The Tinkerer

by wickwynn

The Dursley family, who valued normalcy above all else, would of course never dream of keeping their orphan nephew in a cupboard, or of making a spectacle of him. That isn't to say they wanted to spend all of their time and money on him, however. From the salvage of broken toys and unwanted junk, left alone to his own devices, Harry built dreams.

4. Chapter 4

The Tinkerer

Chapter 4

After a great deal of careful consideration, the Hufflepuff duo of Harry Potter and Hermione Granger decided that they could not decide on any one thing. Therefore, they began to make a 'hit list,' in Harry's words, or what Hermione referred to as their Extra-curricular Curriculum.

It was the product of several hours of argument, rebuttal, concession and compromise.

Hermione had wanted to study a foreign language right away.

Harry had said that everyone else in the world is learning English, anyway.

Hermione had said that that simply wasn't true, and anyway it was very narrow-minded.

Harry had said that that wasn't a serious point, but really, why did they need another language?

Hermione had pointed out that, as great as the Hogwarts Library seemed to be, it had one obvious flaw, which was that all of the books were in English.

Harry had said that that wasn't a flaw.

Hermione had said that actually it was: only a very few of the books were in translation.

Harry had stared blankly.

In other words, Hermione had pointed out, the knowledge of the library really just represented the knowledge of Britain and if they were lucky the colonies. If they wanted a truly wide breadth of knowledge, they would need to learn other languages, since foreign books, even ones of great importance, were rarely translated in the wizarding world.

"Okay," Harry said, thinking the problem over. "If we want to learn the language which will increase our breadth the most by learning it, we must learn a language which has the following features: First, it should be a language that people still use, although it's not terrible if it's a dead language. Italian or Hindi, being living languages, have a massive benefit over dead languages like Latin or Sanskrit: you can actually go somewhere and find people to talk to in those languages. They can help you order food and find the bathroom and things, in addition to reading spellbooks. Even so, the dead languages like Latin and Sanskrit which people still know are better than dead languages like Minoan, which absolutely nobody can speak.

"Second, it should also be a language with a very long written tradition, preferably with minimal revisionism. A language that people first put to pen one thousand years ago will have much less breadth, in terms of time, than a language that was first put to pen three thousand years ago. Latin and Sanskrit are dead languages, and, being dead, they never change, which overcomes one of the major shortcomings of learning a modern living language. If we were to learn modern Italian, we would need to learn it all over again to read something written before Italian was standardized, whereas if it's written in Latin then there's much less variation over time.

"Third, if we want to expand our breadth of area the most, then we should pick a language which is from a distant region of the planet. Something spoken somewhere very far away will presumably get us much less overlap, in terms of what kinds of things people are writing about, than something closer to home. So for example, Latin would be less useful than Sanskrit because a lot of what's written in Latin is also available in English, while the same is not true of Sanskrit."

"Okay," Hermione said. "You mentioned Latin and Sanskrit. Out of those two, Sanskrit would be better than Latin because it better fulfills the third criterion."

"That's true," Harry said, smiling as he watched Hermione write down LATIN, SANSKRIT and then immediately cross out LATIN. "However, there is a language I was thinking of that offers even greater breadth of area than Sanskrit. Let's learn Chinese."

"Chinese?" Hermione said, surprised. "Yes! Of course. Chinese is a living language with a huge breadth of time and area. Plus, many other cultures have made use of Chinese characters, either today or in the past, so that increases its breadth even more. It's ideally suited." She wrote CHINESE and then circled it. "But Harry, Chinese is not an easy language to just dive into like French, or even Sanskrit would be much easier."

"Ease of learning was not one of the criteria," Harry dismissed. "I am not interested in getting the most bang for my buck. I want the most bang, period, and I'm willing to spend the extra buck."

So, Learn Chinese was jotted down as the first bounty on their hit list. (Or the first item on the agenda, in Hermione's killjoy phrasing which Harry disapproved of severely.)

"There's forty-two weeks of school per year at Hogwarts," Harry said. "So, if we allot ourselves six hours per week to study Chinese, that's just about two hundred and fifty hours per school year, plus whatever we do during breaks."

Hermione nodded. "Within three years or so, we should be at the upper-intermediate level," she said. "At which point we'll probably be ready to start learning Chinese magic, as opposed to the Chinese language."

"Right. Let's see what we have to work with."

There were no Chinese books in the little Foreign Languages section. There was Latin, Greek, Aramaic, Egyptian, Babylonian, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Bulgarian, Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, Turkish, and several others, but there was no Chinese at all.

"Well, that's no problem," Harry said. "We'll just have to order some. I have a Flourish and Blotts catalog."

They had not meant to start today, anyway. Today was a planning day.

"This will leave us plenty of time for another subject or project," Harry said. "I think I have one in mind, too."

"Oh?"

"Think of it as Advanced Muggle Studies," he said. "Muggle Studies for Muggleborns."

"All right, Harry. And what, pray, does Advanced Muggle Studies consist of?"

"I want to understand why magic interferes with electricity. More to the point, I want to overcome that weakness."

Hermione nodded slowly. "It would definitely be interesting to know," she said. "The problem is that experimenting with magic on muggle devices is basically under a blanket prohibition. Only people with a special license are allowed to do it, and I'm sure they won't license a couple of First Years."

Harry frowned. He hadn't known that. But then he thought the problem over in a different way, and said, "That's fine. We'll just be experimenting with Ministry approved modified artifacts, and never with pure muggle artifacts. That should be perfectly above board, correct?"

