Head Start

by Kratos1989

Harry Potter learnt early on in his youth that if he wanted things done right, it was best to be done himself. That decision will make all the difference when he arrives to Hogwarts. Tags are inside the foreword chapter.

11. Book 1-10

Disclaimer:

I solemnly swear that the literature and works of the Harry Potter Verse belong to JK Rowling, Bloomberg and Warner Bros. The only thing I own are the one-shot ideas that popped into my head and whatever OCs I would create for them. This is a work of pure fiction made solely for fun, constructive reviews will be welcomed, flames will be ignored. Any references to characters in real-life or fiction are purely coincidental. If I could make money out of my ideas, it would be nice...

Mischief Managed Damn It!

---

Title: Book 1, Chapter 10

Posted Date: August 23 2021

Updated Date: August 24 2021

---

(October 1987)

Amelia Bones let out a tired sigh as she placed her quill on the table and rubbed her wrist while leaning against her chair, glaring at the pile of paperwork with such a passion, one would think that they would burn up from the intensity alone. A part of her wished that would happen, because the paperwork was never-ending; there were always reports of her Aurors' work to be supervised, department budgets to be adjusted, the performance updates to be sent to that fool of a Minister, the occasional disputes between departments, and the odd report that should not be allowed to exist in the first place. Even as she watched, three more paper planes entered her office and unfolded themselves without any creases before stacking themselves on the pile, not caring that she was now glaring at them with eyes promising retribution of the gods for adding to her workload.

Paperwork, the true enemy of bureaucrats everywhere.

A light chime broke her thoughts of paperwork mass destruction and drew her eyes to the scheduler that had a time slot blinking to alert her of the upcoming meeting. This particular meeting came as a surprise to her considering the person who had requested, but was willing to oblige as she had some questions of her own. Glaring once more at the pile of paperwork as though it called her mother a bad name, Amelia reached for her drawer to pull a folder and to reaffirm the details of the person she was to meet.

Jeremiah Gottwald, a half-blood who had graduated from Hogwarts in the year 1978 with Nine Outstanding in OWLs, Ten Outstanding and an Exceeds Expectations for Magical Law in NEWTs. Specializing in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, Jeremiah did not let the fact that he was muggle-raised stop him from entering the legal arena and rising to the top as one of the best solicitors around in Britain, to the point that he would actually get called in from overseas to help out in spite of his young age, maintaining contacts that included, among others, a blind lawyer with an equally successful career for getting justice the legal way. (Curiously, the few who do get away from said blind lawyer often ended up in jail within the next few days with broken bones and a list of crimes found in their pockets that would guarantee a longer stay behind bars) There were a few pure-bloods who had tried to discredit him or throw out his cases, but Jeremiah would fire back with facts and hard evidence, ensuring his cases end with his clients, usually muggle-borns or half-bloods, leaving with their heads held high and his enemies in jail or running with their tails between their legs. He had been involved with a number of DMLE cases where he ensured the families he represented, usually those with muggle-born or half-blood children, would come out on top.

A few notes from the investigator: Jeremiah was a known patriot who had served the British Muggle Army before entering the work force around 1982, and currently running a successful side business in farming oranges.

A knock on the door drew her attention to her secretary who had peeked her head through. "Madam Bones, your appointment with a Jeremiah Gottwald has arrived."

"Thank you, Cynthia. Please send him in, and if you could, tea service for two." The secretary nodded and opened the door to let in a young man of considerable height and build with messy dark hair with tints of purple present, dressed in a two-piece suit that to her charmed monocle was laden with runes and charms for security. He turned briefly to Cynthia to thank her before walking into the room, not seeing how the young woman blushed heavily in front of him. Not that Amelia could blame her, Jeremiah was a very handsome man if she may say so herself, and he carried himself in a noble manner like a knight straight out of Arthurian legends that was practically natural to him, unlike pricks like Lucius Malfoy who could only dream of acting half of what he had.

"Good afternoon, Madam Bones." Jeremiah came to her desk and held out a hand as he greeted her in a soft but deep voice. "I wish to thank you for granting this appointment."

"Your request was… unusual to say the least." Amelia returned the greeting before getting back to her seat while gesturing him to do the same. "You stated that you have suspicions about a case."

"Indeed, Madam Bones." A knock briefly paused that conversation with her secretary coming in with the tea set for them. Amelia inwardly rolled her eyes as Cynthia blushed further as she handed the cup to Jeremiah and walked away with a light skip. Oh dear, the girl was acting like a smitten Fifth-Year.

She was so going to hold this over her head for a few laughs.

"This is very nice tea." Jeremiah hummed as he took a sip.

"Cynthia would be very happy to hear that." Amelia placed her tea on the table and turned to the solicitor. "Now, what is the issue?" Jeremiah nodded as he placed his on the table and grabbed his briefcase to open it up and retrieve a folder of documents that he held on for the moment.

"I am currently representing a client to check on a possible crime perpetrated a few years ago. He only has circumstantial evidence and he did not want to cause an alarm, so he wanted a second opinion from an official standpoint." Jeremiah started talking, his expression now replaced with a serious frown. Amelia leaned back in her chair looking at the man while considering his words.

"May I ask how exactly did this come about?" Amelia asked while ensuring her wards were active to catch any lies or spells.

"My client has recently entered the British Wizarding World and found out that he had an inheritance that was passed down to him from his departed parents that he had no knowledge of. Upon consulting with the goblins and checking of documentations, it became clear that someone had actively withheld information in hopes of stealing his inheritance, which thankfully was not possible since it had been blood-locked with specific instructions to ensure no one could get through even with Polyjuice and illegally claimed blood. However, there was evidence of someone having access to the trust vault and a couple of small properties due to loopholes that were only recently plugged thanks to the goblins checking and removal of insiders. That is semi-related to the real case that my client had contacted me about." Jeremiah took the folder and placed it on the table. "It was while going through the information that he found something unusual and requested my services to see if this was true. If so, this could be a very big problem in the future if this got let out in the open."

Amelia glanced at the folder in question while waiting for the signal that it was not charmed or cursed in any manner, trying to pick out the words he spoke off and matched them to any possible crimes that she could think of. Jeremiah appeared to be telling the truth since her wards were not throwing out errors, but it would not be the first time that someone would lie to a solicitor about a supposed case. She had many examples of people attempting to portray themselves as the victims only for her Aurors to investigate and find out the truth, a good many coming from either Lucius Malfoy and his fellow 'upstanding' friends, people who worked for Dumbledore, or the odd few families working together for favors.

"Does this client have a name?" Jeremiah waved a hand to the folder.

"He does, and when you read that, you can understand why we need confidentiality on this."

A light chime and a green flow through her monocle confirmed a clean check, prompting Amelia to pick up the documents placed in front of her, her expression not changing one bit as she shuffled through the information quickly but thoroughly. At the end of it, the woman calmly placed the documents back on the table, took a long sip of her tea, removed the monocle from her eye and looked straight at Jeremiah before asking in the flattest tone possible.

"Are you shitting me?"

~ooOOoo~

(Present Time)

Harry was currently on his way to lunch, listening to Terry and Michael discuss ahead of him on their latest lesson on Transfiguration before ending off the day. It had been 2 weeks since the broom incident and the excitement had thankfully calmed down for the most part, with a few of his fellow first-years still trying to wrap their heads around the fact that one of their own nearly fell to her death while another managed to save her with a magic style that was new to them. The Ravenclaw Seniors and his Head-of-House were interested to ask about the pillars he had set up for the lesson, so he gave them a brief overview of what he did while demonstrating on a small pot of dirt, supposedly using Transfiguration and a good amount of imagination to imprint runes and symbols to do the barrier, but added that what he did was considered family magic to avoid them trying to learn more. Filius did take him aside later to confirm if he had withheld information on that, and nodded in approval on his choice of words, commenting how most would likely attempt to recreate what he did and try to pass it as their own.

Harry did not bother mentioning how much of the ideas and creations came from a mix of mundane science and films so that most people would not be able to recreate his work, nor about the patents he had already gotten for his ideas just in case people attempt to recreate them despite his warnings of them being family magic. Evidently the punishment of being sent to Azkaban or an honor duel was not a good deterrent for a few persistent people.

On the topic of persistent people, Harry got summoned to a meeting with Dumbledore the day after the incident. He arrived with Professor Flitwick to find him behind his table, Professor Snape standing in the corner of the room, and a new guest chair for him to sit in. It seemed innocuous enough, but his recent purchase of a spell scanner was heating up and vibrating hard in his pocket at the potential spells on the chair. Harry merely refused the option to sit while giving the reason that he had been sitting at his desk too long that he needed to move his legs 'else they would fall asleep', offering the chair instead to his head-of-house who promptly switched the chair with another.

Oh, the look of the old man's face was really funny.

After some brief attempts to have an open conversation, Dumbledore started the meeting by asking about the magic used during the lessons and how he saved Lisa, constantly switching between the events to try and trip him up, even insinuating at one point that it was his spell work that had contributed to the brooms losing control and the near fatal fall of Lisa. Professor Flitwick proceeded to tear the old wizard a new one and proving that Harry did not do so, adding that it was his set of spells that had prevented multiple others from falling and only those flying outside the barrier were at risk since the spells found on the brooms were clearly meant to have people lose control of the brooms. Filius had also made sure to get his report on the brooms out of the castle to the commission, meaning Dumbledore cannot try to keep this in-house as he had attempted with Harry when he summoned him before.

Too bad for him, Harry had already gotten that tidbit about the brooms out of the castle through the mail-box the evening before.

It was also gratifying to know that the conditions from the restraining order were now reinforced as evidenced by Dumbledore when he kept stumbling on the different restrictions going along, in particular his attempts to address Harry informally. The expression shown on his face was quite amusing, and it was clear that Dumbledore was not used to being stonewalled from getting information that he wanted.

There was also the bit where he got the reply from the education disciplinary department regarding that altercation with Weasley and the manner Dumbledore had handled the incident; while they could not do much outside of giving a warning to the old wizard, they had ensured that Weasley was properly punished and made it clear to the headmaster that he had a black mark on his record. Much to his amusement, the department had sent a thank-you card to Harry for reporting to them, as most did not know about them to begin with and Albus kept quiet on a lot of matters, so officially complying with procedures meant they had a foothold to hold him accountable, not to mention they were finally acknowledged to exist.

Harry had the card and letter framed up in his room right next to his bed.

Dumbledore had attempted again to ask for leniency from the restriction only to be get his tongue tied up many times, so he ended up dismissing Filius and Harry from the office. At least the latest Legilimency attempt from him was brief so Harry did not bother sniping back, though he raised an eyebrow at Snape when he felt one attempt from him, to which the professor merely tilted his head lightly with something passing for an apologetic expression on his face before schooling back to a blank expression when the old wizard turned around to ask him something before the door closed.

Harry knew that Dumbledore technically broke the restraining order already by attempting to read his mind from their first meeting, the only issue was proving the attempts; Harry may be the 'Boy-Who-Lived' (damn, did he hate that moniker), but when compared to the man of multiple accomplishments and more importantly the Defeater of Grindelwald, he may as well be insignificant. That old wizard had obtained his current titles without getting obstructed by people who may have something on him but could not get it to stick to him like he was made of Teflon, and most certainly, Dumbledore would not fall so easily as the mere words of a boy. Given the already present difficulty in proving the mental intrusions, Harry would need a lot of evidence and some major maneuvering if he wanted to chink that armor.

