Harry Potter And The Unexpected Friend

Harry awoke to the sounds of Madam Pomfrey going through her morning routine. He closed his eyes and pulled the sheets back over himself in the hopes that he could get a few minutes more sleep but Madam Pomfrey must have noticed he was awake and took the opportunity to stand over his bed and begin casting a few diagnostic charms.

"You can stop pretending, Mr Potter. I know you are awake." the school nurse said.

"Ten more minutes." Harry requested, drawing a laugh out of Pomfrey.

"I'll call for one of the house elves to bring you breakfast." she said and walked away to continue preparing for the day. Harry opened his eyes and looked through a window on the other side of the room to see that the sun must have risen an hour or more before he woke up. Sighing, he decided it probably was time for him to get out of bed. He was preparing to do just that when Dobby appeared in front of him holding a huge serving platter that held at least a dozen plates. Each plate was stacked with what appeared to be every type of breakfast food Harry had ever seen offered at Hogwarts.

"Dobby! What are you doing with all that food?" Harry asked as the little elf struggled to balance all of the plates he was carrying. To Harry's relief he was able to set them down on a nearby table without dropping a single one.

"I is bring it for you Harry Potter sir!" Dobby said proudly. "Dobby heard you would be needing your breakfast brought to you and I told the other elves that nobody but me would do it. Some of the kitchen elves didn't like that, but Dobby insisted."

"You did great Dobby, though I think you might have brought too much food. How about you stay and have breakfast with me?" Harry asked. Dobby immediately started crying and leapt at Harry to give him a hug. Harry was briefly surprised with the house elf's speed and behavior, but then again it was typical of Dobby.

"Harry Potter is too kind! He is being the greatest wizard ever!" Dobby said between sobs. Harry hugged the elf back and hoped he would settle down a bit.

"So how about it? Going to stay and have breakfast with me?" Harry asked. Dobby immediately lowered his head as if ashamed of himself.

"Dobby can't. I promised a kitchen elf I would do his work and mine so I could bring Harry Potter his breakfast. Dobby is sorry."

"It's ok, Dobby. We can do it some other time, alright? You're my friend, don't feel like you need an excuse to come talk to me." Harry said. Dobby nodded and gave Harry another big hug before popping off to get back to work. Harry smiled as he thought about his strangely devoted little friend and began looking over the plates trying to decide what he wanted. Even though he was quite hungry, as was normal after one of his training sessions, he knew there was still no way he was ever going to be able to finish even half of what Dobby had brought.

"Harry!" a familiar female voice called from the doorway. Harry turned to see his friend Hermione walking in. He wasn't really surprised that Hermione had gotten here before Daphne because his girlfriend had told him she would come by at eight o'clock to check on him and she was almost always right on time. He had not seen a clock yet this morning so he knew it must still be before eight. "You don't really plan on eating all of that, do you?"

"I could probably be persuaded to share if you're hungry." Harry replied. Hermione smiled and grabbed a bowl of fruit off of the tray before walking over to Harry's bed and sitting in a nearby chair.

"So what happened?" she asked eagerly.

"I haven't heard anything from Professor Dumbledore this morning." Harry answered. "I guess he will be here sometime soon. Last night he had me duel Moony and then work on permanent conjuration."

"Moony? You mean Professor Lupin right?" Hermione asked as Harry nodded in response. "Did you really perform permanent conjuration? Most people can't do that at all."

"Yeah, I did. It was pretty tiring, but I think that was mainly because of all the bronze I was conjuring" Harry responded. Upon hearing this Hermione's eyes opened wide in shock and she gasped.

"You're not joking, are you?" Hermione asked, still surprised by Harry's statement. "Harry, there are probably only a couple dozen wizards or witches alive that can conjure bronze or silver. Very little research has been done on permanent conjuration because the ability to master it is so rare. In fact the last in depth study was completed over two hundred years ago. You might think this is silly, but I was really hoping I would be able to do it so that in a few years I could begin experimenting and write the definitive work on the subject. Nobody seems to have thought to use muggle chemistry to investigate permanent conjuration."

"Wow, Hermione. That seems like a pretty lofty goal." Harry said.

"I know." Hermione said proudly. "I had hoped it would force the wizarding world to reconsider their opinions on muggleborns as well. You know what this means though, don't you Harry?"

"What?" he asked uncertainly. He could tell when his friend was up to something, and she definitely was now.

"I don't have to wait to start experimenting! Congratulations Harry, you've just volunteered to be my research assistant." Hermione looked as excited as a little kid at Christmas time and Harry knew he would have no choice but to offer her his assisstance. She would never leave him alone if he didn't.

"Fine." Harry grumbled, "I will help, but you are going to have to remember that we can't spend every hour of the day working on this. I know how obsessed you get."

"I do not get obsessed!" Hermione said defensively, "I just think that academics and research are more important than you do." Harry shrugged at her response, knowing full well that no one could ever change Hermione's study habits. He wondered how much time she would be wanting to spend on this new project and hoped that since she didn't think she would be able to start it for another few years she wouldn't have too much thought out yet. Hermione began tapping her foot anxiously, a sign that Harry knew meant she was eager to get out of the infirmary and start working. Harry could not help but laugh at his friend's behavior even when his laughter was met with her annoyed glare. Their silent argument was interrupted when Harry noticed Daphne walking in to the room.

"Daphne!" he called as she walked towards him. Harry jumped up from the hospital bed he had been sitting on to give his girlfriend a kiss before leading her back over to where he had been talking with Hermione.

"Are you ok?" Daphne asked, the concern clearly evident in her voice.

"I'm fine, just waiting for Dumbledore." Harry answered.

"I do not believe you will have to wait for much longer." a voice called from the infirmary's entrance. The three teens turned to see Professor Dumbledore smiling back at them. "I hope you had a pleasant stay, Harry. I believe you have been one of Madam Pomfrey's more frequent guests."

"No problems, Professor. Although I would like to get out of here as soon as possible." Harry answered.

"An understandable goal." Dumbledore said with a nod. "I have some results from our observation last night, and to be honest I have never seen anything like it. First off let me ease any fears you may have had and assure you that there appears to be no lasting damage done to either your body or your magic from your brief episode of magical exhaustion."

"So I can keep training?" Harry asked eagerly.

"There does not seem to be any reason for you not to." Dumbledore admitted. "However I would ask you to wear the monitoring belt the next few times so we can perhaps gain a better understanding of what is happening. You see Harry you are now approximately one percent stronger than you were at this time yesterday, a result I was not expecting."

"One percent? That doesn't sound like much." Harry said.

"You're wrong, Harry." Daphne interrupted. "That shouldn't be possible."

"Ms Greengrass is correct, Harry." Dumbledore confirmed. "And there is reason to believe that you have been improving at a similar rate every time you have pushed yourself to the point of magical exhaustion. Think of it this way Harry, if you were to the rate of your improvement is constant that would mean you could double your magical power in just over three months. In a year you could nearly quadruple it. However I wish to further observe you to determine if the gains in strength you are receiving are in fact constant or if they are slowing down."

"You forgot to mention the third possibility, Professor." Hermione said softly. "The increases could be accelerating."

"But why is this happening?" Harry asked.