"In theory, I think so. But it's a bit of a gray area... I don't want to get into legal trouble, Harry!"

Harry had to agree, although he felt frustrated. "Yeah, you're right. Considering who I am, a legal gray area might be a very dangerous place to be."

"I'd rather study something that won't get us in trouble," Hermione said. "Like, I dunno, enchanting."

"What is enchanting, anyway?"

"Well, basically an enchantment is similar to a charm, except that once it's placed on an object it becomes a permanent part of that object, and the magic affects things around the object. For example, there's a charm that makes someone invisible, called the Disillusionment Charm, but it's also possible to enchant a cloak to grant invisibility. The benefit is that, if done correctly, the spell will never wear out, and the person who uses it does not need to know the Disillusionment Charm, they only need to know how to clasp a cloak. The other advantage to enchanting is that it's possible to grant an item a great number of properties – although this increases the complexity hugely. So – and, this is a made-up example, I don't know if it would work – it should be possible to enchant a cloak to grant invisibility and, say, resistance to fire. Now you have a single piece of cloth that you just throw over your shoulder and it provides the equivalent of a Fire-Freezing Charm and a Disillusionment Charm. The main downside with an enchanted item is that it can be destroyed, and then you're helpless. So, if the cloak gets torn, you're now visible and vulnerable to fire. Another downside is that it takes a great amount of time to enchant an item. Modern broomsticks can take several weeks each, and those broom companies have some of the best enchanters in the world working for them. And that's not even considering the amount of time it takes to research and develop a new broomstick model."

"That explains the price," Harry said, remembering the broomsticks he had seen for sale in Diagon. "Some of the higher-end models were running for over a thousand galleons. I still haven't really got a feel for what wizarding money is worth, but that's a lot."

"That could be considered an additional benefit to enchanting," Hermione explained. "Once you make a truly superior item, people will pay a lot of money for it. Those thousand-galleon broomsticks started their lives as a stick of wood and some twigs – kindling, at best. Once the enchanters have turned them into a top-of-the-line broomstick, however – well, it's like conjuring gold."

Harry nodded. "With the exchange rates those goblins provide, you could probably use some conjured gold," he said.

Hermione blushed. "Well," she said. "It wouldn't hurt."

"I already considered running my own money-changing racket and undercutting the goblins," Harry admitted. "Obviously, people can't just do that. It's very, very illegal for anyone other than the goblins to change muggle money. It's a violation of the treaty, which makes it treason, which makes it a very bad idea. It might be possible to set up something overseas, I suppose, but that's another gray area.

"I like this idea better, anyway," he concluded. "Let's make something that blows everyone's minds and drains their vaults." Really, money was no issue to Harry (at least in the short term), but making money doing something you like is not a bad thing at all, and this enchanting sounded like something that he could really get into. It was the magical study of making gadgets – a study practically tailor-made for his interests, except for the minor flaw that enchanting was not the method used to convert muggle gadgets. Of course, as he thought about the problem, it began to seem like converting muggle gadgets to working around electricity was little more than a niche market, while enchanting had far more possibilities.

The library, it turned out, had a lot of resources on enchanting. Although it wasn't a subject the school offered, it was far from obscure or esoteric, and the library's enchanting collection even dwarfed the alchemy collection, standing alone as probably the most well-covered subject that wasn't actually offered. There were so many books that it took them a great deal of time to decide where to begin. They ended up picking four introductory books and then, since there was only one copy of each, scheduling who would read which and in what order, so that they would both have all four read by Thursday after next, if they didn't fall behind (sixteen days from tomorrow, which is when they planned to start studying, gave them four days per book, which seemed very manageable). They wanted to have all four read before they ever picked up a wand, then get together and go over everything they had read, and then start doing some enchanting. This approach they hoped would maximize their safety and chance of success while minimizing the resources they consumed (because failed enchantments could get expensive quickly, since many materials could not be reused). It was also necessary to postpone starting, because they had to mail-order the recommended enchanting supplies (various types of paper, cloth, stone, wood and metal, as well as gloves, etching knives, sewing kits and a variety of thread, special inks, brushes and pens, a certain cleansing potion, an adhesive potion, pliers, a vice, and specially-varnished magically inert oak or cedar workboards), which could take some time.

Back in the Hufflepuff Common Room's quiet study area, they went over Harry's Flourish and Blott's catalog, and selected a number of textbooks on the Chinese language – after some deliberation deciding not to buy any books on enchanting, since the Hogwarts Library had more than they could read in several years, and they would have a much better idea of what they wanted to buy once they had gone through everything that they already had access to. Once they had decided which books to buy, Harry drafted the following letter:

Dear Mr. Fitzgerald-Fitzpatrick,

I would like to place an order for delivery by mail of the following books:

Two copies of 43-QZNG-3754, Mandarin Made Managable Magically

Two copies of 43-QZNG-1241, An Introduction to the Chinese Language

Two copies of 43-QZNG-2740, The Chinese Character Reference Book

Please find enclosed the sum of twenty-four galleons, which should cover the expense of the books and shipping.

Yours Sincerely,

Harry J. Potter

Hogwarts Student

Furthermore, he also drafted a letter for the premier enchanting supply store on the alley, requesting a quote for two complete sets of the basic supplies they would be requiring.

"I will pay you back for all of this," Hermione muttered after she had come to terms with just how much money Harry was preparing to spend.

"Of course," Harry said. "This is an investment."

