7Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, yadda, yadda, yadda! If I did, what would this be doing here?
Just thought we could use more Kevin stories and Harry/Ravenclaw boys stories. There aren't nearly enough of either.
It was really dumb luck that Harry noticed him. Ron and Hermione had gotten into another one of their near constant arguments just after dinner, so Harry took the first opportunity to slip away. As much as he loved his friends, once this far too frequent event occurred, the pair of them became near unbearable to be around. No matter which one stuck around with him, he'd get an ear full of rants about what was wrong with the other's side of the argument or just them in general.
Normally he'd deal with it, but with Umbridge as Headmistress, tension and tempers were growing steadily higher with everyone, especially his own, and the last thing he needed was to snap and cause the argument to turn into a three-way. Besides, he had an assignment for Snape on the properties and effects of Veritaserum to write and the last thing he needed was their issues to disrupt his work and give Snape one more thing to make him miserable over. So he headed for the library alone, hoping to anyone who was listening that Hermione had whatever books she felt the need to speed read through back in Gryffindor Tower.
The Library turned out to be a bit busier than he'd expected it to be when he arrived, though he quickly chalked that up to his own silliness. A lot of the students hiding away with friends behind the giant tomes were, for the most part, fifth and seventh year students. The year was getting ever closer to its end, which meant even more stress and revision for everyone, but the fifth years had the extra nightmare of their OWLs and the seventh years were ripping their hair out in kind over their NEWTs. Add to the fact that those of them taking Defence Against The Dark Arts had Umbridge's useless lessons crippling their learning, it was safe to say that this was the most panicky time in all Harry's time in Hogwarts. Ignoring when they had monsters and escaped prisoners running through the school of course.
In fact, it was so busy that even after circling the entire library, he almost gave up any hope of finding a place to sit. It wasn't until he was the furthest reaches of the book shelves, dangerously close to entering the Restricted Section, that he found a free chair.
After seeing how packed the other tables all were, this one had a slight frown crossing the bespectacled Gryffindor's face as he found only one person amongst the messily placed books. A Ravenclaw boy practically had his nose touching his Charms book while his hand was writing so fast it was almost a blur.
Judging from the 'Grade 5' on the front of his Standard Book of Spells, he was most likely in his year, but Harry could quite place him. He wasn't close at all to any of the Ravenclaws before this Year and this boy was not one of the DA eagles. But even so, he could still put names to faces of his blue and bronze classmates. In addition to Michael, Terry, Anthony and Padma, all of which seemed pretty close, he could still point out Lisa Turpin, Stephen Cornfoot, Morag, Su Li and Mandy Brocklehurst. All of them were frequently active in class, as was expected of the House of intellect and wisdom, so why was this one so hard to identify?
I know I've seen him before. He thought, slowly making his way to the table as he looked over the boy more critically. The boy had dark brown hair, well tanned skin and a bit more well defined muscles than most of the other students, not that that was hard. Wizards over-relied on magic to do far too much for them. This guy looked a bit more like your average, sport loving Muggle teen...
Kevin Entwhistle! He almost smacked himself in the head at how long that recognition took him. He should have known! Kevin was currently the only Muggleborn in Ravenclaw above Second Year. He remembered him just fine now! Back in first year, he spent the first three weeks of Charms and Transfiguration classes sitting right up front, bright eyed and excited about everything involving magic. He was always keen to ask questions. He asked as many questions as Hermione had answers.
However, after that, he couldn't remember Kevin asking much of anything. He opted to sitting in the back of the classrooms instead and never said a word unless he was specifically called upon by the teacher. In fact, now that Harry thought about it, it almost seemed like he was trying to make himself as small and unnoticeable as possible.
That would explain why he's hidden here all alone. The thought troubled Harry a bit more than he felt comfortable with. It was strange to find a Ravenclaw all alone, isolating themselves. Terry had once told Ron off in a DA meeting when the redhead claimed that Ravenclaws were all bookworms, bombarding him with the fact that they were the House of individuality and creativity, that they accepted and encouraged differences, both with and without the aid of books. Harry had seen it himself. He'd watched Terry and his friends, studied with them a few times too when his best were busy arguing again, and saw it. Ravenclaws encouraged each other to go off and learn and experiment, shared advice and then ask what they'd found at the end of it. Luna was a bit too odd for even the Ravenclaws to get their heads around, so he could understand why she was a little left out of that, even if he didn't like it, but what had Entwhistle so shoved out of the way? He always seemed perfectly normal to Harry.