There was also the possibility of Dumbledore using proxies to do his spying, and he knew he was doing it given how some of the ghosts, portraits and especially elves were going about following him. While humans were easier to handle, the ghosts and elves were harder since he did not have a proper defense around them yet, with the latter only getting some progress, while the portraits could more or less be circumvented by taking routes with less wall space to let them be hung, even if it meant that he could potentially be ambushed at those spots. Harry was very thankful with the multiple anti-tracking charms and protection ward he had on himself to ensure that no one attempted to come after him, but made sure to have something on hand just in case the old man or his proxies would attempt to waylay him or something.

It was just practicing constant vigilance!

(Somewhere in London, a certain soon-to-retire Auror had the sudden desire to push the cadets into revising anti-tracking charms and protection wards, thus spending the afternoon punishing… no, 'training' his victims… 'cadets!' to redoing their entire charm-works. All the cadets were cursing under their breath at his zealousness, to which he replied that he was inspired to make sure they practiced Constant Vigilance!)

In any case, Harry was just glad that no one was truly hurt from that lesson outside of some bruising and fright. Lisa took a while to calm down, unfortunately it would seem that she would be having a fear of heights for the near future. She stuck close to Harry during those few weeks as they went about class so he had to reassure her when certain sounds or the sight of people flying on brooms made her freeze for a time. After that she started being her old self although she still stuck around him and the others at the present.

Although he was wondering for a while why some of the seniors were snickering and giggling, while Padma was lightly pouting along with Terry and Su palming their faces.

"Yes, we are free for the day!" Terry raised his arms to cheer on the upcoming weekend.

"We still have a lot of homework to go through, and revisions to be done for the upcoming test." Michael shot down Terry's dreams harder than a boulder. "We might need to deal with them quickly if you want to relax."

"Damn it!"

"Language." The trio turned to find Hermione coming up with Justin and a despondent looking Neville.

"It is the British English of her Royal Majesty!" Terry gave an over-the-top proclamation with raised arm and all, to which Michael gave a mocking applause while Harry palmed his face in mock embarrassment.

"Boys." Hermione shook her head.

"Indeed, boys." Su quipped as she came from behind with Padma and Lisa.

"Anyone feeling like we are getting ganged up by the girls here?" Justin asked with a raised eyebrow. Harry, Terry, Michael, Neville and a few other male students in the general area nodded as one at his question, while Hermione, Padma, Su, Lisa and other females about them rolled their eyes at their reaction.

"I believe it is our fate to feel the pain." Michael answered in a solemn tone before yelping from the hits to the back of his head that the girls behind him decided he deserved.

"You were asking for it." Harry quipped as they walked down the hallway to the Great Hall.

"Yeah, yeah, I got it." Michael raised his arms in mock surrender to get the girls to stop, making the lot of them huffed in reply and move on with their heads held high. The other guys just chuckled in good nature at the result.

"So, how are your lessons?" Harry asked as they sat at the Hufflepuff table to grab some food. Harry had pointed out that outside of feasts and special occasions, there was nothing stopping them from visiting other tables and eating there. They ended up starting a trend where everyone moved to each other's tables to talk about anything, although Slytherin was still not visited more out of fear and habit, since the seniors would get a little trigger-happy with their spells. That did not mean the younger Slytherins did not visit others, with the exception of Gryffindor, but that was a given considering how Ronald Weasley was loudly proclaiming to all that the 'junior death eaters' was coming to curse them.

What an idiot.

"Today's lessons are fine, though Finnigan seems to forget that he needs to be changing items and not setting them on fire." Hermione placed her fingers to the bridge of her nose as she answered. "I have to wonder if he has some innate ability to spontaneously set fire on anything he cast."

"No kidding, just the other day, he was supposed to charm the water into different colors, yet he manages to set fire to everyone's cups at the same time." Justin's shoulders shook a fair bit as he attempted to contain his laughter. "Professor Flitwick looked torn between wanting to scold him and to bang his head against the table. I think he did both after the lesson."

"Finnigan does have a handle on that charm now, right?" Padma asked with a touch of trepidation, not surprising considering how she was almost introduced to one of Seamus Finnigan's explosions face-to-face.

"Erm…" Hermione looked at them before glancing away with an awkward chuckle.

Yeah, that did not fill them with confidence. Let's change the subject.

"Neville, are you okay?" Harry asked the boy who had been looking at his plate with a sullen expression for a while.

"We had a bit of a problem in Transfiguration earlier with the Slytherins. We were supposed to transfigure different items to try and combine into one object." Justin started talking while placing a hand on Neville's shoulders. "Neville had some trouble trying to change the items, and that Smith guy kept making fun of him."

"Zacharias Smith?" Harry's lips thinned as he recalled his previous interactions with the arrogant boy who appeared to be representing the rougher and darker aspect of Slytherin with how he kept looking down on others and how he was meant for greatness. How on earth did he ever expect going to Hufflepuff with that attitude, he had no idea but he was so glad that he did not do so. He did not want to inflict the headaches on Diggory or Susan Bones.

"That guy." Justin nodded with a set jaw. "Then later in Charms, Weasley kept on harping on Neville being unable to perform a spell properly. Called him a Squib?" Justin turned to the magically raised students to confirm the naming. "What is a Squib?"

"A term given to those born in a magical family, with at least one magical parent, but do not have access to their inner magic. It is the complete opposite of magical children born between 2 mundane parents like you and Hermione." Harry answered while understanding the issue at hand. Neville had told him on the train how his family had treated him like the black sheep for not having a lot of magic to perform, but clearly left out how much people kept making fun of him.

"Weasley and Finnigan have been getting on my nerves with their behaviors, but this is really too much." Hermione growled as she looked at her plate of potatoes with her fork positioned in a manner like she wanted to stab them. "They keep on calling Neville those stupid names and making fun of him, as though they are any better. That Weasley is practically useless!"

"Don't bother." Neville spoke out at this point with a sad tone. "I am just that useless."

"No, you are not useless, we just need to figure out why you are having problems. Actually," Justin turned to Harry with a thoughtful expression. "Maybe you have an idea?" Harry raised an eyebrow at that.

"Hear me out a minute. You are more or less the acknowledged magical genius of our year, and you have lots of ideas that proved useful to others in lessons. Maybe you could help us figure out why Neville has so many problems in the subjects requiring wands. Potions I can understand, he's too afraid at what Professor Snape would do if he messed up and then messes up really badly. But we have tried different methods of explaining him a spell and it just doesn't help." Justin explained. Harry hummed as he took a bite of his food, mentally thinking of the different possibilities.

"I might have an idea or two; Ravenclaw first years do not have any lessons later so we can look into it after lunch then." Harry turned to his fellow Ravenclaws "What about you guys?"

"We will just go and revise a little, and get through our homework." Su answered before slumping. "One problem, the library is going to be crowded along with our dorms, and I could use some help with the spells."

"Our usual spots will be taken since we were released early, and we can't exactly cast spells without setting stuff on fire or supervision." Michael pointed that out. "I guess we would need to go back to our rooms to do our work." The others sighed while Hermione and Justin looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

"So, you guys need a place to do our homework in peace along with revision?" Harry asked and got nods in return. He took a sip of his bottled water before throwing out a thought. "I might know a spot."

"You do?" Padma asked in interest.

"I need to do a check on my work later, and considering our current discussions, I might as well kill three birds with one stone." Harry gestured his hand at them even as the magically raised had an expression that spoke of them wondering why he wanted to kill birds, "I can bring you guys to my assigned lab-room so that we can do our work and help Neville with his problem at the same time. It should be big enough for us."

"Lab-room?" It was comical to see the Ravenclaws and Hermione asking that at the same time. Harry merely gave a smile and continued eating even if they were questioning him.

After a quick lunch, Harry found himself herding a small ragtag group of Ravenclaws, Hufflepuffs and one Gryffindor to the place that would solve the Ravenclaw's desire for a quiet spot to study and a spot for him to help with Neville's issue. A good number of other students paused to watch this group with raised eyebrows, while some of the more antagonistic try to stop them from continuing only to suddenly trip or find something else to do. Terry looked at him with a side glance to which Harry answered with a shrug and a small smirk, letting him know that he was correct in guessing his hand in this.

Harry had asked Hermione and Padma regarding Parvati but was told that she would be doubling down on her studies and so won't be coming for the time being, though the latter did express some doubt considering how disruptive Lavender Brown was like. Susan Bones joined the group midway through their lunch and tagged along because she was curious about what was the issue with Neville since they were toddlers and hoped he knew something to help, while Sally Ann Perks was a shy young girl whom Susan took under her wing to ensure no one picked on her. Justin was coming along because he was interested of what could be done to help Neville and if it could apply to others. Michael had to go meet Professor Flitwick so he begged off with the promise that he could visit the supposed quiet place the next time.

The group got more curious as he led them to the junction that would lead to the Ravenclaw Tower and took a right down the corridor that was not frequented by many students, walking past many doors that looked a lot more dated and damaged than the current ones used in their classrooms, not helped when there were obvious signs of chemical spillage and explosions that charred the wood and the walls.

"Why are there so many abandoned classrooms?" Padma could not help but note all of those they had walked past.

"There are a few reasons for it, though the primary reason would be from the war started by Grindelwald in the 1940s and the Blood Civil War waged by Voldemort. Many families got entirely wiped out, otherwise many young wizards and witches died before they could have children or only have one child in cases like mine and Susan." Harry directed an apologetic expression towards the girl in question who gave a sad smile in return. "Second reason: other families, primarily pure-blood lines, tend to have one magical child. Good examples would be the Malfoys, Parkinsons, Crabbes and Goyles. This reduced the number of children born significantly. There might be other reasons that we have yet to discover, but we can expect to see a large number of students coming to Hogwarts within the next couple of years, since there is likely a baby boom after the fall of Voldemort. Ah, here we are."

The group stopped before a door that was significantly cleaner and more 'modern' if compared to the other doors in the corridor. Harry reached into his pocket to pull out an odd-looking key with symbols etched on the surface and inserted into the keyhole as he flicked out his wand to insert into a hole next to that. He appeared to have applied a Lumos to pulse the light a few times before turning the key and unlocking the door with the sounds of several bolts going off at once.

"You placed security for this room?" Terry blinked at that action.

"This is the room assigned to me for my experiments and personal studies. Ravenclaws are allowed certain classrooms to conduct experiments to avoid destroying our dormitory in case they are explosive. But we are tasked to ensure no one can just randomly enter the rooms without permission." Harry answered as he pocketed the wand and the key before touching his hand to the door where an insignia was etched into. "Any of us assigned to a classroom are given cart blanche to put up whatever security required with the provision that the security is not lethal. Mine is just a little more complicated because some of the ideas I have might be considered a touch radical by Britain's standards, not to mention the novelty of it being done by me would have those stalkers coming." Harry gave a slight shudder at that.

"I wonder if I can get my own room to study in?" Everyone's mouth twitched at the query by Hermione, knowing that having a room of her own to conduct her own ideas and work in peace would likely be a good gift for her.

"If you guys want to have your own room, you need to convince your respective Head-of-House, or you could go grab an unused classroom if you want to try your luck. Plenty of the students do the latter, but you run the risk of others coming across it and taking the room for their own or sabotage the items, let alone the professors who might stop your work. If I recall correctly, Professor Sprout does allow her house members their own classroom to do some personal gardening provided it is strictly for studies or personal medical use, and they are not meant to grow anything illegal or ingredients meant for Class A potions. Professor Snape allows his students two dedicated classrooms strictly for potions making but he does spot-check randomly to make sure they are not attempting to brew any illegal potions that could send them to the DMLE. I do not know about Gryffindor's requirements, but I do know there are a few who just grab their own empty classroom to do whatever they want. For us Ravenclaws, it highly depends on what we want to do." Harry answered her query and then continued based on the expressions on the Ravenclaws and Hermione's faces.