By the time they finished the two letters, they were already late for dinner, so they rushed over to the Great Hall to join the daily demi-feast that was supper at Hogwarts.

"You're late! Again!" Hannah chastized, the last part directed just at Harry.

"Sorry," he said. "We were working on a project and we lost track of time."

"Never mind that. Hurry up and eat."

They needn't have bothered hurrying, however. Apparently, while breakfast and lunch only lasted an hour, dinner was available for two solid hours. Nor were Harry and Hermione the last people to show up – in fact there was a steady amount of traffic going both in and out.

"Where have you been all day, anyway?" Susan asked them.

"The library," they both said.

"Should have known," Susan said in an imitation of longsuffering, unable to hide a slight grin as she looked between the two. "You two are going to put Ravenclaw to shame, aren't you?"

"That's the general idea," Harry said matter-of-factly, slicing an entire brisket into cubes, then dumping mashed potatoes and gravy over the whole thing. "It's all part of our devious plot to undermind the House system and incite a revolution."

"He's kidding," Hermione said, glaring at him. "However, we do plan to be the top students of the year."

The other Hufflepuff firsties exchanged amused looks.

"What did you all do after potions class?" Harry asked.

"We all went to check out the lake," Justin said. "Did you know that there's a giant squid? And mermaids. Mermaids, mate."

Harry had to admit that that was pretty fascinating.

"We found a nice place to do our assignments," Cerie added. "There's a little courtyard between the lake and the Quidditch pitch. It's really nice."

"We'll have to check that out some time," Harry said. Studying outside definitely did sound pretty nice, and it was almost an obligation to soak up a few more rays of sunshine before the Scottish winter set in.

There was a bit of a commotion as Cedric Diggory and Haleigh Copperbell entered the great hall, and a pair of twins at the Gryffindor table began loudly singing the tune to the Bridal March. Cedric responded by transfiguring one of the twins' robes into a wedding gown, to the delight of everyone, until Professor McGonagall appeared and deducted five points from Hufflepuff for "a magnificent transfiguration done outside of class."

"By the way," Ernie said to Harry. "That was legendary, back in potions class."

"I was just focusing on my potion," Harry said once again.

Ernie, Justin and Wayne all started cracking up. Neville looked more serious, and said with obvious discomfort, "His face, after you left..."

"What about his face?" Harry said.

"It was pretty priceless," Hannah gushed. "After you left the classroom, he just scowled at the door for about a minute."

"Longer," Ernie amended.

"It was really creepy," Cerie said. "He was practically like a statue."

"More like a gargoyle," Wayne put in.

Harry rubbed the bridge of his nose. "I wasn't trying to make a spectacle," he said weakly.

"It was more Professor Snape that made a spectacle," Cerie said. "I mean, all you really did was make a good potion, despite being handicapped like that."

"And answer his questions," Neville added. "It was like he had it out for you from the word go, with those questions of his."

Harry was getting quite sick of talking about himself and his apparently epic first day at school. "I have an idea," he said. "Why don't we all go back to the Common Room and introduce ourselves a bit more thoroughly."

This was a generally agreeable suggestion, so, since they were all done eating, they made their way back to the Common Room and settled in on some couches by the Central Hearth.

"Who's first?" Harry said. Since it had been his idea, and since the rest of the Hufflepuffs weren't one hundred percent sure what was going on, they volunteered him to go first. "Okay, then. Well. I'm Harry Potter. My birthday is July 31st, so that makes me a Leo. I grew up mostly in Little Whinging, Surrey, which is a pretty boring muggle suburb. Recently we moved to London, though, and London is awesome. I'm really close to an underground station, so I can go anywhere I want. My interests include tinkering with stuff, especially electronics. I just like taking things apart and putting them back together. I dunno. I'm also pretty good with computers. Oh, and I didn't know anything about the magical world until June."

Everyone sort of just stared at him. "You left out a few bits, mate," Ernie said.

"I left out the parts you already know," Harry defended.

"I don't know anything," Justin said smugly. "Let's hear it."

Harry gave Justin a scowl that broke into a smile after a moment. "Fine. Also, I defeated the Dark Lord when I was a baby, and I made millions off a computer program I designed. Happy?"

"Oh, wow, I never knew that," Justin said innocently. "How interesting."

"Whatever. Okay, let's go around clockwise?"

Everyone found that agreeable except for Neville, who was sitting immediately to Harry's left, but he didn't really have much choice in the matter. Democracy was a bitch sometimes. "All right," he relented. "Well. My name is Neville Longbottom. My birthday is July 30th, so I'm a Leo too –"

"I detect a double birthday coming on," Hannah said, earning a few laughs.

"And, let's see. I'm interested in herbology, mostly. I just really like gardening. And also, I was raised by my gran. And my great uncle Algie is on the Wizengamot."

"Okay, I'm next!" Hannah Abbott piped up. "I'm Hannah and my birthday is December 14th, which means I'm a Sagittarius. I'm really into Quidditch. My team is Puddlemere United, as you can tell from my socks." She lifted up her robes enough to show off her maroon socks. "I'm also really into the Weird Sisters! My dad is a defensive charms freelancer. He does wards and stuff like that. I've always thought it was really cool, so I think I'll do that after I graduate, too. And my best friend is Susan Bones!"

Harry filed away the fact that she didn't mention her mum. Another war story, probably.

Next came the very shy black-haired girl to her left. "Hi. I'm Megan Jones. I'm a muggleborn so I only learned about all this last summer. It's all really exciting, but I don't have any idea what I want to do when I grow up. My parents are both faculty at St. Andrews." Seeing a few blank looks, she added, "That's a muggle university."

