A/N So here is the rest of Harry's first week of Hogwarts, every single class. I'm sorry if you guys find it boring, I promise I won't do anything like this chapter again. I just thought it would be a good way to show off how Harry has to learn magic differently from everybody else. Also, I'll admit I enjoy writing like this, so will make sure to go into detail with other classes and magical theory in the future sometimes.
Also, I am adding things and making stuff up, so if it doesn't make sense in the Harry Potter Universe, assume it makes sense here.
Harry woke up the next morning, this time without anybody trying to break into his trunk. He opened his curtains and saw that everybody else was still asleep as well. Taking that to mean that he had some time before he needed to get ready, Harry tried feeling his magic again. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing and the feeling of his wand in his hand. Fifteen minutes later he cast a lumos. He could feel the magic flowing from him into his wand, and tried to follow it back like he did the previous day. This time he was able to start, but the smallest lapse in his concentration and he lost a hold of the path. Trying again, he got only a little further before once again losing his grip. Harry growled in frustration, but it was progress.
By now Harry had heard Draco and Blaise get up, so he figured that he might as well follow suit. After taking a shower and heading into the Common Room, Harry saw Tracey and Daphne talking. "Want to head to breakfast?" he asked.
"Sure," Tracey said, accepting gratefully. Daphne just shrugged and followed her friend. On the way to the Great Hall, Tracey and Harry chatted about classes the previous day and what they thought the current day's classes would be like. Daphne didn't participate much.
In one way; one that was very big in Slytherin, Harry and Tracey were in the same boat. They weren't purebloods. And this meant that everybody immediately looked down on them, and was a big factor in Harry and Tracey hitting off so well. Luckily, they both had one factor to help them out. Tracey had Daphne, and Harry had his impressive display of power for the first day of school and the twenty points he got for the House.
After breakfast, Harry caught up with his Gryffindor friends and they walked to History of Magic together. None of them were particularly excited for it, especially with their parents (or Neville's case grandparent) saying that it was taught by a very boring ghost.
Turns out that it was even worse than the stories. Without any introduction or anything, Professor Binns; a ghost who just kept coming to work even after he died, started droning on about Emeric the Evil. Most of the class just had him tuned out by the end, and a few were even asleep. Harry and Calypso were among the few who managed to actually take notes the whole time, along with Hermione. Harry noted that his first impression of her wasn't very good, but from what he had seen she was a good student.
After Professor Binns assigned a parchment-length essay on Emric's forgotten brother Uric the Oddball, Harry and Calypso left the class with everybody else, feeling that they just wasted an hour and a half of their life. "Honestly," Harry said. "That was completely pointless. I can't wait till forth-year when we stop having that twice a week." Everyone around him agreed.
A half hour after History of Magic was a class Harry was most certainly excited for. Charms was the most extensive branch of wand-magic. It was much larger than Transfiguration, and was basically the big brother of hexes, jinxes, and many curses.
The first class was very simple, a basic Wand-Lighting Charm. However, despite the fact that Harry could easily cast this charm, he still paid much closer attention to Professor Flitwick than he did in Transfiguration. As Flitwick was explaining the theory though, Harry found himself a little conflicted.
Like all charms, lumos didn't require the vision and direction that Transfiguration does. The basic idea for lumos was to direct your magic to increasing the friction of the molecules at the tip of your wand. The magical energy would flow through the wand and speed up the molecules at the wand's tip, and at this point all a wizard had to do was maintain the flow of energy into the wand. The more energy, the brighter the light.
But when Harry tried to put to much continuous energy into his wand to increase the brightness, the passive magical energy in his wand wouldn't be able to handle it and would cut off the spell. It seemed that Geraint Ollivander was right. Charms classes just weren't taught in a way that let acacia wand users succeed.
But then Harry realized something. By simply overloading his wand he could perform a silent and movement-less nox. That was an interesting idea. He didn't necessarily need to learn the counter to various charms. His wand gave him a way around that. This was an interesting idea Harry made a mental note of going deeper into later. For a lumos charm it didn't mean anything really practical as nox was considered the easiest spell ever, but for more advanced charms that may be different. The lecture only lasted about thirty minutes, leaving everybody an hour to learn lumos and nox.
