July 20th Potter Manor

Harry lay in bed, enjoying his lay-ins as per usual when he didn't have school. It was almost ten thirty and he was meditating. He felt Calypso's bundle of magic come up the stairs, probably to tell him to get up. He smiled as she walked up to the door. This would be a great way to prank her.

"Come in Calypso," he called as she was probably about to knock.

His twin opened the door with a very confused look on her face. "How did you know?"

Harry gave her a cheeky smile. "Magic."

Calypso rolled her eyes. "Mom and Dad said to get your lazy bum out of bed and get ready for the day. You can't spend all of it in bed." Then she rethought that statement. "Actually, you probably could, but you shouldn't."

Harry nodded and rolled out of bed. He had actually woken up almost an hour prior but had just enjoyed laying in bed meditating. "I'm up, I'm up." Calypso left.

It was two weeks into the summer break and about the time that the results for the end-of-the-year exams were delivered. In fact, both Potter twins were hoping they would arrive that day.

At noon, they weren't disappointed. Two great greys with letters with the Hogwarts seal on them tapped on the door. Lily got up to open the door, allowing the owls to fly in. After the twins collected their letters the owls left.

Summer Exam Results (Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy)

These are the results for Harry J. Potter from the First Year Summer Exams (Second Year Transfiguration)

* 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*

.**

"Hah!" Calypso said. "Took the top Potions spot from you."

Harry shrugged. "That's what I get for focusing so hard on Transfiguration."

"What about you?" James asked. Harry just handed his parents his report card.

His mom gave what could only be described as a squeal and gave Harry a huge hug. "Yep," Harry said as he was squished. "Don't worry about me. I'm not suffocating or anything."

Lily released him from her grip. "Oh shush, I'm allowed to congratulate you. First in second year Transfiguration! I'm so proud of you!"

James gave Harry a knuckle sandwich. "You've done good son."

Harry dramatically collapsed into one of the chairs and acted like he had some serious head injury. "If I had known the reward for doing so well was physical abuse I would have held back."

"I would like to point out that I did pretty good as well," Calypso interjected. "It can't compare to Mr. Prodigy over there but first in Potions isn't bad."

"Of course sweetie," Lily said as she gave Calypso a hug as well. "We didn't forget you or anything."

Calypso didn't mind at all; Harry deserved it, but like her twin she enjoyed making a big deal out of little things. She gave a long, dramatic sigh. "The Girl-Who-Lived surpassed by her nobody twin brother. How did this happen? Ouch!" Harry had thrown a spoon and hit her in the face.

"Don't throw things Harry, I don't care how good your grades are," Lily admonished him.

Sirius and Emily came into the room. "What's for lunch mom? I'm starving!"

July 25th Potter Manor

Harry watched as his sister flew around on her Nimbus. He was currently just relaxing in the sun, not really do anything in particular. However, he did suddenly get an idea.

Closing his eyes he tried to find not Calypso, but her broom in the dimension of magical energy and flows. It was extremely difficult. Calypso was moving fast and he couldn't really get a lock on her or her broom. But as far as he was aware he should be able to feel the broom. It was covered in enchantments weaving and working together. Not as easy to feel as the extremely dense ball of energy that marked a witch or wizard but still enough. However, in the end the speed of the broom prevented him from succeeding. He just decided to try when the broom wasn't be flown.

Harry was distracted by Emily walking up to him. "Mommy said you need to read to me," she said, sitting down on Harry's lap.

He gave a small "oof" and laughed. "Alright you." He opened the copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard she brought to what he knew was her favorite story; The Fountain of Fair Fortune.

July 31st Potter Manor

It was the evening of Harry and Calypso's birthdays and Harry looked at his present haul in his room. A textbook on enchanting from Hermione. A copper cauldron; which was a step up from his pewder one, from his grandparents. A collection of sweets from Remus. An enchanted knife that could get through most locks from Sirius (his mother hand't been happy with that one). His parents made a family tree for each of the twins. A few other miscellaneous items. However, it was actually the gift from Daphne and Tracey that held his attention the most.

Harry had remembered to send Daphne and Tracey each a two-way mirror so they could communicate easier during the summer because their birthdays were the 2nd and 7th of July, respectively. If Harry was a betting man he would bet that Daphne made sure to get him a more expensive gift, just cause Daphne could be like that. Most people would find it weird; a round, cut, one carat black diamond. But Harry knew exactly what the diamond was for.

Flashback

May 14th Hogwarts

Harry, Tracey, and Daphne were all relaxing in the Slytherin Common Room together. As per usual, most everyone avoided them, and they didn't complain. Daphne snorted. "Listen to this," she said. "My cousin Sophia spent one hundred galleons (498 pounds, 671 dollars) on a new pair of enchanted earrings." She rolled her eyes. "Nobody in their right mind spends that kind of money on a single pair of earrings."