She seemed like she was done, but Hannah pointed out that she had forgotten her birthday. "Oh! February 17th. That's Aquarius."

Hermione was next. "My name is Hermione Granger," she said somewhat more formally than the others. "And my birthday is September 19th, 1979."

"That's so soon!" Hannah said.

"Yes," Hermione acknowledged. "Which makes me a Virgo. I'm also a muggleborn, and I grew up in Croydon. My parents are both dentists, which is a healer that specializes in teeth. I haven't yet decided what I want to do when I'm done with school. There are so many things to consider, including many factors that aren't even on my radar yet at this stage. That being the case, I intend to study everything that the school has to offer in order to give myself the widest range of possible choices."

Hermione ended her introduction there, but Cerie said, "What about your hobbies?"

"Reading," she answered promptly. The other Hufflepuffs had to laugh.

There was a slight bit of confusion about who was supposed to go after Hermione, since Wayne, who had been sitting next to her, had gotten up to add some more wood to the hearth.

"My turn?" he asked from where he squatted in front of the fire. "Okay," he said, now standing. He seemed to consider sitting back down next to Hermione before giving his introduction, then decided that he could stand up and do it. "I'm Wayne Hopkins," he said. "Birthday the 7th of May. Dunno what my sign is –"

"Taurus," Hannah, Cerie and Megan supplied.

"Taurus, then. I'm a muggleborn, too. So, well, this isn't where I expected to be. But I really like it so far. I mean, magic. Wow."

Wayne trailed off. Apparently he forgot what else he was meant to say. "Hobbies and interests," Hannah reminded him facilitatingly.

"Right. Well, I like football." That said, Wayne went back to poking the fire.

After a moment to make sure Wayne was really done, the next person started. "Okay, my turn. I'm Cerie Runcorn. My birthday is eleven-eleven. I have three older brothers and an older sister, but we're all really far apart. My sister is a sixth year and my brothers all graduated already. Two of them went to work in the Ministry like my dad. The other one moved to America. Um, my interests are … I like to play piano, and I like drawing."

"An artist!" Hannah said appreciatively.

"Hardly," Cerie said, blushing. "I'm not any good. Okay, you're next."

"Okay. I'm actually kind of nervous. Okay, hi, I'm Susan."

"Hi, Susan!" Harry said, waving.

"Shut up," she said with a scowl as the others laughed. She cracked a smile, too, and went on: "My birthday is the 2nd of August. I don't know what that makes me –"

"Another Leo!"

"Okay, Leo. Fine. I was raised by my aunt, who's kind of a bigshot at the Ministry actually."

"My dad is in love with Susan's aunt," Hannah interjected.

"That's true," Susan said. "He is. Anyway. I want to become an Auror. My family's produced tons of Aurors over the years and I'm not going to let that end with me."

"What about your hobbies?" Cerie asked.

"I don't have any hobbies," Susan said quickly.

"Liar!" Hannah yelled, throwing a cushion which missed Susan completely and hit Ernie in the face.

"Fine," Susan admitted. "I like birds a lot, so I'm always building birdhouses."

"She's a bird freak," Hannah disclosed, leaning in conspiratorially. "She has chickens and owls of course. But then she's also got peacocks, crows, ostriches, parrots, toucans, I don't even know what else. She has these really tiny ones that just go peep peep peep. Plus her whole yard is covered in bird feeders. It's kind of insane, actually."

"Thank you, Hannah," Susan said calmly. "Ernie?"

Ernie straightened his Hufflepuff tie and said, "Ernie Macmillan, age eleven. Birthday: February 9th, 1980. Aquarius. Interests: restoring the honor of my family. That is all."

"Oh, get over it already!" Hannah exclaimed.

"I'll never get over it!" Ernie said, crossing his arms.

"Er?" Harry said. Half of the Hufflepuffs were looking around, confused, while the other half were either exasperated or amused.

"Ernie's great uncle got passed up for Minister for Magic," Hannah explained. "He was supposed to be a shoe-in, but then Fudge came out of nowhere with Lucius Malfoy and Albus Dumbledore supporting him."

"I see," Harry said, although it was obvious to him that it was a very complicated issue.

"I'm also into the Weird Sisters," Ernie added after an extended pause. "You're next, Justin."

"All right, saving the best for last," Justin said with a grin. "Justin Finch-Fletchy here. I'm so muggleborn that I almost shat myself when those ghosts turned up last night."

"Gross!" all of the girls said.

"I said almost. I'm from outside of Liverpool. My dad does real estate and my mom works in an accounting office. I've got two older brothers and they're wizards, too, but they didn't get invited to Hogwarts. They're both at Helsing Academy. Hobbies? I don't really have anything, just hanging around friends, playing some games or whatever. I like going to the coast."

"All right, that was fun!" Hannah said.

Harry, for is part, had been making sure to update all of the little mental profiles he had on all of the other Puffs as they gave their intros. Truly, he had way more information on them than he had before – although he hadn't learned anything new about Hermione and Neville. There were, however, several gaps which he would still need to fill in: Justin hadn't mentioned his birthday, while Ernie and Wayne hadn't said anything about their parents (although Harry had tidbits about Ernie's great uncle). Cerie and Hannah had mentioned their fathers but not their mothers. Megan hadn't said what her interests and hobbies are, while Wayne's answer of 'I like football' could be expanded upon.

