I didn't go back to the Gryffindor common room instead choosing to roam about the castle, continuing my self-assigned quest to converse with every portrait. I aimed to learn something about each of them as I knew that even the most bizarre piece of information can come in handy.

During my walk I realized I completely played the interaction with Dumbledore wrong. Even though mentally I was an adult, I was still a growing child with developing emotions and my anger got the best of me. I didn't realize how much resentment I held towards him for leaving me with the Dursleys till now. I may have cooled down towards the end but I still should not have mentioned everything that way. I gave away more to him than I wanted. I also didn't want McGonagall feeling too guilty. I still had yet to find out if she had made efforts to see me and was stopped by Dumbledore. I mean she could transform into a cat, why did she not try and see me. And before I found out, I wasn't going to denounce her.

Eventually I realized I had stayed out long enough and went back to the common room. Not seeing Hermione or Neville, I went directly upstairs, not being in the mood to talk to anyone else. When I got to my shared room, Neville and Dean were the only ones there. It was late enough that I could call it an early night so I said good night to the two and went to bed. Neville did stop me to tell me that McGonagall had Percy come get Ron a few minutes after I left Dumbledore's office. Well, whether or not canon Ron was following Dumbledore's orders, this Ron definitely was. Good to know.

I started the morning just the same as yesterday. Met up with the elves and then did my daily exercise. I then met up with Hermione and Neville in the Great Hall, neither of whom asked me about why Dumbledore wanted to see me. After eating breakfast, we left for the first class of the day, Transfiguration.

This time McGonagall was in her cat form waiting for the rest of the class to show up. Ron was the only one late for the class, he hadn't approached me in any way since yesterday. Maybe Dumbledore had told him to stand down for now.

After showing off her Animagus skills, she started explaining about magic theory and transfiguration theory. Half way into the class she handed us all a wooden needle so that we could practise changing the colour of it. She first had us change it to our favourite colour and if we succeeded, then we needed to try turning it silver.

I could see her reasoning behind her two-step process but considering all the practise I had done, I skipped right to the second step. I sat myself in a way that only Neville was able to see what I had done and I silenced him with a look before he could voice his shock.

I made sure to not draw attention to the fact that I was finished and spent the time trying to help Neville since he was having difficulty. After listening to how he was attempting the spell, I found the root cause of the issue. I told him to not just picture his favorite colour arbitrarily but instead focus on the specific shade of colour that he likes. He looked at me confused when I said that so I tried explaining further.

"Okay, let's say your favourite colour is red and you like it because of a particular flower. Then don't think of just any red, think of that flower's shade of red and then focus on turning your needle to that colour." I explained to him how much of magic was intent based and why the professor was having us practise the spell this way. The first step is so we can learn how to execute the spell and it becomes much easier doing it with a colour we have a connection with. Then the second step is to learn to change the needle to an arbitrary colour, one we don't have any connection to, much harder to do.

Not many students got to the second step but they were able to at least change parts of their needle to their favourite colour. Of the students that did get to the second step, most were only partially able to turn their needle silver, Neville was able to turn ¾ of his. From Gryffindor, only Hermione and myself were able to turn our needle completely silver. From the Slytherin side, it was Draco and 2 or 3 others, I didn't really care who had.

When the class ended McGonagall had me stay back, no doubt wanting to talk about yesterday.

She didn't waste any time and started right away and said "Let me first start by apologizing Mr. Potter. I'm sorry." She let out a breath after and then continued on. "I had warned Albus beforehand about them but he assured me that he would make sure you were being treated right. I don't want to make excuses as though it was Albus who stopped me from visiting you as I did not have to listen to him. So I too share blame for what happened to you. All I can ask now is that you allow me one more chance to be a part of your life outside of Hogwarts, do you think you can do that Mr. Potter?"

I didn't answer her right away, as I thought about what she said. It was true that she didn't have to listen to him but it was also true the Dumbledore was an old friend of hers, so I could understand her trusting him. "I think that would be okay professor, but as long as you don't try to decide where I should be living." I said after I finished thinking.

Hearing my answer, she smiled and said "Considering you have grown up to be a fine, mature and intelligent young man, your present living situation seems to be the ideal place for you. And don't think I didn't catch onto how fast you finished your task today; us cats have very sharp eyes. Now go on to your other classes." I gave her a smile as I walked out of her classroom.

The next two classes, History and Defense against the Dark Arts, were just as bad as I remember them to be described as. History was boring because Professor Binns was just how I expected him to be, even Hermione was having a tough time staying focused enough to take notes. Defense was unbearable with Quirrell and his incessant stuttering. I would have been more empathetic if it was real and he was not housing Voldemort.

It was confirmed by Sebas earlier today when he reported following him to third floor corridor and of course by the throbbing pain coming from my scar since the moment we entered the class. During the welcome feast I could look away from him, but in class there was no alternative. Every time I looked at him for prolonged periods of time, the scar would start hurting. I was very upset learning that this whole year would be spent in pain whenever I'm in this class.

Because of the last two classes I was a very dull conversation during lunch, something Hermione and Neville took notice of. During the walk to our first afternoon class, they asked me what was wrong. I told them it was nothing, just feeling down because of the last two classes. It didn't look like they believed me but they still let it go.

Our first afternoon class was Herbology, where it was mostly Hermione and Neville who shined. Neville, only after I would constantly nudge him to participate when I knew he had the answer. After getting house points for the first two times, he started doing it on his own. His confidence had developed quite a bit in the last two days. He was already a lot more outspoken than when he was on the train.

The last class we had for the day was Charms, Professor Flitwick taught us the Lumos spell. He started by first explaining the theory, then giving us a demonstration himself before he let all the students attempt it. Unlike in Transfiguration, I wasn't able to hide my advanced capabilities here.

I think because of the way I was feeling after Defense, I didn't realize how much power I was putting into the spell. I had done the spell inattentively and the result was an extremely large explosion of light that blinded everyone in the class. I swiftly woke up from my daze and killed the spell but the damage had been done, everyone knew where the spell had come from. Flitwick gave me an unreasonable amount of house points for it, which didn't help the situation at all. I didn't want anyone to know how powerful I was yet, not with Voldemort walking about Howgwarts. I mentally slapped myself for committing such a careless mistake.