"If we are only doing it for simple studies and spells, Professor Flitwick can provide a smaller classroom for us to conduct them in a safe environment. For those who wish to do more practical work like me, a list of experiments and their proposed usages are to be submitted to Professor Flitwick that could be approved for future work. If he considers it, you must be able to demonstrate your knowledge in handling said experiments, along with him conducting a bi-weekly update to see if we are able to handle our experiments and not doing anything illegal. His incentive for us is that we can get a bigger classroom and some spare equipment over the coming years if we can produce results." That certainly got his fellow house members very interested, while Hermione looked jealous at that point.

"I am currently the third First-Year for this semester to have my own lab, the other two are from Hufflepuff and Slytherin respectively. The reason I even had the room is because as part of my deal to come to Hogwarts, I need a place to perform my own set of experiments which I had demonstrated to Professor Flitwick beforehand. The professor approved them and granted me some leeway to conduct my work in peace and safety along with conditions to not blow up the room." Harry chuckled as he stood aside to let them enter the room that was very dim inside. "Evidently, Ravenclaws account for an average of 5 destroyed classrooms from experiments alone every year. Professor Flitwick was really emphasizing what I should be conducting when I got this."

"Er, Harry? It is very dark." Su commented as she looked about, vaguely making out some details from a few glowing domes with plants in them. "Aren't there any windows here?" Harry entered the room at this point, and his answer came in the form of him reaching around the door and hitting something, causing something to flicker above before the others lightly winced from the sudden glare of light. They looked up to find a glowing glass tube with PVC trunking that many muggle-raised would know of.

"Harry, is that electrical lighting?" Justin asked in disbelief.

"It is." Harry smiled, knowing what was coming next.

"But electricity does not work well around magic, it was stated in 'Hogwarts, A History' that devices running on them kept breaking down." Hermione piped in with the words from her favorite book while looking at the lamp wide eyed. The magically-raised students on their part were too mystified of the glowing object on top, only to be brought back to reality when Terry looked about the room. "Whoa, you have quite the setup."

Indeed, the classroom that they were in had been completely transformed to look like an actual room as opposed to the usual solid stone features. It was big enough to possibly house the current set of first years if not three-quarters of them, which meant Harry had taken the time and effort to segregate the space into whatever he wanted, something he had decided to apply the same principles that he had used at his hideaway back home with a few tweaks to the layout. The room had been segregated into smaller areas, each marked out with a very obvious color to designate the type of equipment he had or experiments he was doing.

On the side from which they entered through the door, there were a couple of whiteboards with different formulas and lists of tasks to be done. In place of the old chalkboard, there appeared to be some tagboard that was covered with different bits of paper and parchments with a small filament tube to give better lighting.

At the far left of the room, it had been closed off by some simple wood frames and netting to create what appeared to be a simple greenhouse that housed the small domes of plants seen earlier in the dark. Through the mesh, they could see what looked to be plants grown in plumbing and a light sheet of water flowing down the wall and collected around a stone basin that had other plants floating in it. Next to that were five doors that had roman numerals and symbols to supposedly designate the purpose, such as the yellow bolt of lightning on the first door, mathematical symbols on the second, a pictogram of a beaker crossed with two vials over a cauldron supposedly to represent potions, an unknown pictogram showcasing a cross entwined with a snake and vines, and the last one rather concerning to Hermione, a symbol that represented explosive materials.

On the right side of the room, one corner had been converted to into a reading-slash-comfort area for his own use, consisting of a table laden with folders of documents and a cup, a cabinet with books of different types that got the Ravenclaws' attention, a simple chair with light cushioning, and a slightly worn-out looking couch that was clearly from the local second-hand stores from downtown London as it did not fit the other furniture at all. Picture frames and nature paintings adorned that corner of the room and finished with a small lamp above to give it a touch of homely feeling.

Next to that were two more doors that were unmarked but given a color code that supposedly made sense to Harry, and after that were two smaller tables laden with an assortment of items and another cabinet with books behind glass doors, locked with what appeared to be some weird looking cog gear on it. And finally in the middle of the room was a very big table that had different folders, Bunsen burners heating test-tubes and glassware, some sort of drawing, all of which was behind some glowing field of magic.

"Harry, how did you manage to get all of this set up?" Hermione looked around with eyes wide open, sharing a similar look with the Ravenclaws in the group who gave the impression of entering Aladdin's cave.

"A lot of time and effort, with a little help of magic." Harry held out a small book and a pen to them. "Before moving on, can each of you please write your name on this page? I need to set the permissions before you can continue."

"More security?" Terry asked while writing his name down and passing it to Padma who looked at the pen curiously, likely recognizing something similar from the regular muggle subjects being taken.

"This is supposed to be the bare minimum, when I asked Professor Flitwick, he told me there was an entire set of rules regarding the security of classrooms being used for experiments. It is to ensure that accountability can be tracked in the event something goes wrong. Apparently over the years, many forget to set it or forgo it completely, so a lot of people get hurt from sabotage, or they got the bad end of a corporate espionage." Harry answered. "Once you enter your name, the book will keep track until you leave the room, by which point it will reset to ensure no one else comes along, so if you do not sign your name into the book or someone attempts to take anything without permission, they would be thrown out of the room at the least. It does not matter even if you try to sign with a different name as it will tag you once you write in the book. This is a one-time access though, because I do not know if you wish to come here again."

"If this is as interesting as it looks, I do not mind coming back again." Justin looked about with interest. "And with the security, it would be a safe haven from people like the Weasley Twins." The others nodded as one at that.

"Not to mention the charm removal wards." Harry added while Sally wrote her name in.

"Charm removal wards?" Okay, Harry was getting a little worried for Hermione; she seemed to be panting hard and blushing for some reason as she asked that question.

"There is a ward designed to remove tracking charms, compulsion charms, listening charms, and a whole bunch of other spells that deal with espionage around the general area of my room, as long as someone walks through it, all of those spells would be removed. There is another ward specifically inside this room in the event that other spells are triggered upon removal of those spells, along with an intent based ward." Harry explained as Hermione wrote her name in last while listening to his words. "I got that set up once I got the room; this is to ensure no one tries to get into my room and grab my stuff that easily, if not listen to whatever I say that could be used to reverse engineer my work. I am also looking into a charm to ensure that anyone who does listen to what I say cannot speak a word about it without permission. In the event people do manage to get past the wards and try to touch my stuff without permission, all would be port-keyed to different locations at once to ensure not all would be lost, and if the person happens to catch a ride on them, they would be stuck for quite a while."

"... He sounds just like Uncle Moody." Susan mumbled wide-eyed while the others looked at him like he had grown an extra head.

"Are you referring to one Alastor Moody?" Harry turned to her with a slightly exasperated expression. "If so, can you tell me if I really sound just like him?" Susan nodded slowly. "Do you know if I can write to him about something? He sounds like someone I can pick his brain about something."

"No~ you do not need to do that!" Susan waved her hands while sporting a pale face "He is really busy, best not to disturb him at work! You do not have to concern yourself on that! HAHAHA!" Everyone looked to her trying to keep it together while muttering about the end of the world or something if he and this Alastor Moody were to meet.

That was it, he was so going to write a letter after this.

"Right, that's all of you." Harry took back the notebook and tapped it with his wand, making it glow briefly. "Until you leave this room, you are my guests unless there is aggressive action or spells involving compulsions or the like being cast. Now that we have settled that arrangement, let's see what is Mister Longbottom's issue." He turned to the Ravenclaws briefly "You guys wanted a place to study, the seats are over there with a table. I'm afraid I do not have much to offer in refreshments, and I must apologize for the mess. I was not expecting guests this early on." Harry slightly grumbled at the items on his table. He was usually neater than this.

"It's okay." Terry waved a hand while smiling. "My room is messier than this." The few males grinned in agreement while the girls in the room collectively rolled their eyes at this proclamation, likely thinking of the stereotype of boys.

"Here let me clean up a little." Harry waved a hand and the items started to lift off the table and moved to another where they stacked themselves nicely or arranged without hitting anything. Harry nodded before turning and pausing. "What?"

"I am so wanting to learn how you do that." Terry declared with a passion while the others nodded as one. Harry chuckled as he motioned Neville forward.

"I dare say by the end of today, many of you would end up trying it out if my idea works for Neville." He turned to the boy in question as he considered what was discussed earlier. "Now, I understand there is an issue with your spell-casting."

"Yes." Neville answered despondently. "I just can't get any spells to work at all." Harry ignored his behavior as he considered the available options.

"Okay, let's start with the simple color changing charm. Can you change this object into a different color like a bright yellow, please?" Harry pulled out one of the random junk items he had from a box and placed it on the table, stepping back to let the boy demonstrate.

Neville took a deep breath and tried to concentrate with Hermione giving out a tip, before waving his wand and saying out the incantation. The junk item glowed briefly and turned slowly to a dirty yellow before stopping. Harry stepped forward to examine the item with a keen eye while the other Ravenclaws alternated their sights on both him and Neville, their mindset now switched to that of junior researchers.

"Hmm, there is nothing wrong with the wand movement and the incantation, those were absolutely correct. You tried to imagine the effect, right?" Terry asked Neville who nodded sadly.

"I could see the spell actually taking effect on the junk item, but then something seemed to restrict the flow and the spell start to lose strength." Su pointed to the junk item at a certain spot. "You can see where the spell first hit it that it is the brightest and spread out evenly before sputtering out."

"There is an odd wavering of the energy when the spell started to sputter out." Lisa added as she looked closer.

"It always happens this way." Neville's shoulders slumped as he glared at his feet. "My family is right; I am just a!"

"I know what you are thinking, so let me stop you there and say once and for all that you are not a Squib, otherwise Hogwarts would not have sent out the letter if you do not have the power and the potential to use that. You got the spell working, so there is something else interfering." Harry spoke out at this point and turned to take in Neville before his eyes laid on the wand that had bothered him a couple of times with the aged look.

"Neville, if I may ask, how long did it take for the wand to select you?" Neville blinked at that question.

"Huh, what do you mean? This was my dad's wand. Gran gave it to me and said I should use it to make my dad proud and be more like him." Neville answered confused. Behind him, Harry could see Susan and Padma sucked in a breath at that while those new-bloods were looking confused with Hermione catching on fast with the realization.

"That right there is your problem, the wand currently in your hand is not compatible so you would not get the best results as you would with a proper wand. Wand makers like Ollivander would inform you that the wand chooses the wizard, not the other way around." Harry answered while wondering if Neville's grandmother even considered that she was sabotaging Neville's lessons. Looking at his expression made Harry consider something reckless on his part. "I have a few ideas at this. The first obvious one would be to let you have a new wand matched to you. Either we get you to a wand maker or we can try a substitute focus later but that will have to be done later unless we can get Professor Sprout to let you see someone over the weekend."

"And the second idea?" Terry asked, to which Harry gave a smile as he held a hand to Neville.

"You guys wanted to learn a trick from me, you got it. First, place your wand away." Neville looked to the others before placing the wand back into his robes. "Okay, before I continue, I need to confirm. How does your magic feel every time you try to use it?" The boy frowned as he considered the question.

"It feels like I am trying to push water through a funnel that is clogged, and it tends to hurt when I pushed harder." Harry gave a frown of his own at that description.

