Yay. Over two thousand reads! I have realised that I tend to update on a Tuesday so from here on I will aim to always update on a weekly basis on Tuesday. Thanks for the reviews .
Lilykees - Thanks , and please do keep reading! And yes hopefully Ron will take Harry and Ginny's announcement well, but he's well, Ron. You can never tell how he's going to react!
SinOfDisaster - I do put it into paragraphs when writing, but then when I copy and paste onto the site it screws it all up. Promise to try to sort this out.
thatperfectsomeone - Thanks. The story is mostly based on the books, with maybe a few ideas from the films. You won't find out Ron's thoughts and feelings until the end.
So here is where your going to start to see some differences, remember this is AU! They are small at first, getting much more bigger as the years go on. This chapter is mainly the starting point from where Harry will change. This is not a superHarry fic, it's just a smarter version of himself, he's always been powerful, remember what Olivander said! In all aspects or from Ron/Hermione's point of view, most things that happened in the books/films actually happened. This story just goes deeper by showing what else happened, that Harry kept secrets. His Slytherin side showing through with his cunningness maybe? Or maybe his deep sense of loyalty and friendship from Gryffindor? Read and review!
p.s - events that take place in the Hogwarts years will still take place, only if there are major changes will I write them though, after all J.K wrote them well enough already, they don't need to be rewritten!
Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter!
Chapter 5 – Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone
Harry sat on the train and breathed a sigh of relief, he was really going to Hogwarts. He looked out of the window and saw the red haired family. He smiled. They had all been so nice and helpful to him and they didn't even know him. He saw the small girl, Ginny. She saw him and waved. He blushed and waved back before sinking back in his seat. He ran his hands through his hair trying to get it to stop sticking up. He heard a group of girls discussing what the sorting might entail as they moved to find a compartment.
"I heard we have to fight a troll," one of the girls said. Harry laughed as he watched the girls move along. It was an interesting theory but not true. In Hogwarts A History it tells that the sorting was done by the sorting hat, an imprint left behind by Godric Gryfindor. He looked up as the compartment door was opened, it was the youngest son of the red-haired family.
"Anyone sitting there?" he asked pointing to the other seat opposite him. "Everywhere else is full." Harry shook his head and gestured for him to sit. "Thanks. I'm Ron, Ron Weasley," Ron said holding out his hand. Harry grasped it.
"Harry Potter." Ron nodded his head in acknowledgment.
"Guess the twins weren't lying then. Do you, do you have the … you know… scar?" Harry grinned at Ron's inquisitiveness and pulled back his bangs. "Wow!" Ron looked impressed staring at Harry. Harry squirmed a little bit, not used to being looked at. He sighed. Just one more thing to get used to.
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Harry slouched back full from the various sweets and chocolates that he had just eaten. He couldn't remember tasting anything quite as nice as a chocolate frog. He had just gotten settled when there was a knock on the compartment door. A round faced boy entered looking tearful.
"Sorry," he said, "But have you seen a toad at all?" Both he and Ron shook their heads. The boy wailed "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!" Harry saw Ron shake him head and he looked at the boy kindly.
"What's the toad's name?" The boy sniffed.
"Trevor." Harry nodded. He remembered from his reading a summoning spell which he could use. He had not done any magic so far so here was his chance to try it out.
"Ok…" he looked at the boy.
"Neville," the boy supplied.
"Ok Neville. I think I know a way that we can find Trevor. It's a spell so I don't know if it's going to work, but it's worth a try." Neville nodded in response. Seeing that Neville agreed Harry pulled out his wand and nervously cleared his throat. He pictured a toad in his mind. "Accio Trevor." A moments silence followed and still no Trevor appeared. So much for beginners luck he thought. He looked over to Neville with an apologetic look on his face and was about to say sorry when a small object zoomed through the open compartment door and onto his lap.
"Trevor!" shouted Neville. Harry grinned and passed Neville his toad.
"I can't believe that actually worked," Harry said excitedly. The other two boys looked at Harry in awe. That was until a bossy voice came from behind them.
"You're not allowed to do magic on the train." The three boys swung their heads around to see a girl with very bushy hair standing in the door of their compartment. "I see you found your toad, you could have at least come and told me, I've been searching everywhere." Neville looked at her guiltily.
"He just got it back, he didn't have time to tell you before you got here," Harry told the girl.
She looked at him and gave him a piercing stare.
"I didn't ask for your opinion. By the way how does a first year manage a fourth year summoning spell?" Both Ron and Neville turned their heads to Harry, eyes widening. He shook his head.
"I didn't know it was a fourth year spell, I heard some people talking about it a couple compartments down, it was probably a fluke that it worked," he lied. Of course he knew what year the spell came from, he'd brought all 7 standard book of spells by Miranda Goshawk by owl order after finishing the first one. He had been surprised that it had worked first time though, he hadn't expected that. He saw the girl look exceedingly happy when she heard him say that it was probably a fluke, she obviously wanted to be the best. She would probably get sorted into Ravenclaw.