Harry could already cast the charm so he decided to take the time to try to reach into his magic. It was hard in the loud classroom, but he kept trying. After about twenty minutes, he focused and about to cast lumos when he heard "Mr Potter?" Harry opened his eyes to see Professor Flitwick right in front of him. Looking around, Harry was peeved to see most of the class could cast the charm brighter than he could. "I don't believe I have seen you attempt to cast the charm yet. Would you like to demonstrate?"
"Yes sir." Harry then cast his best lumos. He was a little embarrassed that it was dimmer than virtually everybody else's, but it passed.
"Thank you Mr. Potter," Flitwick said.
As Flitwick was turning to walk away, Harry replied "No problem sir," before overloading his wand and canceling the charm. Calypso, as well as Tracey Ron and Blaise who were nearby, stared at him. Flitwick; who was about to walk away, also stopped.
He turned back and looked at Harry. "Did you just cast a nox silently and without movement Mr. Potter?"
Harry smirked in his head. It was petty of him, he knew, but he really enjoyed being the center of attention in public. It always seemed to be his sister. "Yes sir." Technically, he did cancel a lumossilently and without movement, even if you couldn't say he cast a nox.
Flitwick seemed flabbergasted, along with everybody else listening, which by now was half the class. Even if it was the easiest spell taught at Hogwarts, this was still only his second day of classes! This should be beyond him until his third year at least, if not more. "How?" Flitwick asked.
"Magic," Harry replied more than a little cheekily. Flitwick just stared at him for a few more seconds before deciding not to press the matter.
"Ten points for Slytherin," he finally said before walking away, making a mental note to keep an eye on Harry Potter. Tracey clapped Harry on the back while he noticed that Malfoy and Hermione were glaring at him.
"How? Calypso asked. Harry debated explaining to her then or after class. He really wanted to work on feeling his magic, but he would rather do it somewhere quietly like the library than in a noisy classroom. So he explained everything to her; how acacia wands couldn't hold as much magical energy directly from a person than the vast majority of other wands, and that all he did was overload his wand to cancel the spell.
"But then how are you supposed to get the amount of power needed to perform more advanced spells?" Calypso asked.
"Remember that book I gave you about holly wands?" Calypso nodded that she did. "The one on acacia gives some instructions for helping. I'm working on them."
"That's good. I should probably read mine, see if it gives me any tips."
By the last ten minutes of class, it had just turned into socializing time. Everybody had done lumos and nox and Flitwick didn't give any homework.
After Charms was lunch, which passed without incident. Halfway through the hour and a half, Harry found and abandoned classroom. He worked for another thirty minutes on trying to find the center of his personal magic. He got a little further along the path, but still had no idea how far away he was. Still, it was progress, so he couldn't complain.
With fifteen minutes left in lunch he headed down to the dungeons for his first potions class. Calypso was waiting for him outside. "I figured we could partner together," she said.
Harry walked up to her and gave her a hug. "Thanks Calypso."
When the house-elves that work at Hogwarts bring everybody's trunks to their dorms, they also bring their cauldrons to an antechamber in the dungeons, so Harry and Calypso drug theirs out and claimed a table to work out. When it was time for class to start, Professor Snape came into the classroom, the door closing behind him. With his robes billowing out Harry had to admit it was quite a dramatic effect.
Harry thought about what his mom told him about Snape. They were best friends for five years until in a moment of spite he called her a mudblood. She broke off his friendship and never felt the need to start up a correspondence with him again. Harry and Calypso both really hoped he wouldn't show any bias against them. Espaically
After another basic welcome speech, it seemed that Snape would indeed by showing bias against them. "Ms. Potter!" he suddenly barked out. Tell me, what would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Lily was a potions experimenter, and made sure that Harry and Calypso knew all the basics. "You would get the Draught of Living Death sir," Calypso replied after wracking her brains for a moment to get the answer.
"Where can I find a bezoar?"
When it became clear Calypso couldn't answer the question, Hermione raised her hand into the air, waving it around annoying. "I don't know sir."
"Clearly fame isn't everything," Snape said. Harry was really tempted to punch Snape right then, but figured that would be a really poor idea. "Mr. Potter. Do you know the answer?"
Luckily for Harry, he read potions books past first year so he knew the answer. "In the stomach of a goat."
"And what is the difference between monkshood and wolfsbane?"
"They are the same plant, that also goes by aconite." Harry was pretty pissed by those questions. Except for the first one, they were all beyond first year, and the Draught of Living Death was talked about for theory only until N.E.W.T level. He was deliberately trying to humiliate them.