"I never quite got why you don't like jewelry so much," Tracey said. "But you really do seem to hate it."

"I don't hate jewelry. I can just think of better uses for that kind of money."

"I actually just read about a practical magical use for jewelry," Harry interjected. He had been reading a chapter of The Book of Magical Forms and had stumbled across something interesting. "Gems are capable of storing and receiving magical energy," he started. "The bigger and better quality gem the more energy it can handle. Anyways, you could store some energy in jewelry and if you ever need to just take that energy out and get a huge boost in your stamina. Spies during wars used to just where jewelry loaded with energy to a ball or meeting of top officials, waltz in, and take down the entire building he was in."

"So that's why we always have to have our jewelry scanned when my parents drag me to those boring balls," Daphne said, snapping her fingers. "I always meant to ask."

Tracey frowns. "But then why doesn't everyone wear jewelry to a fight or duel?"

"It's really hard to try to put energy in or pull any out," Harry explained. "I wouldn't be able to do it if I tried."

End Flashback

The conversation had moved on and Harry hadn't given it a second thought. But it seemed that either Daphne or Tracey; probably Daphne, did and had given him the diamond. Harry picked up the knife Sirius had given him. He had said it would get through any lock no matter the wards, but Harry knew that everything had it's limits. If he could do something like get the gem into the hilt of the knife and actually managed to store some magical energy in there then he could get the knife to where it would actually break just about any ward.

A daunting prospect, but Harry hadn't have sort of timeline so he was more than up to try.

August 1st Hogwarts

Dumbledore sat in his office. He had a house of course, but always preferred staying at Hogwarts when he could. At the very least, Hogwarts had house-elves. Dumbledore was renowned for many things, but his culinary skills was not one of them.

A letter had just arrived from Lily Potter, who had a question for him. Harry had been given just a plain black diamond with nothing attached for his birthday from his friends. When asked what it was for, he just said it was an inside joke. She just wanted to know if there was any practical reason for the gift.

Dumbledore frowned. Of course there was the obvious answer as to what a wizard could do with a plain gem; storage for extra magical energy one could call on in a time of need, but Harry was far to young to try something like that. He would have to direct magical energy; which was basically wandless magic. No matter how much of a natural and how much drive Harry seemed to possess, that was for seventh years or adults. And there was no need for him to do so anyways, other than bragging rights.

Dumbledore penned a quick letter back explaining the one reason he could think of; but explained that it was far to difficult for anyone Harry's age to do and was therefore most likely indeed some sort of inside joke.

August 10th Potter Manor

Harry sat looking at the knife and the diamond. He had some some modifications to the knife for no other reason than aesthetics. The hilt was a shiny black to match the diamond, and the blade had the black and gold Potter family crest with the motto Victoriam Metu (Victory through Fear). In medieval times the Potters had historically been knights and warriors and learned that having a healthy respect for the enemy was critical to not making stupid mistakes, and with respect always came a healthy dose of fear. A saying the Potters were fond of through the centuries was "Even if you don't fear something, doesn't mean you don't have a reason to." Of course everyone just assumed that the motto meant the Potters won by inspiring crippling fear in their enemies.

It had taken him nine days to finish the look of the knife. One nice thing about magic was that despite the fact that steel didn't come in gold or shiny black without paint, Harry didn't need paint to get the colors we wanted. Now came the tricky part; trying to get the gem in the hilt. Harry knew most adult wizards would have no problem doing that, but he simply hadn't had enough time learning magic to know the spells to do so.

He hadn't managed to store any magical energy in the diamond either. It was simple with his wand because when the wand chooses the wizard it makes a kind of bond with it's users magic. That's why somebody would always get the best results out of their own wand. It was kind of an extension to their core. The diamond was sort of like Harry's wand in that it could hold extra energy, only that it was completely empty and could therefore hold more than his wand. But unlike his wand it was completely separate from him. That made things indefinitely trickier.

Harry set down the knife and picked up the diamond in the palm of his hand. He could worry about getting it into the hilt later. For now, he needed to practice getting energy into it.

August 25th Diagon Alley

Harry honestly didn't know what to think. The whole Potter family was just trying to get the twins's materials and supplies for the upcoming school year but Gilderoy Lockhart was getting in the way of that. When the Potters had tried to get into Fourish and Blotts he was there taking photos and signing autographs and basically getting in the way of everything. And when the Potters had just tried to get their books and leave he had seen Calypso and was now insisting that she take photos with him.