Still, despite these gaps, he did have a lot more information than he had had ten minutes before, so he did consider it a success. Especially considering the amount of information that the Puffs had given him about their respective personalities, which had all shone through under the complete attention of the other Puffs. He could, for instance, have placed each of them on a spectrum of shyness, with Megan being the shiest and Hannah being the least shy. Harry was a wildcard, because he was naturally quite shy but had decided the night before to stop acting shy. The shyness spectrum alone could be extremely useful: he would need to exert more effort to get to know those who were more on the shy side, and of course Harry wanted to get to know all of his Housemates. Furthermore, he could anticipate that those who are less shy would be more likely to take on leadership roles within their group, since they would naturally be the ones directing the flow of most conversations, as well as the ones most apt to suggest an activity.

He could also sort the Puffs by who had been affected the most in the war, with himself sharing the 'most affected' position with Susan and Neville, with the muggleborns on the opposite side of the spectrum as completely unaffected. That information could be used to determine the basis of each individual's political beliefs, among other things. He also knew who were muggleborns, and who were more familiar with the wizarding world: Hermione, Wayne, Justin, and Megan had all only learned about magic a few months ago, while Susan, Hannah, Ernie, Cerie, and Neville had grown up with it. That information would determine who would be asking questions, and who would be answering them. Harry again was an oddity in that area, since by all rights he should have grown up knowing about magic, but due to circumstances was raised like a muggleborn instead. Moreover, since the expectations other people had of him would require him to act informed, even if he didn't actually have any background information, the pressure was on him to get up to speed more quickly than the true muggleborns, so that he could stop asking questions, and start providing solutions, sooner.

Of course, in addition to the information that the introductions had just provided, Harry could add a few other kernels of useful information that he had gathered over the course of the day. Ernie, for example, Harry knew to sometimes have trouble sleeping, just like Harry himself had. Harry also knew that Ernie had at least one older sister, since he had mentioned her at lunch. Sure, those tidbits alone didn't add up to much, but as Harry continued to accumulate them, they would surely add up to very detailed profiles indeed. Looking at himself, he wasn't precisely sure why he wanted to gather and organize information in this way. He had no specific purpose in mind, other than his sincere desire to get to know them. He just thought that it might eventually be useful to know the strengths and weaknesses of each of the other Puffs like the back of his hand.

"I feel like I know all of you so much better already," Harry said with a grin, trying to be a bit cheesy but not too cheesy. Cheese was a topping, not a dish. Looking around at their mostly innocent faces, Harry felt a bit like a wolf in sheep's clothing, but he was a good wolf, more like a sheepdog really, since he was determined to help these people.

His slightly cheesy grin seemed to have more or less the effect desired. Ernie snorted and rolled his eyes in what Harry could already classify as a classic Ernie move, but Justin, Hannah, Susan, Cerie and Hermione grinned back, and the others all looked pretty happy, too.

"Harry and I are going to learn enchanting!" Hermione disclosed happily. "It's going to be ever so interesting!"

"That's amazing!" Hannah said with a great amount of enthusiasm. "Enchanting is divine!"

"We're going to be approaching it rigorously," Harry said.

Hermione nodded energetically. "Does anyone want to join us?"

"What is enchanting, though?" Justin asked.

"Basically," Harry said, "It's how you make magical tools. There's all kinds of applications."

"It's ever so fascinating and useful," Hermione added.

After a bit more discussion, Harry could see that none of the boys were interested in committing to an additional subject, which Hermione explained would likely be more challenging than any of their classes, nor were Hannah or Megan. They all went off to learn how to play Gobstones under Ernie's expert tuteledge instead. However, Cerie and Susan were both interested in joining them. Cerie's mum, it turned out, had been an enchantress (Past perfect tense. Harry made note that she was probably dead. Although Cerie didn't actually say that, the grammar of English had a way of telling you if you were talking about someone who's alive or someone who's dead.) So naturally she was interested in at least seeing what it was all about, and maybe eventually even replicating some of the gizmos her mum had made. Harry and Hermione were all in favor of having a co-conspirator (or fellow student, in Hermione's lame terminology) who had a good background in the field. Susan, on the other hand, was apparently as little afraid of demanding academic work as Harry and Hermione were, and felt that taking on an extra subject could only benefit her, considering that their current classes were far from demanding. So, Hermione made copies of the book and supply lists that they had sketched out earlier, and since there were now four students and four books, she easily made the necessary adjustments for all of them to read the four books by Thursday after next. ("It's okay if you don't read the whole book," Harry said, seeing Cerie's face. "Just read as much as you can.") Hermione of course made sure to extract pinky promises that they would not lose or damage the books, since they were all checked out under her and Harry's names. When Cerie started to display a bit of anxiety over the supplies that they would be needing, Harry quickly intervened, saying, "Fortunately I've already ordered four sets of everything, in case we needed spares," and that put Cerie at ease, and Hermione and Susan were tactful enough not to say anything even though it was a pretty obvious fib. Cerie did mention that there might still be a few supplies in storage at her house, but probably her brother took most of the good stuff with him when he ran off to America, since he was interested in enchanting. Harry made a mental note to definitely ask Cerie more about that brother sometime.

"We're also going to learn Chinese," Hermione said once everything had pretty much been decided.

Susan Bones just started cracking up, while Cerie said, "But isn't that just about the hardest language to learn?"

"Probably," Harry said.

"But you'll never have the time!"

