Harry Potter: I Cast

A/N: I have returned from the clutching depths of university. Now here are two chapters for your enjoyment. Oh and thanks Leisures for the comment, getting called Joan-sensei was a major confident boost.

I glanced at my watch - 8:54. Time to wrap up the broadcast.

"Thank you for tuning in to our tunes, but class is starting soon so we have to sign off for now," I announced into the enchanted microphone, my voice echoing through the Jarvey Radios scattered throughout the castle. "We'll be back on the air at 5:00pm until 7:00pm, as I have some studying and personal projects to attend to. So make sure to tune in this afternoon - not that you have much of a choice!"

With a final flourish, I stopped channeling magic into the mic, ending the transmission. The crisp morning air ruffled my hair as I stood up on the tiled roof of Ravenclaw Tower, Jarvey clinging to my shoulder.

"I Cast Fly," I muttered, and we leapt from the tower's peak, plummeting downward in a rush of exhilaration until reaching my dormitory window, where I gracefully flew inside.

Landing lightly at my desk, I tucked the microphone back into my enchanted wallet, seriously the expansion charm was one of the most useful charms ever. As my hand brushed against a piece of worn parchment within it, a nagging thought resurfaced.

"Should I destroy the Marauder's Map?" I mused aloud, pulling out the map and examining its blank surface. "I could return it to the twins, I suppose, but I'm not really feeling generous at the moment..."

Jarvey gave a derisive snort from his perch. "Those ginger menaces? They'd just use it to cause more trouble. Better to keep it out of their grubby soulless little hands, burn it."

Nodding absently, I stepped over to my desk drawer and intoned, "I am one with words." The drawer sprang open, revealing a stack of parchment, quills, and ink pots. I placed the map inside, I would decide what to do with it later.

"Well, that's that. Hey Jarvey, you coming to class or staying here?"

The furry creature stretched languidly, his claws digging into my shoulder. "I'll pass for now. Don't fancy being surrounded by those grabby little demons you call classmates," he retorted, before jumping of my shoulder and into the bed. "I'll catch up on my handsome sleep instead."

Shrugging, I dashed out of my room and down the Ravenclaw Tower stairs, my book bag thumping against my hip. Rounding a corner on the seventh floor, my foot missed a step. Without missing a beat, I called out, "I Cast Misty Step!"

In a swirl of silver mist, I vanished, reappearing on a staircase several meters away that was shifting towards the second floor. Misty Step had easily become one of my more useful I Cast spells, and it was super interesting to top it off since apparition within Hogwarts shouldn't work, but mine did.

Misty Step, I had discovered could bypass the castle's ancient anti-apparition wards. The drawback was its limitations; I couldn't chain multiple teleports without rapidly draining my magic reserves, and I was restricted to line-of-sight jumps of around nine meters max. Still, it was dead useful for catching Hogwarts' corridors and staircases I had missed.

Curious about how it functioned, I had sought out the only other beings I knew of capable of apparating within the castle grounds, house-elves. The memory of that nighttime excursion rose to the forefront of my mind as I hurried down to the second floor...

-Flashback, 2 months prior -

"Why are we doing this again?" Jarvey complained in a harsh whisper as we crept through the darkened, deserted halls. "And in the middle of the bloody night no less?"

"I told you," I whispered back, rolling my eyes even though he couldn't see in the dim torchlight, "nighttime is the best time for this sort of sneaking about. Less chance of running into anyone. Besides, I want to add the the kitchen and kitchen doors while we're at it, with the Legibilis."

We came to a halt before a large painting of a fruit bowl on the ground floor, which I knew from the night I had confronted the twin and a few other escapades concealed the entrance to the Hogwarts kitchens.

 They had already tickled the pear to reveal the hidden doorknob, so I hadn't had to do it by myself at the time-

Pulling out my own map—still regrettably unnamed as everything I came up with sounded either pretentious or silly—I opened the parchment and intoned, "I am one with words." Thin lines of light spread out, in the 3d model of Hogwarts.

They formed a spectral blueprint of Hogwarts, or at least the parts I had already explored and documented. There were still gaps to fill in—the Slytherin and Hufflepuff dormitories, for example, along with a few remote classrooms and hidden passageways I hadn't gone to just yet. But it was already a big part of the Hogwarts grounds.

