Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Harry Potter characters. All I own is my original characters and settings that will come up later is the story.

I am rewriting/adding parts of this story to improve it and get rid of inconsistencies. If you see any let me know. Tell me if it's improved if you've read it before. And if you're a 'virgin', so to speak, just drop a line and tell me how it's going.

I'm going to make a calendar and post it on my website to explain the time duration of all this. There are days in between some of the chapters that explain Harry's changing behavior. As time goes by he's adjusting to his environment. I'll post a note when it's up. It might take some time.

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Snape swept into the room. He sat in his usual seat, laughing with Granger. He made poison and he was laughing with his friends. The wonderful Harry Potter got away with something yet again. Let him laugh. There is only one poison that could be made without stealing ingredients to add to what he had during class. Nothing was missing from the stores. He wasn't supposed to know that that potion existed. Dumbledore wouldn't be able to turn a blind eye to this. He flicked his wand at the board. "Begin." He walked up and down the aisles. Gryffindors ducked their heads as he walked by. Fools. All of them. Let's see Potter's reaction when I demand the potion.

Fingers brushed up his back.

Snape froze. A Slytherin cauldron exploded and students rushed to get out of the way. He swept to the front and sat at his desk. Potter's eyes were locked on his. Those eyes full of terror as my hair brushed over his cheek. He dug his fingernails into his palm and wrenched his eyes away. He clenched his teeth. It wasn't real. It didn't happen. Potter was whispering to Granger, shooting him glances out of the corner of his eye. What did he see? Did he see the professor that made his life hell for five years or the man that--He ran his hand through his hair. This was stupid. It wasn't real. It was just the Dark Lord's attempt to break the boy. Go after his professors and he begins to feel as if he cannot trust anyone. He had seen worse than this before. He had DONE worse than this before. This was nothing. If the boy had been so panicked over this then he was just weak. He was a fool just like his father. He pushed away from his desk and stalked over to him. "Detention Potter."

"What?! I didn't do anything."

"And twenty points from Gryffindor for your insolence. You will be in this room at eight o'clock. Do not be late." His robes brushed against his ankles as he walked around the Slytherin side of the room. "Very good job Mr. Malfoy."

"Thank you Professor." Malfoy smirked across the room.

"Bottle your potions and put them on my desk." There was a great rush as students scurried to deposit their potions and bolt out of the room. Potter was shoving everything into his bag. He nearly shattered his bottle putting it on the desk. "Potter!"

Potter's thin fingers clenched into fists. "Yes Professor?" The room had cleared out.

He stood and moved forward until he was inches from the boy. "You will bring the poison you made with you and have an explanation for it."

Potter's eyes barely widened. His muscles were so tense that he began to shake. "Poison sir?"

"Yes Potter, poison. Which you knew very well."

The boy stepped back and pulled a vial out of his pocket. "I didn't know what it was. I couldn't figure out what I'd done wrong."

He snatched the vial out of the soft hands. He tightened his fingers around it. Enough! "You could not have made this by mistake and we both know it. You will be here at eight for your detention." He opened the cupboard and put the vial on the back shelf.

"But--"

"Get out!"

He jumped, grabbed his bag, and ran from the room.

The door clicked shut and he slammed the cupboard and clutched the edge of his desk, digging his fingernails into the soft wood. That insolent brat! Thinking he could act as if it had been an accident. The boy thought he was a fool. That somehow he would get away with things since he'd been--He swept the papers off his desk. Nothing! Nothing had happened to the boy. The images weren't even real. This could not continue.

He swept out into the corridor and down the hall to the painting leading to his rooms. "Mugwort." The painting swung open and he stepped in. The fire ignited in the fireplace as he walked into the living room. The flames illuminated the stained mahogany furniture upholstered in forest green and black fabrics. The far wall held floor to ceiling bookshelves. He ran his finger down the leather spine of The Black Arts made Grey and tilted it toward him. The bookshelf moved back into the wall and then slid to the right. He stepped through the new entrance into his private potions lab. The walls had inset shelves all the way around filled with various potion ingredients. He pressed his hand against a bare section of stone. "Severus Snape." The wall grew warm then slid back to reveal his pensive. He took the bowl out and placed it on the table in the middle of the room. He pressed his wand to his temple and drew shimmering threads from his mind. The last memory flowed into the bowl and he put the bowl back in its place and moved the wall back into place. He left the potions lab calmly. The memories were gone. Only the bare knowledge of their existence remained. Not enough for anyone to get out of his mind. Not enough to distract him anymore. He returned to a classroom full of rowdy third years with no clue about the subtle art of potion making.

