Chapter 5

Beta: Darklord331

Ron/John –

When Harry entered the great hall, John or Ron now he supposed, stared around the hall and listened to Hermione behind him who was trying to show off by telling whoever would listen about the enchanted ceiling.

In Ron's opinion, it really did look like the films.

While the students focused on the sorting, Ron focused on his plans, which were at the moment, just filled with befriending Harry and not being an asshole to Hermione, which he didn't do earlier so he was making pretty good progress on his plans!

"Harry Potter!" McGonagall said as the hall quieted.

"That's Harry Potter?"

"The boy-who-lived?"

"I thought he had glasses?"

"I bet he's going to be in Gryffindor."

Oh, he will be, then the easy life for a few years, then Voldemort, and then more relaxing.

Harry took his seat and then the sorting hat sat on his head.

And Ron had to wonder why it took so long, or why he felt so nervous staring at the sorting when it wasn't even his.

"RAVENCLAW!"

The shout, making me stand still as Harry made his way to the Ravenclaw table, his robes changing colors to reflect his house.

The entirety of Ravenclaw cheered as Harry Potter, the boy-who-lived, was sorted into Ravenclaw.

And not Gryffindor.

Ron could sense people staring at him. The Great Hall had been silent with each new name because they wanted to hear which House they would be in, but now there were murmurs and whispers since most were assuming that he, a Weasley, would have been put in Gryffindor.

Nervously, he walked to the front, his palms sweaty, knees feeling they were going to fall and my arms felt like they were falling off, as he walked towards it.

He had to hold in his puke, as he felt the hat lower onto his head.

Harry –

Life was settled into a routine. I went to class, then went to the library during free periods and read as much as I could about every subject trying to level up. I went to the Room of Requirement and practiced and generally tried to figure out my limits, and I wrote essays in my spare time.

As of right now though, I was practicing with my Telekinesis. And I found something.

[Telekinesis] (Advanced)

Allows user to move a limited mass, equal to several people/heavy household appliances.

It seems the description indicates the limits of a particular skill now, and with the realization, I realized something.

The game was changing.

The scarier part was… that it was changing without me. No note, no warning, just a change in the background.

I just wish that the rest of the changes were just as good because some of them were not.

[Charms Proficiency] (Apprentice)

Indicates the proficiency of Spells that are classified as Charms.

Nothing else other than the obvious, so thank you game, really I appreciate it.

Other than that… mess, it has been going fine. My plans are already set in motion with Susan and Daphne which reminds me of Ron. Ron that wasn't supposed to know canon.

I've been keeping tabs on him, which is another word for paying for information to some Slytherins. And with him being in Slytherin himself, it's a special predicament. He's been ostracized and made fun of, and that's kinda the reputation he has from Ravenclaw as well, and I figured it wouldn't be too different with Gryffindor and Hufflepuff.

To the purebloods, he's an idiot, who doesn't know basic customs, which were a given for the Weasley family apparently.

Now most would probably stop at that, and yet he also got a reputation with the muggleborns referencing weird stuff, which already makes it worse. It seems he's either an idiot of a man or he's just the Weasley.

Either way, I needed to get better and I doubt that he can do anything right now, especially as a first-year.

Name – Harry James Potter

Level – 26

[Exp – 270/1800]

HP – 380/380 [76 per minute]

SP – 380/380 [76 per minute]

MP – 720/720 [162 per minute]

STR – [42] – 42

END – [38] – 38

DEX – [39] – 39

INT – [72] – 72

WIS – [81] – 81

CHA – [32] – 32

LCK – [32] – 32

I was better than most students before their OWLs, but I knew it wasn't enough especially with He-Who-Is-A-Pain-In-My-Ass lurking around as a DADA teacher.

In the end, everything went back to the way it was, except I did more training. Until the flying lesson.

The first flying lesson was with the Hufflepuffs, and everyone was bragging to everyone. Apparently they all had brooms of their own and chances of being chosen for the national Quidditch team in a few years.

It was annoying, pointless and totally childish.

"Do you care about Quidditch at all Potter?"

Despite making it clear that I want my privacy, my housemates decide otherwise.

Flight, Harry was good at this originally too, but I couldn't get it. Maybe it was the really bad cgi from the 2000s but I just couldn't get Quidditch? It sounded amazing when you described it, feeling weightless, the wind in your hair, total control of your gravity… huh, guess I can sorta understand it.

"Harry!"

"Not really no." I responded. "I was raised by Muggles, so I really don't know."

