Harry and Calypso stepped off the train after saying goodbye to their friends, excited to see their family and the Christmas break. Both had been working hard and while they enjoyed it also needed a break.

They found their parents and little siblings waiting along with Sirius. Their mother was the first to go up to them and give her twins a group hug. "I missed you guys so much! Did you learn lots at Hogwarts?"

"Yeah," Calypso said, going to give her father a hug. "Harry is a show off."

"And I learned I'm better at magic than Calypso," Harry replied.

"Be nice," Lily admonished Harry. "I thought I raised you two to be humble."

Emily interrupted what Harry was going to say by running up and giving him a big hug around the waist. "I missed you!" she said.

"I missed you Emily." Harry bent down a gave her an affectionate hug back.

"As touching as this has been, we should probably get off the platform," Sirius said. "Catch up back at your guys's place."

Back at Potter Manor, the family plus Sirius had a great night catching up over dinner. Sirius and James got a great kick out of the prank on Malfoy, while Lily just sat at the table looking helpless.

The first few days of break passed quietly as the family just enjoyed spending time together. Both parents had taken a few days off on top of their normal days off on Christmas and Christmas Eve. Harry helped Sirius Jr. make a floating castle in the sandbox and Calypso read to Emily every night. They both told their parents stories about their time in Hogwarts. They had already shared many of them over letters but it just wasn't the same as face-to-face.

Christmas was a good one. In the morning, everybody exchanged gifts from the family and "Santa." Emily's favorite gift was a glowing star nightlight that was enchanted to float about her head when turned on. Sirius's was a book of the best architecture in the muggle world. Calypso's was new dragon hide gloves for Quidditch. Harry's was a book on enchanting. Enchanting was a fairly advanced subject that wasn't really talked about until fifth-year, but his parents had heard how talented he was and decided to give him the book and see what he could do.

Lupin Sirius and the Potter grandparents visited Potter Manor in the afternoon for presents and dinner. Harry (and pretty much everyone else) was surprised when an owl came through the window with gifts for Harry from Tracey and even Daphne. Tracey got him a game of Exploding Snap only a different famous witch or wizard was on the cards instead of the usual numbers and Daphne got him a padlock for his trunk since she knew he still have problems with people trying to get into it.

They were both very thoughtful gifts, but they also made Harry feel bad since he didn't think to get them anything. Also, Sirius Sr. starting ruthlessly teasing him with the help of everybody else. Harry drew his wand and hit Sirius with a Jelly-Legs. He quickly learned it wasn't a good idea to attack an Auror when Sirius swiftly cast the counter-curse and hit Harry with a Stinging Hex to the crotch. He couldn't stand upright for over five minutes.

Overall, it was very nice to just relax for a few days. Both twins were good enough students that they couldn't call their first semester overly stressful, but they were busy most of the time with something or another. Also, the rest of their family wasn't at Hogwarts with them.

Two days after Christmas, their scores for the winter exams arrived. Harry and Calypso both eagerly opened their. When Harry saw his he felt a sense of satisfaction

Winter Exam Results (Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry)

These are the results for Harry J. Potter from the First Year Winter Exams.

* Best in subject (for year).

* Best ever in subject (for year).

** Best in year.

Astrology E

Herbology O

History of Magic E

Potions O *

Transfiguration O*

Charms O*

Defense Against the Dark Arts O*

Best in the year in four subjects. Best ever in Transfiguration. Best in year overall. Overall, Harry thought that the report card couldn't be much better.

"How did you guys do?" James asked his children.

"Four O's, three E's," Calypso said. "Not the best in any subject, probably because my loving brother over there took all those titles."

"Well, is that true sweetie?" Lily asked Harry. In response, Harry just tossed his report card on the table so that everyone could see it.

James summed it up pretty nicely. "Damn."

"Language James!" Lily chided her husband before turning to Harry. "This is amazing! I was always in the top three of my year and I never managed a record-breaking score. I'm so proud of you!"

"To be honest I'm surprised I got an O in Herbology. I was expecting an E."

"Really Harry?" Calypso said. "You show off all the time at Hogwarts but now that Mom and Dad are here you act all modest?"

Harry laughed. "I was being serious! Herbology isn't a big focus of mine!"

"All right, lower your voices," Lily said. "You're shouting."

The twins complied. "Who would you guess got the top spots on the other three subjects?" Calypso asked out of curiosity.

