(Posted 7-7-22)
Perhaps I should state, Here and Now, that majority of the characters will probably be out of character slightly. Different paths and all that stuffs. Surely without Lucius breathing down Draco's neck, maybe he'll be slightly more moderate. Maybe the Fair Folk managed to calm down the twins, and matured Ron just a tad. Maybe The Stone will be just a minor plot point... meh, we'll see how things play out.

Also thanks to a reviewer for reminding me about a plot hole! Notes at bottom.

It sure is a hell of a lot of fun getting back into this!

Oh, one last thing, y'all might see the next chapter next week, maybe. Do not count on it, but it's already 3k deep. Speaking of updates, the next Chakra Edition chapter is basically done... but I don't like it. I keep reading through it, but... eh. Not impressed by a scene much. As always, critical reviews, ideas, opinions are welcome, even a private message will do. Can't learn from mistakes if I'm blind to them, probably why there's beta readers and what not. (7-7-22)

OooOooO


Chapter 9: First Day

There were many people gawking at him, talking as if he weren't there, it sort of unnerved him. Not to mention it distracted him from pathfinding, he was fairly sure that person doubled back to get another look, at least twice now.

Harry really wished they provided a map of some kind. Surely after a thousand years there had to be a couple made at least! He was using some of his free time to distract himself, as much of an excuse to explore for more instances and caches as well.

It was pointless asking for directions from the 'locals', those being the ghosts and the paintings. The portraits only cared for gossip, and the only helpful ghost was their house ghost Sir Nicolas. He tried to take the daily quests, but they weren't working currently for some reason. At least a hint was given that they activated at certain times, majority of them well after curfew.

[Return at 11pm to activate this quest!]

The resident ghosts he could find currently were less forthcoming as well, switching topics. It was best to avoid the poltergeist though, Peeves. They tended to distract and mislead when possible, on top of 'harmlessly' pranking anyone.

Even worse so far was the caretaker Filch. The man was fairly rude according to Harry, although he did his best to avoid the man when possible. There was something strange with that man, surely majority of his problems could have been taken care of with a flick of a wand... right? Perhaps he was one of those that didn't bother with it or something. Harry didn't particularly care, so long as he stayed out of trouble, especially from people who seem to look for a wrong of some kind. Aided and abetted by his equally grouchy cat who wasn't far from Filch, Mrs. Norris.

Things weren't so dire in Harry's opinion, more confusion and wonder really. Although he was feeling a bit disenchanted.

The classes although interesting felt tame, for the moment anyway. Majority of it was theory work, and it made sense in a way. No need to give preteens and teens spells that could reshape the world without instruction after all. He thought back to the start of the day.

Transfiguration was awesome in Harry's opinion, especially since the Professor revealed herself to be a cat when the bell rang!

He had sat down, started to prepare for class, they shared the mornings apparently with the Ravenclaws, a double period of Transfiguration followed by a period of History. On the desk was a grey tabby cat that was flicking it's tail back and forth leisurely, although the markings were rather curious to Harry. Usually symmetrical shapes and patterns weren't a thing in nature. Still, he was fairly new to the magical world, what did he know.

Students filed in, a few were even out of breath, having run back to the dormitories. Harry was only slightly sympathetic, he tried to plan for the coming classes a bit, also taking full advantage of the bag of holding. Surely he could have used his personal inventory, but he didn't want any awkward questions about it. The bell rang, and a moment later the cat leapt from the desk, transforming midway into Professor McGonagall!

"Good, you are all here, lets now take roll." was all she said before closing the door with a flick of her wand, gracefully ignoring the stunned looks of the class.

Once finished she started her first lecture, "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."

Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time. The lesson continued from there.