"Okay, I need to tweak this a bit. Neville, close your eyes and steady the breathing. Then imagine your magic like a seed." Harry gave his instructions and simplifying it for the boy with a love for Herbology. He waited for Neville before continuing "Now based on your description, I would say that you have been hurting yourself for a while. Imagine yourself trying to heal your magic seed each time you take a breath, imagine that you are doing whatever it is to protect your seed to help it heal and grow stronger. Take your time until your seed is healed." After a while, Harry could tell that it was working as there was a minor glow around the center of his chest with each breath he took, not visible to the others who were watching his back.

"Okay, now let's break it out down with a Lumos, shall we? Imagine the incantation as the soil, the movements as the necessary nutrients, and the intent as the water; these are the necessary components to grow that seed. You want your seed to sprout with the spell as your flower." Harry watched as Neville scrunched up his face. "Don't think too hard, you are doing your gardening. You want to make your seed grow properly." Harry raised a finger to silence the others who wanted to ask something. From what he had seen, Neville worked best if he did not have people interrupting and scrutinizing his actions.

"You have your soil, your nutrients and your water feeding your seed. Now time to nurture your seed so that it can grow. Imagine a leaf coming out of its shell, then the stem growing out of it." Harry came closer and placed a finger lightly on Neville's chest around the center, before trailing it along to the shoulder. "Imagine the seedling growing to your shoulder and around your arm, slowing gaining more leaves and gaining strength." Harry continued trailing his finger until it hit the wrist just short of Neville's hand. "The process is almost complete. Hang on to that feeling! Image a flower bud at the end of it and hold it there!" Through his senses, Harry could feel that Neville was right at the threshold.

Time to push it.

"Remember the spell you are performing, the incantation, the wand movement, and your intent to have it out. These are the components to make your seed bloom. The stem is now going around your hand and the bud is on your finger tip." Harry lightly raised Neville's arm only for the boy to raise it himself while still concentrating on the image, the index finger out in the air. "You have the image in your mind, now then…" Harry paused as he walked back a few steps. "Say the incantation and let the flower bloom."

"Lumos." Neville lightly spoke while moving his hand, and the result was his finger lighting up like a high-powered torch. Harry let out a smile with the others muttering in excitement, pleased that Neville was still focusing.

"You got the flower blooming in your mind? Time to view your work, Neville." The boy opened his eyes at that and gasped at the light coming off of his finger. He then looked to his other fingers briefly before smiling at the now glowing digits going off like Christmas lights, a single stray tear coming off one eye and some happy laughter coming out of his mouth.

"Now, that is a simple test." Harry pointed to the same junk item that had reverted back to its original state. "Let's see if you can do the same with the color changing charm. Think through the steps slowly, then try it out." Neville took a moment to center himself before doing the same exercise and applied the charm to the junk item, this time making it change the surface color fully to a bright yellow.

"Congratulations, Mister Longbottom. 5 points for your first wandless spell attempt." Harry gave his best professor impression before smiling as Neville cheered with the others coming together to congratulate him. "How do you feel now?"

"Great, it feels so natural." Neville cheered before he wobbled a little and placed a hand on the desk with Justin grabbing his shoulder to steady him. "But that also made me feel tired for some reason."

"You only just started with using your magic properly, and without your wand for that attempt. Magic is a muscle that needs to be trained, and from what you have told us, your magic has been hurt for some time using an incompatible wand, so it is understandable that you would feel tired at this." Harry explained. "I would recommend taking breaks to relax your magic before attempting another spell. If you plan to do this again, start with the simpler spells before moving up the tiers."

"What is with the imaging?" Justin asked while helping Neville to a chair.

"Imagination is essential when trying to have your magic behave in the way you want. For Neville with his love of Herbology, the best way for him to get spells right would be to imagine them as plants for him to 'grow'. It would serve as a trigger for him if he wished to cast spells in the future."

"Does it have to be plants?" Padma asked as she somehow produced a quill and parchment from somewhere and writing it all down, with Hermione following suit.

"It can be anything you want to help you focus better." Harry answered. "I use an image to act as a trigger to cast my spells depending on the situation. For the most part, I just think of my magic like a puppy, and regarding the actions to perform, I would imagine what would Obiwan Kenobi or Yoda do." That answer got the new-bloods grinning in recognition while the magically-raised tilted their heads to the side.

"Oh, so that was where you got the idea of saving Lisa!" Justin placed a fist into the palm as he remembered that incident. "It was practically a repeat of what Yoda did with the X-Fighter! Star Wars for the win!"

"What is 'Star Wars'?" Terry asked that question at the others, with the magically raised shrugging while the remainder looked at them like they had sinned against their gods.

"Only the best science fiction film series there is." Justin gave the proclamation. The magically raised looked more confused, prompting him to turn to Harry. "Since you managed to get the lamps working, do you think we can get movie night in this castle? We must show them the power of the Force!" Harry opened his mouth only to pause and think carefully. While the lighting was his goal, there were other applications that could be done with electricity that he had planned, but movie night required projectors, so that would mean one of the old school film projectors seen in Hollywood. And if he could hook one up…

"Harry, you are doing that mental thinking again." Terry lightly prodded his shoulder to snap him out of his thoughts.

"Does he do that often?" Susan asked the Ravenclaw girls who smiled in response.

"Quite a few times. When he gets an idea in his head, he tends to run off on a tangent." Padma answered with a teasing smile. "So far, only Professor Flitwick can understand what he is thinking."

"Sorry, just something Justin said about movie night got me thinking of other applications that I could try with the electricity." Harry scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I do wonder if I can get an old school projector to work in places with high levels of mana."

"Can we see some of your experiments?" Hermione asked with a very curious expression on her face as she looked about the room. Harry decided to tease them at this.

"What about your homework or you wanting to know how to cast wandless? We only have a few hours before we get called back to our dorms." That got all of his guests pausing and agonizing at the choices. "How about this, if you really wish for to look around my lab, I can grant you a quick tour as I go about checking on the experiments, after which we can handle our homework and if time permits, I can give a quick lesson in wandless magic? Would that be fine?" Eager nods from the group made Harry gave a fake sigh of resignation. "Very well then, what do you wish to know or look at first?"

"How can electricity work in Hogwarts?" Hermione raised her arm and waved eagerly just like her time in the classrooms. Harry's mouth twitched at that and the possible reaction from his answer.

"That is a good question, but allow me to ask you this." Harry raised a hand as he moved to the door marked with the lightning bolt. "Diagon Alley is located at Charing Cross Road between a bookshop and an old record shop, while the current Ministry of Magic is located at Whitehall, smacked in the heart of London, correct?" Most looked confused while Hermione nodded to the first and Susan nodded to the second. "There lies the hint. If magic is known to interfere with the functionality of any technology running on electricity, why then do the shops and other buildings not suffer any electrical blackouts or faults?"

"Maybe not enough magic interfering with them?" Su provided a possible answer.

"That is one idea that is being played about here. I have been playing around with some of the items to see how magic affects electricity in both those locations and in Hogwarts, each item had a very different reaction to say the least. However, there could be another reason as to why electrical appliances supposedly don't work." Harry talked while doing something to unlock the door and letting them inside to find a smaller room which for those raised in muggle culture, appeared to be a cross of a modern generator room and a mad scientist gone wild with his tinkering. On the left side of the room, several tables were bunched together against the wall hosting several devices with small frames of mesh surround them and a small blinking light that supposedly told Harry that they were working. In the center of the room was a lone table with what looked to be items broken apart to do whatever he had planned, along with something that tickled the new-bloods at the back of their heads for the familiarity. On the right side of the room, an old school mechanical generator chugging away in the corner silently, telling them there was a silencing charm placed on it. Next to that, there was an unusual metallic tablet laden with runes, symbols and metallic stripes affixed to the wall with cables connecting it to the electrical trunking that they realized was connected to the lights outside.

"I thought you can only have one classroom assigned?" Terry asked looking at the scale of the room.

"I do, this used to be a small store room that Professor Flitwick helped to cast a spell called the Space Expansion Charm that increases the internal dimensions of the targeted object, thus increasing the capacity. It is the same thing as you would normally get from your school trunks and the examples I had shown on the train. This spell is apparently around the OWL level and is heavily regulated by the Ministry, so I had to get permission and had the professor cast the spell for me to use this room. The other doors lead to other store rooms or a broom cupboard for one with the same spell applied." Harry explained.

"Are these Faraday cages?" Justin pointed to the closest that had an actual radio inside it, noting that it was playing a news channel from downtown London. "And is that radio actually working?!"

"Yes, these are some of the experiments I am working out to understand why magic interferes with electricity so much. Some of these are related to how Innovatio Alley is able to have electricity on their end as well." Harry nodded as he walked to the table in question. "From what I can tell, proper shielding helps to dampen the effects to some extent, the size will be heavily dependent for the amount required. But there are other effects that make me suspect of other issues."

"No offence to the pure-bloods or magic-raised half-bloods, but the Wizarding World has been stuck in a bit of a time-bubble of sorts since the signing of the Stature in 1689, and you can tell from the architecture in Diagon Alley that much has not changed since then." Hermione, Justin and a couple of others nodded heavily at that. "That includes much of the understanding with modern technology, and for electricity, things do get either misinterpreted, or a little explosive."

"Explosive?" The others took a few steps back at that.

"Benjamin Franklin discovered static electricity and lightning were one and the same in 1752, Michael Faraday demonstrated the prototype that would form the basis of the electric motor and generator in 1831, and then Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. In between these years, research on electricity tend to be explosive without proper containment and at times regarded as a semi-quasi magical force used to resurrect the dead. I believe most have heard if not read the novel Frankenstein? That was after the 1771 Luigi Galvani experiments with electricity and frog legs." Harry explained. "With electricity being at the infancy and with the cutoff from the mundane world due to the stature, odds were that there were too many explosions and misconceptions to warrant the usage."

"Fear of the unknown breeds mistrust." Su remarked.

"That is one of the main reasons." Harry nodded. "So even with the advancements in controlling electricity, most magical folks would not want to have it here since in their minds, it would not be feasible. It comes down to laziness and slight information controlling since the ones handling the newspapers would be out of business."

"But you had proven it can be done." Terry gestured to the room.

"That is that. There is also the magical field that comes from our own magic that would interfere with the electromagnetic field generated from electricity, hence why devices tend to short out. In places like Hogwarts, it would be the equivalent of connecting a low powered light bulb to a power source equivalent of a sports car engine and ramping it up from the get-go." Harry answered while using his hands to mimic a light bulb blowing up.

"I see, so that means you need to remove the magical field that could be affecting the electricity." Justin nodded. "Hence the Faraday cages."

"That is that, and once I figured that part out, it becomes a question of getting a source to work properly in this environment." Harry pointed out the generator and the odd tablet on the wall. "So far, the old-school fuel generator works, but it would need petrol which can be hard to get around here in the highlands, not to mention it being not environmentally friendly in the long term. Another old school method is mechanical, but I left that back home. The other method, as you can see by the wall, is a cross between magic and modern engineering, something I had done back home on a larger scale. I am looking into renewable sources to see if it is feasible."

"So that is what is powering the lights. That second method?" Hermione looked like she wanted to touch the tablet but dared not disrupt it. "Oh, now I really want to know about Runes. Candle light is not very good for my eyes if I want to read at night."

"Not just that, I am using symbology as my basis." Harry decided to give that little tidbit. "Now Professor Flitwick knows this as part of my research, and while this had yet to be confirmed, we might start installing the light fixtures in the dorms first as a proof of concept."