"Very good Mr. Potter. Five points to Slytherin for reading in advance." Then Snape looked around the classroom. "Why aren't you writing this down?" As everyone scrambled to do so, Harry noticed most of the Slytherins were snickering at Calypso, who had her head down, clearly embarrassed.
"Don't worry about that. Those last two levels were beyond first-year. He was trying to pick questions we would get wrong," Harry said trying to reassure his sister.
"You got them right though," Calypso said, clearly still embarrassed.
Harry shrugged. "I read more than you do."
The rest of the class was pretty simple. Snape put up instructions on how to make a cure for boils, and told the class to make it. He didn't give any other instructions, unless it was to insult somebody if they did something wrong. It seems that their mom's tutoring was really important, as both Harry and Calypso had practiced cutting potion ingredients and studied the effects different things did in potions.
Neville and Ron didn't do so well. Somehow Neville managed to burn a hole through his cauldron. However, Snape didn't use this as a teaching moment to mentor the class on what Neville did wrong, he simply called him an "idiot boy" and took twenty points from Gryffindor. The Gryffindors were rightfully pissed and Harry was confused as well. Snape may be a renowned potions master, but he was trash at teaching. So how did he get the job?
By the end of class, Harry and Calypso had made the best potion, which Snape called "adequate." As he complimented no other pair, Harry and Calypso took that to mean they did the best of the class, and cleaned up as fast as they could and left. Calypso wanted to explore more of the ancient castle with Ron and Neville, but Harry wanted to work on feeling his magic. He had a feeling that he was really going to fall behind if he wasn't able to channel enough power through his wand and wanted to fix that as soon as possible.
However, first he realized that he hadn't wrote a letter home yet because he was so caught up in the excitement of learning magic. So first he did that.
Dear,
Mom and Dad
I have no idea of you already know all of this, because I assume Calypso has already sent a letter. Sorry this is so late, I forgot in all the excitement.
I got into Slytherin. I was pretty surprised, I was thinking I was going to go to Ravenclaw. At least this way Grandma Dorea can start baking my cookies.
Hogwarts is amazing so far! I'm doing pretty good in all my classes. Because my wand is kind of weird, I was even able to cast nox silently and without movement. Easiest spell, I know, just thought I would let you know. Also, Snape doesn't like Calypso or I, I blame you Dad.
The only people in my House I have really talked to are Tracey Davis and her best friend Daphne Greengrass. A lot of the rest of the House doesn't seem to like me, but I have earned thirty-five points for Slytherin in two days so sixth and seventh years at least seem to have laid off me for the most part. However, Draco Malfoy is in my year and he really doesn't like me either.
Tell everyone else I said hi, and sorry again for being so late.
Love,
Harry
Harry decided not to tell them about the Stinging Hex, he really just didn't want to get into that with them. After finishing, he went to the Owlery. The Potter's had two owls; April, and Hedwig who had been sent to Hogwarts for Harry and Calypso to use. Their parents had gotten Hedwig for them two years prior to write letters to their friends, and had noticed that she was an exceptionally intelligent owl. So they had tried telling her to go to the Hogwarts Owlery without taking her on the train. It seemed that it worked. She was also in the Owlery, so that meant that she had probably returned from delivering Calypso's letter. Either that, or Calypso had forgotten as well.
After that, Harry once again went to an old classroom (there sure were a lot of those) and spent another hour trying to reach the center of his magic. He didn't need to try so hard now to focus, and was able to get further than ever. He still had no idea how close he was though.
After that, he figured that he might as well go the the Common Room and do his essay for History of Magic. When he got there, he saw Tracey and Daphne talking in the corner of the room. He walked over to them.
Daphne saw him coming. "What do you want Potter?"
"You guys done your essay for History of Magic yet?" he asked.
"Why, so you can copy off of us?"
Harry backed up a few steps. "No, just thinking that if you hadn't yet we could do it together. But since you have I'll just go away."
"Harry wait," Tracey said, stopping him. "Daphne's just... well being Daphne. Friendliness isn't her thing." Normally Harry would have agreed with her, but not with Daphne right there in front of him. "We haven't done the essay yet. And since you seem to be able to do everything you might as well help us," she said with a cheeky grin.
Harry looked at Daphne for permission. She sighed. "Alright Potter. You seem to know what you are doing anyways."
