The new term flew by quickly.
He doesn't pay attention to the dragon Hagrid hatches, for which Ron and Hermione got detention or the fact that the mystery of Nicolas Flamel has been solved by a chocolate frog card.
He doesn't think too hard about the stands collapsing as they're watching a Quidditch game, they had looked plenty rickety and he rather doubts that a Professor was trying to kill him even if he does hate him. Nor does he care that said Professor referees the next game.
Instead, he's been given a new order. Over the winter break, he'd scanned every book the library had on Therianthropy along with most books on the topic of Theurgy and while they're not all that interested in Theurgy, Therianthropy is very interesting to them.
Therianthropy is the ability to metamorphose into another creature using shapeshifting. The book Therianthropy: A Beginners Guide discussed the different versions of this including being a Metamorphagus, Lycanthropy, and Animaguses. While many of them were inherent or were curses some might apply to him or that he might be able to do.
They all recalled the time Harry's hair grew quite suddenly after a bad haircut, overnight in fact, so the first thing they wanted to do was test him for that. There were only seven books in the library about Metamorphagus so it was fairly easy to check them all out, scan them, then begin to read them.
The tests started simply, with simply growing out his hair more, and got more complex to determine the degree of Metamorphagus.
Having already grown his hair out over and over again for the Researchers it was easy to once more grow his hair out longer, though he also promptly reversed the progress as he didn't want anyone to know what he was doing.
After that, he recorded himself on the laptop, both for research purposes and in place of a mirror, and began the difficult process of changing his hair color. It took him a week and a half of trying but he finally managed a stripe of blonde hair straight through the middle of his black mop. He was congratulated most heartily by the researchers, then instructed to turn it back. He ended up missing dinner that day.
After that it was changing his nose shape, then his cheekbones (or zygomatic as they insisted on calling them), then finally his body shape.
All in all, it took three months to confirm that he was a type four Metamorphagus, able to change in nearly any way he wanted except for removing or adding mass. Which meant that his next goal was practicing as much as he could. If he could change what he looked like then he could potentially leave wherever he was sent and go home.
With that in mind, he was very distracted all the time and he just nodded along as Hermione and Ron told him about something while he was reading a story in Mandarin.
"Are you even listening?" Hermione demanded.
"Uh-huh," he muttered.
"Snape's going to steal the Philosopher's Stone!" Ron nearly shouted at him.
Hermione smacked him with a book, "We're in the library! We'll get kicked out if you keep yelling!"
Ron glared at her, but lowered his voice, "This is more important than the library!"
Hermione sighed, "He's right Harry, this is important!"
Harry groaned and rubbed his eyes in frustration, "And remind me again why we care if Snape is immortal. Assuming he can even figure out how to work it."
They both gaped at him as if he'd declared the sky to be yellow.
"Harry, he's evil," Ron almost screamed, resulting in them being banned from the library for the rest of the day.
As they stood outside the library Harry and Hermione scowled at Ron, only to scowl right back. "He's evil!" he shouted again. "Who cares about the library when an evil git is trying to steal the Philosopher's Stone!"
Harry shrugged, "Then tell Professor McGonagall. I'm not getting involved. If he's as evil as you say then he could just curse us and go on his way. Let the adults handle this." With that he stalked off, intent on practicing his Metamorphagus talents in the privacy of his bed.
In a fit of pique, he decided to email Terrance about the whole situation.
Shortly thereafter he received an email asking for further clarification, namely on what a Philosopher's Stone is and why they think he's evil. He spent much of the day going back and forth with Harry quickly feeling like he was losing control of the situation.
He knew he'd lost when they asked him to speak to Professor Babbling about his Invisibility Cloak.
After dinner, he did exactly that and his stomach dropped when she smiled brightly and informed him that she'd been meaning to speak to him for the past few weeks because she'd finished the inspection and it was all clear.
This meant that Harry had to apologize to his friends for snapping at them and agreed to do a preemptive strike that evening to prevent Professor Snape from getting his hands on the stone.
They'd figured out how to calm Fluffy weeks ago and Harry brought his hand-carved flute with him to lure the giant three-headed dog to sleep.
After that, they dropped into some Devil's Snare which Hermione realized needed fire to clear it, and Ron reminded her that she was a witch and could use her wand to make fire.
Then Harry went searching for the key in the air and found it rather quickly.
Harry began to feel suspicious of the entire setup when the next trap was a giant chess board that Ron navigated them through. This time the trap was not without casualties and Hermione and Harry went onto the next trap without Ron as he now had a broken leg.
The next trap was a troll with a giant club and while Hermione froze up Harry took a page out of Ron's book and levitated the troll's club in the air before dropping it on the troll, once more knocking it unconscious.
Finally, they came upon a riddle that Hermione solved quite handily. There was unfortunately only enough potion for one person and Harry went on without Hermione.
The last room was large, but all it had was a mirror in the center.
Cautiously he walked up to the mirror and found himself standing surrounded by his family at the Research Facility. He whirled around and found himself in an empty room.
Turning back around Harry found himself once more surrounded by his family. He shook his head and wondered how to get past this trap, did he have to break the mirror? All he wanted to do was get the stupid stone and get out of here. It wasn't as if the night was going to end for him just because he got the stone.
Suddenly his reflection in the mirror pulled something out of his pocket, a small red stone, then put it back in. At the same time, something heavy landed in his pocket and he quickly pulled the stone out of his pocket, staring at it in shock. He looked around the room and wondered if this was a trick but he found no indication that it was.