If he is off his rocker, I'm sure I'll find out. He rolled his eyes at the thought. He did have a tendency to attract the unusual after all. All well, normality's overrated anyway.
"Hey Entwhistle. I hope you don't mind if I join you?" He smiled, placing his bag slowly down on the seat. Startled, Entwhistle jolted his head straight up, his hand knocking his ink bottle over in the process. Harry had about a second to take in surprised, unsure, very dark blue eyes before Entwhistle's attention went entirely into saving his notes and books.
"Potter! Uh, ok, sure." He stuttered, grimacing as he picked up the bottle and parchment. He managed to shove the books safely away in time, but his notes were ruined.
"Sorry about that." Harry bit his lip guiltily as he took a seat. He didn't mean to ruin all Entwhistle's hard work. "Is any of it salvageable?"
"Yeah. Just got the top scroll." Entwhistle muttered distractedly, staring forlornly at the ruined parchment through the corner of his eye as he checked out the other four. Something that had Harry gaping as he caught glimpses of what the boy was writing.
"Wow. Do you have to return that book or something?" He asked, raising an eyebrow as Entwhistle started fidgeting with everything he could touch under his gaze. "It looks like you've been writing every word in the pages."
"Not every word. Just summarising." Entwhistle muttered, blushing embarrassedly as he quickly put the parchment right out of Harry's sight.
Ok, a little excessive. Still, that was easy enough to shrug off. They may not all be so, but there were still plenty of bookworms and study freaks in Ravenclaw. Yes, this guy made even Hermione's notes seem short and basic, but he was taking his OWLs just like the rest of them this year. Maybe he was just panicking about his grades. Besides, it wasn't really Harry's business and learning about Entwhistle's habits wasn't his reason for coming to Hermione's favourite hangout. He was there to get a potion essay written up. So, on that note, he headed off to grab the books he needed and settled down into his own notations.
...
The pair of them ended up spending their time together a lot over the next few weeks. Whenever Harry needed to get away or his friends were busy, he'd head to what he had dubbed as Entwhistle's table with whatever homework he had in his never ending pile and set to work. He beat Entwhistle there sometimes, but he always showed long before Harry was done.
After the first few times, Harry was happy to notice that Entwhistle started growing more relaxed in his presence. Harry made a point not to comment on the unusual length of his summaries, but once the tension the Ravenclaw had held began to fade, Harry started asking a few questions, taking care to only ask about classes and opinions of his homework's answers. He found that he liked spending time with the shy Ravenclaw and figured that they could both use what could come out of it. He just had to be careful with Entwhistle, ease him into it. that wasn't something he had any practice whatsoever in doing, so that left him bound to school topics, but it was a start.
He learned quickly though that it was best to be careful about subject choices and how much detail was expected in an answer. Some subjects had Entwhistle's nervousness and stuttering returning. He'd trip over his words, sometimes seeming completely unsure and desperate for the answer to come to him. Others, like potions particularly, always had him grabbing entire scrolls of study notes, which he'd then read out loud word for word, as if he was trying to teach himself the answer as much as Harry.
However, after the fourth attempt, he lucked out quite wonderfully. He hadn't even asked a question or been trying to start conversation. He just got frustrated with a report on the Goblin rebellion and made comment about Binns putting him to sleep long before he could explain about the traps the wizards set for them only to have turned on them. The next thing he knew, Entwhistle practically exploded.
"They tried a great many simple methods, such as pit holes, bear traps and nooses. They would set them up both near Goblin territory and surrounding the Goblins' targets. They would then place concealment charms on each one and set up trap wards so that once they were caught, the Goblins wouldn't escape. They finished them off by placing charms upon them designed specifically to repel humans. However, the Goblins were only insulted by how little the Wizards thought of them. Quickly recognising the work, they simply altered the repelling charms to attraction charms, causing countless Ministry Wizards to fall victim to their own snares. They also enjoyed going around and altering the wards on various enemy wizards' homes, trapping all of them inside. The alterations were so advanced and complete, that many Wizarding families starved to death, including the Minister of Magic, and his replacement was given no choice but to fold to the Goblins' demands."