Harry dragged a chair over to the girls's table and got out parchment and quills from his bag, along with his notes and they began to write. As they wrote they chatted about class. Tracey asked Harry how he did the silent magic and Harry explained it. Tracey had been right next to him while he explained it to Calypso, but the classroom was noisy. Daphne even opened up a bit and told Harry about her younger sister Astoria when Sirius Jr. and Emily got brought up. Tracey was an only child.
At one point, Tracey was teasing Daphne for an embarrassing moment from their childhood when Daphne "accidentally" let it slip that Tracey enjoyed reading muggle romance movies.
Tracey shrieked a little and tried to cover Daphne's mouth with her hand but it was to late. "You said you weren't going to tell anyone!" Tracey complained.
Daphne just smirked. "You were annoying me."
Tracey's eyes narrowed and she turned to Harry. "You aren't going to tell anybody this right?"
Harry copied Daphne's expression. "Depends on if you ever annoy me." Tracey just grumbled and went back to writing.
After almost an hour the essay was finished, and the trio rolled them up and put all their stuff in their trunks before heading down to dinner.
After dinner on the way back, Draco and his two goons cornered Harry in a corridor. "What do you want Malfoy?"
"Listen up Potter, I don't like you embarrassing me in class like this. You are a half-blood, therefore you are half a wizard. And half a wizard can't be better than a full wizard now can it? That just doesn't make sense."
Daphne, who was walking with Tracey behind Harry, answered before he could."Well clearly it does, because Harry has done better in every class we can measure each other in so far," she said.
Draco scowled. "This doesn't concern you Greengrass. Though I would expect you to defend half-bloods," he said looking at Tracey condescendingly.
"Look Malfoy," Daphne shot back. "Harry has not only helped me in class but has gotten Slytherin thirty-five points in two days. You may not like him, but I find him useful to keep around. So shove off."
"You wouldn't do well to go against me Greengrass. My father..."
"My father is on the Board of Governors as well Malfoy and like I said, I find Potter useful."
Draco scowled before walking away and sending "I would be careful if I were you" back to them.
"Thanks Daphne."
"Like I said," Daphne said as we walked away. "I find you useful Potter."
"I'll take it," Harry said more to himself than anybody.
That night, Harry yet again hid behind his curtains on his bed. He skimmed over the chapter again (having already read it) on Mending Charms and then practiced on a piece of parchment he ripped in two. After thirty minutes he managed to repair the parchment, though there was a faint line where it had been ripped in half.
At this point it was a little earlier than Harry usually went to bed, but he had Astronomy the following night and figured that a little extra sleep would probably help.
The next morning, Harry was once again the first to wake up in his dorm. He spent another few minutes feeling his magic before heading down to breakfast.
First period that morning was Herbology, the first class Harry would be taking for a second time. This lesson was an overview of Moly. It was a black-stemmed plant with white flowers, which Harry thought actually looked pretty cool. And it's magical properties were pretty cool as well. It could be used to reverse enchantments and was an ingredient in the Wiggenweld Potion, which was used to heal wounds. After the overview, Professor Sprout had everybody draw a diagram and label it. Interesting, but nothing very exciting.
The class Harry was really looking forward to that day was Defense Against the Dark Arts. He sat down in the second row. Granger was right in front of him, Calypso was to his right, and Daphne was to his left.
As class, started Harry found Quirrell to be a bit of a disappointment. He just stuttered so much. He, like all the other Professors, gave a speech about the overview of the subject throughout the year, along with a warning that some of the spells could be dangerous and weren't to be used lightly outside of class. He then gave the class instructions on how to cast the Green Sparks Charm (Incantation verdimillious). As he explained, this could be used as a distraction or a flare. He then had the class line up against one wall, and told them to practice by shooting at the opposite wall. Their goal was to get their sparks to go all the way across the classroom, about twenty-five meters.
Harry was the first to get anything to come from his wand, taking just three attempts. The issue was he could only get the to shoot about fifteen meters. Quirrell gave him five points for being first.
The Green Sparks Charm is more difficult than a charm like the Levitation Charm or lumos. It had two parts. One, creating the sparks. Two, shooting the sparks. The theory was that it took precision to direct your magic to make hundreds of tiny sparks, and power to launch them away from you, all in one spell. Harry was great at creating the sparks. Little things like that came easily to him. But mustering the power to shoot them far enough; well that was a lot harder. In fact, it was currently impossible. Soon after Harry, Granger, Calypso, and Daphne all managed to create sparks. And ten minutes later, Calypso's hit the other wall, getting five points for Gryffindor.