Harry slammed his books down on the table. "I can't believe he gave me detention. I didn't even do anything this time."

Hermione organized her things sitting on the desk. "He was acting odd. He didn't even react to the cauldron exploding. Maybe something's wrong."

Ron snorted. "Who cares if there's something wrong with that greasy git?"

Hermione shook her head. "I meant that maybe something went wrong with, you know, their plans or something."

Ron dumped his books on the table. "Oh. Well no one else seems worried at all. It's probably just Snape being a git."

Harry dropped into his chair. "I agree with Ron, but he was acting very odd." Not that he ever acts particularly normal but still. "He kept looking at me. I figured he was just waiting for the chance to take points, but then he took the points without me doing anything." Why was he looking at me?

McGonagall walked into the room. "Good morning class. Today we will be learning the theory behind human transfigurations. It is essential that you understand the concepts before attempting such a transformation to reduce the risks. I'm sure none of you want to spend a week in the hospital wing trying to recover your human forms." She walked over to the board and started writing.

Harry leaned his head on his left hand while he copied down everything on the board. Snape had been acting really weird. Maybe he remembered what he did--No!--what he saw. Stupid occulmency. No. He hadn't seen anything. I freaked out before he could have seen too much. He dipped his quill in the inkwell and moved on to the next line. Human transformations are not to be used as jokes or for fun when you are bored. Jeez. No kidding. Though it was funny when Moody changed Malfoy into a ferret. Too bad it wasn't actually Moody. I really did freak out with Snape. And Fudge. Stupid bastard. Magic and muggle drugs just don't mix. I didn't want to take those stupid pills when Dr. Williams gave them to me. I never did take them. Then suddenly I find out I'm coming back here and I'm popping them like candy. Maybe I wanted to be screwed up so they'd send me back. That's not going to happen. I know it's not going to happen. They won't let me go back there next summer either. I'm protected at the Dursley's. Too bad mom didn't have six or seven sisters. Maybe the odds of getting a good one would have been higher.

"Mr. Potter? Are you going to answer the question?"

Harry looked up. McGonagall had her arms crossed over her chest as she stood in front of him. "I--I don't think I fully understood the question. Could you please repeat it?"

She narrowed her eyes and took a step closer. "What must you be concentrating on for a human transformation to be successful?"

Harry chewed his lip. Professor Myer had taught the one transfiguration class he had been to. Then Biara had scheduled Dr. Williams during that time. What had she kept repeating? It had driven everyone insane. They'd been repeating it for weeks afterward. It's the means, not the end, which counts in transfiguration. That's what you kids never get. It's the means. "You have to concentrate on the spell itself and not what you're trying to do. The vision you have in your mind of what the spell is going to do may be different from what the spell actually does. If you only concentrate on what you think is going to happen then you might not get what you're supposed to."

McGonagall smiled and walked back to stand by her desk. "Exactly Mr. Potter. That is the most important thing in these transformations. Five points to Gryffindor."

Harry smiled and took down what she was saying. I can so do this.

The class flew by. "Guys, I want to stop by the owlery before lunch to send Cali another letter." He smirked. "She's probably frantically missing my presence."

"Sure Harry. I promised my parents I'd write after I got here but I haven't gotten the chance to send it yet. It's probably still in my bag." She searched through all the pockets in her bag.

"Harry?" Professor McGonagall walked over. "The Headmaster would like to have a word with you in his office."

Harry pulled his bottom lip between his teeth. "When?"

"Right now. I will accompany you."

He reached into his bag and pulled out an envelope. "Hermione, can you send this off with Hedwig?"

"Sure." She slipped it into the front pocket with her newly found letter. "I'll see you at lunch."

"Yeah." He picked up his bag and followed McGonagall out of the room.

The statue outside Dumbledore's office looked the same. Everything always looked the same no matter what changed.

"Snickerdoodle." The staircase rose. Harry jumped onto the stairs. It was like an escalator only it went in a circle. I wonder what possessed Dumbledore to have this as the entrance to his office. Sure it's nice not to have to walk up stairs if you're old, but wouldn't all the spinning make you dizzy? The stairs stopped and he knocked on the door.

"Come in Harry." He opened the door and sat in the chair in front of the desk. "How are you today Harry?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm fine. The drugs are nearly out of my system so I'm feeling more like myself."

McGonagall sat in the chair next to him. This was not a good sign.