"Well I'm Hermione Granger, and you are?" she asked them, apart from Neville who she already knew.
"Ron, Ron Weasley," he heard Ron say. He saw Hermione nod her head and then saw her look at him.
"Harry Potter." He watched her eyes widen in surprise.
"I've read all about you, you're in Modern Magical History, The Rise and Fall of The Dark Arts and Great Wizarding events of the twentieth century." She said quickly. Harry scowled. He'd read them all and none of them had any true fact, only speculation about what had happened. He was the only one who had survived and he didn't even remember what had happened so how some stupid author! He quickly hid the scowl and looked up at Hermione quizzically.
"Am I?" Hermione nodded and went on to say something else when she was rudely interrupted by three boys. Harry recognised the middle one from Madame Malkins.
"So it's true, Harry Potter has come to Hogwarts. These are Crabbe and Goyle," pointing at the two heavily built boys beside him, standing like bodyguards. "And my names Malfoy, Draco Malfoy." He heard Ron snigger. "Think my names funny do you? Well there's no need for an introduction to you, red hair and a hand me down robe, you must be a Weasley, oh look the Longbottom squib has managed to get into Hogwarts. I hear your Gran had to bribe Dumbledore to take you." At these words Neville looked down, his eyes watering. "You'll soon find out that some wizarding families are better than others, I can help you there." He held out his hand in front of Harry. Inwardly Harry was seething. How dare this pompous idiot insult his new friends like that? He looked directly into Malfoys eyes coldly.
"I think I can tell for myself thanks, after all you did just barge into our carriage, interrupt our conversation and then go on to insult the people I have been getting to know. I mean if that's how you were brought up, to be rude and arrogant then I'd rather not get to know you." He pointed his wand at Malfoy whose face had considerably paled. "I think it's time you leave," he waved them away using his wand in the hope that it would scare them.
"You've made a grave mistake Potter," Draco snarled as he stalked off, his bodyguards in tow. As soon as he was gone Ron started laughing.
"Did you see his face when you told him to shove it?" Harry smiled and looked over at Neville who still looked upset.
"Hey Neville don't listen to him, he's not worth it." He saw Neville nod. He looked back at Hermione who was still standing in the doorway. "Are you ok?" he asked her. He saw her sniff.
"I'm fine. By the way you should start to put your robes on, were nearly there," before stalking off.
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Harry crashed into his dorm, throwing his bag across the room before falling onto his bed with a groan. He was so angry… at himself. After all those years of neglect and bullying how did he ever, even for a second believe that being here, at Hogwarts would be any different?
Only two weeks had passed since he first entered into the great hall where all the first years were to be sorted. Happily he had been sorted into Gryffindor. The hat had told him he was suited for any house but Gryffindor would be the best place for its heir. He had questioned the hat about it but all he was told was that he wasn't ready and he would be given more information when he was. He loved the common room in the Gryffindor colours of scarlet and gold, he felt more at home here than he'd ever felt at the Dursley's. He loved magic, he loved the freedom and he loved the fact that he finally actually had friends. However in those two weeks things had defiantly not lived up to what Harry had hoped.
First there was defence against the dark arts taught by Professor Quirrel. They were a joke. Quirrel couldn't teach them anything without stuttering through his sentences and looking scared at the mention of any dark creatures, he also always smelled of garlic. Rumour was it kept away the vampires he crossed in Albania.
Then there was potions. Snape. Greasy haired, evil git, bat of the dungeon. He didn't even know the man and yet there seemed to be a hatred towards him, more so than the rest of the students. He'd only taken one look at him and embarrassed him about his celebrity status. And that wasn't the worst thing that had happened that first lesson. No, he had to ask those stupid questions, which he actually answered correctly by the way as all answers were in One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungus. No Snape had the cheek to accuse him of cheating. Apparently Hermione was whispering him the answers. Not bloody likely. Stupid bat. He actually liked potions, he'd read through his potions book many times, jotting down what interactions each ingredient caused. He didn't like the potions master.
You would think that it couldn't get worse than Snape, but for Harry it was his worst fears come true. He thought that when he got to Hogwarts there would be no more need for hiding his ability to work well, how he found lessons easy. No more pretending to be dumb. He rolled over and punched his pillow. Life was unfair. He either was good at his lessons, or he would lose the first friendship he had ever had.
First it had been Hermione, he knew from the experience on the train that she didn't like anyone being better than her. He hadn't even thought about it until their first transfiguration lesson. He had easily turned his match into a needle, first time. To say that he was shocked was one thing. To say that Hermione was annoyed was another. She wasn't just annoyed, she was frantic. She had badgered him about it after the class asking what he did differently to everyone else. Once he told her that he'd just done what McGonagall had told them she walked off in a huff, not speaking to him for the rest of the day. It had annoyed him to no end and so next morning after dealing with her frantic reading of her transfiguration book he had told her it was a fluke. He lied and told her he tried it again and it hadn't worked. She calmed down pretty quick after that.