"Well, you might like flying." One of them said, as they turned their conversation inside their little group as the rest of the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws made their way to the field.

"Hello Harry," Susan greeted, as she shyly waved. A group of hufflepuffs bunched up a few feet behind her.

"Hey." I said, trying to at least be polite. I didn't want to hurt her feelings after all.

After a few minutes of awkward small talk with Susan, Madam Hooch had arrived and was calling the class to attention, with piercing yellow eyes surveying the assembled students.

"Well, what are you all waiting for? Everyone find themselves a broomstick. Hurry up!"

I picked a rather beaten-looking broom to stand next to, just happy that Susan wasn't pestering me now.

"Stick out your right hand over your broom," Madam Hooch said, from the front of the class. "And say, 'Up!'"

"UP!" The class yelled collectively.

My broom leapt straight into my hand, compared to the rest of the class however.

"Harry?" Susan asked, beside me.

"What?"

"How did you get your broom in your hand that fast?" Susan asked, with a lost look in her eyes.

I had to sigh a little bit.

"It's like… asking for something while saying something different, you say 'Up!' as a way to make the broom go up? In your hands?"

"Thank you," she said, smiling brilliantly, as she finally got it after a few tries.

I had to admit, she's a pain but these moments make it worth it.

Madam Hooch walked them swiftly through the steps: how to mount, how to hold the handle, and how to kick off.

"Alright," she commanded. "Kick off from the ground hard, when I blow the whistle, rise up a few feet and come down immediately, I am not having another accident like yesterday."

Putting my leg over the broom, and waited patiently until Madam Hooch signaled. Then I rose.

It was… incredible. I could feel my arms gripping the wood tightly, the feeling of each groove of the bark on each of my fingers, my legs dangling a little bit, my cloak brushing against the wind. This was it, this was the feeling of it. And it is amazing.

My magic seemed to flow through the broom beneath me. I leaned my head back, and the broom moved with me, my body seemingly doing a backflip and yet, I didn't feel it.

"Harry!"

"Mr. Potter!"

I stopped my movements to look at Madam Hooch, who was hovering a little bit in front of me.

"Go slowly, Mr. Potter or you'll get detention."

"Fine," I responded. Madam Hooch moved away to help a Ravenclaw with her grip.

I looked around to see how everyone was doing and saw that, despite their boasts, I was the only one who actually seemed to do better than them.

"Wow Harry, you're really great on a broom." Susan said, struggling a little bit.

"Thanks Susan," I had to help her a litte

Once everyone had managed to call their brooms, we practiced mounting them and then kicking off the ground.

There were no mishaps like the one Neville experienced, but a few of the brooms did try to buckle off some of the Puffs.

We weren't allowed to fly more than a few feet off the ground, so we spent some time flying from one side of the field to the other. The goal was to fly as straight as possible without falling off. And by the 4th time I was already done, I was trying to go to the end at the fastest speed I could.

"Alright enough." Madam Hooch said, stopping the lap as I was about to finish. "Your House Quidditch Captain might want you to try out for the team."

"I will keep it in mind," I said, trying to keep the grin off my face.

A few days later, a whistle sounded announcing that the test was over.

I flew down to the ground then dismounted to face the Ravenclaw's Captain, a sixth-year student who had brown hair and blue eyes, a whistle hanging off his neck on top of his quidditch outfit.

"So, how did I do?" I asked, with a smirk. Confident that I would get the position.

"You managed to score all the quaffles with an old broom."He said, grinning like an idiot. "What do you think?''

"Does this mean I made the team?" His huge smile was the answer.

"Damn kid, that's some aim you've got."

"They might as well just hand us the Quidditch Cup this year!"

They all took turns clasping me in the back trying to welcome me as I took my seat on the bench.

"Okay, so all we need now is a Keeper and a Seeker," The captain said, as the hopefuls quickly flew to try out for the position.

I watched the end of the tryouts, making notes on who they were. My eyes were able to keep track of the snitch easily. I could have been a Seeker if I wanted to but, doing it like canon wouldn't have been fun. And also….

"Nice one, Cho!" a girl on the stands said, as Cho herself waved with the snitch in her hand.

[Riders Aptitude] (Adept)

The user possesses great knowledge and skill in the art of riding, such as riding a Horse without any education.

It was without a doubt now, I inherited everything from canon. A palm touched my scar, feeling its contrast to the fairly smooth skin of my forehead.

I need to find a way to get rid of this.