"So, I didn't attack anyone, I'm not taking drugs, and I don't think I've broken any rules that you've found out about yet, so why am I here?"

Dumbledore held out a dish. "Lemon drop?"

What the hell. Why not? Harry popped one into his mouth.

"Now Harry, Professor McGonagall came to me about something you did on the first day of class. It seems you performed a quite impressive feat of wandless magic."

"Huh? Oh. You mean making the entire box of mice invisible?"

"Yes. I was wondering if we should be concerned. If you are performing unintentional magic it could become dangerous."

How do you wave your arm over a box of mice and accidentally make them invisible? "It was intentional."

"Excuse me?"

Harry sat forward and rested his elbows on his knees. "It was intentional. It wasn't emotional magic. It was just wandless magic."

Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and put another lemon drop into his mouth. "How did you come to learn how to control wand less magic? Few wizards can do it with any sort of accuracy."

"That's because everyone who has ever attended Hogwarts has learned to rely on their internal magic being amplified by the power of their wands to perform spells. Wandless magic is based on the magic in the outside world. They learn to do it at the Academy. They have a class on it, but there are few people who can actually use it. Though there are actually muggles that can use wandless magic. It's called Wicca and it's almost a religion. I studied it in one of my history classes. And let me tell you, muggle history, especially American muggle history is so much more interesting that wizard history. Did you know there was a South American civilization called the Aztecs that slaughtered thousands of people at a time? They sacrificed them to their gods."

"Harry." Dumbledore held his hands up.

I suppose that means I didn't manage to sidetrack him. I think I'm losing my touch. "Yes."

"You know that you cannot--"

"Use wandless magic in front of any students or even any people of dubious allegiance. I know. And the less people who know about it the better. I'm not a moron. A power that the Dark Lord knows not of. Duh. I'm not about to run around screaming 'I know how to defeat Voldemort.' I only used it in front of Professor McGonagall when no one else was in the room, in front of Snape although I didn't mean to do it that time, and one time in the bathroom."

Dumbledore tried to keep the smile off his face. "And what kind of wandless magic did you do in the bathroom?"

What kind of dirty thoughts is he having? Never mind. I really don't think I want to know. "I lit a circle of candles. It was just to release energy. The amount of natural magic just waiting to be tapped in this place is a little overwhelming at first but I've adjusted to it."

Dumbledore smiled. "Very good Harry. You have grown a lot in a short time. It is good to see."

"It's not like I had much choice." He waved his hands as Dumbledore opened his mouth. "I don't need any speeches. I'm over the fact that I'm an idiot. Now, no offense, but I'm going to lunch because I haven't eaten much this week and I'm starving. But could you do me a favor?"

"What Harry?"

"Get rid of the pills. I don't need them, but as long as they're here I'm going to want them. They're the easy way out. Mom would kill me if she knew I had them. So, if you could not tell her if you ever see her--"

"I thought you said she knew--"

Well then what I just said was stupid wasn't it? Damn. "She sent me to Dr. Williams. I sort of failed to tell her about the prescriptions he gave me." He waved his hands. "I know. That was stupid. Like I said. I'm over the fact that I'm an idiot."

Dumbledore stood. "You know Harry that if you ever need to talk both of us will be there to listen."

Harry picked up his bag and moved to the door. "I know. And no offense, but you have no idea about this. You don't know what I've lived through no matter how much you want to empathize with me. I'm not saying that to be mean, it's just the truth. Cali doesn't understand it either, but it's okay because she doesn't want to. I tell her my life sucks and she makes it her goal to find a movie or book with someone whose life sucks more. She's succeeded more than once. And she doesn't know about Voldemort. Not really. She doesn't see it like everyone here. To her he's another bad guy that will eventually get his ass kicked. Everyone here is so terrified of him that it feels like no one could ever possibly overcome him. He was gone for eleven years and people still cringed at his name. Hitler's name was spoken even as he slaughtered millions of people. She sees this so differently. And it's nice to be around people who don't know that Harry Potter is the boy-who-lived but also aren't afraid of getting the crap kicked out of them by my cousin if they speak to me." He rolled his eyes. "I'm getting all pathetic so I'm going to lunch." He shut the door behind him and ran down the stairs.

He grabbed a sandwich off the table and followed Hermione and Ron outside.

Ron shoved his last muffin into his mouth. "Is everything okay?"

Harry smiled. "Yeah. Everything's fine. Dumbledore's just worried about me like always. I told him I was fine and got to leave."