"Mate, that would be great!" Justin cheered at that. "It would be nice to have an actual lamp to read under."

"But what if this does not work?" Susan asked as she alternated her head at the tablet and the light fixture.

"If I were to restrict this to strictly lighting and smaller devices like radios, there is another version of this that utilizes the equivalent of batteries so that they do not short out in the environment. There is also the purely magical version where I can use runes to create a light source, like this fellow over here." Harry demonstrated the latter by grabbing a glass orb with a wooden bottom and pressing a symbol to slowly lit the orb until it was fully lit.

"At this rate, you might as well be testing out of Hogwarts!" Terry exclaimed as he looked at the lit orb.

"As much as I want to, there are some rules I need to follow. Testing out early has its pros and cons." Harry answered, inwardly thinking about that bit. That was one of the issues that had been discussed with the adults in his life especially with Dumbledore trying to get his hands on him. "Okay, that is all I can tell you on this room and what I am doing for the time being. Let me proceed with the rest of the tour." After some good-natured whining to hang on, Harry continued with the tour that took 30 minutes to complete, a fair amount spent answering the questions from the others and making sure Hermione did not get too grabby with the instruments along with helping Susan and Justin steady Neville from the introduction of hydroponics and the different plants he had grown. After which they spent the time doing their homework and trying their hand at wandless magic.

A few days later, Harry smiled as he heard news of Neville picking up the pace in his lessons and proving that he was not a Squib to his naysayers. Neville would attempt to get his wand replaced soon if not the holidays, but was content to use wandless spell-casting to get the job done for the time being. The others who had tried their hand at wandless were also getting better with their magical lessons, but promised to keep it quiet.

On a minor note, Harry had written a letter to his contacts to ask about this elusive Alastor Moody. Elsewhere in the castle, plenty of people felt chills down their spines for some reason, with the senior staff grabbing their respective bottles to drink away their sudden headaches.

(Somewhere in London, a few Cadet Aurors shivered in fear as they heard their soon-to-retire Senior Auror laughing like a mad man in the next room, while a certain Director of DMLE was rubbing her forehead at the sudden feeling of dreaded paperwork.)

~ooOOoo~

"Quirinus, how far are you in obtaining information on the defenses?"

If anyone were present in the office, they would witness the stuttering defense professor lightly gripping the table with a grimace, while wondering who was the second speaker since he was alone in the room. Of course, if they knew who it was and where it came from, they would not live long to tell the tale.

"I have managed to get some information on Pomona, Hagrid and Flitwick since they are providing the first set of defenses, my master. Pomona is going to supply some plants from the greenhouse to catch the intruder if they got past Hagrid's chosen animal, while the half-goblin is going to do something on keys." the professor answered with a hint of fear and notably no stutter present in his voice. "I have narrowed down the choices of Hagrid's creature to a Cerberus and a Matagot considering the size of the room and the amount of meat the half-giant keeps bringing to feed it."

"Nice to see that the oaf still thinks the dangerous creatures are harmless little critters even after his expulsion." The voice answered in a very flat tone. "What of McGonagall, Severus and Dumbledore?"

"McGonagall appears to be attempting some giant chess set or statues for her protections. For Severus, it seems that he has been arguing with Dumbledore regarding his part of the protections, something about 'Dumbledore wanting a spectacle' instead of actual protection. As for the old man himself, currently no news. He is waiting for everyone else to place their traps before he adds his, although I know that he has some items procured from the MOM."

"I see. And the other professors?"

"They are not involved. Dumbledore is only having the senior stuff handling the core subjects doing this." Quirrell paused to consider what he knew. "From what I have gathered, he appears to be restricting a fair bit of the protections to a certain grade, mostly first to second year for some reason, which is unusual given that most of the protections would be something any student with a reasonable understanding of their subjects can handle. I would imagine that it would be Dumbledore's trap to prove the biggest issue of the lot, but still."

"Unusual indeed, his thinking patterns seems to have fallen a fair bit. Otherwise, he has something else planned." The speaker mused in a sinister manner.

"Master, if I may voice out something?" Quirrell asked timidly.

"What is it?"

"These traps, I know that we can get past them eventually, but something about the level of difficulty is a little suspicious." Quirrell pushed on when the voice stayed silent. "And given the announcement done at the sorting, it is as though the headmaster wants people to invade the corridor."

"On that, we agree. It is clear that he already suspects our presence here, not surprising given the wards of the school. He should know by now that I am already in the castle at least."

"He does?! Then why?" Quirrell was stumped by that calm reply.

"Why let us roam about instead of eliminating us? I know him enough that he has at least two reasons to do this. Primarily, he wants to keep tabs on my movements, possibly find a way to stop me if not contain me, while taunting with the supposed location of the supposed stone."

"You don't think that it is really here?" Quirinus asked in confusion, remembering his last attempt to steal the stone from the bank. He was lucky that he did the old 'push a stick through the trap' method to test the idea first, he did not fancy becoming a frozen statue stuck in the door for many years like that muggle film he had glimpsed on the way back home.

"Oh, it is here. I have encountered Flamel in my travels once, along with his little stone. I can feel its presence in the castle when we arrived. The question is whether it is really at the end of his little obstacle course, or in his office. Dumbledore is not as selfless as people keep claiming." Even if he could not see it, the professor could feel his master rolling his eyes behind his head. "He would likely have a fake installed while keeping the original, maybe even give a sob story to Flamel about how the stone was destroyed while keeping it for himself to research. On the worst-case scenario, Flamel may have given Dumbledore a fake himself, but we still have to go through this in case Dumbledore has gone senile in believing his own myths and actually placed the real stone in this obstacle course." Quirrell nodded before shuddering.

"You had stated two reasons. What would be the second one?"

"The second reason why he puts together this little game? Harry Potter." The second speaker answered firmly. "He has an… shall we say 'interest' on that boy." Quirrell paused at that while thinking of the boy in question.

Truth be told, he never really believed in the whole 'Boy-Who-Lived' nonsense that was pushed out by Dumbledore all these years, and he got that confirmation when he had read the news of the brat giving an interview and Dumbledore getting a restraining order. He even had front-row seats to seeing Dumbledore losing his temper for having said restrictions imposed on him, which amused him greatly. Of course, hearing that the boy had gone for muggle subjects was insulting to the pure-blood, no doubt due to Dumbledore's meddling that had him dumped into the muggle world, confirmed when news of the boy's abuse came out in the open.

For some reason, his master was silent from the news briefly before continuing on, with instructions to keep an eye on Harry Potter when he arrived to Hogwarts. And from what he had seen the past month, the boy was an enigma. He was clearly muggle-raised based on his dressing and manner, yet he was also well-versed to handle the politics that was the British Wizarding World, not to mention more knowledgeable with magic than what one would expect. He was not a stereotypical Gryffindor wanting adventures and diving headfirst into danger as depicted from those silly books; the boy was analytical and patient with a very strong grip on theory, and demonstrated a fair of knowledge and power to use said knowledge, almost Slytherin in cunning if he dared say so himself. That much was confirmed when, on orders of his master, he went to spy on the flying lesson to try and curse the brooms earlier, only to have the boy demonstrate something literally not of the British World by summoning those four pillars that would catch the would-be flyers in the event of failure. Attempts to analyze and break those pillars appeared to trip some defense that almost burned him, forcing him to go away.

Quirrell could also understand his master's words about Dumbledore's interest that bordered on obsession regarding Harry Potter; during those boring staff meetings, the old wizard kept asking subtly on the progress of Harry Potter, and from what he could see, Dumbledore did not like how well Harry Potter was doing in his studies, nor how far he had advanced into his work to the point that some of the other teachers were giving him higher level work to see how well he could do them. Dumbledore had given some weird talk about Harry Potter should not be advancing so fast to give him time to grow up (Quirrell admitted to rolling his eyes at this point, so did his master when he heard about it), but the half-goblin had told them afterwards to ignore the old man and continue testing the boy for higher grades since ultimately it was the boy's new guardians who would decide if given the choice, Harry Potter could advance in the year. Most agreed while Severus appeared to be on the fence, likely due to his known hate for all things named Potter despite being decidedly neutral towards the boy.

Under orders of his master, Quirrell had added his own set of tests ranging upwards to third year to test Harry Potter and noted with a touch of surprise how well the boy knew his material. Based on the manner he went about, Quirrell could only hypothesize that the boy wanted to achieve his OWLs earlier to achieve early emancipation, and thus the ability to get away from Dumbledore.

There was also the case during that same flying lesson he went to, when he had escaped from the defenses and spotted Dumbledore hovering around the area and pointing his wand around the time that Turpin girl lost control of her wand and almost impaled on a statue, supposedly to force Harry Potter to save her by flying a broom. And the boy defied expectations by seemingly Apparating to her in mid-air and supposedly creating air platforms for him to bring them both to safety.

The boy was talented, and the old wizard wanted to hinder that progress. But why?

"Quirinus, I will like you to continue monitoring the boy, do not attempt any actions against him yet, but slowly introduce some text regarding the defenses to him and his small group." His master spoke.

"Will this be your test to him?" Quirrell asked and got a cold chuckle in reply.

"I suppose that it would be the 'academic' test on my bit, not to mention they could do some of the legwork for us; as for the 'practical'..." The voice paused before continuing. "How many trolls have you procured for Dumbledore's little obstacle course?"

Quirrell blinked at the question but answered promptly. "He only needed one or two for my part, so that leaves another four since I got them as a group for a discount. I figured we may need one ourselves as a distraction, although the rest are currently back in my old place."

"Very good, Quirinus. That might work better with what I have in mind. Here is what I want you to do…"

~ooOOoo~

Harry was not in the mood for this evening.

It was currently October 31, otherwise known as Halloween. For the new-bloods, this was the celebration that many associated with their childhood for trick-or-treating at the different homes in their area. For the magically-raised, this was known as Samhain, the festival marking the end of harvest and the beginning of winter, the time when the boundary between the earth and the Otherworld would be thinnest to allow spirits to cross over.

For Harry, this was a festival of heartaches.

While he couldn't remember the murder of his parents in his early years, the Dursleys made it very clear that he was not welcome on that day. Harry would be locked up in the cupboard underneath the staircase while Dudley would go candy hunting with his parents. Dudley would return with a bagful of treats and rubbed it in Harry's face by eating all the treats he got in front of the door and gleefully telling him that Harry would not get a single treat.

Joke was on him though, since the next day he ended up with a major stomachache from indigestion.

Then around the time he started pulling ahead with his academics, the Dursleys proceeded to remind him that it was the day that had brought about his unwanted stay at their home in an effort to remove his motivation. Petunia always appeared to have a very loud voice when proclaiming how she had to look after the 'rapscallion nephew of her ungrateful sister' while tending to 'Duddikins' (Harry kept rolling his eyes at the nickname) while Vernon did not hold back any punches, figuratively and sometimes literally, telling him that he was a waste of space and money on them. Dudley would keep taunting Harry about how his 'freakish' parents had left him alone with his group of bullies adding in on the insults. The adults had gone far enough to insinuate that he should have perished along with his parents in the car crash they kept insisting 'blew them up', instead of being a burden to his 'honest hardworking' relatives, and that he should be grateful they did not just leave him at an orphanage that he clearly deserved to be at. For a couple of times when Vernon happened to have a few drinks in his system, he made sure to have the message enforced into Harry with his fists and belt.