Spending the last few days sitting in a quiet corner of the Hogwarts library, was kinda boring doubly now that I couldn't get any headway. Not even a mention of a horcrux or even anything, and if there were it wouldn't be out in the open, I thought I could find something, even a mention of using a soul but there was nothing.

I took a longing glance towards the Restricted Section. All of the really good stuff was undoubtedly in there. I knew that Hogwarts predated the Ministry of Magic by over five hundred years and therefore had a considerable amount of autonomy. It was highly likely that there were numerous texts in the Restricted Section that the Ministry would prefer were destroyed or locked away somewhere.

"Harry?"

I turned to look at the fifth year prefect, Penelope Clearwater. The girl had for some reason taken it upon herself to talk to him every once in a while.

"What?" I asked, trying to make it clear I wanted out of there.

"The Halloween feast is about to start." Penelope said, trying to be a bit mature.

It was a prefect's job to look after the younger years and she seemed to be determined to live up to that.

Halloween… Something was supposed to happen today.

"I don't like Halloween." I said, trying to sound sorrowful.

"You must be hungry." Penelope insisted softly, as she sat beside me, resting her hand on my back.

"Fine." I agreed.

She led me through the corridors, but I couldn't help feeling that I was still missing something.

Eating the Halloween food chewing thoughtfully I still couldn't shake the feeling that I was forgetting something though.

"Troll! Troll in the dungeons thought you ought to know" Professor Quirrel/Voldemort said before fainting.

Oh yeah that.

Hermione –

The classes weren't as bad as she thought it could've been. Her potion fit the description in the book perfectly. She knew the answers to the questions Snape had assigned them as homework, and even though Neville's potion was brown instead of gray at least his cauldron hadn't melted.

She left class that afternoon thinking of her plans for the weekend. She knew she would write to her parents but she didn't know what to do after that, well besides study ahead. She figured it was going to be another weekend in the library.

Not that there was anything wrong with that, she loved the library, but she felt a pang in her stomach anytime two or more of the students would play a game of exploding snap, or gossip about the latest Witch Weekly article and she would be on the sidelines watching, but like always she just had to shut it out.

"Oh well," she told herself, ignoring the feeling in her stomach. "You're here for an education. Remember to stay focused on your studies. If you end up getting distracted you won't finish your homework, and then you'll regret it when you fail the class."

When she reached the common room she was trying to decide to do her potions homework first, or write to her parents. She decided to write to her parents first, then that way she could go to the Owlery on her way to the library the next day. Sitting down at a back table in a semi-quiet common room she took out a new piece of parchment and dipped her quill.

Dear Mum and Dad,

I loved your last letter. I am very glad to hear everything is well back at home. So far things are going fine at school, although I am rather disappointed in Harry Potter. Remember him? He's a lot different than what those books portrayed him, he is lazy all the time in classes and yet he always gets the spells on his first try. And Ron is this weird boy in Slytherin who keeps trying to be friends with me. But I think he's one of those bullies who pretends to be friends and tells on you when you aren't looking.

On a better note, classes are going well. Professor McGonagall awarded me 20 points for knowing about switching spells, and I received top marks on my Charm's homework. Astronomy and Herbology are going well also, and Professor Sprout told us we will soon be learning about more advanced and interesting plants, which I'm rather excited about.

I am a tad bit disappointed though about my Defense Against the Dark Arts class. I've read the entire textbook and it was fascinating, but Professor Quirrell is not a very good teacher. Potions are okay as well. I'm doing fine in it, but for some reason the potions professor; Professor Snape doesn't like anyone if they're not from Slytherin. Of course, he is Head of Slytherin house but still.

Anyways, I hope things are still going well at home and I can't wait to see you at Christmas Holiday. Write back soon.

All my love,

Hermione

Hermione read over it a few times and smiled sadly at the silence that surrounded her, even though there were a few girls in her house, they never really talked.

Hermione felt numb, the same way she felt for a month now.

Time Skip –

"It's no wonder she doesn't have any friends."

Hermione felt numb when she heard that. She could feel the tears starting to sting in her eyes and run down her face. No she wouldn't let them see her cry, she quickly walked past them.

She wasn't sure where to go. She could go back to Gryffindor Tower, but that was so far away and she knew she would be stopped, especially with how she looked now.

She sniffled and nearly ran to the first place her feet led her, the girl's lavatory. She quickly checked to make sure no one was in there, and then she let the tears come freely. She cried because she missed her parents, her home, and her everyday normal routine.

