Disclaimer: I wish I owned Harry Potter, but unfortunately, I don't.

Chapter Six: Two Does and a Rat

"Speech"

'Thoughts/ Quotes'

'Quotes from Harry's Past'

Parseltongue/ Book Excerpt

Book Titles

From the Book

Harry got was very sleepy when he woke up the next morning, but he was immediately alert when a familiar red envelope floated through the air. He was instantly flooded with relief a second later when he remembered it wouldn't be for him, and watched as the envelope floated over to a first-year Slytherin who he had thought he knew so well.

He gingerly opened the envelope as if it was going knowing it would explode with anger as soon as he did. The Slytherins around him were all snickering, none even trying to pretend the incident wasn't funny. As soon as he opened the envelope, Harry heard a familiar voice scream:

"RONALD BILIUS WEASLEY! HOW DARE YOU DISHONOR OUR FAMILY NAME AND END UP IN SLYTHERIN! I AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! YOU ARE A DISGRACE TO OUR FAMILY AND AS SOON AS YOU COME HOME YOU WILL HAVE A SERIOUS TALKING TO MISTER. IF YOU TAKE A SINGLE FOOT OUT OF LINE I WILL SEND YOU STRAIGHT BACK HOME WHERE YOUR FATHER AND I CAN MAKE SURE YOU GET SOME SERIOUS HELP!"

She sounded even angrier when they drove Mr. Weasley's car into the Whomping Willow. Being in Slytherin wasn't really all that bad. Slytherin had produced Professor Snape and Horace Slughorn. Many others had come out well from Slytherin and been unrecognized, people only noticed the bad.

The Headmaster did nothing to calm the anger that seemed to be stirring within the Slytherin house. He knew there was an unlikely chance that his past friend would come out well at the end of the night, and he knew many Gryffindors would come out poorly too. He knew the Headmaster knew the same, but the goddamn old fool was smiling. Smiling! Like absolutely nothing was wrong.

It was then that he tried comparing a Muggle school to Hogwarts, but stopped when he was scared his brain would fry from overuse after coming up with a huge list of things that were wrong with Hogwarts like: having a ghost for a teacher, not even expelling students for attempted murder,having a Headmaster who endangered students, having a teacher who didn't know the subject, etc.

He guessed it was just the way Hogwarts was. Whether that was a good or a bad thing, well it was just the way the magical world was.

He always thought classes were hard when he was in his first year, but it was even hard trying to screw up a spell. In transfiguration, he was having an awfully difficult time trying to not get the spell right. In fact, he had almost set Aaron's desk on fire. He knew it would be odd to get the spell right after that, but he didn't want his obvious screw ups to cause any worse damage, so after three more attempts, he turned the matchstick into a needle.

Professor McGonagall was shocked, to say the least. She looked at him as if he was some prodigy in transfiguration. He almost felt bad for stealing Hermione's spotlight, but he knew it would only push her harder.

She watched over to his desk and pick up the needle, turning it over in her hand. "Mr. Potter, you must have inherited your father's talent for transfiguration. This is absolutely marvelous. In all my years, I've never had a student who managed to transfigure their matchstick on the first day. 25 points to Hufflepuff."

She placed the matchstick on the desk, giving him an odd look, and walked away.

Harry blushed, and instantly regretted transfiguring it so quickly. He just didn't want to cause an accident.

Everything was very to similar to his past life, the only being difference being the fact that there was less disturbance in classes without Slytherin and Gryffindors in the same classes. He always wondered why professors did it. If they wanted to promote inter-house unity first they have to update the Sorting Hat to make it place students where they really belong, not where they want to go. Once they do that, there were other ways to promote inter-house unity, like having all children sleep with people in their year level which would be more effective. They also need to remove some of the competition between the houses so children from different houses will feel less inclined to engage with fights with members of other houses.

And then he had potions. Since Dumbledore's death, he'd thought Snape was a traitor, but now. He could not say he didn't respect Snape and what he stood for. He knew it must've taken a hell of a lot of courage in order for Snape to go back to Voldemort time and time again. Knowing he was going to be crucioed. Knowing he was going to have to say things that disgusted him. Do things that disgusted him. He knew he had more courage than most Gryffindors. But, that didn't mean that if Snape was going to be rude to him in potions, he wouldn't be just as snarky back.