When he first entered the Wizarding World in 1988 to deal with the keys he had gotten from those wizards, he learned the truth regarding his parent's death and the reason why there were so many storybooks on him. To learn that a magical equivalent of Hitler had gone after his family for whatever reason and killed his parents made him really angry and sad about it. To then learn that people had profited on his loss while he was getting abused at his relatives and forgotten by them, made his pain a bitter pill to swallow.

So, one could forgive him if he were almost snapping at others leading up to the day for wanting to celebrate the holiday that made him an orphan and robbed him of the chance to be loved while growing up. It certainly did not help his mood when he asked to be excused on that day to pay his respects, Filius had the sad duty to inform him that this occasion was mandatory for some reason, but did state that he was going to try and push into letting him and others to pay their tributes in silence. Harry was sorely tempted to blast Weasley and Smith into the lake for callously asking if he remembered the night of his parent's deaths as they passed each other between lessons, only barely managing to restrain himself when Filius had overheard them on both occasions and proceeded to send to detention for those words. A surprise to others, Snape was on form when he heard about that and proceeded to add on to their detentions.

The looks on their faces were very satisfying.

That being said, there was something about the current date that made Harry on edge. When he described the feeling to Filius a week ago, Harry had the front row seat to see the half-goblin groaned heavily before grabbing a bottle of something that made him belch flames. He then explained that he was experiencing what many called the 'Potter Danger Senses', the type where one had to hunker down and wait out the danger. He did state that he ought to be careful since Harry had the feeling about this day.

Just great.

On this day, the professors evidently wanted to reduce the lessons to allow the students time to decompress before the feast, with additional timing for Harry to head to his workshop if he wanted to. There were only two classes in the morning for the Ravenclaw first years; Herbology with Slytherin, where he greeted Blaize, Theodore and Draco in their individual manner (sarcastic, curious, and respectful in order), and then charms with Gryffindor. When the Ravenclaws took their seats in the Charms classroom after getting back inside from re-potting some plants in greenhouse one, the Gryffindors also entered with the noisy red-head at the front of the pack.

"Hey Harry, come and join me over here!" Harry closed his eyes and took a deep breath to control his temper. The boy seemed to not understand the meaning of the words 'refusal' and 'no' despite being told to his face many times.

"You got to give Weasley one thing, he is stubborn." Terry commiserated with Harry while patting his back.

"Wish he placed better manners higher on the list." Michael snorted from his side with a few others from their side giving a chuckle.

They soon hunkered down for the lesson which involved the levitation charm. Harry had to chuckle at the small history note on the wizard who pronounced the incantation wrong, wondering if Filius had made it up to rhyme. Harry got his feather up into the air early on in the lesson, having done levitation a few times in the past. Terry got his up in the air quickly since he had started following the tips Harry had taught the other day, followed shortly by Hermione, Padma, Su and Lisa.

"Oh well done to you lot. 10 points each to those who have gotten your feathers in the air right there!" Filius cheered as he watched the feathers move about.

"I am so glad that you taught me about imagination being a key role in making spells work." Terry got his feather flying a bit before getting it back on the table. "The spells come to me a lot better than I thought."

"As long as you have a trigger to invoke the spell, it can be done easily." Harry answered as he assisted Michael Corner with his spell attempts, given that he had visited later and tried his hand at the wandless. "Just remember that not all spells can be done in the same image, so you need to vary."

"Okay." A loud argument drew their attention to Ronald Weasley who appeared to be making an attempt to stab the table with his wand as opposed to casting a spell and Hermione was trying to help him with his pronunciation. Harry winced slightly from her tone; while she was getting better at instructing people without sounding condescending or bossy, the manner in which she vomited out the information was still a work in progress and could come off as a touch arrogant, and based on the glare given by Ronald Weasley when she demonstrated the spell perfectly…

Harry had a bad feeling that this was not going to end well.

And he was proven right when the lesson ended and the students left the classroom.

"Who in the bloody hell does she think she is?! It's 'Levi-Oo-Sa', not 'Levi-o-Sah'!" Ronald Weasley gave an over-the-top impression of Hermione's instructions to the other two Gryffindor first year males named Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan who laughed at his impression. "Honestly, she is a nightmare, going about spewing whatever is in her head. No wonder no one is friends with her!"

Someone rushed past Harry to the point of nearly knocking him down. He recovered enough to see a bushy-hair girl run away with tears pouring down her face before disappearing in the crowd. Harry snarled as he turned back to the source of the problems going on.

"She was trying to help you with the lesson, you bloody moron!" Harry came up close and personal while slipping into the quiet fury that many had learned to fear. "We were watching you earlier. You did nothing for that charm, so Hermione attempted to help you, and this is how you repaid her by acting like some spoilt brat?!" The corridor cleared slightly to allow the two some room, and unknown to Harry, a few were using this moment to compare what they knew about him. While Ronald was slightly taller than him, the red head's posture and somewhat dim manner did not give him the presence of one; compared to Harry, who was always standing straight and seemingly pulsing with power while delivering what would be the mother of all rants in a calm tone, it would be clear who stood above the other on the food chain that was Hogwarts.

"But mate, she is a nightmare!" Ron answered only to yelp when Harry leaned forward.

"She was just giving you help, but clearly it is wasted on you. And for the last time, I. Am. Not. Your. Mate." Harry punctuated each word with a step forward, prompting the red headed dunce to go backwards before hitting the wall. "I had made it clear to you a few weeks back that I do not appreciate the lies you spread about us being friends and getting you gifts when I have never laid eyes on you or spoken with you in my life, and your constant attempts to befriend me along with pushing others away are getting very annoying. I have also made it clear that if you attempt to hurt Hermione Granger in any manner, I would get very angry, and you would not like me when I am angry." The other students shivered at the coldness in his tone even as he maintained the low volume and speed, feeling the familiar pressure pressing down on their shoulders when he goes into that 'silent fury' mode, but this time the students would swear to an illusion of a wolf like apparition prowling about Harry, waiting for a chance to take down the boy in front of him.

"I am particularly glad that I have never met or talked with you before, but that is neither here nor there. So, I will kindly ask you to not refer to me with such familiarity, is that understood or should I speak slower so your underdeveloped brain can comprehend what I just said?" Ronald looked like he wanted to say something, but a quick pulse of magic shut his mouth up and shook his head.

"Good. Now, listen very clearly, Weasley, because this will be your only warning in front of all the witnesses here. I don't want you to speak of Hermione or any other one of my friends like that ever again. Your ignorant, idiotic words are not worth Hermione's tears, or the suffering of others. As a matter of fact, I don't want you to even speak badly of my friends when not in their presence, because you are not worth even thinking about them in any shape or form. If I ever find out you spoke ill about any of my friends, you will find that your stay at Hogwarts will be quite… unpleasant." At this point, the students would swear that the illusion of the wolf appeared again with its mouth wide open and wanting to clamp down on the neck of the red head who had turned pale to the point of resembling rancid milk.

"Are we clear?"

Ronald's quick nodding acknowledged his query, making him back off figuratively and literally, allowing the other students to breathe properly. Harry merely adjusted his robes while taking a breath and looked at him one more time. "Glad we have this talk." With that, he turned and moved on with Terry and the other Ravenclaws to their next subject, with other students staying to the wall and watching them move, one student in particular looking on with curious storm-blue eyes and a cold expression.

Harry lightly bit his lip as he waited for the end of the subject; Hermione did not appear for the next two subjects and what he had gathered from Parvati was the girl wanting to be alone in the second-floor toilet. An oddly specific location but at least it gave him an opportunity to find her before the stupid feast coming up, he had a very bad feeling that something was going to happen today and he did not like that she was alone. The sounds of a gong signaled the end of the subject and Harry began to pack his bag before embarking on his side quest to find the bookworm.

"Heading off to find Hermione?" He turned to find Su standing by the desk. "Mind if I tagged along? I think she would need some female companionship." He glanced at the other Ravens who nodded.

"Best that you two find her and bring her to our side instead of leaving her alone. We can let Penny know where you two are before coming to the feast." Terry answered for the rest of them. "Go bring back our honorary Ravenclaw." Harry smiled as he fastened his bag, thankful he had such good friends.

"Thank you for that. And it is a good thing that you are coming with me Su, because I would not be able to enter the toilet." Harry remarked.

"Of course, I am right in coming, since you boys lack the proper equipment to enter the designated toilets." Su's quip drew snorts and spit-takes from the rest of them as they exited the classroom and split up accordingly. It did not take long for Harry and Su to find the correct toilet as they could hear sobbing from the place. Harry and Su looked at each other at the door way before he called out.

"Hermione, are you in there?" A few sniffles were his answer.

"Please go away Harry. I just want to be left alone…" came the quiet reply. Harry frowned at that, the feeling of something going very wrong if he left her alone getting stronger.

"I don't think we can do that. A young lady should not be crying alone in a bathroom all because of the twit who evidently cannot understand the difference between persuasive instructions and nagging." Su answered with a firm tone. A tearful chuckle was the answer to that.

"Is that what we are calling it these days?" Harry smiled lightly at her question.

"Come on, why don't we discuss this out here?" The sounds of a door latch clicked loudly and opening drew Su to enter the toilet while Harry waited outside. It was only a few moments until the door opened to reveal a teary-eyed Hermione with her head down and Su helping her move while giving her a quick hug to assure her.

"Just ignore the Weasley, that boy is going to be flunking his exams for refusing your help." The Asian girl lightly patted her back before moving back to let Harry give a quick hug of his own.

"That guy won't know what is good for him even if it is in front of his face, unless it is some food item that goes into his stomach, and even if it is a bad food item, I am thinking he might still eat it." Harry gave his own remark to which Hermione gave another weak chuckle. "Come on now, dry those tears. Let's move away from this spot."

"Where shall we go? The lessons are over now, but the library is being closed early, and I do not feel like heading back to the common room just yet." Su remarked as she helped to steer Hermione away from the toilet. "And I don't think we should go to the Great Hall so quickly."

"You know what, since we still have time, you want to head to my lab to relax?" Harry offered to the girls. "I do need to check on a couple of my experiments for an upcoming review, not to mention grab something before the stupid feast." The girls looked to each other before nodding and letting him lead the way.

"You really do not want to go to the feast, do you?" Su's query made Harry sighed heavily in response.

"I would have preferred to hold a silent prayer for my parents' passing as I have done for the past few years. People seem to forget that their celebration came at the deaths of my family." Harry answered with a slightly strained tone. The girls winced at that statement, having forgotten about the day that even gave the holiday the cause of celebration for the wizards.

"Sorry Harry." Harry waved it off as they came to the corridor that led to his assigned lab-room.

"I am more or less used to it. I just wished the adults are more understanding for those who had undergone the same deal." The two girls stayed silent as they entered the room and wrote their names in for the security ward while Harry went about looking at his experiments. Hermione looked about the room thinking of something to clear the awkward air and spoke out the first thing that came to mind.

"I still can't get my own room to work in." That drew a snort from Su and Harry.

"Your professor does not want to give the smartest student of her house her own room?" Su raised an eyebrow, to which Hermione huffed.

"According to Professor McGonagall, most do not bother getting another classroom for whatever they wanted, and for those who do, there are some requirements that needed to be fulfilled, and normally it would be done around third year." Hermione took a seat on the sofa, her pout temporarily by the softness of the material that made her sigh lightly. "From what she had told me, Gryffindors do not really require their own rooms, which is ridiculous considering the Weasley Twins have their own room. Granted they got it without asking, but that is more or less an open secret. How else can they go about developing those pranks of theirs?"