"It's more than tapping your wand thrice and saying the spell, it takes focus, visualization to coax the magic to do your bidding. Know this also, it takes more than aesthetics to bring life to a creation, you must visualize how it'll be alive. Dear me the amount of misshapen transfigurations I've witnessed, let alone the cold lifeless 'perfections'... moving on.-"

There were many applications Harry's mind flew through, the potential of such a ability would be a force multiplier for him. Still, theory first, practical next. It made sense, don't want eleven year olds changing the world around them all willy-nilly. Still Harry figured it would be one of his favorites, it was the ability to change one object to another!

"For your first assignment, you will research the dangers of Transfiguration, I expect at least two sources! I will also require a quote from an older student as well as the name of the student. I expect at least six inches of parchment. Dismissed!"

Dangers of Transfiguration? Harry thought, before accepting the assignment.

Find and read about Transfiguration, Requirements:
-Two Sources of Transfiguration Accidents
-One Quote from an older student
-(Optional) Additional Sources of Transfiguration Accidents
-(Bonus) Quotes must be from O.W.L and/or N.E. Students

Harry was curious by this, there were no real rewards stated, surely no penalties so far... this he found suspicious so would strive to complete the assignment to the best of his abilities. Perhaps these were his replacements for weekly quests? Something to ponder, this Gamer stuff was confusing him again.

Speaking of which, he looked back at the stretch of wall as he left transfiguration. It was shimmering slightly, yet felt solid to the touch. Concentrating on it a window popped up.

[Instance Locked]
Prerequisites not met yet.

It was a bit frustrating, this was now the fifth one he found, and it was locked. It wouldn't say what the requirements were, although he had an inkling of an idea. Perhaps they were party instances, needing more than one to complete them. One of them was level restricted, requiring level 30 to open it. So far he was still a bit off from it.

"Come along Harry, we don't want to miss History! You can admire the school later!"

The class though that seemed to drag it all down was the History of Magic. Professor Binns was a ghost! Yet that was the only thing exciting about it. The spirit had a voice so dull Harry had trouble keeping his focus. It wasn't long after he realized Binns was reading word for word of the book. Glancing around he noticed a couple of students were trying hard to stay awake, a fair few were zoned out. The only exception was that Granger girl.

Taking a look over he had realized that she wasn't so much as paying attention to the teacher and taking notes. Rather she was working on some kind of personal project! An interesting one as well if the diagram was anything to go by.

She did glare at him when she noticed before pulling her book higher to block her work. He did shrug slightly and nodded slightly towards the teacher. Her glare softened, but only slightly with a huff. The class seemed to drag on, yet before he knew it they were on their way to lunch.

Curiously he had gotten another 'quest' for History, this one though asking for two rebellions and a story summed up. As a bonus he would have to provide his opinion on how to solve one of the conflicts.

Back at the Great Hall Harry took a look through his stats again.

Harry James Potter
[The-Boy-Who-Lived]
Level 12

He skipped through the various abilities, skills, and what not. Currently he was looking for information on parties once again. He was still debating if he should have invited Dudley into the party, surely he would have learned some magic by now, probably. Also, he was considering letting Neville know at the least. He was still on the fence about Greengrass and Davis, he had yet to meet with Bones and Abbot yet.

With a grimace he took out his business notepad, searching through the list of priorities. There, a few of the students had parents who were defunct in their payments, a couple were even minor house allies to boot. This was not a conversation he was looking forward to. At the least though he could reaffirm a couple of those minor allies, who stayed up to date and followed the guidelines and agreements.

"Harry, who are these people?" Hermione originally noticed the seemingly muggle notepad, and took a peek she felt it was only fair from earlier.

For anyone else, they couldn't read it, even as close as Hermione was. As a matter of fact she shouldn't have been able to notice it. There was a very limited amount of people who could have access to this information. To anyone else, it would seem boring and unimportant. No one but him, his immediate family through blood, should have been able to even glance at it, let alone read it. There was also highly unlikely scenarios where some random person might be able to notice it.

Life Quest Unlocked!