Hermione moved right next to him and whispered into his ear. "Is everything okay?"

Harry smiled and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. "Yeah. It really is. You sent the letter off to Cali?"

"Yes. Can I ask why Cali has a ferret deliver her letters instead of an owl?"

Harry snorted. "She thinks owls are creepy. She insists that they won't stop staring at her. She really is a strange one." Strange huffing noises were coming from Hagrid's hut. "Uh oh. Do we know what we're doing today?"

Hermione sighed. "No. Sometimes I wonder why I continued with this class."

Hagrid stepped out of his door with a fuzzy creature the size of a puppy in his arms. "Good afternoon everyone. Today we will be studying a creature that currently only lives in our forest here. It's called a Peradu. It's like a dog only it has some odd magical properties. They're near extinct because they're empathic so everyone wanted one. They also have a mean streak if they don't like what they feel. You have your boss over to dinner and are mad that you didn't get a raise and your Peradu would attack. The poor creatures are so misunderstood."

"How do you gain their loyalty?" Harry cocked his head at the squished looking face and small pink tongue sticking out of the creature's mouth.

"Well that's the tricky part. They're loyal when you're kind to them, but that loyalty can fail if you are cruel or don't pay them enough attention. Many a wizard died by the claws of these, but it wasn't their fault that their owners didn't understand them. They were hunted nearly to extinction. Their numbers are growing now because they're protected in the forest. Now the main difference between normal dogs and a Peradu is that these sweet little creatures are vegetarians."

"That's good to know." Ron's voice luckily didn't carry.

Everyone sat on the grass and started taking notes. Hagrid set the Peradu on the ground and picked up the box of vegetables on the stairs and set it in front of it. The creature ignored it and wandered into the class. "Everyone keep still and think nice thoughts." Everyone edged away and Hagrid moved carefully towards it.

The Peradu started hopping forward and then dashed over and jumped into Harry's lap. It licked his hand, turned around, and lay down in his lap. Hagrid leaned down to pick it up and it growled. Hagrid pulled his hands away. "Harry?"

"I'm okay." Harry scratched the soft fur on its head. "Does it have a name?"

"I just got it from the forest an hour ago so no. Are you sure you're all right?"

"I'm fine. What's its normal habitat? Does it live in caves or hollow trees or something?"

"They live in a bunch of different areas. It makes them harder to find." Hagrid went back to his lesson sticking close to Harry.

"Warm."

Harry looked down. The Peradu shifted closer to Harry's chest.

"You okay there Harry?" Hagrid looked ready to grab it.

"So they look like dogs, but are magical. Is there anything else that makes them different from dogs?"

"Well they're cold blooded. They stick together in their packs in the winter for warmth."

And the plot thickens. "So they're like snakes."

"Not really. There are a lot of creatures beside snakes that are cold blooded."

That's what you think. "Oh."

Hagrid moved toward the box of food, finally taking his eyes off Harry.

Everyone was looking at the food in the box as Hagrid explained what they ate.

He leaned down and hissed as softly as he could.

"Hello."

The Peradu raised his head. "You speak us."

I knew I wasn't imagining it. "Yes. What's you're name?"

"I am called Mishel by my pack." Mishel lowered his head. "My former pack."

"Why former? What happened?"

"Any who are caught by those outside the forest cannot return to their pack. We are cursed."

"But Hagrid will put you back in the forest."

"And I will live as one cursed. Alone."

I hope Hagrid didn't know that. "But you're cold blooded. I mean, when the winter comes won't you die if you aren't with your pack?"

"It will be my time to leave this world, as it is with all who are cursed."

Hagrid came back over as everyone packed up. "I have to go. I will come back and see you."

Mishel pushed his head against his hand.

"It looks like you've found a friend Harry." Hagrid leaned down and Mishel climbed into his arms.

"Are you going to send him back into the forest?"

"Yes. That's his home. I don't want to take him away from his family." Hagrid scratched Mishel's head.

I won't let him die. "When?"

Hagrid shrugged. "Tomorrow I suppose. After all my classes are done learning about the little fellar."

"Can I come back and see him?" He scratched behind his ear and Mishel purred. Harry giggled. The dog just purred.

"Well sure. You can come back tonight."

Harry sighed. "I have detention with Snape."

"About the--" he glanced at the students around. "The you-know-what?"

"Yeah. I'll find some time to come." He gave Mishel one last scratch. "Good bye Hagrid. That was a great class." Harry ran to catch up with Hermione and Ron.

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