In frustration, Harry tried pouring more power into his wand. It had an interesting effect. He still made the sparks but they didn't shoot, so for a few seconds he essentially had a green lumos.
While more and more people managed to complete the task at hand, Harry realized that he currently couldn't muster the power needed, so he decided to experiment a bit.
Daphne, who had managed to get the sparks to shoot the full distance, turned to Harry, delighted to finally be better at him in something. "Everything ok Potter? You seem to be having some issues." Harry just glared at her.
To make a pattern with the sparks would be similar to making the needle a different color. It was the same spell, but at the same time wasn't. First-years were just told to direct their magic to push, and with most other charms their magic would take care of the rest. But if you could maintain direction of the flow as it went into the wand...
Harry concentrated, and as he cast the spell again, he "grabbed" a hold of the flow of magic going into his wand and had it push out mostly on the right side of his wand. This meant that his sparks flew in a diagonal direction to the left before exploding in somebody else's firing lane. Then Harry tried doing something different. He let the sparks explode right in front of him before pushing them away so they created a shield of sparks two meters in front of him. It was risky, and Harry was lucky he didn't lose his eyebrows.
"M-mr. P-p-potter," Quirrell called out. "Please by c-careful not t-to b-b-blow anybody u-up."
"Yes sir," Harry said. There was only a few minutes left in class at this point, and Quirrell (Voldemort) made a note to watch Harry Potter. He was the first to create sparks. Not only that he seemed even to have some control over what direction they flew and how they exploded. However, he seemed unable to get the sparks to fly very far. This was interesting.
After DADA ended, Harry left the classroom feeling a little peeved. He was one of the few people who didn't get their sparks to go the full distance. And it didn't help that Daphne wasn't letting him forget that fact. "Just get over it Greengrass," Harry snapped before he speed walked over to his sister and his pre-school friends.
Harry quickly ate lunch before once again going to the library to practice. It seemed that his inability to control much magical energy was going to become an immediate problem. However, this time as he was practicing, this time he could feel how close he was to succeeding. As he "followed" the path of his magic going into his wand, he could feel a pulsing mass of it within himself. However, he promptly lost focus and had to restart again. By now though, it was almost time for class, so Harry sighed and went to History of Magic.
Professor Binns told everybody to turn their essays into a bin (though how he was going to grade them was beyond everybody) before starting to lecture again.
Halfway through the class, Harry realized he could learn all of this from his textbook in a fraction of the time and he didn't really need to pay attention in class. So he grabbed his textbook on Transfiguration theory and started to read Chapter Eight. Calypso tried to tell him to pay attention, but Harry ignored her. After the lecture, Binns gave them another essay and everybody left.
This time when Calypso invited Harry to do the essay with her, he accepted. Neville did it with them, but Ron just complained that they took school to seriously and went off to do something else. Harry found it nice to talk to his sister while they worked. They had an easy banter going that Neville sometimes joined in. Calypso commented that it was weird what he could and couldn't do magic-wise, and Harry vented a little bit about his frustration.
After dinner, Harry headed back to the Slytherin dorms, but not to sleep. Because he couldn't do any sort of alarm spell, he couldn't fall asleep and miss Astronomy class. Harry made a mental note to ask his parents for an alarm next letter home. He really should have thought of that before.
Harry spent an hour on his bed focusing on his magic, but oddly enough couldn't seem to make any more progress. In frustration, he went down to the Common Room to wait for class. Most of the rest of the first-years were also waiting, despite it being almost 10:00 o'clock. Most were working on their homework, but Harry had already done that so instead he tried doing a Switching Spell on a quill and a piece of parchment.
The Switching Spell was kind of odd for Transfiguration because it involved two items. You were essentially Apparating two objects. The first part of the incantation had to be said while the wand was pointed at the first object, and the second part had to be said while the wand was pointing at the second object. The final part was said with a flick right in between the two. If it worked, the two objects would switch places. But the movements had to be precise. If the wand wasn't pointed at the objects for exactly the amount of time it took to say the syllable of the incantation, you would end up with less than the full object switching. Harry ended up with his parchment in half three times before he got it right.
At half past eleven, the Slytherin First years packed up and headed to the Astronomy Tower. The Gryffindors joined them as they climbed the tower to the top. Up their, Professor Sinistra met them and instructed them all to bring out their telescopes, which had been brought to the tower same way the cauldrons were brought to the dungeons.