Harry snapped the notebook shut, slipping it into his robe pocket to hide the fact he sent it to his inventory. "Hermione, I know as a muggleborn you don't know much about the wizarding world, so I'll say this as politely as possible, so please keep your voice lowered. It was none of your business, but it is now my business. I'll happily explain what that means at another time. The fact you can actually see what was written should be worrying enough already. You will keep quiet about what you just saw."

He had not raised his voice, nor glanced once at her, his heart was racing though, as he observed those around him. So far no one was paying attention. Thankfully the nearest student was busy studying for their next class, probably summer assignments. They were also a few paces away so probably didn't hear anything. His year mates had spit up, only Neville was nearby, but he was busy with his food. Harry was also very much aware of a new Life Quest notification popping up. He dared not look at it, nor Hermione.

He had twisted the Heir Ring, it would create a temporary notice-me-not field, just to be safe he grasped her by the wrist when she was about to stand and yell at him. Another temporary function to freeze someone in place for a moment. "Not. Now. This has become a private matter, and you will obey this command!"

There was a reason Heirs weren't really given their rings until graduation, if at all. They had inherit magicks able to coerce others of 'lesser standing' to a degree. Usually Heirs didn't receive them until they hit a majority of twenty-five years of age. They would spend the next decade learning what it meant to be a lord/lady of the house. His case, and a couple of others were extreme cases, and even then he doubted any of them had access like he did. The rings would be unnoticeable to anyone unless he showed them.

She was stricken, panicking as the magicks took hold. After a moment she nodded fearfully. "Good. You will act as though nothing happened, and I had answered your question. We will speak soon about this matter with our head of house to discuss our options. Until then, enjoy lunch, I will seek out Professor McGonagall later."

He tried to reassure her with a shaky smile, one she hesitantly acknowledged before going back to her meal. Harry meanwhile wasn't hungry anymore, but continued to eat anyway, all the while ignoring the golden flashing notification at the corner of his sight. He sometimes cursed his father, but understood why he gave Harry the Heir ring this early. He also cursed his own stupidity of pulling the notebook out in public. What happened should have been so astronomically low, that it wasn't even worth thinking about, and now he had another responsibility as Heir of House Potter.

The book of Lordship, as he called it, was backwards in his opinion. It didn't warn anything about the ring's capabilities until after it was put on. It felt redundant since only family could read them anyway.

Currently, he took out his regular notebook and started a formal draft to request Professor McGonagall's presence in a meeting. He would later have to copy it carefully to a square of fine parchment and envelope. It was a start, and would take time to make it right. Lunch was almost over, and they had potions next.

OoO

They had arrived at the corridor leading to the potions classroom. They had been told by an older student that Professor Snape required students to arrive without neckties and to stow away their robes. Merely a safety precaution when asked to elaborate. Of course some of the Slytherins didn't follow that rule and were now fidgeting about, clearly not wanting to part with the robes.

It was then the Professor arrived, "I see some of you did not heed your classmates warning about wardrobe choice. Thankfully for you I have since grown accustomed to such a thing. Perhaps next time you will actually pay attention to your elder peers. To the left and right of the entrance are changing screens and attire I require for my class. Boys to the left, girls to the right. For you who have to listened to your peers, there are garments you will wear over your uniforms, folded on the desk."

They stood around, waiting for something to happen, this seemed to annoy the Professor a tad who bit out "Must I stand as a servant and usher each of you in one by one! Move along, now!"

With a gesture the door opened and everyone hastily made their way in, the students doing as told and changing. "I expect each and every one of you to be prepared in further classes. Those of you with long hair are expected to manage it somehow, I care not how. Braid it, tie it down, cut it off, I will not have you contaminating your potion, nor am I responsible should you somehow manage to catch it on fire. You will be provided gloves should you need them, otherwise you are expected to bring your own. I shall overlook it this once, we will not be brewing potions today. In this class you will secure loose clothing where possible with these bands and clips here. Am I clear?"

There was a chorus of 'Yes Professor Snape' throughout the class, a couple of those were done changing, having shuffled out of the screens.