"No, look here," Hermione said. "It's already penciled in. Six hours per week with Chinese, and five and a half hours per week with Enchanting. That adds up to only forty-one and a half hours of studying. Add in approximately half an hour per week of Astronomy and it's only forty-two hours per week. Even when you consider the homework we'll need to do, that's not a particularly demanding schedule."

Harry, who had grown used to spending sometimes up to sixteen hours a day working on his computers, and who would have frankly been quite bored with the six hours of class per day offered by the school, nodded. "It's practically nothing," he said.

Cerie and Susan were not interested in learning Chinese with them. "I've got to see where I'm at with this before I take on any other projects," Susan said politely. "Besides, I'd rather learn German."

"You're both mad," was Cerie's opinion.

"From what I understand," Harry said without concern, "Many great wizards are considered mad."

"Based on my family background, I'm at minimal risk for mental illness," Hermione said with an equal measure of nonconcern.

As it was getting close to curfew, there was no time left in the day to make the trek up to the owlry and actually send off the letters Harry had written earlier, especially considering that they did not actually know how to get to the owlry. (Besides which, he had just told Cerie a few minutes prior that he already ordered the supplies.) That excursion would have to wait until the next day. The group of enchanters-to-be joined with their friends again in the game room, where a rather heated game of billiards was going on with Hannah and Justin just barely leading Ernie and Wayne while Neville and Megan watched enthusiastically. Ernie could get rather competitive in the heat of a game, and he and Justin were exchanging banter that was just barely on the friendly side of outright shit talking. Nonetheless, they all seemed to be having a pretty great time, and the four remaining Puff firsties were happy to get in on the excitement. Hannah and Justin won that match, which predictably enough led to a demand for a rematch, and Harry found himself drafted to Justin's team after Hannah decided that the testosterone level was running a bit too high. After Hannah dragged the other four girls off to do something else, however, things only got rowdier and rowdier as the five boys (Neville swapping for Wayne in the third game) continued playing until well past curfew, and indeed until Algernon Silvestris, a sixth year prefect, told them all to go to bed. Harry felt like the friendly competition-cum-comraderie of the impromptu billiards tournament had done a great deal to help the boys bond, or at least feel more comfortable around each other (in Ernie and Justin's cases, comfortable enough to say some rather obscene things about the other's parentage, morals and hygiene, all in a good sportsmanlike way, of course).

As he washed up and got ready for bed, Harry couldn't help but look back over the day and think that it had been a very successful first day at a new school by any measure of reckoning. He had enjoyed all of his classes (or, in the case of Charms, he could tell that he would enjoy it as soon as they started getting their hands dirty). He had made friends both in his House and in Ravenclaw (because Terry and Sonny were obviously going to be his friends, if they weren't already). And he had created, essentially, two new classes to occupy his time and attention with. After going over the day in his mind and feeling satisfied with it, he turned his attention to the future. There were many things he wanted to do tomorrow, besides just attending his classes. Obviously, he would need to find the owlry to send off his mail. Next, he thought he should look for an opportunity to speak to Draco Malfoy, just to make sure he still had the aristocratic boy's goodwill (because he could imagine how it would be inconvenient not to, and because the boy had honestly piqued his interest). He also had that Potions assignment to do (although it would be very easy), and it wouldn't hurt to start on the Charms assignment, either (even though it wasn't due until Friday). And of course he was obliged by mutual obligation with Hermione, Cerie and Susan to read approximately a quarter of his first enchanting book at some point. Furthermore, he was obliged just for his own longterm viability to continue to seek out any opportunities available to make himself seem as friendly, available, dependable and honorable as he was supposed to be according to the preconceptions people had about him. Truly, he did have quite a bit on his plate for a shy eleven-year-old from the suburbs.

Still, the day was long and he didn't need a lot of sleep. Something which did not prevent him from falling asleep shortly thereafter.

Indeed, when he awoke after a night of unrememberable dreams, Harry found that, quite in contrast to the previous day, he was the first one awake in the dim dawn light. That was far from a problem, though, since his goals did require him to do some private studying, and these early hours would be an ideal time to get started. So, after cleaning up and getting dressed, he made his way down to the Common Room and found a comfortable place around the Hearth to begin to read.

And within minutes, whatever part of him had not been fully committed to studying enchanting was completely sold on the idea. In fact it was all he could do to tear his eyes off the book, even after he had read far more than the quarter of it he was obligated to, when his fellow Puff firsties dragged him off to breakfast.

"I really can't wait to get started," Harry said, his mind aswirl with ideas and plans. "I've already got some good ideas I want to try out."

Hermione grinned. "I know what you mean. I was reading last night, and it's really just fascinating."

"My dad said one time that enchanting was my mum's real spouse, and he was just there to get grandma to stop nagging her about getting married," Cerie said with a smile that was only a tinge sad. "It's was just a joke, of course," she added.

Susan nodded, too. "I'm mostly just in it for the defensive enchantments," she said. "But there really are an incredible amount of applications."

Frankly, Harry could hardly wait the now absurdly long-seeming sixteen days before they were supposed to get underway, and had half a mind to see if he could scrounge up some supplies and get started immediately, rather than continue to torture himself. But of course that sixteen days would give him plenty of time for the most interesting ideas to foment in his mind, meaning that when he got started he would probably have some useful applications right off the bat, instead of wasting his time today on rocks that glow, or whatever. Actually, that gave him an idea.

He engaged in the conversations over breakfast as well as he could, but frankly he was pretty distracted. Fortunately, his easy grin worked just as well whether or not he was paying one hundred percent of his attention to the conversations around him, and somehow he even managed to contribute a few funny comments.