"That explains so much." Harry muttered as he looked through a magnifying lens to check on some components. "Well, you could approach the other professors for the room. I know Professor Flitwick appreciates your work greatly, so he could do that. Or you could come here provided you listen to my rules in the room."

"Can I?" The look on her face was comparable to a child who has Christmas and her birthday put together.

"Harry?" Oh dear, now Su was giving him a hopeful expression.

"Why don't we see who else would need a room to work in before we approach the professors? Because as much as I do not mind you guys crashing here for a while, it is going to be cramped if everyone comes along. Not to mention with all of my stuff here, odds are good that I would have explosions." Harry looked pointedly at the beakers of liquid formulas. "If we ask as a group, the professors might be able to get a room decently sized to accommodate everyone."

"We will do that." Su and Hermione declared as one with determined expressions. Harry chuckled as he went about his business as the girls started working on revision with Su helping Hermione catch up on what she had missed earlier, and them praising the sofa to much amusement. They passed the next couple of hours in relative peace and quiet with the girls occasionally asking Harry about something from their work or his experiments, with him having to keep an eye on them when they got a little too close to said experiments from their curiosity. The light chiming of the clock signaled the end of their session and prompted Harry to move towards one of the unmarked doors.

"I will be finishing up on my checks, best to pack up if you want to make it on time. Do not read the ones on the other cabinet, those are locked for a reason." Harry warned as he unlocked the door.

"Oh Harry, we are not that bad." Su's quip earned her a flat stare from Harry. "It was one time!"

"That one time almost blew up my potions testing, destroy my homework of the day, and set me back 2 weeks of testing." Harry maintained a level tone and a flat stare "The only reason it was not worse was due to my fail-safes ensuring that everything is protected and Professor Flitwick was doing his spot-check for the week." Su and Hermione winced at his words like they were arrows to their hearts, and the reminder of the last time they visited the room. They along with the other Ravenclaws and a couple of Hufflepuffs had visited his lab for the fourth time to do some revision when Harry had to check on one of his experiments to prepare for the spot check by Professor Flitwick, and their curiosity took over to try and look at the items around them and in the locked cabinet despite an earlier warning from Harry and weak attempts by Neville to stop them. They barely touched the cabinet when the warning spells went off and scared them back, causing Lisa to bump into the table of chemicals that mixed together and started to boil over, creating a cascading effect that would have been disastrous if not for a barrier to suddenly appear around the table and for the timely arrival of Professor Flitwick who set everything right at the flick of the wand.

To say that the professor and Harry were furious was understating it.

"Okay, we will keep our hands to ourselves." Properly chastised, the two girls made their way to the study corner that Harry had done some revamping to accommodate guests. Harry merely chuckled mentally before entering the door to enter a room smaller than the rest that had several magical cabinets with similar features as the trunks used for their dorms lining the walls. He paused in the middle of the room to check out the trunks and approached a somewhat more reinforced trunk that had bolts lining the sides and a specific combination lock attached to it. He fiddled with it and unlatched it off, pulling out a drawer to find what was essentially a rotary set of shelves on an axle. Harry took out his wand and slot it into a hole by the side to pulse a Lumos a few times, making the shelves move about inside before coming to a stop. Harry reached inside to grab a small box and placed that into his pocket, before closing the drawer and locking it up.

"Maybe I am being paranoid, but I would rather have it with me tonight." The boy muttered as he made his way back to the door, pausing to grab a pair of black gloves with a rune inside a circle etched on the back of them. He applied some magic through them to make the rune glowed brightly before diminishing, after which he placed them into the same pocket as the box and walked out of the door, pausing in the middle of closing the door as he looked at the scene before him.

"I guess you girls tried the Silly String Charm from my notes?" Harry asked while trying to hold back a smirk.

"What was your first clue?" Su asked in a flat tone while Hermione tried to untangle her hair from the messy clump of orange-yellow string stuck to it. On their clothes and around them were the results of their attempt at the charm, as though someone had stuffed as much silly string possible into a party popper and fired it off with too much gun powder, the end result being a color bonanza of string handing all over the seats, cabinet and the lamp fixture at the roof with only his individual wards and plastic barriers containing the blast and not spreading across the rest of the room.

"Yeah, I was playing around with the idea, but I did not get the chance to try it out. Thank you for being my test subjects." Harry let loose the smirk at the glares from the two girls.

"Can you at least help us get this off?" Hermione growled as her hair got bushier from the pulling of the silly string. Harry merely waved a hand to reduce her movements and to slowly thread the silly string out of her hands and hair, another gesture gathered all of the string around them into a ball roughly the size of a basketball and placed on the floor neatly.

"Hmm, the string is a lot stickier than I had calculated." Harry mused as he placed a finger on the ball and pulled it away only to have a strand stuck to it while dragging the rest of the ball along. "Not to mention tougher. Not quite what I had in mind, but might have useful applications when getting away from possible threats."

"What were you planning with this?" Su asked while checking to make sure there were no other strings attached to her.

"More of a prank spell and curiosity; I was just playing around with two spells and trying to combine some aspects from them." Harry answered as he lifted the ball and placed it on the table with a clear sheet to separate it from the surface. "From what you two had done, this mishap may have some applications with capturing and restraining people. Not a bad start."

"But this is a failure?" Hermione pointed that out.

"Nothing is a true failure; it is just one method what not to do." Harry placed a plastic covering around the ball to have it on display and placed a card in front of it with the words 'Attempt 1' on it.

"Ripping off Thomas Edison?" Hermione raised an eyebrow.

"Nope, just following his teaching." Harry chuckled as he finished tidying up the study area. "Well, time to get moving."

"Are you sure we cannot skip it?" Hermione asked as she leaned further into the sofa with a sigh. "I do not feel like taking part myself, knowing Weasley being at the table is keeping me from enjoying myself."

"Believe me, I would have skipped it myself if I could, but it would appear that Dumbledore is going to enforce mandatory attendance on this unless you are in Madam Pomfrey's care or something really important turned up that you got permission from our heads." Harry snorted as he finished off checking his experiments from the glass beakers. "Professor Flitwick wanted to grant me and a couple of others time away from this, but Dumbledore essentially overridden him. Funny when you consider in the past few years, the students were allowed to skip the celebrations."

"If that is the case then why?" Su paused before looking to him with wide eyes. "You don't think?"

"Mandatory attendance means everyone must come, including those who would have the biggest reasons to hate Halloween for a good reason. The fact he is enforcing it this year means he has something up his sleeve, and I would rather not be caught off-guard considering how much he has been staring at me as of late."

"Aren't you getting a little paranoid there?" Su raised an eyebrow at him. "I get you do not like Dumbledore, but for better or worse, he is the headmaster and could make your life difficult here." Hermione nodded at that, no doubt still holding on to her beliefs that adults were to be respected.

"It is not paranoia when you know someone is out to get to you." Harry answered. "I am just practicing constant vigilance." Su shook her head at his words while Hermione pondered as his words before sighing.

"I cannot really comment much given that I do not know about the case between the two of you. I just hope nothing goes wrong. All I really want right now is to stay at your work room, that would be so much nicer than being around Ronald Weasley." Su nodded her agreement.

"Look on the bright side Hermione. You can actually sit at the Ravenclaw's table if you want, they can't stop you for this." Harry mentally considered the rules for eating during certain feasts.

"Really?" It hurt his heart seeing the hopeful expression on her face, it was evident she had been suffering in Gryffindor for a while. He had to wonder if Parvati was unable to help her much if not at all.

"Oh yeah, you can come to our table, I know that some of the others would not mind your presence." Su answered while Harry was thinking about something. "And from what I can see, Weasley is allergic to intelligence." Hermione snorted at this bit, with Harry internally agreeing with her on that. There have been moments when Harry just walked into the library to get away from Weasley's insistent attempts to befriend him and the boy moved like the place was cursed.

How dare that boy, the library was brilliant, and Madam Pince was a godsend for books. He did not understand why everyone was afraid of her, she was just being the perfect guardian of ancient knowledge. Hermione agreed with him on that as well!

(Somewhere in the Hogwarts Library, the stern woman paused briefly in her packing of books to straighten her back, feeling happy for some reason but guessing it was due to two students who loved books as much as her…)

"Going off a tangent here, I don't suppose you have read the charter?" Harry asked as they prepared to leave the room.

"No, I have been looking for a copy but they are not found." Hermione looked to him with a gleaming eye. "I have been trying ever since you have talked about it in our last discussion." Harry chuckled at that, remembering how the two kept talking about different books and how she kept asking where he got the more obscure copies that could not be found.

"The charter is a little hard to find, thankfully my family is one of the few who has a specific book that contains not just the school charter and rules, but the ongoing revisions over the years. It is self-updating." Harry had to hold back a laugh at the obvious wanting Hermione and Su were displaying at the thought of a self-updating book. "What you might be interested is the option to re-sort yourself to another house."

"You mean I could leave Gryffindor to be in another house?" Hermione nearly tripped on her feet to look at him.

"I will give you a generalized summary for now, I can grab my copy of the charter sometime later. Essentially, if you are being bullied, marginalized, or feeling unsafe in the house you were sorted in, you can ask or demand a re-sorting in front of an audience made up of the four Heads-of-Houses and usually the headmaster. This is your right so they cannot stop you, provided you show some of the reasons for wanting to leave the house." Harry told her as he began activating his security measures in the room.

"But I have never read about it in Hogwarts: A History." Hermione huffed while Su nodded.

"It is not publicized much as a number of people did not think it important, and any mention of it got removed with the recent revisions." Harry answered. "But the charter still has it. There are a set of conditions to follow before you can ask for a resorting but from what I have seen this afternoon and our talks, I think you can ask for it." Harry left her pondering as he finalized his preparations and got the girls to leave the room before activating his wards, prompting them to turn on to their full settings. Harry got the odd feeling he needed to do this for the night, he was just hoping to be wrong.

With that, the trio made their way to the Great Hall, Hermione pondering silently along the way. Harry let her do so as he discussed some spells and rules with Su who had her curiosity raised regarding the charter that he apparently knew a lot on. Harry was going on autopilot with his replies as the fabled 'Potter Danger Senses' was currently blaring at him to move faster and be prepared for the evening. He really hated not knowing what was going to happen and only prayed whatever ideas and protections he had were sufficient.

Just as they were about the corridor leading to the Great Hall, Hermione paused in her tracks, prompting Harry and Su to turn to her. They certainly did not expect the sudden hug she gave the both of them.

"Thank you. I was actually thinking about leaving Hogwarts altogether, even if it meant I had to transfer, or worse risk my magic being bound." Harry and Su shared a look at each other while placing a hand on her back to soothe her, ignoring the wet patches forming on their shoulders.

"Worry not, we got your back. Remember Hermione Granger, you are a scholarship holder under the Lily Potter Foundation, that puts you under the protection of several families that have sway in this silly British world, and to some extent, you are under my protection." Harry answered as she pulled back to dry her tears. "And while I hate my fame, I can get some mileage out of it."

"And even if you do not have that, we still have your back." Su gave that proclamation. Hermione sniffled as she let go of her hugs and dried her tears, prompting the other two to move her to the Great Hall, pausing briefly to tell Parvati and Percy Weasley that Hermione was coming over to their table before moving on, with Harry having to drag the Asian Ravenclaw away as she gave Ronald Weasley a big glare as they passed by. Once they reached their table and explained Hermione's presence, the others welcomed her to the table and chatted while Harry did his usual preparations to check for potions and other forms of spells before eating.