"Very well. Further more-"

From there they were to take notes, the Professor said that he will assign seats until such a time he found good pairings. "Some of you will not have an aptitude for potions, however, it is a mandatory class up until you finish your Ordinary Wizarding Levels exams at the end of your fifth year. I expect you to at least pass with an Acceptable, since that is usually a prerequisite for many careers anyway. I will be most... Disappointed if you fail even that low of a bar. Know this! I do not accept anything less than Outstandings for my N.E.W.T.S class. That is a topic for another day, should you make it. No, I will determine who to best pair you with so that you don't kill yourself or others around you. This means that until such a time, most likely by winter's break, you will be mixed and matched."

At some point in his impassioned teaching he spoke about the power of potions. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses. … I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death."

By now they had copious amount of notes.

And so the class went, of course then came the review and questioning time, some questions though seemed foolish, even to Harry. "'Why aren't we brewing on the first day' you ask... Do I look the fool to you? Why would I allow a student, who hasn't once made a potion, to my knowledge, attempt to make a successful potion on their first try!"

Harry did ask about note taking implements, if he could take notes on paper and pencil. "I care not about how you go about taking your notes, be it paper and pencil or quill and parchment. Whatever works. However, you will turn in your homework on parchment. You will only turn in the allotted amount I require, any less will see your grade fall, the same with any more! I will allow an excess of two inches, no more! Do not think to fill out your work with large writing either to skive off. The same applies with writing so small that I will need a magnifying glass to even read it. If I were to receive such works you will be graded as a Troll!"

Finally the class was nearly done, "Those of you that need to change, now would be the time. Go on, but pay attention! Do remember to arrive prepared next class. Speaking of which, we will be learning ingredient preparation. You will need to bring your kit, I do however have spares, should they be needed. We will also be learning proper cauldron care. Should you prove to be proficient enough we may well brew a potion by the end of the month. Your homework is to research why we take care of our cauldrons, and the consequences of poor care. Be sure to ask older students on their opinion as well, there should be at least one quote and name. I expect eight inches of work and where you got your information. Dismissed!"

Just then the bell rang, everyone had packed up by now, only a couple were rushing, having taken their time to change back into their school uniform.

Harry was in the opinion that Professor Snape was just full of himself. The man loved to talk, almost as much as he seemed to deride anyone and everyone he felt was below his intelligence level. Still, the man knew his profession. The boy was looking forward to future classes!

His homework assignment was along the same lines as the earlier, it however had a failure option of a failing grade if the work was too short or too long. Looking at the other objectives they too now had failure options much along the same lines.

Both groups split off presumably to prepare for Defense Against the Dark Arts class. Charms was shared with the Hufflepuffs after that.

Much to Harry's disappointment he could barely understand what Quirrell was saying. The man had a terrible stutter, and a bit of a lisp. The room smelt of garlic, supposedly to ward off vampires, and a feint odd smell Harry just couldn't place. It was enough to give him a bit of a headache. Harry did figure though that they might be powerful, their health bar was fairly large, as well as their magic. Everything else was muddled, he simply chalked it up to them being a higher level. Much like the other Professors, as well as a few of the older students.

It surprised Harry that the Weasleys as a whole had obscured health bars, he could barely make out Ron's, only that they were two levels higher than he was! Neville as well was only a level higher than him. The rest of his dormmates were on par or a few levels lower. His year mates he barely caught, but figured he'll learn them soon enough anyway. From what his guidebook said, he should have been able to see more details, but so far was only limited to HP and MC bars, as well as levels and titles where possible. Perhaps it was locked behind a hidden skillset?

Right, Defense, Harry zoned back in to the class although he felt that he didn't miss anything in particular. And so on went the class until finally it was over. Everyone felt let down, and were annoyed to one degree or another. No homework this time at least.

At least the Professor's door was open, so they filed in and sat themselves down, the Hufflepuffs arrived as a group before the bell rang. Professor Flitwick seemed like a cheerful bloke in Harry's opinion, the short statured man was going through roll call, squeaking when he came upon Harry's name, so far the only professor to react to him so far.

