A/N: And here's the next chap! Enjoy!

Disclaimer: It's all mine! Mwa ha ha haaaaaa! Or not. If you recognize it, it's J.K.'s. Details were referenced in the books and in the Harry Potter Lexicon.

Chapter Fourteen
"Wha's wrong, Fang?" the man asked, glancing around in bemusement. "There's no one anywhere near 'ere. C'mon..."

The dog was running right towards him, barking. Harry fled, floating higher as he moved towards the castle. He'd have to be a bit more careful,

because had anyone else been there, it would only have taken one spell shot in the direction 'Fang' had been barking for him to have been caught.

After four nights of theory with Hermione, and three days before Fred and George planned to bring him in to disrupt- er, attend their classes, Harry finally got to attempt some magic- in the sense of actually performing it. He was quite pleased with the idea, as he headed up to an empty classroom where he was to greet the twins. It would normally be considered a bit risky, but they had the door lock behind them, and had convinced Nick to stand watch.

"Right," commented Fred, moments after Harry had joined them, "we were thinking we'd start with Transfiguration."

"You don't do much first day of charms, after all, so we won't either, this being your first sort-of-lesson-"

"Don't do much in DADA either, ever, come to think of it, with the way Quirrel teaches-"

"And we didn't think it'd be practical to steal plants from the greenhouses-"

"We'd have to keep them somewhere-"

"So they'd be more of a discovery risk than they're worth."

"We'll have you try a potion right after some Transfiguration practice."

"Alright," Harry agreed.

George demonstrated a bit of transfiguration, turning a bottle of ink into a mouse and back with practice ease. Harry however, was only to try turning a match into a needle.

"We thought it'd be best to stick to the curriculum for now," Fred confided, "never been much good at teaching anyway, and it'll make sure you know the stuff your age-group is learning."

Harry nodded, and accepted the wand they handed him, then turned to the match. He pointed the wand at it, and tried to visualize how it would look as a needle. A half-hour later, it remained completely unchanged.

"Maybe it's because-"

"You haven't used a wand before. Try-"

"To concentrate on channeling magic-"

"Through the wand."

Harry tried. He closed his eyes, and focused on the feel of the pulse of energy, then pushed some of the magic through the wand, and towards the needle.

"Well?" asked Harry, not sure he wanted to look quite yet.

"It's... not quite the same as it was before..." commented George, who was obviously attempting to be tactful, and, if Harry wasn't mistaken, trying not to laugh.

Harry slowly opened his eyes, not particularly anxious to see the results of his latest transfiguration attempt. The match was still a match. But it seemed to be glowing.

"Not that it looks any more like a needle, either." Fred observed.

"So now he tells me," Harry grumbled.

He reached down in picked it up to examine it, only to drop it a second later.

"I wasn't aware that contact with failed transfiguration attempts could give you shocks," Harry commented wryly.

"Well, you got the energy down-"

"The only problem being the complete lack of transfiguration."

"Just keep trying," George instructed, watching lazily.

Harry went back to his attempts, again. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he could see that the twins were plotting pranks again. They probably had been the entire time. He turned his attention back to the match, and tried again, flicking his wand sharply in its direction. Stupid match, if only it would just-

But at that moment, his thoughts were interrupted, or perhaps fulfilled, as the match burst violently into flame.

The twins looked up from whatever they were plotting, and their expressions quickly shifted from vague curiosity to obvious amusement.

Harry tossed the wand in their general direction, and gave him his best imitation glare a la Severus Snape (which he'd seen Snape use on Mr. Ron Weasley on his first day at Hogwarts)

"Well," said George after a moment of being torn between laughter and backing away nervously, "perhaps we should call it a day. No need to fret though, mate. Most don't get any results on their first try-" seeing Harry's irritated look, he corrected himself hurriedly, "first lesson, I mean."

"And you got results," added Fred cheerily, "You got it to glow and burst into flames!"

"Results involving fire or explosions-"

"Or both," cut in Fred.