She cried because she was scared, and although she desperately wanted to learn magic, it was so intimidating, especially when you wanted to be perfect for the teachers. She cried because she knew they were right and that she didn't have any friends, no one to talk to.

This was just as bad, if not worse, as primary school. Hermione just let it all out. She decided not to go to the rest of her classes that day, and she would probably skip the Halloween feast too.

After a while of crying Hermione had made up her mind. The next day she would go talk to Professor McGonagall about quitting Hogwarts, and going home. She could still learn magic from books, and even though she couldn't practice in the Muggle world, she knew how to get to Diagon Alley where she could probably find a place to practice.

She just couldn't believe it. Hogwarts was supposed to be a fresh new beginning. She was supposed to love it here, it was pretty much her whole dream. But now she hated it, and just wanted to go home, back to what she knew and was used to, back to her parents.

Back to everyday normal boring life.

She wasn't quite sure how long she had been in there crying, but she figured it had been quite a while. She heard the door open, and sniffled softly.

"Hermione? Is that you?" She recognized Parvati's voice. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just want to be left alone for a while." She said, as she sniffed.

"Okay, well, just letting you know the feast's about to start."

"Okay, thanks," she said quietly. She heard the door shut and Parvati walked away.

Hermione didn't know if she had any tears left, but she still felt like crying so she waited to see if she did.

A little while after Parvati left, Hermione began to feel a bit disappointed in herself. She had just missed half her classes and was now missing a perfectly good feast all because of one stupid comment.

"It's just a comment, from someone who's jealous. What does he know?" She said to no one in particular. "Go to the feast, and if you still feel like going home, go and talk to Professor McGonagall tomorrow."

Wiping her eyes she left the bathroom stall. She knew they must be red and puffy and wanted to splash cold water on her eyes before heading down to the Great Hall.

She froze when she saw hideously ugly, huge feet, and almost gagged when a wretched smell hit her nostrils. She slowly looked up and saw she was staring at the most ugly, horrific, revolting thing she had ever seen dragging a very large, wooden club.

She did the first thing that came to her mind. She screamed.

It looked at her stupidly, then lifted it's club and knocked a bathroom sink off the walls. Very slowly she backed away until her back was against the wall, she was going to faint! She was going to die! She had read all about Trolls, but her mind froze, she didn't know what to do. She was too terrified to even move.

"Hermione move!"

She heard the command but it didn't register in her mind. She got pushed away and led to the outside of the lavatory, only when she got outside did her brain catch up to her and she looked at her savior.

Green eyes and black hair, wearing the Ravenclaw uniform. His eyes widened and his grip on her arm tightened as she was led through the corridors.

"Potter?!" She screamed, as the adrenaline was pumping through her body.

"Yeah," He said, a small smirk on his lips as they kept running across the corridor, nearly halfway to the corner when the troll smashed into the corridor.

She could feel her heart beating loudly in her chest as the troll's steps crushed the floor. And then she noticed something.

"Why aren't we running?!" She screamed as her legs backed away on its own.

"I have an idea." Potter said, as his wand whipped out.

The club turned into a massive metal pole with a sharp edge, as it hovered and got free of the troll's clutches, the troll itself looking at its hand in confusion.

The gigantic pole then quickly hovered in front of them, the sharp end was pointed at the troll. She finally understood his plan.

"They have tough skin! It won't pierce it!" She yelled as the troll seemed to realize that we were more important than its club.

"I know! Don't worry, I have a plan!" He said, smiling a bit.

I decided to trust in him, as I tightened my grasp on his arm.

As soon as the troll yelled out and tried to run at them, Potter launched it towards the troll in its open mouth, sending it through the mouth of the troll and exiting towards the other side.

We paused in silence as the troll lurched forward landing on its knees with a hole through its mouth and falling on its face with a deafening 'thud'.

"Is it dead?" she asked hesitantly.

"Of course it isn't. It just had its head fucking explode!" Harry said, screaming out the last bit.

She felt shame at the fact that she was stupid enough to ask that question.

Loud footsteps interrupted her thoughts, as Professor McGonagall arrived. She looked over at Professor McGonagall who was pursing her lips in a thin line, and seeming to be paler than usual.

"What on earth were you thinking?!" she asked, angrily at Harry. "In all my years in this school, I would have never thought that one of my students would disobey from the Headmaster and would run headfirst into trouble! Explain yourselves, both of you."

Hermione couldn't watch him get in trouble after saving her life.

She had to do something.

AN: I'm not dead yet.

Just been really busy that's all

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