Today it had been Ron. Ron had introduced him to wizard's chess and they had been playing in the common room. According to the twins Ron was unbeatable, so Harry let him believe he was a beginner and thoroughly thrashed him three times in a row. He never imagined that Ron would sulk about losing. For Christ sakes, it was a game of chess. He had kept throwing dark looks at him until he'd finally had enough and asked the twins for help. They both knew how jealous their brother could be and so promised Harry to come up with a good excuse. An hour later the twins had been able to convince Ron that he had been trying out a spell for them so that he always won. Ron had accepted the story and they had played a few more games, Harry letting Ron win every time.
He turned onto his back, staring up at the canopy of his bed. He still wanted to learn but how was he able to if he couldn't do it around his friends. He knew Ron hated reading, and if Hermione caught him reading she would be suspicious. He needed to come up with a plan of attack.
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It was the Christmas holidays at Hogwarts now. Harry couldn't believe how much had happened in the last few months. He'd managed to make the quidditch team, meet fluffy the three headed dog, help defeat a troll and win his first ever quidditch match against Slytherin. Both Hermione and Ron had become fast friends with him which he was very glad of. His habit of reading after everyone in the dorm was asleep had not been noticed yet, which Harry was very grateful for, he would never have heard the end of it from Ron. Although now he had the invisibility cloak he found it much easier. After his fiasco with the mirror of erised he had decided that Dumbledore was correct and that it was no good to dwell on dreams of what could have been, so now here he was being more productive for the future by looking in the library using the lumos spell. This time he wasn't in the forbidden section.
He couldn't believe that he'd forgotten who Nicholas Flamel was. He knew he had recognised the name from somewhere but it had not been until tonight when he had remembered. Flamel was a celebrated alchemist, he was only mentioned in almost every alchemy book, and some said that he was the founding father of alchemy.
He was skimming the section of books on alchemy when he pulled out a rather large and heavy book off the shelf. It looked old. The title was Alchemy: At its Best. He felt hope run through him, maybe this book would contain the information he wanted. He quickly ran his finger down the contents page searching for Flamel. He quickly found what he was looking for and turned to the page. As he read the page his eyes widened. Of course, this explained everything. The school was hiding the Philosophers stone, no wonder Snape was after it.
He closed the book and placed it back on the shelf, noticing that the second copy was missing. His mind racing he quickly made his way to Madame Pince's desk to look at the checkout list. He remembered seeing Hermione check out a book that was about the right size before she went home for Christmas. He smiled, she did have it. This made things easier for him, all he needed now was a way to get Hermione to think of the book. Of course, Dumbledore's chocolate frog card, Flamel was mentioned on it was his work on alchemy. He'd innocently read the card and she'd know what to do. He smirked, everything was falling into place.
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"So if we use this potion and then complete the spell, it will last all day instead of a few minutes?" Harry nodded at the twins who grinned mischievously at him.
"Excellent work Harrykins." Harry nodded his head.
"Don't forget, don't let anyone know that I'm helping you. Might get asked awkward questions if they knew I brewed the potion." The twins nodded and hurried away. Harry smiled and made his way over to his usual seat next to the fire. The months since Christmas had gone extremely fast. Hermione had caught on about Nicholas Flamel, they'd helped Hagrid get rid of his pet dragon Norbert, getting themselves detention. They had gotten caught by Filch when coming down from the tower forgetting that they hadn't put the invisibility cloak back on. Poor Neville had been caught too and so all three, plus Malfoy had made a trip to the forbidden forest looking for the injured unicorn. It was here that he had found out that Voldemort was waiting in the forest for the Philosophers stone.
He, Ron and Hermione had gone down the trapdoor to stop Snape, only for Harry to find out at the end that it in fact was Quirrel who was after the stone. He was being possessed by Voldemort. Harry had managed to stop him from getting it as Voldemort was unable to touch him due to his mother's sacrifice. He'd only been allowed out of the hospital wing yesterday for the leaving feast.
He sighed. It had been a busy year, alongside trying to stop Voldemort he had perfected his night time studying. It consisted of his invisibility cloak, a silencing charm around his bed and a lumos spell for light. In this way he had managed to read his way through all of his school books up to fourth year and some of the library, particularly ancient runes and Arithmancy. He had also become quite close to Fred and George, becoming their secret participator for their pranks. He'd also discovered a handy little charm to hide his real marks from Hermione. She annoyingly always wanted to know what everyone had gotten on their homework, comparing grades. He had managed to hold her off until he had found the small charm. It quickly changed the grade to one that Hermione would believe. He smiled to himself, even with the events of the last year, Hogwarts had wormed its way into his heart. He felt comfortably at home here. His smile faltered at the thought that now the school term was over he had to go back to the Dursley's. Dumbledore had told him it was the safest place for him to be, that Voldemort would never find him there. That was all Harry needed to have a quick look in the library. He found what he was looking for. The only thing that made sense would be that there were blood wards around the house. As long as he considered Privet Drive to be home the wards would stay up. He supposed it was, there was nowhere else to go, for now.
He looked up to see that his two best friends were coming down the stairs from the dorms, it would soon be time to go to the Hogwarts express.