some kind of lemon.

Thus, even though the sun was just barely peeking out from the horizon, Harry found himself getting out of bed long before everyone else.

Since it was Sunday, no one else would be awake. Neville was busy dozing away on his bed and Harry knew that Hermione, Daphne and Susan would also be asleep at this time.

With his friend's all asleep and nothing else to do, Harry grabbed the spiral bound notebook with all his transmutation circle ideas and a calligraphy pen and made his way downstairs.

Sitting down in one of the easy chairs in the Gryffindor Common Room, Harry placed his spiral notebook on the table in front of him, drew out his wand to start a fire in the fireplace. Then, after setting his wand down right next to his notebook, opened said notebook to the last page he had written in.

Drawn onto the pages were numerous transmutation circles. All of them held very similar designs with small variations here and there. The one concept that remained the same with all of them was that they were all using two of the Classical Elements: Fire and Air. It was Harry's hope that he would be able to create a transmutation circle that could cause the very air itself to combust.

Unfortunately, Harry had run into a bit of a problem. While it was true that air could, in the right circumstances, fan the flames as it were, air on it's own could not be ignited into a flame without aid. He also had to take into account changes in things like temperature, the level of moisture found in the air and changes in the direction of the wind. Harry wanted to build a Universal transmutation circle that would work anywhere, which meant he had to take all variables and shifts in atmospheric changes into account within the circle.

It was a daunting task to be sure. This would easily be one of his most complicated circles to date.

The sound of feet running downstairs at a pace that made Harry believe the person would trip over himself had him groaning as he set his quill down. This was one of those meetings he had been hoping to avoid for a while now, but it looked like he would no longer be able to put it off. What an incommodious turn of events.

"Hey, Harry! Morning! How are you?"

Collin Creevey came bounding down the stairs, almost tripping over the last few steps in his haste to reach his idol. As always, the boy was clutching his camera in both hands.

Harry had to wonder about that camera. He had yet to see Collin be parted from it. If he didn't know any better (which he didn't, he was just hoping his thoughts were incorrect), he would almost assume the boy slept with it. As things stood, the annoying child was practically married to the damn thing.