Placing my free hand on the painting, I closed my eyes and focused on the magic flowing through it. As I tickled the pear with a light brush of wandless magic, I sensed the energy flow from my fingertip into the painted fruit, circulating to its edges before looping back in a continuous cycle. Grinning at the elegance of the enchantment, I transferred the pattern to my map with a flick of my wand and a murmured, "Legibilis."

New light appeared on the parchment, sketching out the painting while adding the way to get in. When I opened my eyes, a green door handle had appeared on the painted pear, just waiting to be turned.

"This is fucking stupid" Jarvey muttered. "Who the hell made this mechanism, seriously who thinks of tickling a pear."

"Maybe it's because no one would think of tickling a pear."

"Hmm, good point."

I smiled as he immediately relented, Merlin it felt good to be right. The painting swung inward, revealing the cavernous kitchen beyond. Warm air redolent with the scents of baking bread and savory stew washed over us as we stepped inside, the map automatically updating to encompass the new area.

The Hogwarts kitchens were really big, easily rivaling the Great Hall above in sheer size. Four long tables, currently bare of any food or place settings, mirrored the house table arrangement at mealtimes—a curious setup, but I supposed it made transferring the dishes more efficient. The arched ceilings soared high overhead, supported by walls lined with heaps of gleaming brass pots and pans.

A massive brick fireplace dominated the far end, its banked embers still glowing a sullen red. More oversized cauldrons than I could count crowded the hearth, no doubt ready to be pressed into service at a moment's notice.

"Right then," I said to Jarvey, keeping my voice low, "where might our diminutive friends be hiding, what do you think?"

The ferret-like creature twitched his nose, whiskers quivering. He pawed at my hair to get my attention, then jerked his chin towards a shadowed expanse of wall opposite the fireplace. "Over there," he said with certainty. "I can smell something that absolutely reeks."

I frowned, raising my own nose to sniff the air. The rich aromas of food were strongest, undercut by the warm scent of the banked fire and the metallic tang of the cookware. But nothing struck me as particularly unpleasant. "Really? I'm not smelling anything nasty."

Jarvey huffed in exasperation. "Not a bad reek, you clotpole. It's too clean. Sterile, like...like a bleeding horde of house-elves have scrubbed it within an inch of its life."

"Ah, gotcha. Thanks, Jarvey." I gave him a quick scratch behind the ears, grinning at his senses. Turns out he was actually useful every once in a while.

Crossing the expanse of the kitchen, I approached the stretch of wall Jarvey had indicated. At first glance, it appeared no different than the rest—a solid expanse of tawny bricks interspersed with hanging racks of cookware.

But as I placed my palm flat against the brick, I felt it—a faint thrum of magic, distinct from the Hogwarts wards. It had it's own circuit, just like paintings, sentient objects and dorm doors.

I smiles, before pressing my hand more firmly against the bricks, letting my magic mingle with the embedded enchantments. A pattern emerged, flowing from my palm into the wall—a cycling loop that traced a perfect hexagon, on each vertices of the circuit was a small cluster of magic. It cycled through the formation in a distinct sequence, over and over in an unending rhythm.

It weirdly reminded me of the magic in Diagon Alley.

I laid my map against a clear bit of counter and tapped it with my wand while remembering the magic circuit.

"Legibilis," I murmured. Words shimmered into the spot of the map where I was.

"Press the top brick just below the brass pot, then continue to press the other bricks counter-clockwise, tracing the vertices of the hexagon."

A fierce, triumphant grin spread across my face as I read the instructions. 

Again being right, felt great.

With a low groan of shifting masonry, the wall split down an invisible seam. Half swung inward like a hidden door, carrying the racks of cookware with it, while the stretch of countertop before me slid smoothly to the side.

Beyond the newly-revealed portal stretched a chamber even more cavernous than the kitchens proper, its dimensions defying the limitations of physical space.

"Well, well," I breathed, stepping over the threshold with Jarvey still clinging to my shoulder. "Looks like we've found the house-elves' secret clubhouse."