The first class was spent just learning how to use a telescope. It was harder than most people were expecting. Tiny adjustments created big differences in what you could see. However, by the end of the class everybody had a basic grip on using a telescope. After they were dismissed, everybody trudged back to bed before crashing.
Harry woke up a little later the next morning and just had time to get ready for the day before heading down to breakfast. Tracey joined him shortly, but Daphne wasn't at breakfast yet. The owl post arrived right on time that day. Even though a lot of the first years were expecting it, it still surprised them the first day. This time however, April swooped down and landed in front of Harry. Harry saw one letter that was addressed to him, and other behind it that was probably for Calypso. He untied his letter from April's leg and gave her a strip of bacon. She then went over to land in front of Calypso at her table. Harry opened his letter.
Dear,
Harry
Don't worry, we aren't mad at you for being in Slytherin. And yes, your cookies will arrive within a few days, don't worry. Dorea was pretty happy to learn one Potter made it to Slytherin. She said "well at least one person needs to learn common sense."
However, don't forgot to send a letter again. How else am I supposed to know you are ok?
Sirius and Emily miss you. Emily thought you were playing hide and seek for an hour before we explained to her that you two were away. It was sad to watch. The rest of us miss you too.
Have you made any knew friends yet? I don't want you to be lonely all the time.
It seems like the classes are pretty easy for you, thirty-five points in one day is really good! I'm proud of you, I know how much you like to learn. And I'm sorry if Snape gives you any trouble, I'm sure you can go to McGonagall if you really have to.
Love,
Mom (and Dad is around here somewhere as well)
Harry set the letter down. He could write back after classes. Just then, Daphne came downstairs. It was clear that she didn't do well only sleeping half a night and had slept in. Her hair was sticking up in a few places, and she looked groggy. She walked over.
"You look amazing Daphne," Harry said. "I like how you did your hair. It looks fits you."
"Shut up Potter," she said before sitting down heavily next to Tracey and got a few strips of bacon. Harry smirked. It was good to get her back for her teasing of him the previous day.
Their only class that morning was Double Charms. Harry was really hoping that the charm for that day didn't exceed his power ability.
It turned out that that lesson, they were doing wingardium leviosa and it's counter, cadium graviosa.* The purpose of wingardium leviosa was to first bind the item to where the caster's wand was pointing and second to decrease the density of the object. The swish while saying wingardium connected the item to the wand tip with a strand of magic, and the flick while saying leviosa decreased the density of the object, allowing it to levitate. Decreasing the density was easy. It was keeping the item bound to the wand that required the energy. It also meant that Harry couldn't lift his feather much more than a foot.
When they got to practicing, Flitwick partnered everybody up at random to help each other. Harry was paired with Blaise, but they never really talked to each other. Draco didn't like Harry, and the Malfoys currently held a lot of political sway, so most of the other first-years in Slytherin also avoided associating with Harry on principle. Daphne and Tracey were the only two exceptions.
Harry and Calypso were already able to do the charm, and each got five points. A few minutes later Hermione; who was partnered with Ron, demonstrated the charm to him and got her feather almost to the ceiling, getting another five points for Gryffindor.
She looked over at Harry; who's feather was still relatively close to the desk, and smirked. Harry just overloaded his wand to cancel the charm, letting his feather float to the table. Hermione's smirk became a scowl as she had to actually say the counter-charm and wave her wand to cancel the spell.
From the other side of the classroom, Flitwick once again thought about Harry Potter. He had asked McGonagal and Quirrell about him, and got the same pattern. With a wand, Harry struggled to do things others find simple, and performs with ease what every other first-year he has ever taught finds impossible. It made no sense.
Lunch was pretty standard before the one class that Harry knew he would do just fine in; Transfiguration.
That day was just going over the theory of napkin-to-needle. It was much harder than match-to-needle because while matches and needles were pretty similar, a napkin and a needle aren't. However, transfiguring the napkin into something the class had already worked on (a needle) it gave the spell some familiarity.
Harry had been able to do the spell for weeks, so his mind once again wandered in the class. He thought about something he had noticed over the first week. Transfiguration and Charms, while both wand work, were opposites. Transfiguration was more about precision and controlling the flow of magic the entire time, and Charms was more brute strength. Oh sure, there was precision on Charms, just not to the extant of Transfiguration. That is why Harry noticed that most of the people that did the best in the first Transfiguration class were also the ones that struggled the most in Charms, and vis versa. Harry himself was an example of that. Only a few people like Hermione seemed to be near the top in pretty much every class.