"Don't you ever get tired of doing that?" Michael asked watching Harry test the utensils.

"You will be surprised how easily one can get potions inside their bodies or charmed without realizing it." Harry answered as the utensils glowed a brief green. "Outside of food and beverage, the utensils and plates can be smeared with a thin layer of potion that would only be activated once in contact with food or saliva. And then there are potions which can be split into three or more components that could be combined and activated once ingested and broken down in the stomach acid. There are charms that can be activated by skin contact or delayed to have the effect. Since my arrival in Hogwarts, there have been five charm attempts at the utensils, eight loyalty potions found in the drinks, three compulsions by selected food items and one forgetfulness potion by medical shots."

"... Are you serious?" The others looked at him with wide eyes and open mouths.

"As I said, it is really easy to potion or charm someone without their knowledge. Leaving out the whole stupidity that is my fame as the 'Boy-Who-Lived'" Harry rolled his eyes disdainfully as the last of his checks returned negative of anything "my family is one of the oldest in Britain, and in this country that means power and wealth. As the sole heir of that family, I am in a position that could affect a lot of things. Other heirs like Susan Bones or Draco Malfoy would have to do this every so often just to make sure no one tries to control them, but I am more vulnerable even if I have a new set of guardians."

"Is that why you tend to favor mostly the vegetables and drink your own water?" Padma asked as several beakers of pumpkin juice appeared on the table with the seniors grabbing their drinks first.

"Outside of my diet, there is the fact that most potions can be covered up with heavy food flavors. Given the cooking style done here involving lots of gravy and sweetness with the lack of variety, it would be easy to hide the taste without knowing, since at some point people can become accustomed to the flavors without much prompting. And then we have potions that don't have taste at all like the Verita-Serum used by the DMLE to obtain the truth. And do not get me started on alchemic potions. Those are nightmares to scan for." Harry rolled his eyes at his annoyance towards the latter. "Vegetables and light salads are easy enough to differentiate, while my water source is something I prepared every day. So, on that front I am safe."

"It is that easy to get under?" Terry looked at his pumpkin juice he was about to drink with a frown before placing it down on the table and looking to Harry. "Is there a simple spell to test if there are potions? I would like to know one just in case." The others nearby nodded while pondering the items in front of them.

"Are you sure you want to learn? It could just be my paranoia." Harry remarked.

"Well, each of us are vulnerable in different manners, like the fact that I am the son of a barrister handling cases, the girls could be in danger of guys wanting to take advantage, and Hermione is likely the second most probable target for her blood status, no offence." Terry answered while directing an apologetic look at the aforementioned girl. "And if we are to learn this, why not?"

"Very well then. Let's start with something simple." Harry introduced to them the Potion Ingredient Detection Spell, a spell normally taught around the third year when preparing for higher level potions to be done for OWLS but was easy enough to learn and practice on their own. The small group was able to get through with the wand movements and incantation, with Hermione getting the spell first after a few false starts, and then trying the spells outs on the pumpkin juice to get a rough idea. Soon the feast started and they began to eat the meal, with Harry and his friends performing the tests on the food as Harry had taught them. Merely to see if what they did was correct, a few were a little surprised to get something positive in the chosen food items and decided to follow Harry's lead on this until they understand what they were taking. He managed to assure them by confirming what the ingredients were and what they were meant for, in that current case being ingredients for a prank potion, before moving on to other items.

Harry did have to apologize to making them paranoid, but he was happy that they were willing to practice constant vigilance.

(Somewhere in London, a certain ready-to-retire Auror felt the urge to get down on his one good knee and praise Merlin for introducing a few additional disciples to the teachings of his favorite catchphrase. A few rooms away, several muggle-born Aurors would swear that they could hear a choir singing 'Hallelujah' with light shining somewhere from ceiling despite being underground.)

The feast had gone for a few minutes with everyone laughing and enjoying themselves with the food. Harry was more or less going with the flow to not get the others feeling bad, though he had spotted the Weasley twins giving him pointed looks every so often, with other students whispering as they pointed at him and a sulking Ron. He got the feeling that the Hogwarts rumor mill had done the job of telling them of the incident between him and their younger brother, and while he doubted the idea of them retaliating against him, since everyone knew that Harry had defended Hermione after Ron said those hurtful things about her in payment of her help, he was sure that he was going to be having words with them in the near future if not protect himself from their pranks.

Harry ignored them and focused on getting more food in his stomach, having just resolved himself to stay positive for the occasion until they returned to the dormitory so that he could hold a silent prayer for his parents in peace when the doors of the Great Hall slammed open from the outside and the DADA professor came running in a panic.

"TROLL! IN THE DUNGEONS!" Quirrell rushed down the path between Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables as he yelled out loudly for all to hear. "TROLL IN THE DUNGEONS!" He came to a halt panting a few feet before the staff table and looked at them with scared eyes while the students turned to face him in a stupor.

"Thought you ought to know." With that his eyeballs went up and he slumped forward to faint on his face. There was a pause, and then someone broke the silence.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

That scream set off the rest of the hall and got a number of students panicking and falling over one another as the hall descended into madness. Harry grabbed Terry and Hermione down to prevent them getting knocked over while reaching out to Su and Padma with his Force Magic to calm them down. This was a really weird situation going on, and somewhere at the back of his head, he could not help wondering why Quirrell who was supposed to have gone against vampires would faint at the idea of a troll, not to mention falling forward to faint on his face of all places.

A weird thought that would not leave his mind for a while, but that was later.

"SILENCE!" A bellow and the blasting sound of a cannon stilled everyone to silence and drew their attention to the staff table where Albus Dumbledore had stood up with his wand in the air and a serious expression. "Everyone, please remain calm. The Professors and I will locate this troll and deal with it accordingly. Prefects, please guide your students back to their dormitories."

"Are you serious?" The silence made that question echoed loudly in the Great Hall and it was only a moment later that Harry realized that it was his voice as everyone turned to him.

Oops.

"Har~ Mister Potter?" Dumbledore asked with a somewhat annoyed expression.

"The troll is supposedly in the dungeons, the same area where the Slytherin Dormitory is." Harry pointed that out to everyone with the people in question realizing it and paling at the same time. "Not to mention, for the Hufflepuffs to get to their dormitory, they need to go past the corridor leading to the dungeons, so they too could run into it along the way." The Hufflepuffs looked ready to faint at that thought. "And lastly, while Professor Quirrell had stated it was in the dungeons, what's stopping it from making its way up the levels in the time he took to warn us, meaning both Ravenclaws and Gryffindors can get attacked if we are in the tight corridors where we might impede everyone attacking or defending." His house members nodded in agreement while the Gryffindors looked torn to agree, "And I do not mean any offence for the prefects and the other seniors, but unless they have very strong attack spells, the most they can do against a troll with the magical hide is to irritate it enough to rampage." The prefects in question looked to each other with a grimace.

"Mister Potter is correct; rather than sending them back to the dormitories, it would be best to have them here in the Great Hall where they can defend that one entrance while we deal with the troll." Filius spoke out at this while getting on the table to be heard. "Prefects, please organize your house members and run a head count. Anyone missing, please let the professors know about it so that we can check if they are in the Hospital Wing!"

"Best to get back to your housemates, Hermione." Harry patted her back as the students started to organize themselves around the tables to let the prefects take head counts. Hermione nodded with a sigh and made her way back to her table. "I do hope she considers my advice."

"Advice?" Terry asked while looking at her back.

"Harry was telling her about the charter, specifically the bit where she could ask to be resorted into another house if she wanted to." Su answered while directing a minor glare at the red-head who evidently took the announcements as permission to stuff himself with more food, making those closest to back away with disgust. "Her situation in Gryffindor is getting a little messed up with some people not appreciating how smart she is."

"If she comes to our house, at least we can help her." Terry nodded as their house prefects came along to count them in before moving on. "Well, this is definitely not what I expect for the first year in Hogwarts."

"Expecting something more boring and no trolls?" Su quipped.

"Something like that."

"Potter." Harry turned to find Blaize and Theodore standing near them. "Thanks for the assistance. I do not fancy being a troll chew toy." The Italian answered in his usual manner while the bookish companion nodded his agreement.

"Same here." Justin piped up from his end as he came up to them. "I mean, from what Hermione had talked about trolls when we were discussing about the creatures in the magical world, it sounds a lot like those from Tolkien literature and I would rather not have the troll coming after us in tight corridors."

"It just seems logical. Rather than having everyone scattered, why can't we just hunker down in an area that is easily defensible? At the same time, all the fifth years and upwards can overpower their spells to hit anything wanting to come through." Harry shrugged while some of the stated students overhearing his words nodded in agreement and passing on the message to their sides.

"Something tells me the Gryffindors may not get that bit." Justin pointed a thumb over his shoulder with a smirk. The others turned as one to look at the table in question and saw what appeared to be a division in the group over something, with Hermione and Parvati on one side arguing against Ronald Weasley at the other side. "From what Ernie had overheard, Weasley was not liking how you challenged Dumbledore's authority to keep us safe. Hermione and Parvati are arguing that you were in the right on this."

"Hopefully." Harry watched the prefects finishing up on the head count and going to report to their respective heads while the few professors handling the electives got around to discussing who would be staying with the students and reinforcing the doors while the seniors went to track down the troll. Considering the gesturing and lack of sounds, they must have placed a silencing charm around them to keep the potential argument from attracting their ears. And given the expressions being directed at the headmaster, odds were good that whatever he had planned for the students were not to their liking.

Harry's thoughts were broken at the inner chiming of his mental wards and intent wards going off softly. Someone was attempting to enter his mind, but it was not Dumbledore, Snape, or anyone else that he knew of as far as he could tell. From his past meetings with the headmaster, Harry got the sense of a spider weaving webs around his head to attempt subtle pushing of the mind that could switch to a bludger to try and destroy the mind shields; for Severus Snape from the latest meeting with the headmaster, that was more of a quick glance than anything that stopped after as though he wanted to confirm something and just left it there; Quirrell's version was weird as it felt like a really slimy slug that just wanted to wrap itself around his mind and secret 'something' to break down the shields, and it honestly made his skin crawl at the sensation.

This latest feeling however was unlike any of them. Compared to the old wizard's subtle pushing of the mind, Snape's quick breeze and Quirrell's 'sluggishness', this felt like snakes slithering around his mind protections to test for vulnerabilities, and there was a hint of menace evident in the testing that sent chills down his spine. There was however a hint of curiosity that made it felt that the one doing it was just testing him for something.

But who was it?

"Harry?" His thoughts got broken by Terry shaking his shoulder. "You okay there? You spaced out a minute."

"I am fine, just thinking that this is an odd situation, having a troll coming into Hogwarts. Is it not reputed to be the safest place in Britain?" Harry snorted as he spoke out the famous slogan. "I think I ought to ask for a refund on that." The small group let out a weak chuckle at that, still feeling nervous with the situation.

"But we should be safe right, even if the troll is here?" Lisa asked while playing with her fingers. Harry was going to answer when his wards regarding danger and proximity alerts started going off, making him sit upright with a jolt and his eyes on the doors. "Harry?"

"I am getting a bad feeling right now." Before they could ask what did he mean from that statement, a loud crash at the doors drew everyone's attention to it, all conversations silenced at the suddenness. A second rattle and a guttural roar set someone off and got a lot of children screaming while the professors on hand ordered everyone to get to the far end of the hall. That only served to excite whatever was on the other side of the door as the banging got more repetitive and the roars came back.

Only one thought came to Harry.

'I hate being right, damn Potter Luck!'