Lily had said no; she didn't want Calypso doing that stuff and tried to steer her out of the store and let Harry and James get the books when Lockhart had grabbed Calypso's arm. Now Lily was yelling at him to step off, Calypso was just looking uncomfortable, Emily was whining that she didn't want to be shopping, and James, Harry and Sirius were just standing off to the side wishing they had chosen a better day to get Hogwarts supplies.

After a full minute and Lockhart still hadn't let go of Calypso's arm Harry spoke up. "Didn't your parents ever tell you that when a girl says no it means no?" he called out. Lockhart turned to see who said that. To Harry's relief it had the intended effect that he let go of his sister's arm. To his dismay though Lockhart gave his smile and walked over to Harry.

"Ah, Harry Potter, Britain's latest child celebrity! Surely you want some photos!"

Harry's success in school had given him some recent fame in academic circles. There had been multiple articles posted about him not only taking an exam above his year but outperforming everyone too. The Daily Prophet did a short interview with McGonagall who said "Mr. Potter has done things with a wand I have never seen anyone else his age do." Transfiguration Today said in their article that "it is only a matter of time until we report not on Mr. Potter's success with current magic but on his breakthroughs into the unknown." It had given Harry extra motivation to not only continue his success in Transfiguration but expand it into other subjects.

However, as much as he loved being a "child celebrity" like his sister and despite his tendency to speak out quite loudly, a fairly secluded life had left his camera shy. "I would rather just get my books and leave if that's all the same with you."

Lockhart just chuckled. "Tough family. Very well. However, you shall not leave without something to remember this day. I'll give both you and your sister a signed copy of my new autobiography Magical Me as well as a full set of my books on me. After all, you will need them for the upcoming school year when I am teaching our youngest generation how to defend against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts!" At this announcement he turned towards the cameras and spread his arms wide. The photographers started taking photos left and right and many of the people (girls) lined up for his autographs started to cheer.

"Well that certainly explains a lot," Harry muttered. He had been surprised when the books were on the list for the year, but this cleared up that confusion.

Lockhart gave the twins their books and the Potters headed out the door. They could get the rest another day. "I look forward to seeing you in class!" Lockhart called out after them.

When they were safely out of the store, Lily started. "The nerve of that man! You can't just grab a child and demand photos to advance your own fame! If there weren't so many people around..."

Harry tuned out the rest of her rant even though he agreed. On one hand, he liked Lockhart. Part of the reason he worked so hard in class was to someday rival the fame of his sister. It seemed that "someday" was sooner than expected. So that was nice.

But on the other hand he tried to grab Harry's sister and drag her away for his own fame. That, and the slightly helpless look that Calypso had during the confrontation, made Harry mad.

Harry realized something as he walked into the Apothecary. He was extremely protective of his twin. He just hadn't realized how much. But looking back on his near hatred of Malfoy, and how angry he got when Lockhart grabbed her arm, he could see just how much he hated it when his sister was attacked in any way.

Harry chuckled a bit as the Potters walked in. He felt sorry for any of Calypso's future boyfriends she ever brought home.

September 1st Platform 9 3/4

"Alright, alright I love you too Mom, that's enough." Harry was once again getting a good-bye hug from his mother as him and Calypso were about to go onto the train.

"You better do just as good in school this year as you did last year," his mom said as she released him.

"Gee, no pressure," Harry muttered.

"Just make sure not to take life to seriously," Sirius said as he gave Harry a one-armed hug and Lily moved to Calypso. "Start chasing a pretty girl around this year. Trust me, you want to start early and get the practice in for later."

"Did you start 'chasing pretty girls around' when you were twelve?" Harry asked curiously.

"Around then."

"Well considering the fact you are thirty-three and still not married or in a serious relationship I'm going to go with the idea that maybe that isn't the smartest plan."

Remus started laughing. "He got you there Padfoot!" Sirius looked at Harry with a mock betrayed face.

"How could you Prongslet! That was a low blow."

"True though," Harry replied mercilessly. Remus started laughing harder.

After a few more minutes the good-byes were over and the twins stepped onto the train. As they did, Harry took a deep breath. Getting on the Hogwarts Express was always symbolic for him. It meant another term of magic to practice, things to learn, and great things to become.

A/N This chapter came out a day later than I meant to, I took a little while decided what big project I wanted Harry to start.

This chapter was a little shorter than I planned for it to be. I was going to have Dobby in it but I decided that while they have their own branch of magic it wouldn't really make sense for house-elves to be able to by-pass the Fidelius Charm.

Anyways, not much happened, it was more just to set up one of Harry's big focuses for the upcoming school year or longer.

Hope you enjoyed.