He waited for Professor Snape to single him out, like he had in his previous life.

"Ah, yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making," he said in a very Snape-lie manner: quiet, while keeping the listener ensnared in his words. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses . . . I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death— if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach.

"Potter!" he said in a stern tone. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry had to stop himself from bursting out in laughter. During what should have been their seventh year, Hermione made them read a multitude of books on topics which would never help them, but she would always say 'it's better to know something and not have to use it than to not know something and have to use it.' One of the books was a book on codes 'just in case we ever intercept a letter that one death eater sends to another.'

Harry knew it wasn't going to be useful, but he found the book very interesting. He spent much of his free time reading that year and found he rather enjoyed it. One interesting code was Victorian Flower Code, which used ingredients commonly used in potions. He knew Asphodel is a type of lily meaning 'my regrets follow you to the grave' and wormwood means 'absence' and also typically symbolised bitter sorrow. He realized that if you combine them, it means 'I bitterly regret Lily's death'. He had though he was picking on him, but in reality, he had been showing him his true colors.

"Double Aster," he responded, which means 'I share your sentiments.' The rest of the students assumed that was his answer, but Harry swore he saw Snape's lips twitch, like it wanted to smile.

"Oh, and by the way, they make the Draught of Living Death." Professor Snape looked him in the eyes, which he had only done once in his previous life. Harry swore he saw a tear forming in his right eye, but decided he must have imagined it after he looked away, because when he looked back, the tear was gone. The rest of the students were greatly confused, but nobody seemed to want to question it, not even the Ravenclaws, who were known for their curiosity and thirst for knowledge.

Almost regretfully, Professor Snape said, "5 points from Hufflepuff for being a Smart Alek Mr. Potter."

"I also know what would happen if you mixed Galega with some of your Hop," Harry said. Since Galega is 'reason' and Hop is 'injustice,' he figured it would let Professor Snape know that he knew why he was taking points from him. He had to keep his cover after all.

"Another 5 points from Hufflepuff for making up nonsense. There is no potion in which you use Galega. If you could please stop disturbing the class, I could continue on with the lesson," said Professor Snape, looking him in the eye— making him understand that he understood what Harry was trying to say.

"Of course, Professor."

Of course the whole interaction had been giving him more and more odd locks, and Hermione, who was sitting next to him, looked like she had an idea of what they were doing, but couldn't figure out what they were trying to say or why they were saying it. In fact, she had scribbled down all the potions ingredients that they mentioned on a piece of parchment when she thought no one was looking and stuck it in her bag.

They ended up brewing a cure for boils, just like last time. Thankfully, this time he'd had six years of experience and found this easy in comparison to many other things he had to brew. In addition, he'd bought books on potions basics, which Professor Snape had ever so conveniently skipped over. He finally understood what different ingredients do to a potion and the difference between spinning clockwise and counterclockwise. He found it to be very similar to cooking. In fact, looking over the potions recipe, he could make a few simple edits to it now that he knew more about each ingredient in the potion.

First he changed the number of snake fangs from six to seven, because it was a more powerful magical number and he knew if he added a pinch of goosegrass directly after, any damaging side effects from the extra snake fang would be canceled out. Second, he added a sixth stir to follow the five stirs he made at the end of his potion. He knew six had healing properties, so by adding it to a medical potion, it would improve its effectiveness.

His potion turned into a translucent medium blue colored potion with a light purple tint. He knew it was much better than the potion he made in his past life, and that made him proud as he bottled the potion and put it on Professor Snape's desk. He knew he was sort of cheating with all his previous knowledge, but he knew it would only push Hermione forward instead of holding her back like he and Ron had done in his first life.

He looked down at his potion and realized that, for the second time that day, he'd shown his true skill.

Charms class was very similar to transfiguration, except he gave up a tad bit later, but in Herbology and Astronomy, it was easy for him to downplay his skill, as it wasn't wand work.

DADA was a joke. It made him want to laugh. He wanted to scream to the whole world that Voldy was teaching 'ickle firsties' defense. They weren't really learning much, just reading a chapter from a book he had read so long ago. He already knew everything in it, so he glamored a book on Occlumency, which he had bought on his trip to Diagon Alley, a read it in place of The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection.