Harry thought about that for a minute. "Hmm. Probably either Neville or Hannah Abbot for Herbology. History of Magic would be Hermione. She tries way to hard in that subject."

Calypso nodded her head. Hermione loved to write and in the twins opinion wasted her time with unnecessary words. Calypso tried telling her that, but Hermione could be stubborn and didn't always like to listen to others. "What about Astrology? I have no clue."

"Neither do I," Harry said. It is kind of hard to see how others are doing when you are looking in a telescope half the time."

"And we don't pay extra attention to that subject."

"That too."

Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry December 28th

Minerva McGonagall walked into the Headmaster's office.

"Ahh, Minerva, take a seat. How are you doing this break?" Dumbledore had just finished the last paperwork he needed to take care of an hour previously and was in a good mood. Before McGonagall had walked in he had been catching up on the latest editions of Transfiguration Today. He always liked to keep up on the latest news.

"Very good Albus," McGonagall said as she transfigured the wooden chair into a soft plushy one and sat down. "I've come to talk about Harry Potter."

Dumbledore looked thoughful. "Yes, I saw his scores. In fact, the Prophet and Transfiguration Today will both be doing short articles on them. I assume this has something to do with giving him a harder curriculum?"

McGonagall frowned. "You sent his scores to be public?" Not that she was against Harry getting recognition for his work and talent, but she thought that exam scores were only for the Department of Education to see along with family or guardians. OWLs and NEWTs were different, but this was neither of these.

Dumbledore nodded. "If a new record is made, it is policy for it to be made public. And Harry's certainly did that. 213% on his First Year Winter Transfiguration Exam. The previous record was 202%."

McGonagall nodded. She already knew the scores. "To answer your earlier question, yes this is about giving him more challenging work."

"It isn't school policy to allow a student to move up a year in a subject," Dumbledore said. "Even myself and Tom Riddle Jr. didn't."

McGonagall shuddered a bit at the mention of the hated Dark Lord. Unlike many, she was aware of his parentage. "Maybe, but it is still allowed to take exams a year up. It hasn't happened in decades, but you did so with all your subjects in your sixth year. These aren't OWLs or NEWTs."

Dumbledore nodded this was all true. "Yes, but Mr. Potter is a first-year."

"That doesn't mean he can't do it any less. All I have to do is give him the second-year list of Transfiguration spells. And he is already assuredly capable of performing nearly half of them."

Dumbledore thought for a for moments. It wouldn't do to handcuff a student with the raw skill of Harry Potter. None of the greatest witches and wizards were made that way, and given time and the opportunity Dumbledore was sure that Harry would be able to achieve the same as the best. "Very well. Inform Mr. Potter that he will be taking the end of the year second-year exams this year and give him free reign in your class as long as he works on Transfiguration and doesn't interrupt the class."

McGonagall nodded. This worked for her. "Thank you Albus. I will write a letter to the Potters and let them know." She stood up, turned the chair back into its normal wooden state and left.

Before picking his magazine back up Dumbledore thought about the Potter twins. Both interesting in their own way. One an emerging genius and the other the Girl-Who-Lived.

He didn't even know about Harry's forays beyond standard school curriculum.

Potter Manor December 29th

James Potter sat at the dinner table eating a piece of toast as he read the Daily Prophet. It was 7:30 and he only had a half hour before he needed to be at work, but the great thing about magic was that he could be there in ten.

It was a pretty quite house. Lily had already left for her's twenty minutes ago and the kids were going to be watched by the house-elves as usual when both parents had work. Emily and Sirius were already playing in the kid's room (the second sitting room in Potter Manor that had been converted to hold all the kid's toys outside of their room) but Harry and Calypso were still asleep, enjoying their lay-ins during the break.

An owl tapped on the window. James got up and opened the window. He took the letter and gave the owl a knut in payment before it flew off. James broke the seal and opened the letter. It was from McGonagal.

To the Potters,

In light of Harry's recent scores he has been allowed to do his second-year end of the year exams this year. Taking exams a year up in a subject isn't something that has been allowed in several decades and is a huge honor.

I will be giving Harry a list of spells he will be required to learn and give him free reign in my class as long as he doesn't disrupt it.

I am extremely proud of Harry as I'm sure you are and am excited to see him continue to improve.

Minerva

P.S. Check Transfiguration Today and the Daily Prophet over the next couple of days. Albus said they are both doing short articles about Harry's record-breaking score.

