The Kingdom Key Forums: A Very Potter Roleplay (AVPRP) - The Kingdom Key Forums

When Matt awoke, he immediately felt a jolt of electricity surge through his body. It was August 31, and today he was leaving for Hogwarts to start his seventh year. Living in America and attending Hogwarts meant extra travel time to get there. Usually, this meant he had to take a plane to London the day before and stay at the Leaky Cauldron the night before he went to King’s Cross to catch the Hogwarts Express.

This year was different, though, because he had finally convinced his parents to let him make the trip alone, which meant that instead of flying, he would be apparating straight to the pub, and would have some time to peruse the wares of Diagon Alley without his mother trailing him the entire time.

“Matty, honey, are you sure you don’t want maybe one of us to go with you?” asked his mother.

“Dad, will you talk some sense into her, please?” Matt pleaded.

“I’ve been holding her off for a week, son, she’s already threatened to give away my golf clubs if I didn’t let her get one more shot at you.” His father answered.

Matt rolled his eyes. “Mom, we’ve been over it a dozen times. We’re not only saving my plane ticket there, but the price of yours both ways. The two of you could take a mini vacation for the price of 5 plane tickets, for goodness sake! I’ve come of age and I can apparate right there, so why not start saving some money and living a little?” he said, hoping one last attempt at reason might reach her.

One tearful goodbye from his mother and an almost irresistible urge to upchuck later, he was standing in a dark alley an ocean away, luggage and all. He immediately regretted his choice of shorts over pants for the journey.

“Geez, I didn’t realize it was going to be this cold today; probably should’ve checked that out first.” He said, quickly locating the entrance to the pub and ducking inside.

He soon had secured a room for the night and dumped his stuff, changing into jeans and making sure to grab his small sack of coins from his trunk before heading off to browse the shops for the rest of the day. He saw a few familiar faces, but none that were so familiar as to warrant a conversation. After a few hours, he had secured a few sweets to save for later, a new kit to maintain his broom, and a few books to keep him entertained in his spare time. He packed his stuff away in his trunk and hit the hay to be rested up for the long trip the next day.

The next morning, he made his way to the station and through the barrier, making it to the back car of the train in time to secure a vacant compartment. He pulled out a book and a bag of gummy trolls and settled in for the long ride, which passed rather uneventfully for him. No one even tried to get a seat in his room, and he hardly saw a soul the entire time, except the odd wanderer and the witch with the food trolley.

The train screeched to a halt in Hogsmeade Station and emptied out. Matt looked across the lake and saw the castle lit up against the night sky.

“Good to be back, you old pile of rocks.” He said lovingly, before piling into a carriage with three other students.

The petite seventeen year descended the steps into the dungeons, blinking her violet eyes as she heard voices coming from the classroom. No one was ever here this early besides her, and it was odd for Professor Slughorn to have guests in the morning as well. As a "collected" student she knew his various patterns, and usually what time and where he would be, even if he had a guest. She jumped slightly at the snap of the potion, and opened the door just in time to see the blue smoke turn from blue to red before her eyes, which in turn widened at the sight. It was... simply magnificent and her jaw dropped slightly. She was usually very polite, but she just couldn't hold it in. Her eyes looked from the smoke to Flint, and she spoke.


"Did you make this?"

"YES!" Flint exclaimed excitedly, "it's the result of two separate potions! You see, I combined several volatile potions into two inert re-agents that when combined become explosively powerful! I was planning on using it to power, uhm, well never you mind that." He emptied the vial of it's dangerous concoction with a wave of his wand. His magical eye swiveling wildly around the room as he turned to face the student. "I'm a bit of an inventor you know, someone has to come up with all of these useful magical items, I also built this!" Flint shook his robe from his wand hand, and exposed the intricately worked brass shining in the torch light. "And this!" tapping his magical eye.

"Yes, Obed here is a rather accomplished, if not ehm, eccentric graduate of Hogwarts. He's agreed to come back and share his rather extensive knowledge of alchemy and what he calls 'techno-mancy' to those interested. He will be available for tutoring and the like as well. I believe you have quarters down here in the dungeons correct?" Professor Slughorn chortled to the now slowly filing class, clasping Flint on the shoulder.

"Yes, I'm down here doing research and experimenting, please feel free to drop by at any time, however I must request that you send notice, or knock before entering as the nature of my work can be at times... explosive," Flint smiled, revealing several brass teeth, his scarred face cutting a bizarre image.

"Perhaps you would be interested in giving my class a little taste of your, ehm, particular brand of potion making? Or at the very least," Slughorn chuckled again, his mustache twitching, "magical safety precautions?"

"Of course Hora- I mean PROFESSOR Slughorn," Flint went on. Flint opened his satchel and began to withdraw a myriad of little silver and brace instruments and chemical vials. Flint turned his head and looked at the young Ravenclaw, "Care to give me a hand?" He said waving her over with his brass hand.

After their meeting, Hiro told Matt that he would be unavailable to meet for some time, as a situation had come to his attention back home. He was to leave that very evening and could be gone for quite some time.

Luckily, Matt had a basic understanding of some of the concepts that Hiro had tried to explain, and asked if he could try to continue some of the research on his own. All was agreed upon and Matt left the classroom feeling oddly relieved.

Well at least I won't have to put my neck out and order him any more wands any time soon. he thought.

The remainder of the morning was spent in Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall, and as it was a fairly small class at this level, he was afforded a little time to go over the morning's events with her.

"So basically, he said I could just keep doing research and such on my own until he gets back. From his tone, though, I think he may not be planning on coming back." he said

"What do you mean, Mr. Garronin?" she replied

"Well, when he told me he was leaving, he just didn't really seem all that positive about his return time. I think there's more there that he didn't tell me, which is fine, of course. Though if you don't mind, I really am interested in the subject and I'd like to at least do some reading on it and maybe a little experimentation in my spare time."

She merely nodded and raised a finger to her lips, pondering. "I don't see why not. If you would, keep me up to date whenever you get around to trying things out. It may be beneficial to have a teacher there with you, depending on what you intend to do."

The rest of the period was spent wrapping his head around a particularly tricky spell that would transfigure sand into water. The tricky part was ensuring the permanence of the spell as well as sanitation of the product.

Minutes later, he found himself on his way down to the dungeons for Potions, where he saw Laila a few beats ahead of him and entering the classroom. A bluish smoke wafted out into the hallway and then turned to a reddish hue right as Matt reached the doorway.

Inside, he heard a man rather enthusiastically explaining something, though with all the smoke he couldn't quite make out the man's face until he walked inside.

"Looks like I missed the show." said Matt, entering the dungeon.