"Wow!" Harry could only stare, slack jawed, as Entwhistle talked. He was used to unsure answers, as if Entwhistle was questioning his own knowledge. He was always hesitant. But this time, he couldn't seem to get it out quick enough. Not only that, instead of an uneasy look on his face, his eyes had lit up and he was looking Harry right in the eye proudly and confidently, a grin playing across his lips. For the first time since their new seating arrangement started, Entwhistle looked like what most expected of a Ravenclaw. Absolutely sure that what he said was true and proud and of what he knew.
"You actually manage to stay awake in History of Magic?" He gaped, after struggling for few moments to find his voice again. It was after all, a double shock.
"Yeah, but I only pay so much attention to Binns." Entwhistle nodded, rolling his eyes at the mention of their dull, sleep inducing teacher. "I use the time to read the books he sets and whatever history book I've borrowed from here. Magical history is so interesting, you know? The wars are like WW1 on steroids and they usually only involve the Magical world of one or two countries! The events that lead up to the creation of the Statute of Secrecy and everything that came about because of it, including this whole, stupid Blood Status crap, would be perfect material to base the most hilarious of comedy or intense of drama stories on. And the comparison of magical history events in timing with the Mundane events answers a lot of questions historians have been asking for decades. Did you know that WW2 was started by a wizard's drunken spat?"
"No, I didn't. Not even Hermione ever mentioned anything from World War Two." Harry shook his head, a stunned smile growing over his face. "You're a history sponge."
"Yeah. I love history. The recountings, both on the Mundane and Magical ends, are filled with such amazing stories and origins of many of the things we know and do every day or are expected to at least. And...yeah, the excitement and the influence over the modern day of it all makes it much easier to remember." Harry was pretty dense, but even he knew that Entwhistle had caught himself there. If the break in speech wasn't enough of a hint, the brightness of his face fading sure did.
Still, for once, Harry decided to use a bit of tact and ignore it. Entwhistle was opening up to him a little bit and he was finding himself liking the boy more and more. He wasn't about to do anything to push him away.
"So that's what you intend to after Hogwarts? Become some type of magical historian?" He asked, tilting his head curiously. He hoped that he could keep this going for bit longer. He needed a break from the report anyway. Besides, Entwhistle might even have been willing to help through it.
"That's the plan. But I got told that the best, heck only really good method to take to study pieces of history for a living was to become an Unspeakable. You know, work in the Department of Mysteries." Entwhistle explained, biting his lip as his hands ran up and down his arms. "But that's really hard. They're extremely picky about who they employ, far more so than any other job. And you have to be really good at just about everything. You won't always be studying pieces of history either, they work on creating new spells, analysing things from the modern day, basically, the only limitation on what they look into is that it has to be mysterious, something to solve."
"But that's not what you want." Harry stated rather than asked, getting a sad nod in return.
"I want to study artefacts from throughout the ages, yes, but I don't care about how a magical artefact does its trick, only what it does, how it was used, who created it and why. The 'how it was made' part is only useful if you want to recreate it, or to determine what it does if you're unsure and that's the only reason I'd care. Only if I needed to determine how it was made to document what it could do."
"Then why not do that?" Harry asked, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Entwhistle just stared at him, completely unsure as to how to respond. "You know, maybe do something more simple on the side for extra cash for a while, but why not document history? Why not become an author?"
"Because everything I know is from books." Entwhistle answered unsurely, his eyes moving quickly over the tomes and parchment before him as the gears ran in his head. "It's already documented."
"A lot of current history, yes. But for a start, history is being made all the time." Harry reminded him, smiling encouragingly. "Heck, my adventures could be documented as major history of Hogwarts, especially something as big as solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets and killing its beast. That's worth writing down and no one's done it yet. I'm the only one with all the details. I could give them all to you if you asked. Then there's other possibilities. How much detail does the library books hold about the mix of Muggle and wizard history?"