Still not fully convinced Harry went back, found Hermione, then Ron, and got them out of the secret gauntlet of traps. It was nearly as hard to get out as it was to get in but he finally managed it.
"What are you going to do with the stone," Ron asked, panting a bit from the effort of walking with a broken ankle.
"Hide it, where no one can find it. Hermione, you take Ron up to the Hospital Wing, I'll see you guys in the morning."
Hermione frowned at him, "You don't need help?"
He shook his head, "I'll see you in the morning, good luck."
With that, he donned the Invisibility Cloak once more and snuck out of the castle. On his way out he used his emergency cell phone to call Jennifer and let him know that he'd succeeded in his mission and was headed out to the meeting point. By the time he got there the helicopter was already there.
He didn't get to bed that night until nearly four in the morning.
Exams were hellish, as far as Harry was concerned. He wasn't sure that the tap dance he set the pineapple to do in his Charms exam was vigorous enough. He wasn't sure that the pattern on his turtle-turned teapot was intricate enough. He wasn't sure that his Potion of Light was bright enough. He almost fell asleep during both his History and Astronomy exams.
When the exams finally ended he finally allowed himself to relax and focus on scanning every book that the library had on Animaguses and he barely even practiced Mandarin or his Metamorphagus abilities while doing it.
It wasn't until the day before his last day there that anyone said anything about his home life.
At breakfast, he was given an invitation to the Headmaster's office. When he got there (the password was Ice Mice) he found Professor McGonagall and the scarred man with a strange eye who had broken into child services with the Headmaster.
He did his best not to scowl at them.
"Harry, dear boy, why don't you sit down? Would you like some tea?"
Harry shook his head as he sat down, "I just finished breakfast, no tea for me thank you."
"Of course," the Headmaster agreed easily, "Now I'm afraid I have something grave to discuss with you."
"Okay."
"Your living situation is most unfortunate. I heard what happened with your aunt and uncle and though I doubt you remember much of it, I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry that all happened to you."
Harry cocked his head to the side. The Headmaster was right that he didn't remember most of what happened, but the Researchers had never hidden anything from him and when he'd asked to see the police report when he was ten years old they'd handed it over to him, answering his questions the best they could.
So he knew what had happened to him, even if it was mostly abstract to him, and he found it a little suspicious that the Headmaster was apologizing to him.
"Were you the one who placed me there?"
The Headmaster grimaced, "Hogwarts is responsible for the placement of all magical children after deaths in the family. Which is why I've brought you here. I understand that you've been living with muggles but you are magical and should be living with a magical family which is why we've decided to place you with the Weasley family. Seeing as you are good friends with Ronald Weasley it seems an ideal placement."
Harry frowned and, having been told not to give in too easily, he argued, "But they're my family! They've raised me! Surely you don't take all children away from nonmagical parents!"
The headmaster sighed, "That is true, but seeing as we don't even know where you have been living…" He stared at him expectantly and Harry glared back, stubbornly silent. "Well, we can't very well have you living with strangers who we don't know the intentions of."
"They intend to love me and care for me!"
The scarred man snorted and the Headmaster sent him a quelling look. "Be that as it may the decision is final. Tomorrow at the train station the Weasleys will pick you up and take you home."
Harry glared at the man, "I'll never forgive you for this."
The Headmaster sighed, "I think in time you'll come to understand that this is for the best."
Harry ignored that and stormed out, feeling full of righteous anger.
He was in a foul mood the rest of the day and into the next day causing his friends to avoid him. Even after Hagrid had been kind enough to give him a scrapbook filled with pictures of his family his mood scarcely improved.
His mood was so bad that even on the train his friends sat as far away from him as they could while still being in the same compartment and they seemed relieved when Harry stormed out part way through.
Harry went into the bathroom and changed clothes, then changed his face and hair, then put in contacts since he couldn't magically improve his eyes. He looked like a blond-haired blue-eyed boy, with an angular face and a large nose.
With that done he hung out in the luggage compartment until they arrived. Right before he got off the train he cast the Finite Charm on himself, just to ensure there were no tracking spells.
When he got off the train he found the scarred man front and center, eyes scanning all the students as they walked out. He didn't seem to notice Harry and Harry was able to slip off the platform and back to the muggle side.
Soon he was in Research Facility 57A once more.
As exams came upon them Albus found himself pleased with Professor Quirrell. The man was clearly resisting his Lord's call and had yet to make another attempt on the stone. He might even last to the end of the year.
Of course, it was wishful thinking like that which jinxed things. That evening he was called to an 'emergency' session of the Wizengamot, though what the emergency was wasn't clear.
The next morning Minerva reported that Quirinus had not reported for classes and wasn't in his quarters.
With a heavy heart, he went through the gauntlet with the master key, thus making the protections moot, and found Quirinus arguing with his master.
"Get away from there you fool! It's a trap!"
"But master the stone is right there! All I have to do is figure out how to get it."
"How astute of you Tom," Albus said softly. Quirinus turned around in shock and, before he could raise his wand, Albus had him bound in ropes.
Before Albus could do anymore though, Tom, who had been possessing Quirinus, left his host's body and fled, leaving Quirinus to die.
Well, that could have gone better.
A few days later Harry went missing on the train, somehow.
A few days after that he realized the stone was missing.
At least it wasn't with Tom. Probably.
There we go, that's the end of book 1. I know this may seem a little bit rushed but there wasn't much more I wanted to add to book 1. Up next, book 2! Please comment and follow to let me know what you think of the direction this story is taking!