"Or both, can be highly useful," confided George in a loud whisper. The sincerity of his statement, Harry mused, probably would have sent a good many Hufflepuffs into a panic. Actually, it probably would do the same for anyone unfortunate enough to share their potions class. And a large percentage of those vulnerable to their pranks...

"On to potions, then," concluded Fred, "once you understand them properly, you can create lovely explosions."

Harry glanced from one to the other, and rolled his eyes.

"Harry!"

Harry was sitting by the fire in the Gryffindor common room, waiting for Hermione to arrive for his theory lesson, when he heard her shout.

"I found it!"

"What?"

"A spell that causes objects to radiate cold, like sort of like ghosts do, see?"

She gestured to a rather heavy-looking volume she was holding, entitled Basic Spells for Household Healing.

"Healing?"

"Yes. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it. I had to ask Madame Pince if she knew of any spells to cause things to radiate cold, and she suggested I check. Look here. 'The frigus genero charm is generally used on cloths to help cool down flu patients with fevers. It radiates cold from one side of the cloth, so that the patient can be cooled without discomfort to others present in the room. It is used largely for the reason that it is impossible to place such a spell on the patients directly, being the opposite of body heat, which is a vital sign of life. ' I think it probably means that ghosts give off cold because it's the opposite of body heat, so it's a sign of death. It's sort of... reverse, as far as I can tell."

Harry gave her an encouraging smile.

"Your talents for research and logic are amazing. It seems a highly likely possibility to me."

Harry had the twins cast the charm on his clothes later that evening, so that he would seem to radiate cold. It would most likely be extremely important if he was to spent time in close proximity with other students.

By the lesson three nights later- the night before he would invade the twin's classes- Harry had found that, thanks to Hermione's thorough review of the theory needed for each of the beginning potions, that subject gave him little trouble. Although he was hardly perfect, his potions were decent enough, and improving as he got the hang of it. The twins were delighted. Potions was, apparently, quite good for practical jokes and explosions. As far as they were concerned, the more you understood about the properties of ingredients, the more spectacular explosions you could create. For some reason, Harry thought the resident potion master might be of a slightly different opinion on the matter.

Transfiguration- what he was working on now- was a different matter. He stared at the current match- which was, at least, neither glowing, shocking people, bursting into flames, or exploding. It was rather tempting just to stop for the night. Sighing as he made yet another attempt, he mentally reminded himself of all the reasons he wanted to learn this- and need to learn. Magic could definitely be an advantage, and if he ran in to trouble with Quirrel, or this 'Voldemort' person (the guy with the high voice), it would be best to be equipped with more skills than he had now. Looking down at the match, he blinked, for it wasn't quite match anymore. It had gone slightly silvery, and was a bit pointy at one end. Sure, it wasn't quite a needle yet, but he was getting there, and at least now he had a bit more of a feel for what this sort of magical task felt like.

The day, for Professor Minerva McGonagall, had begun, more or less, the same as any other. Of course, having to teach the Weasley twins was always something to beware of, but, for the moment, they were sitting quietly, briskly taking notes on the lecture she was giving. Which was why she was worried. The twins didn't always make trouble, but for them to be behaving perfectly could only mean trouble. Nevertheless, it wasn't until halfway through her lecture that something odd happened. Something caught her eye, and she looked up. Harry Potter- or rather, his ghost- had just floated through the wall, into the classroom. She paused in mid-sentence in surprise, for not only had she not gotten used to having his ghost at Hogwarts, only having seen him as such once before, but also, never before had a ghost ever entered her room during class.

The ghost boy spoke up, seeing all the eyes on him. "Good morning, Professor. I... I'd hoped I might be able to come in and watch classes every so once and a while, since I never got a chance to learn much," he gave her a sheepish smile, "and I haven't got much else to do, given the circumstances."

Although she knew that this was probably what the twins had been looking forward to, she couldn't see the harm in him staying. What a well mannered child...

"Of course you may, Mr. Potter."

She shot the twins a look, however. She had no doubt whatsoever that the Weasley twins had specifically set it up so that it would interrupt her lecture. She'd tell them at the end of class to stay after.

As far as Fred and George Weasley were concerned, things were going quite smoothly. Completely disrupting class, and distracting everyone present for its duration while getting away scotch free was quite an achievement. They weren't out of there yet, of course, but still...