Professor McGonagall brought Harry back down to Earth. "Mr. Potter, I assume from your spacing out that you can already perform this spell as well?"
"Yes Professor, I can."
McGonagall conjured a napkin and placed it on Harry's desk. "Please demonstrate."
Harry did just that, transfiguring the napkin into a perfect needle. Then he took it a few steps further and transfiguring the needle back into a napkin. But the napkin wasn't white this time, it was Slytherin emerald.
McGonagall as surprised, though not shocked. It was clear that Harry Potter as a prodigy at Transfiguration. "Mr. Potter, it seems that I have nothing left to teach you this class. You are excused early and exempt from the essay due Monday. And take ten points for Slytherin."
Harry was shocked. He had never heard of somebody just being let out of class early for anything other than a medical emergency. But if a teacher was telling he could get out of an extremely boring class early and was exempt from an essay, he wasn't going to argue. Harry quickly packed up and left while McGonagall went back to lecturing and most of the class looked on enviously. Hermione seemed to be trying to kill him with a glare.
First thing Harry did was write a letter back to his parents.
Dear,
Mom and Dad
I miss you guys too, though I am more excited to be learning magic right now. Sorry if that hurts your feelings.
To answer your question, I have made a friend from my House. Tracey Davis is the only other half-blood of my year. The conservativeness of the majority of Slytherin helped bring us together, and its worked out so far. She's a nice girl who is an only child and likes to read as well.
One other person I'm on pretty good terms with is Daphne Greengrass. I wouldn't call her a friend, but she is Tracey's best friend from childhood and so if Tracey and I talk together Daphne will be there as well.
That's all for now, see you before you know it.
Love,
Harry
After sending the letter, Harry continued working his way through the Transfiguration textbook. He didn't get so far ahead of the class by being a slouch after all.
Eventually Calypso, Ron, and Neville came into the library, though Ron looked like he had been dragged there. Harry walked over to them as they sat down and began to work on the essay for McGonagall. "Having fun," Harry said, smirking. Ron glared at him, and Calypso was just trying to find a way to wipe the smug look off his face.
"You could help us you know," she suggested.
Harry laughed and backed away. "Oh no, I didn't get out of an essay just to have to do it for my little sister."
Calypso joined Ron in glaring at Harry. She hated being called his little sister. "Ok one, I am younger than you by eleven minutes." She hated they were in the library and couldn't raise their voices. "And two, don't ask for help you struggle in Charms."
Harry clutched his chest and faked being hurt. "That's a low blow. See you around sis." Actually, he was pretty annoyed by that comment, but didn't let it show. He walked back to the Slytherin dorms and ended up playing a few games of Exploding Snaps with Tracey before dinner.
The next day was Friday, and the first-years only had one class that day, which made the vast majority very excited. However, most of them would end up spending the time doing homework they had put off.
That morning, the long awaited cookies arrived along with a note from Grandma Dorea telling Harry to do his family and House proud. Harry ate one, smirking at Calypso the whole time before going to his dorm after he finished eating breakfast and putting the rest in his locked trunk and heading down to potions.
In potions, Snape explained that due to the double period they were going to be doing a more complicated potion. Apparently Professor Sprout had been having a weed issue in Greenhouse Four and they were making Herbicide Potions for her.
Harry always found the idea of people struggling to do potions a little confusing. The instructions were right in the front of the class. All you had to do was check before you did something and not be stupid. Sure, he could understand to some extant because Snape didn't exactly teach but still. An hour into the class, Harry and Calypso's potion was a lime green like it should be at line fourteen, but some people had ruined any chance they had already. Two Gryffindor boys Calypso identified as Seamus Finnigan and Dean Thomas had a neon yellow potion and on the Slytherin side, Pansy Parkinson and Millicent Bulstrode had a dark blue mixture. Honestly, how is it some people couldn't follow basic instructions?
At the end of class, Harry and Calypso once again had a successful potion and walked out of class feeling pretty good.