Justin – who apparently refused to look at his schedule, having people around him who already knew it by heart – asked what their first class of the day was, which turned out to be Herbology with the Slytherins.

Neville's face was green. "What's wrong, mate?" Harry asked when he noticed.

"Herbology," Neville said sickly, "is with Slytherin."

Harry puzzled over this for a moment before it came to him. Of course. Neville's favorite class, and he was worried that it would be spoilt by some of his least favorite people. Harry gave a microscopic nod to himself as he saw that the solution was very obvious as soon as the problem was identified, and actually tied together some of his other goals.

"Don't worry about them," Harry said warmly.

Neville seemed about five percent reassured and ninety-five percent still ill. Nor could Harry really say what his plan was, since Neville might object to it. Still, he was certain it would work.

When the Hufflepuffs all got up to go to class, Harry said he had to use the bathroom and to go on ahead. Ernie, for whatever reason, said he'd wait for Harry and waved the others to go ahead. "Why are you waiting for me?" Harry asked once the other eight had started walking away.

Ernie shrugged. "Someone should, I figure."

"You'll be late to class, though," Harry pointed out.

Ernie apparently didn't care. "So will you," he said. "Professor Sprout will be less likely to punish us both, you know."

Ernie's reasoning was questionable, but Harry didn't want to question it because it was clear that Ernie was working with Harry's own best interests in mind. "Thanks, mate. But look, I lied earlier. I don't have to go to the bathroom."

"I know," Ernie said, now smirking.

Now, Harry understood. While what Ernie had said before about them being less likely to get in trouble together was probably true from Ernie's point of view, that was not necessarily the main reason he had decided to stay behind. He had wanted to see what Harry was getting up to, plain and simple. Now, Harry didn't know Ernie very well, he realized, but he did not think that Ernie wanted to see him do something against the rules to get him in trouble, or anything like that. More likely, Ernie just felt that Harry was about to have a bit of excitement, and he wanted to share it. That, Harry could deal with – but unfortunately there was no excitement to be had, since what Harry was getting up to would not be particularly exciting at all. Still, he had to let Ernie see that for himself, otherwise the other Hufflepuff would never believe that he wasn't going off on some wild adventure, and would resent Harry for excluding him.

"So, what's the plan?" Ernie asked slyly.

Harry thought that maybe Ernie had read too many adventure novels, or something. "I've just got to have a chat with Draco Malfoy," he said.

"You really are mad," Ernie said, apparenty impressed.

Now Harry could see what was going through Ernie's mind. Ernie of course assumed that 'having a chat with Draco Malfoy' must have been a euphemism for jinxing Malfoy in some humiliating way, or something like that. That was a train of thought he had to nip in the bud before Ernie started to get happy with his own wand. "I'm just going to ask Draco to make sure the other Slytherins don't mess with Neville."

Ernie's slightly pudgy face went from a devious expression to an expression of frank disbelief in a flash. "That's not a very smart idea, Harry," Ernie said.

"How do you mean?"

"Asking for a favor from Draco Malfoy on the second day of school? You would be humilating yourself. Plus, what if the Slytherins aren't even interesting in messing with Neville? Now you've gone and humiliated yourself, and told them that by hurting Neville they're hurting you."

Harry could see the wisdom in Ernie's words. Actually, just going up to Draco and asking him to be nice to Neville was a pretty bad idea. It stank of social ineptitude. He would look like a complete fool! Harry was embarrassed that that had actually been his plan. Had had been on the verge of committing social suicide.

"So what should I do about it?" he asked.

Ernie shook his head. "For now, there's no problem, is there? Neville is afraid of Malfoy, but Malfoy hasn't actually done anything to him yet. The best thing to do if you want to help Neville would be to tell Neville to grow a pair and stand up straight and stop worrying so much."

It was harsh, but it was probably true. Harry couldn't help Neville before Neville was prepared to help himself. He could try to, but he would fail, and he would hurt himself in the process.

"Right, but what if they do mess with him? Then what do I do?"

"Puffs fight together," Ernie said solidly. "You don't have to do anything on your own."

It was somehow both reassuring and disconcerting. On the one hand, it was good to know that they would all stand up for any of their members that needed the support. But on the other hand, Harry realized that that would take the controls firmly out of his own hands, because he, too, would have to stand by his Housemates, even if they said or did something that wasn't in his personal interests, or something that was harmful to his own reputation.

This, too, was part of the Hogwarts Houses – what McGonagall had called their families while here at Hogwarts. Nobody's family was perfect, but even if they made mistakes, the other family members stood by them and supported them.

It was a warm thought whose realization filled him with deep dread. Suddenly, it seemed to him that he would not be able to make everyone happy, that he would not be able to be friends with everyone at school, a goal which had seemed so vital to him. It was an idea that settled all about him and wrapped around him. As he looked at Ernie's concerned face, it seemed to be growing further and further away and dark even as spots of light appeared in his vision and floated about him like snowflakes without gravity.

He blinked, but it did not help, so he said, "We'll be late," and, abandoning his plan to meet Draco in the Entrance Hall, he exited.

It was a long walk out to the greenhouses, made longer yet by the way they seemed to keep fading in and out of his vision, always somehow moving further away even as they walked in their direction.

"Harry," Ernie said after a while, "Are you okay?"