So far the class had gone about the same as the rest of them today. More theory work, notes, warnings. Harry felt his own brand of magic was probably on par with what they will learn. he wasn't too enthused so far. Their homework was to provide a list of spells they would like to learn, what they did, and why they wanted to learn those spells in particular. Curiously there was no length requirement, although Harry figured he would need to keep it reasonable and to the point.

They split off from the Hufflepuffs, going to their dorms to drop off their books and what not. "How about we meet back here and then make our way to the courtyard?" Harry asked as they went through a tight corridor. He was mainly asking the boys, but figured the girls would want to learn as well. Besides, it would be a good time to make friends.

As a group they all agreed and beat a hasty retreat back to the tower. The weather was holding so far, although it was moderately cloudy. They made their way back through the castle, talking about their favorite classes, what spells they wanted to learn, how scary and awesome Snape was, more spell suggestions.

Finally they arrived and took over a quiet corner. Apparently today it was Seamus and Lavender who were in charge, "C'mon Harry, you promised to show us your wandless magic!"

"Wandless magic! Harry can do wandless magic?!" Exclaimed Lavender, suddenly at his side, the other girls were interested as well. "Isn't wandless magic supposed to hard and rare?!"

Harry was bombarded by questions from them all. "Well, it's not that-"

"I hear that only Dumbledore can do wandless magic! He's supposed to be the best! Can you do anything cool like that Harry?"

"I mean,"

"Oh! Maybe he can fly without a broom! Imagine playing quidditch without a broom!"

"Well..."

"How can Harry teach wandless magic? He grew up like a muggle!"

Harry was getting a mite bit annoyed and impatient so did the only thing he could think of, he reached out with both palms, changing all their robes into a tie dye mess of colors. He also uses his telekinesis to bring him a pebble, before simply levitating it over his palm. "Do you want to let me explain now, or keep interrupting me?"

This shut them all up, only Hermione looked slightly annoyed. Although even she was watching curiously as the pebble started orbiting his palm, idly spinning as it done so. With a small gesture he returned their clothes to their original appearance.

"Right, so who here has done 'accidental' magic? Anyone?" Harry looked around as some rolled their eyes, others nodded, only a couple hesitated. "It's alright, we wouldn't be here if we couldn't do magic right? Anyway, what were you feeling when you did it? If it isn't too personal of a question, Lavender go."

"Uhm... Well, I was four at the time, ok? Anyway I was throwing a tizzy because I wanted... I wanted..." covering her face, which now as flushed she blurted out, "I wanted a Harry Potter doll ok?! I was so mad! I-I.."

"It's ok Lavender, you don't have to answer, I just wanted to know how you felt at the time... has anyone else feel strong emotions just before they did magic?" Harry looked at the others, by now Pavarti had wrapped her arms around the distraught girl, daring anyone to look at her, although she did nod in confirmation to his question. "Perhaps you wanted something so bad that you didn't care how you got it. Maybe, just maybe, your desire was the driving force and not the emotion. Professor McGonagall said that you needed to visualize what you wanted when performing a transfiguration, right?"

Everyone pondered this, Lavender had calmed down, mostly, her cheeks were still rosy. Only Neville seemed to have an epiphany of sorts, but was saving it.

"You must have visualization, and a desire for 'wandless' magic. Growing up, it is my belief that our magic was still forming, still is forming really. That this magic takes care of us, and extreme enough emotion and intent will cause unpredictable results. As children though, we don't realize the danger. If for instance you wanted to really hurt someone because they hurt you at the time. Dean, last night you said you summoned the football out of their path, what if instead you injured them somehow? Maybe made them trip, or.. I don't know. Or Ron, what if the biscuit jar broke apart or something." Huffing with frustration Harry continued.