James stared in shock for a moment. He had never heard of a student taking a test a year up. This was huge.

He couldn't just walk into Lily's work as the Department of Experiments was restricted but he could send her an Interdepartmental Memo for personal reasons with permission from Head Auror Scrimgeour. He left a few minutes early to ask to do just that after leaving the letter on the table with a note saying "This came today -Dad"

Department of Experiments December 29th

Lily and her partner Noah Cramball sat at a table debating. They were trying to make a less painful way to regrow bones but couldn't agree on how to do it.

An Interdepartmental Memo flew into the room and hovered in front of Lily. She excused herself for a minute and opened it. To her surprise it was a personal one from her husband and like James her eyes widened in shock at the news. She felt a great sense of pride for her son, especially after (mostly without his knowledge thankfully) many people just assumed that his better-known twin sister would be the more gifted twin.

However, now was time for work so she turned around and continued her debate.

Potter Manor December 29th

Harry and Calypso both came down the stairs at the same time. It was 9:00 and a house-elf had gone to wake them both up.

When the got to the kitchen both saw the letter and note laying open on the table and went to read it. When he was done Harry pumped his fist into air.

"Well it looks like you got some serious work ahead of you," Calypso observed.

Harry winked at her. "Not that much," he said only semi-sarcastically.

Calypso shook her head. "We really need to work on that ego."

The next day wasn't a good one for deflating Harry's ego. The articles came out in both papers. They said basically the same thing and weren't very long, but they did say some very flattering things about Harry so it was fine by him. Everyone was of course very proud of him and Dorea sent some more cookies, so he promised to just as well in all his exams.

He also didn't share which made everyone a little grumpy.

For New Year's the Potters invited their extended family as well as the Weasleys, the Grangers, and McGonagall over. The Grangers were Muggles so McGonagall had to go to their house and Portkey them to Potter Manor.

Harry had talked with Tracey about maybe getting together sometime over the break (talking with Daphne about socializing just didn't work) but she was going on vacation to Australia over most of the break and knew her family already had plans about New Years with the Greengrasses.

The Grangers and McGonagall were the first guests to arrive at around 5:00. Calypso was better friends with Hermione so she went down to greet them. They expressed their dislike of magical travel, and Harry personally had to agree with them. He hadn't traveled much and only used a Portkey once or twice so it felt weird. He was fairly sure Calypso felt the same way.

Pretty soon the other guests all arrived. Dinner was excellent, and the only hiccup was then Hermione found out about house-elves.

"So it is an entire race of intelligent beings that are bound to serve wizards without even being payed?" she asked.

"Well, yeah basically," Sirius answered very intelligently.

"Isn't that basically like slavery? What's the difference?"

Understandably, most of the wizards at the table got a little offended at that, and James, Arthur, and McGonagall all tried to explain to her at once. However, it was Harry who stopped the argument fairly quickly.

"Ah, so we are slave-owners now Hermione?" he said in a conversational voice. "It's good to know you think so highly of your friends and their family."

"Wait, no that's. No that's not what I meant. Not at all," Hermione stammered as her face turned red and she realized how her statement came out.

"Oh don't worry," Harry said in that same conversational tone. "It was fairly easy to tell what you meant."

Hermione stopped and lowered her head as her parents glared at her a little bit. However, Harry could tell from his parent's expressions that he was going to get chewed out as well for embarrassing Hermione. Harry just viewed it as him teaching her a valuable life lesson. She had a tendency not to listen sometimes. Not that she was a bad person or anything, its just that nobody was perfect. For example, Harry knew he could work on being a little more humble.

After dinner, everyone split off into different groups to talk and wait for midnight. Harry, Calypso, Ron, and Hermione ended up watching Sirius Jr. and Emily in the kids room as they sat on a couch sipping apple cider.

Hermione brought up that she saw the article about Harry because she had a subscription to the Daily Prophet. "Do you think you could teach us? Like an extra club for Transfiguration outside of class. You are the best and could be a huge help to people in our year, and lower years as we get older."

Harry thought about that. Ron looked pained that Hermione would probably drag him to any class Harry taught, but Calypso looked interested as well. And he knew several others that would like to get some extra help in Transfiguration. It was actually a really good idea and could help a lot of people.

"No," Harry answered as he took another drink of his cider.

"Why not?" Hermione said. Harry knew she wasn't going to give up easily.