"I've just got to change my strategy," Harry said. "Although I don't know..." He trailed off – he couldn't share this. Why had he said what he had, and what could he say now? Still, the effort of speaking even that little seemed to help him regain his focus. Even the as the grounds around him grew and grew, every object converging on the infinite pinpoint behind it like the whole world was running away from him, all of it growing darker and darker – somehow still he was able to make some sort of sense of his surroundings. By watching the grass under his feet – it seemed so far away, but it was just there, he was touching it – by watching it flow past him, he was able to. "I've just got to figure out some other way to help Neville," Harry said.

Only as the words passed his lips did he remember that that was his goal.

Light and distances slowly began to make sense again.

As Harry saw Ernie's face turn from concerned to thoughtful – Ernie apparently setting his mind to this problem – Harry was struck by the oddity of being the only being with which he interacted that would never see himself. He wondered what his face looked like, when not seen through a mirror. How did he look to someone walking beside him, as he was walking beside Ernie now?

He felt thirsty and he felt afraid, but they were at the greenhouses now and it was almost time for class.

"Good morning, class!"

Harry said good morning to their teacher along with most of the rest of the class. He had followed Ernie over to a kind of bar, four of which made up the greenhouse. He was sitting in a stool.

He caught Draco Malfoy's eye, and Draco gave him a smile that was both friendly and dignified. He hoped that the expression on his own face was similar. He found Neville across the greenhouse, sitting between Hermione and Susan. Neville seemed more excited than anything, now. Probably, Harry had had no reason to worry after all. It was like Ernie said, Neville was afraid even though nothing had happened yet. Now that they were all in this place where Neville felt comfortable, he did not look afraid.

Harry felt thirsty.

Professor Sprout, who Harry very belatedly learned was his Head of House, set them all to work almost immediately after only giving a brief demonstration. They were meant to graft mushrooms from a small stump to a much larger stump. It was profoundly simple work. Harry wondered what the mushrooms were for – probably, Professor Sprout had told them. He did not know what they were called. They were small things, with orange to reddish-orange caps, and they seemed entirely unremarkable. Harry transplanted them from smaller stumps to larger stumps as well as any of the other students.

The lingering sense of conscious dissonance gradually faded away.

Two hours passed slowly, and Harry's hands got more and more dirty, and a page of notes was filled out: Professor Sprout's few but meaningful words almost all written down verbatim, along with his observations on the mushrooms, and even a rather crude sketch of them.

"I'll be needing a special quill just for this class," he told Ernie. His quill was covered in dirt, the soft down at the base destroyed.

Ernie laughed. "Good luck there," he said. "It looks like you'll be needing a special quill each day."

Professor Sprout came around and commented on their excellent work and delicate touch. Harry was hard-pressed to see how anyone could have done any worse, considering that he had barely even been awake during it. But, looking around, he found that many of the other students had managed to fragment the caps, destroying them, or had simply failed to get them to attach properly to the larger stump, either by not applying enough salve or by failing to get the base to adhere properly.

"You know, I thought you were going to end up in Slytherin." Draco was suddenly standing there, talking to him. The lesson was over, but the scheduled time was not up, so the students were mingling and chatting.

Harry's mouth moved more quickly than his brain. He said, "Obviously, all real Slytherins go into Hufflepuff."

Draco was at a loss.

Ernie blinked a few times, and then he was rigorously straight-faced as he pretended not to listen. Somehow, this behavior seemed a lot like laughing.

Harry favored Draco with a friendly, good-natured half-grin. "Think about it," he said.

Some people, when they have a sudden realization, their eyes widen. For Draco, and people like him, when they have such an epiphany their eyes have a tendency to narrow appreciatively instead. "I can see what you mean," he said, not smirking but his eyes suggesting it.

Harry was glad his mouth seemed to have a pretty clever mind of its own, because his brain was still trying to come up with a working algorithm for the 'social math' involved in this whole situation, and probably wouldn't have a result any time soon.

Having no idea what to say next, he just nodded in what he hoped was a meaningful way, further hoping that Draco would tell him what the meaning was supposed to be. He thought that maybe he should invite Draco to something, or perhaps give Draco some sage advice, or maybe introduce Draco to Ernie, or –

Draco clasped his shoulder in a way that was patronly rather than patronizing, and said, "Let's talk soon," and walked away.

As soon as he was well clear, Ernie muttered appreciatively, "You're a fucking legend."

Harry wanted to let out a great heaving sigh of relief, and possibly break down into hysterical laughter. But instead he just gave Ernie a wink.

It was the first time he had ever given that significant wink to anyone in his life. He wondered, in the back of his mind, if it looked foolish to wink while wearing glasses. He wondered if maybe his right eye had squinted a bit too, or if he was imagining it and it was fine.

Ernie shook his head, eyes shut and lips in a lax smile, in a gesture of contained amusement that bordered on glee.

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Thank you to everyone who has read this story, and a special thanks to those who have reviewed it. I read all of them and they make me happy. =3

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Some notes:

Yes, anxiety strikes again. I realize that for anyone who doesn't have experience with extreme anxiety, my choice to describe in detail, rather than just say "Harry woke up feeling anxious, and then he had a bagel for breakfast" will probably just be confusing. But, well, it is confusing. And no, nothing magical is going on when his senses get bewildering, that's all in his mind.

Also, yes, I realize that at my current rate of two chapters per day in Harry's life, I'll have this story completed sometime in the 2040's. [Edit: according to one enterprising and mathematically-inclined reviewer, at the current rate this story will not be done until 2077] Nothing I can do about that, so just bear with me until then.