He found the Demetrius Selwyn's book, Occlumency: A Guide To Mental Protection, to be exquisite, though he had only read the first two chapters, which had been about the history of Occlumency and an explanation of it along with one of Legilimency.

Chapter 3: Clearing Your Mind Part 1

Occlumency is a difficult skill that many prestigious wizards have failed to master. The hardest part is not actually building the wall, but clearing your thoughts. All people, be it man, woman, wizard, or witch, have stray thoughts floating around in their head. There are three steps involved in clearing your mind: meditation, clearing your conscious thoughts, which shall be covered in this chapter; clearing your unconscious thought; and maintaining the state of thoughtlessness for an infinite amount of time.

Everyone has two types of thoughts: conscious and unconscious. Both are equally difficult to clear out of your head, the later being the more difficult. This step is the hardest, so succeeding at this almost definitely means succeeding at Occlumency, though this step in itself gives you nothing other than a mask to hide your emotions.

In order to start clearing your thoughts you must first meditate. Meditation clears out some of the unnecessary thoughts, making it easier to clear them out and helps concentration. It gives one the steps necessary to build in one's own mind.

First you must sit down in a comfortable position, relax . . .

Harry skimmed through the next few paragraphs realizing he wouldn't be able to practise meditation in the classroom. He'd have to wait till he was free during the afternoon. He wanted to talk with Hermione as soon as possible, though, and according to the book, he should spend at least an hour a day meditating until he was successful in properly meditating. He'd have to postpone it till later in the afternoon.

Looking back, Professor Snape hadn't told him any of this. He'd just cast Legilimency on him. Probably something else Dumbledore screwed with.

After DADA, when he saw all six, male Slytherin first-years heading to the Great Hall for dinner, he went into the bathroom and transfigured his tie to look like one of Slytherin, then glamored himself to look like Ron.

He found a wandering Slytherin, a sixth year, who he hadn't remembered from his past life, and asked her if she would kindly guide her to the common room because he "forgot his book". The girl rolled her eyes, thinking 'of course that Gryffindor idiot left his book in the dormitory,' but showed him anyway, telling the password, which was 'silver snake' in Latin 'argentum coluber,' to the portrait.

He cast a silencing charm on his feet, and crept up to the first-year dormitory. He saw the fat rat lying sound asleep on Ron's bed. Before the rat could wake up, he cast a stunning spell on it, making it immobile.

He removed the silencing charm from his feet and fast walked to the Hufflepuff common room, after stopping in a bathroom and removing the glamours on his face and casting a 'finite incantatem' on his tie. He, then, put the rat in a metal cage, which he had transfigured out of one end of a broken quill, with a smile on his face.

He wrapped the metal cage up in wrapping paper, which he had transfigured out of the other end of the quill, and stuck a note, and gave it to Hedwig, who had returned since giving the letter to Madam Bones.

He decided to go down to the kitchen for lunch. It wasn't like he wanted to all eyes on him again.


A/N: Sorry for taking so long to post this. I've been so busy recently, but I'm finally done, and I'll try posting one this weekend to make up for the wait. I would like to thank Arnold DeVillena for giving me the idea to have Mrs. Weasley send Ron a howler. Hope you enjoyed it!

Albusgellert69: Don't worry, making something like that happened never even crossed my mind.

Guest: I never actually thought about that. That's actually sort of creepy. . .

Angela22zuni: I'm sorry, I don't speak Spanish, so I used google translate to translate what you said. I'm going to put Hermione into the story; in fact, she should come into the story next chapter.

Stormbow: Hermione is in Ravenclaw. Sorry, I know I have a little errors like that, which I am going to go back and fix once I'm at about chapter 10ish.

Hufflepuff works for Harry. He's loyal to a fault and works hard when he has a goal in mind.

A Photoless Album: I know Harry doesn't seem like much of a Huffpuff yet, I'm going to make him more like a Hufflepuff later on. I'll try not to make Ron and Dumbledore act out of character, but if I do, I won't take offense if you tell me. I'm definitely making the rest of the Weasleys good. (Especially Gred and Forge, like come on, you can't not love Gred and Forge!)

Daithi4377: He is telling Amelia now because now, that he has access to Peter Pettigrew.

Guest: Sorry, trying to fix that.

Fic Fan: I'm going to look back and edit all the chapter after every 10thish chapter, and I'll try fixing things like that.