"Yeah, why not?" Calypso said. "It is actually a really good idea and could help a lot of people. You've already helped me a lot in class, so I know you could do it."

"Oh I know all of those points are true," Harry explained. "But look at it this way. How did I get so good at Transfiguration?" None of the three other kids knew how to answer. "Talent yes, but also hours and hours of practice. And teaching a class would cut significantly into that time. And then I wouldn't be as good. Basically, I don't have to time or want to spend the effort to teach you guys. No offense." He didn't mention that he would be studying to take a test a year up in that subject as he was fairly sure that would make things worse.

"Well that was kind of harsh," Calypso said after a few moments.

"But you could teach us so much," Hermione pleaded.

Harry really wanted to roll his eyes. "Fine, want a piece of advice Hermione?" he said with a bit of bite. "Instead of writing essays that are twice as long as required, spend that time actually learning the spell. Your study habits are extremely inefficient and holding you back."

Hermione just blinked and nodded mutely. Harry usually had a very good control over his emotions and almost never snapped.

Pretty soon after that the youngest Potters went to bed and everybody got involved in a massive game of Exploding Snap. Despite having only heard of the game that day, Hermione's mother Caroline turned out to be very good at it. Then Charlus and Sirius had one to many to drink and started a wrestling match. Charlus still worked out best he could and put up a good fight.

Overall it was a great evening with everybody celebrating the New Years with "Happy New Years!" and confetti from wands at midnight. Pretty soon after that everybody had to leave with promises to have another party the next New Years or a pool party over the summer. Harry crashed on his bed that night feeling very happy.

The next morning he did indeed get chewed out for embarrassing Hermione over dinner but it wasn't to severe. It was New Years but Aurors still had to work so it was just Lily staying home with the kids.

Harry spent most of the day feeling magical flows. It was at the point that he could sense two streams of natural magical energy at the same time but couldn't grab either one of them when doing so, which was mildly frustrating.

Harry was very thankful that his ambition lead him to have much more commitment than virtually everybody else his age. He was fairly sure that even Hermione had quit, but he was well over one hundred hours in and still going.

It was a requirement to follow in the footsteps of Andrei, and one he pointed out in the Introduction of The Book of Magical Forms. When Harry got old looking back he realized what a ridiculous amount of time it really took. Most would call one hundred hours studying on top of normal schoolwork complete overkill. Harry called it a requirement. And it was paying off. Plus, Harry had skimmed ahead a bit in the book. Some of the things he had read a few sentences about were insane. How to walk past any ward, cast spells with ridiculous god-levels of power or see past any illusion. Theories that if proven would revolutionize the way magic was viewed. Andrei stated that much of the book was beyond what he could managed at the height of his life and power, at least at the proficiency that was theoretically possible.

For example, there is a way to walk past even the best goblin wards without breaking step. Andrei was once held back for nearly thirty minutes while in his prime. Harry doubted anybody would ever be about to master everything in the whole book but that wasn't a reason not to at least give it a shot.

He also went to the Potter Library and grabbed an old second-year Transfiguration book. It was a little outdated but Harry still worked on several spells in it, such as the Softening Charm.

Lastly he went on a walk around the property and brushed up his Severing Charm on a few bushes along the way. He had spent so much time over the past few weeks thinking about Transfiguration that he had sort of forgotten about the other two wand subjects.

After New Years there was only a few days until the Potter twins had to head back to Hogwarts. Harry was sad that he had to wake up early again, but at the same time was getting anxious to get into his usual pace of learning once again.

And so on January fifth, Harry and his twin once again said goodbye to their family and stepped aboard the Hogwarts Express. Harry took a deep breath. He loved his family but his success in Transfiguration had given him some big goals in life that he could actually realistically reach and couldn't wait to get working towards them once again.

A/N Sorry it took almost a week to get this posted, and its not like this is a very long chapter or anything. IRL stuff came in for a few days and of course that came over writing this.

Hope you like how I am doing Harry's journey to the top. If you think it is to fast let me know, I can slow it down a little bit.

Just in case anyone is wondering, no Harry won't be graduating by fifth year or anything like that, even Dumbledore didn't.

Anyways, most of these first-year chapters are kind of filler, they don't have a huge impact on the plot far out in the future other than to set the groundwork so sorry if they get a little repetitive. There will only be about two more until summer.

See you next time.