Harry was enjoying himself as well. He'd slipped in, invisible, behind Fred and George, and remanded by the wall until around half way through the lecture, at which point he'd become visible- or rather, transparent- and floated forward. It was actually mildly interesting to watch the class, partially because the results of the various transfiguration attempts were amusing, and partially because of their reactions to his presence. He hadn't spent much time with large groups of people within a few years of his age before, and he found the experience quite entertaining.

The professor was standing nearby, keeping an eye on the class as they practiced. At the planned time, a few minutes before the bell, Harry approached her.

"Thank you for allowing me to observe your class, Professor. Transfiguration seems to be a very interesting branch of magic."

She smiled warmly at him.

"I certainly find it to be. It is one of the more difficult branches as well, being one of the more complex."

"I see. It seems worth the effort though. There seem to be a good deal of different levels of difficulty as well. What aspects make some assignments more difficult than others?"

"Well, one of the most basic is how different the object you start with is from your finished product. It's much harder to transform if there is a large size difference. In essence, the more details you need to change, the harder it is. We start out by transforming matches into needles, as both are relatively simple objects of a similar size."

Harry nodded.

"That makes sense. What's the hardest form?"

"That would be the animagus transfiguration. It is the art of transforming oneself into another creature and back."

"Really? That's possible? Amazing!" Harry was interested. Really. Though he was definitely exaggerating enthusiasm...

"Quite. I am an animagus myself, actually."

"Could you demonstrate? That is, if it isn't too much trouble-"

"Of course not."

Abruptly, she transformed into a tabby cat, with rectangular markings around the eyes.

The bell rang.

She transformed back. The students were dashing for the door.

"Fascinating," commented Harry, "I wish I had lived long enough to have a chance to learn..."

The sadness in his voice, which was, unbeknownst to Minerva, completely fake, managed to distract her for the moment needed to get most of the students, included Fred and George, out of the room.

"Well," Harry concluded, "I suppose I had better be going, before I manage to disrupt your next class as well."

He gave her a sad smile.

"Thanks for everything," Harry murmured, before floating after the last students out the door.

The plan had gone quite smoothly. Harry had distracted Professor McGonagall so that she hadn't gotten around to assigning homework before the bell rang. Fred and George had gotten away without reprimand. And, of course the next transfiguration class would be disrupted, courtesy of the fireworks Fred and George had set up while the esteemed professor was distracted. They would, naturally, get in trouble for the last bit, but they didn't particularly care. That was one of the thing about the twins- they liked getting credit for their "achievements."

A/N: As you can see, I decided to be nice (for once) and post again soon :)

I'll probably be right off to work on the next chapter after this. And this chapter is longer than most so far, though I'll still be trying to get them a bit longer each time.

Here are a few points for reviewers to guess on:

1) What is the reason that Harry can't maintain cover long term (longer than a year)? Has NOT been guessed.

2) What is the main difference in circumstances between the magic he's worked before and the magic he's trying to learn now?

3) Why didn't anyone find Harry when he was living on his own?

4) Prank ideas. A reviewer sugguested I ask for some. I don't need any at the moment, but sugguestions can always lead to extra inspiration.

5) Should I update the summary? Any ideas of possibilities?

6) Should I start a yahoo group so that readers know what's going on?

Please review. I appreciate the feedback (and feel like getting stuff posted faster.) I could always just not post until I got at least 20 reviews...

And of course, thanks to those who reviewed:

captuniv- Potions will be coming up next chapter. I think I have more plans for that than any other class... smirks.

japanese-jew- That's the weakness in his plan, actually; he doesn't really plan on being discovered at all, and doesn't really have a set-in-stone plan for if he is.

Yzliose- Does this chapter answer some of your questions in regard to trouble with magic?

Thestrals- The magic he's used before is different, though not exactly in terms of type...

jbfritz- Is this soon enough?

and also thanks to:

azntgr01, SeekerTLK, FroBoy, Fallen-Legacy88, E.A.V. , gaul1, Isis's Rose,