That night after dinner, all the teachers and the Headmaster gathered in his office to discuss the first-years. Dumbledore always enjoyed these meetings. They had ones for the first years the first Friday of the school year, during winter break, and right before the end-of-the-year exams, as well as meetings for the O.W.L and N.E.W.T students right after their exams. Sinistra wasn't at this meeting as she felt that one class was far to early to make an assumptions for Astronomy. And Binns just never came, not that it really mattered.
Sprout started the meeting off. "It is still early to see who has a genuine love for plants, but I would say that most of my Hufflepuffs seem to like it more than most years. Lisa Turpin from Ravenclaw and Neville Longbottom from Gryffindor are also students I will be watching."
Dumbledore nodded before motioning to Snape. "Granger and," here his lip curled a bit "Potter from Gryffindor are the only two I would peg to have any real talent from that House. Patil in Ravenclaw shows some possible talent, as well as Abbot from Hufflepuff. From my own House the other Potter seems to be the best bet." Snape looked a bit like he had bitten into a sour lemon at having to compliment not one but two Potters.
"Thank you," Dumbledore said. "Quirinus?"
"D-Daphne G-greengrass was the b-b-best from S-slytherin. H-hermione G-granger showed promise h-here as well as C-calypso P-Potter. P-adma Patil might be a d-d-decent d-dueler one d-day. S-s-she p-possesses the p-power. N-nobody major f-f-from Hufflepuff. H-however, w-w-while Mr. P-potter lacked the p-p-power, he had c-control. His s-sparks didn't shoot f-far, but h-he could a-already c-control what s-s-shape they e-exploded in."
Dumbledore nodded though inside he was thinking about how annoying that stutter was. He was already having Snape watch the DADA Professor, but something was seriously wrong with him. It was Flitwick's turn next.
"Calypso again shows promise in my class, as well as Hermione. Daphne Greengrass is the best from Slytherin. Justin Finch-Fletchey would be the one I peg to be the best in Huffelpuff. And from Ravenclaw, Parvati Patil. But Harry Potter must be a side note as well. While again he lacks power, he is able to perform the counter-charms silently and without wand movement."
That really got the assembled Professor's attention. While the rest made sense; Charms is basically the big brother to the Defense Against the Dark Arts and the students that did well in one usually did well in the other, a student doing silent and movement-less magic the first week of school was huge. Even if it was just simple counter-charms, this was huge and would earn Harry Potter a spot on all Professor's radars.
After everyone quieted down, Dumbledore asked McGonagal to go. "In continuation about Harry Potter, he is beyond the best in class. He didn't even bother to pay attention both classes this week and when asked to demonstrate his skill did beyond what the vast majority of his classmates won't be able to do for months or maybe even years. Distant seconds are Hermione Granger, Terry Boot, and Susan Bones."
After that, the attention moved to the elective Professors and their third years.
Later that night, Dumbledore sat alone in his office stroking Fawkes and staring at the list of mentioned first-years. He had them ranked in order of times mentioned.
Harry Potter: 4
Hermione Granger: 4
Calypso Potter: 3
Parvati Patil: 2
Daphne Greengrass: 2
Lisa Turpin: 1
Neville Longbottom: 1
Hannah Abbot: 1
Justin Finch-Fletchey: 1
Padma Patil: 1
Terry Boot: 1
Susan Bones: 1
Harry Potter seemed to be the student to watch from his year based off this week. While Hermione seemed more consistent than him, Harry seemed to learn in very different ways than his peers. Dumbledore was happy to note that his twin sister also showed considerable talent. One day Voldemort would return, and he wouldn't be defeated by a bumbling idiot.
Dumbledore felt somebody trip the Proximity Charm on the stairs to his office. That would be Severus. They needed to have another chat about a certain stuttering friend. While Voldemort would return some day, it wouldn't be anytime soon of Dumbledore could help it. Calypso deserved her childhood at least.
*So I have decided that some charms have a counter-charm to cancel the spell. Ones that last for longer than a second or two, like lumos, windargium leviosa, or the Engorgement and Shrinking Charms. Lumos has to have nox to cancel the spell, it shouldn't be the only one.
A/N So I hope you enjoyed this chapter, it's pretty long compared to the first three. I hope you like how I portrayed Harry, I didn't want him to be the first-year equivalent of a god right away, so I tried to balance him out and give room for improvement. Cause otherwise, what is the point of talking about the rest of his school career? Oh, Harry is on top, so interesting (and yes, I know I made that mistake my first time doing this).
The next chapter will cover up until Halloween.
Review if you have any suggestions, I read all of them so it will be seen.