"Maybe these are bad examples, but they are possibilities. A book I've read claims that our magic settles down somewhat once we surpass our eleventh birthday, enough so that we can start gaining control of what we do with it. Still, even then we need some help to do the magic, or that is my belief anyway. Personally I think the wands are sort of a training tool, used for delicate work. Wands and foci can't have been around too long, right?"

"Mate, what you're talking of is the stuff of legends! How do you expect us to do anything near what Merlin, and them can do without a wand!"

"Uhm, it's not hard... I think" Everyone whipped around to stare at Neville, who was fiddling with a sleeve. "I mean, it makes sense you know. My first attempt at wandless magic I was able to sense the world around me. Do you know how amazing the world is! The vibrant colors, it's all around us! The air, the soil, even these old stones practically glow with magic! It felt, well it felt Amazing! It felt like I was seeing the world for what it was, for the first time ever! I wouldn't give up the world to experience that again. But... I was still young, my foolishness almost cost me my life. I tried to learn too much, too fast. I ended up in a magical coma for a week. I didn't want to scare my gran like that, ever again."

The boy looked ashamed, "It was scary, I've never seen my gran cry like that, ever. And I don't want to see it again either quite frankly. So I promised to wait until I got to Hogwarts to continue practicing. She can't stop me! It's my birthright to learn this!"

Neville had grown determined, "So, wandless magic is possible. I don't see how it can be impossible. See?"

With that said he scooped up some dirt, and held it up for all to see, a seed suddenly sprouted before blooming into a flower with white pedals. The girls ooh'd at it, the boys were impressed with the magic.

Harry though was blown away, he thought he might have been the only one to do wandless magic. This was simply amazing to him, still, they wanted to learn, so he would do right by them.

"That is pretty cool Neville! See, everyone can probably learn wandless magic! We'll start with how I learned, with the color changing and levitation. We will probably learn the wand version soon I'm willing to bet. Anyway, we're going to start small, maybe we could start with a pebble, change it's color. It probably won't last long, and you'll probably only have small spots of it to start with. Don't worry! It's practice, even I took a while to learn to control this. It helps to start small, and work your way to bigger things-"

"Scabbers! Stop that, what has gotten into you?!" Everyone looked to Ron, who pulled out his pet rat who was chewing at his pockets. "Honestly, Scabbers, you've been acting weird for a while now!"

Harry could only stare at the rat, which wasn't acting right apparently... tilting his head he noticed something equally odd. There was no health bar, everyone, everything had health bars. It was like the thing was a fake. "May I?"

Ron gave Harry an odd look before handing the rat over.

"Why is he so cold? This rat is weird, where did you get it?" Harry asked, suddenly worried for it, The thing had gone unnaturally still before it seemed to go back on a loop of actions. "When was the last time you fed it?" The boy in question opened his mouth for a moment before closing it, pondering the question. "You mean, you haven't fed him, at all recently? How about the last time you cleaned after him? I noticed you didn't do anything for him all day today."

"It's just been busy... but.. but..."

"Maybe we can take him to Hagrid, or the creatures teacher..." By now the rest of them were staring at the rat, noticing how odd it was behaving. Parvati though had an inkling of an idea.

"It looks like a transfiguration. You know, like what Professor McGonagall did to her desk? I only recognize it because mother would transfigure some play pets for us when we were younger. How long has the rat been a pet?" Parvati leaned in closer to examine the would be pet.

"Well, Percy found him in our garden back when I was three I think? Percy would know more." worried Ron watched the rat, now noticing how weird it was.

"Rats don't live that long. Even in captivity they live maybe two years. There's a rumor of a rat that lived seven years over in the colonies... Maybe it's a replacement rat?" Seeing blank looks Parvati elaborated, "Sometimes pets die, we had a pet goldfish when we were six, my sister and I weren't told until we were ten that we actually had four pet goldfish. Me and Padma never knew until then."

Those with similar pets suddenly had wide eyes, now pondering if such was their case as well.