"Not much since the Middle Ages." Entwhistle answered slowly, realisation slowly dawning in his mind. "I've been making the connections and theories myself."
"Exactly." Harry grinned triumphantly. "With Binns as our teacher, I doubt many Muggleborn Hogwarts students bother too much with history outside specific moments of personal fascination and what's needed to pass tests and people born and raised in the Wizarding world seem to overlook the Muggle one as a completely separate place. They only look into major moments in Muggle history."
"Usually where magical beings were actually involved or were almost discovered." Entwhistle added, smiling a little himself as he frowned thoughtfully at the books before him. "But plenty of things I noticed on one side would have easily triggered a historical event on the other without anyone even realising it. And none of these books mention any of it." He stated excitedly, throwing his arms around the shelves. "I've looked through almost every modern history book here and none of them mention it. I could reveal it all! Harry, do realise how big that would be?"
"Enough to you for you to call me Harry." Harry chuckled amusedly.
"If I wrote it all, if I got the Wizarding World to read it, learn it, I'd do so much more than prove my worth and make my mark. It could seriously help to reconnect the two worlds, make people realise that they're not in any way truly disconnected. That every act of one will the affect the other. And that would help them realise that people, whether or not they have magic, are not that different. Maybe even help the Mundane and Magical societies properly reconnect again."
"Now that's dreaming big. But go for it Kevin." It was a big dream, an even bigger hope, but Harry wasn't going to pull him down. He was right after all, it wasn't likely to happen in their lifetime, but that kind of knowledge could slowly change the world. And even if it didn't work as well as Kevin hoped, it definitely worth a try and important information for the Wizarding world to understand. A few certain Muggles wouldn't hurt to realise the similarities of us all either.
"Oh, I will. I'll have to talk to Professor Flitwick, and maybe Professor Binns, about the best way to do this. I'm going to start this as soon as the OWLs are over. I'm going to need some contacts and to double and triple check information on both sides, cross compare everything. This will take years." If those words had come out of Harry's mouth, they would have been annoyed and immediately followed by a long, irritated groan, but Kevin was only growing more excited by the second, something that pleased and amused Harry to no ends. Ripping his bag off the ground, Kevin practically tore it apart in his bid to grab more parchment and almost sent his ink flying as he yanked his quill out of it, scrawling down a list of every person, reference, detail and course of action he'd need to take for his endeavour.
It wasn't until he was halfway down his latest sheet that he stopped and looked back up staring with shy, but hopeful eyes right into Harry's. "Thanks for the idea Harry. It's perfect. But, while I know I shouldn't ask for more, were you serious when you said that you'd give me all the details about the Chamber of Secrets and what happened?"
"And anything else you want to ask me. With one condition." Harry nodded.
"Name it."
"I see you playing football with Dean sometimes. Would you be able to teach me how one up him with that ball?" He asked, grinning mischievously. "You have no idea how much of a show off he can be in the dorms with that thing."
"A few football tricks? Yeah." Kevin smiled, laughing under his breath. "Anytime you want."
"Great. Now, how about another deal? I'll help you ace Defence Against the Dark Arts if you help me with this bloody history report."
"Not a problem." Harry decided right then and there that he was going to bring up history more often. He loved seeing that proud and happy look on the Muggleborn Ravenclaw's face. "So shall we get it started?"
"How about finished?" Harry responded, handing his report and assignment sheet to his newest friend. "With your brains, I could bet this will be done within the hour."
"Sure. Then we'll spend another one beating the information into your head so it's actually worth you writing this." He grinned cheekily back, leaving Harry huffing in response. Kevin was already ribbing him on? Man, he was good at opening people up to him.
Or maybe Kevin just needed a genuinely supporting friend. He had a feeling Kevin hadn't experienced that enough for a while.
AN: Thanks for reading. Hope it proved interesting. To be honest, as I was writing it, it pulled right away from what I'd intended and somehow got managed to obtain a message of tolerance. Guess that's not too surprising from me, but still, what do you know. Anyway, the separation has left a openings to make a bit of a sequel to it if people like this.
Well, I hope you enjoyed it.
