"You're a great wizard."

Hermione Granger called me that just before I went to stop Voldemort from taking the Philosopher's Stone. I know she was flattering me, but I know she was lying to me.

Hermione has never complimented me on anything, not once. She never believed in what she said. And for such a supposedly smart witch, I found it hard to believe she thought I bought her lies.

She never said I was a great Seeker. She never said anything about my magical talents, even though I never truly revealed them; the Patronus charm I learnt back in my third year was something she was extremely jealous of because I'd done a lot of self-study because I wanted to do it, to improve my spell repertoire; there was no point in just depending on a professor like Flitwick or Lupin, although I had asked one and both of them for advice on how to stop the Dementors.

Once he had the name of the charm and the basics, it was easy for Harry to find the right charms book; the only problem was finding the right memory that could help generate the patronus.

What did Hermione do?

She became jealous that I mastered a difficult spell.

She stole the book I was using, and when I asked for it back, she threw a temper tantrum; she was jealous because I had mastered an extremely hard charm by myself. Her reaction when I told her and Weasley I was researching it was all "That's a seventh-year charm, Harry" "Don't do it, Harry" and "You'll never do it."

Thanks for the faith.

Thanks for the compliments.

But I did get it. I conjured a corporeal patronus that was powerful enough to repel the Dementors. I won 90 points for Gryffindor for my efforts, but mastering such complex and powerful and obscure pieces of magic which he had found from the books in the Chamber of Secrets, ranging from parseltongue curses and healing magic. I'd taken them and learnt from them after taking them. I wanted to shorten the gaps between myself and Albus Dumbledore.

Looking back, I know I was being manipulated, led around on a leash, goaded and coerced into going after the Stone and preventing Voldemort from taking it, but as far as I was concerned Voldemort was never really my enemy. The Dark Lord murdered my parents, yes, but I won't consider him to be a proper threat to my freedom, unlike Dumbledore; but that will change if he comes back and threatens me, and if he does, well that will be one obstacle for me to overcome.

As for my parents, why the hell should I care about them? While I miss my parents, I never really knew them.

They were idiots. They had fought in the war but instead of taking me and running away, they threw their lives away, leaving me orphaned. I was abused as a kid. I was told nothing but lies, and while I didn't believe them, I became apathetic towards their memories. I had nothing but an invisibility cloak, a photo album and a pile of galleons. That's it. Why should I name my kids after them?

In my first year, I secretly poured over the books I'd gotten on my second trip to Diagon Alley. I learnt about Ancient Runes, Healing, DADA, Charms and Transfiguration and I had even bought a few of the books Hagrid 'discouraged' me from buying. I also became convinced Ron and Hermione were spying on me for Dumbledore; I just did not get any kind of proof until my second year.

At the end of my second year, I had stolen from the Chamber of Secrets library a small collection of parseltongue books and began learning from them to shorten the gap between us. Dumbledore had stolen my childhood, my life, pushing me to live with the Dursleys and now I was trying to get out of it by becoming the best wizard I could be. But, sadly, I had to choose two of the most limited electives I could find, although I found Care of Magical Creatures fascinating, Hagrid is the worst teacher imaginable; I only helped Buckbeak because I wanted to spite Malfoy and no animal deserves to suffer for that prick.

I had wanted to study Ancient Runes, but I stopped when I discovered Hermione was going there. If I went there to study Ancient Runes, I knew she would have gone out of her way to discourage me, as per her mandate.

My fourth year was a great year for me, magically wise; while the Triwizard Tournament was a nightmare, it was a massive victory in my struggle to become a great wizard. Without the spies, I spent a lot of time in the Chamber of Secrets, learning more spells and rituals and runes. And I made a lot of progress that felt good. Sadly Voldemort came back and he tried to kill me, so he is a threat.

When he began that duel, I shocked him and his few followers there with my use of the unforgivable curses; fight fire with fire.

In my fifth year, I had a lot of frustration with pains in my head and lashing out, and being hemmed in by Dumbledore's pathetic Order. But eventually, I found a way of killing Voldemort after researching his methods, discovering his mistake of using Thaumaturgy to make his Dark Marks possible. Since he had added my blood, it was a weakness. And since there was a confirmed Death Eater in Hogwarts, getting to Snape was easy.

I used one of my remedial potions lessons, which was another name for occlumency. The first thing I did was punish the Death Eaters en-masse for being a threat before I killed them all by draining them of their magic. Voldemort was clever and inventive; he had used the Dark Marks as a way of not only contacting his followers and keeping in touch, but he also used it to drain off some of their magic.

When they were all dead, I looked down at Snape's corpse and raised the alarm, but when the investigators scanned Snape's wand, they found it was his wand that cast the killing curse and they bought my story he had gone mad. But Dumbledore keeps calling me to his office, but at the end of the year, I'll be gone after I've done my exams.

I'll become a great wizard without being in this shithole of a school.