"We still need to take the pet to someone regardless it's a replacement or not. Professor McGonagall said we could go to her if we had any questions... But Hagrid's hut is just over there. I don't know where to find the Care teacher right now." Harry stated, now peering closer at the rat, noticing some minor imperfections, the eyes didn't dart anywhere, nor did it blink.

"I vote McGonagall, we should probably get Fred and George, they like to play pranks on me, maybe they have Scabbers with them." Even though he said it, Ron really didn't believe that. "I don't know though, they hadn't done anything too stupid like this since they were caught once trying to turn my teddy into something when I was, well, about the same age when Scabbers was found I think."

"Harry had something to ask Professor McGonagall anyway, right?" Hermione interjected, giving him a meaningful look.

A look Harry scowled back at, his letter wasn't anywhere near ready, but if she wanted this 'resolved' quicklike, then it was on her for the upcoming rudeness. "Very well, it's true I needed to speak to our Head of House for a private meeting, lets go. We can learn the color spell later, for now just visualize what you want, and try to push a little bit of magic into the pebble. If you want to practice levitation, go for it, on the pebble. Trust me, you most likely don't have the magic to levitate yourself, I don't either."

With a gesture he gave each of them a pebble to work on. It was a focused group that made their way around the castle back towards the Transfiguration Classroom.

Harry figured they would have an easier time to learn this bit of magic, he had felt that the pebbles were saturated with ambient magic and would prove to adapt more easily. He was not looking forward to the coming conversation.

As observant as he was though, he didn't really notice that Ron's reactions seemed... exaggerated, some would say even forced. Even if his concern about Scabbers was genuine, his reaction to wandless magic was a tad lackluster.

Hogwarts was in for some surprises soon.

OooOooO


Extended Notes/ramblings: (Optional reading, TLDR: Wormtail fled the Burrow in maybe '85-87, also nixed plot ideas. Skip now if you wish, you have been warned.)

So, I forgot for a moment that I had Pettigrew run away after Sirius' trial, oops. I'll just leave that as is for now, keep the mistake in and correct it this chapter (resolving it in the next). Surely though you should all be expecting another Interlude chapter after the next chapter or 2. I'd be interested to know if I should simply start another bit just for those. Eventually I'll have to go back and attempt to fix the beginning. I did state that this was started on a whim.

I originally wanted to write the story in first person from Harry's perspective. Sadly, I also wrote side characters in first person as well, that has been mostly fixed. Then perspective jumping, so I copy pasted those into 'interlude' chapters. This has mangled chapters 1-5. Eventually I'll polish up those chapters, probably.

The lunch scene was not planned, but it happened, and we shall see where it goes. His dormmates were going to learn wandless magic regardless, the Scabbers bit was to cover a mistake I made. Coincidentally they both lead to McGonagall anyway.

Another point, expect a bit more 'gamer' frills/stats stuff to appear more often. I won't pad out every chapter with stats unless needed.

For instance, 'Chapter 6' was supposed to be Harry and Dudley's first 'Party' on a new dungeon, this one would have featured a run down house infested with rats and what not. Some have pointed out that the story was dragging on. This plot would have also seen Harry take the game more serious since Dudley would have been badly injured in the final stage of the dungeon. I'll probably work on it, and post it in "Scattering Plots" at some point. Also another idea that was nixed was Harry and Dudley taking on Level Two of the maze at some point, most likely 'Chapter 7' where Dudley would have picked a class to specialize in. It would be cumbersome to keep him relevant until at least fourth year. Also in those two chapters would have been Susan Bones, Hermione Granger, Weasleys extended plot, and probably more of Elizabeth the detective. Keep in mind, they wouldn't have actually met Harry until Hogwarts.

Honestly I wanted to start the Hogwarts plot at chapter 10 originally, vising Diagon Alley at least once before then, maybe have Neville meet Harry and join the party. Maybe Harry inspires Elizabeth who was only listening in only because she was looking up something, I don't know, moot point now.

Just, missed opportunities now.