The Cupboard Series 3: Potter Haven

Chapter 20

Harry stared at the rune in his textbook. He was so engrossed in his concentration that he hadn't even realised that his nose was all but touching the paper as his eyes roamed over every minute detail. After nearly five minutes, his eyes narrowed slightly before he suddenly straightened, pulled the rather plain exercise book he was working on and copied the rune into what he was now sure was its correct place.

If his arithmantic calculations were correct, then the transference rune that he'd just added should be enough to get his first major piece of enchanting to work. If not, then he knew that it was back to the drawing board.

Laying his pen aside, Harry picked up the exercise book that he'd been attempting to enchant and examined the inside cover. A mess of dark squiggles and lines that were in actual fact hundreds of runes working and interlocking together covered the soft cardboard. It'd taken him months to learn what each of those runes meant and then weeks more to learn how to draw them and link them together. And now, after nearly six months of work, he thought that he was done.

Seeing nothing amiss, he flipped the book to inside the back cover where another mass of runes had been drawn. These too stood up to his scrutiny, leading him to pick up the second exercise book that he'd been working on and to examine that one, inside its front and back covers to check that they were identical.

Finally, he was satisfied.

"Alright, Potter, time to test it out," he said.

That was something that had startled him when Dobby had pointed it out to him a few weeks ago.

The house elf had been passing the classroom, intent on some cleaning or other, when he'd popped his small grey head into the room to find out what Harry had wanted. Harry's startled reaction had led to the rather embarrassing conversation about Harry's propensity to talk to himself more and more as he worked.

As his eyes focussed on the power rune set in the centre of the inside cover of the first book, Harry's hand groped along the desk for his wand. Finding it, he brought it to bear until the very tip was touching the correct rune. Then, focussing his magic, Harry pushed enough magic through the wand and into the rune to activate it.

Immediately, the rune glowed a brilliant red that began bleeding off, lighting up each rune on the page. With a satisfied smile, Harry flipped the book to the back cover and repeated the process. And then again with the inside front and back covers of the second exercise book.

A sudden bout of nerves hit him as he switched his wand for his pen. His hand was shaking somewhat as he scratched out a quick message in the first book:

Does this work?

His eyes bulged and a small grin began to form as he saw the ink fade away until the page looked as white and clean as it had been before he'd written on it. Intense green eyes flicked across to the second book and he held his breath, waiting, hoping.

Ever so slowly, a smudge of ink began to appear before it blossomed out to form words:

Does this work?

Resisting the nearly overpowering urge to spring from his seat and begin dancing around the room, Harry reached out to the second book and, underneath the message that had appeared, wrote:

Yes, it does!

Again, his eyes flicked, this time back to the first book where he held his breath until those three simple, amazing words reappeared.

"Yahooo!" Harry cried, flinging himself from his seat to run around the room, his arms raised in triumph.

"Did Master Harry Sir get his little booksies to do what Master Harry Sir wanted them to do?" Dobby asked as he appeared in the doorway.