A new, long chapter! Harry has his first full week of classes and we begin to see some interesting changes. I created an entire Hogwarts class schedule for this story-all seven years. If you'd like to see it, I've uploaded most of it to functionalhogwartsclassschedule dot tumblr dot com.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER 4—Starting With Fame

Harry wasn't wrong. It didn't take more than about three quarters of an hour for someone to come across them and guide them back to somewhere they vaguely recognized.

"I wish we had a map," Neville said, kicking at the ground as they sat on the front steps outside the castle.

"Why don't we ask Professor McGonagall for one?" Harry replied.

"Do you think there actually is a map of the school?" Neville asked, looking up.

"Probably. I mean, there's no reason not to make a map. They had to make blueprints before making the building, so really, it was already done."

"But... the school was built centuries ago."

"That's a good point," Harry mused. "Still, it couldn't hurt to ask, right?"

"Yeah, I suppose..." Neville trailed off. "But how are we supposed to find Professor McGonagall to ask for a map without a map?"

Harry dropped his face down into his hands. "You're right! We'll have to either be really awkward and go up to the staff table to ask or wait till Transfiguration."

The boys looked at each other, horrified at the prospect of asking in front of the entire school and said together, "Transfiguration."

Harry quickly pulled his schedule out of the back pocket of his jeans (having changed into much more comfortable clothes directly after lunch) and groaned. "We don't have Transfiguration together."

Neville pulled his own schedule out of an inside pocket of his robes and after confirming Harry's assessment, echoed his friend's groan and put his face in his hands.

"I have the class first," Harry said. "I'll ask. Maybe I can borrow Malfoy's goons to back me up."

Neville looked up and gave him a look of gratitude which quickly changed to mild fear when Harry mentioned Malfoy.

"What're these examinations tomorrow?"

Neville looked at the back of Harry's schedule where he was pointing and then looked at his own. "Oh!" he said, realizing what they were. "Math exams. Gran told me that they'd test our basic mathematics skills and then divide us up into classes. We need math to understand arithmancy and some of the more complicated potions."

Harry nodded. "What about this block in the afternoon?"

Neville shrugged.

The math exam was really dull. Harry only saw a couple of problems he couldn't answer, but really wished he could use the calculator on his phone for a lot of them. He wasn't sure, but he thought he would have impressed his dad with how well he solved some of the advanced problems in his head. Of course, they'd practiced complex calculations for hours on end over some weekends, so maybe it wasn't so surprising.

The afternoon block was much more interesting.

For two hours, the teachers and older students let the first years and whichever other students who wandered in look at and ask questions about all the school's different clubs. They had a club for every class, of course, plus a handful for muggle subjects, but in addition to those, they had everything from quidditch and gobstones to choir and football. There was a drama club that sometimes put on shows at the holiday feasts and there was an art club that offered lessons in everything from sketching to building models with toothpicks. There was a book club and a chess club and a couple different career-oriented clubs. There were also quite a few study groups. The one that Harry was immediately drawn to though, was the technology club.

According to the oldest members, the club (mostly formed of non-magical-born Ravenclaws) had been trying to get non-magical tech to work inside Hogwarts for years. And they'd also been attempting (and had limited success) to use magic to imitate certain non-magical inventions such as a telephone network.

Harry signed up within minutes of spotting the group.

He also looked at the other clubs, but didn't join any of them yet. They were going to be set up the same way the next weekend, so Harry decided to wait until after he could learn more about the classes and talk to his dad about it.

Neville signed up for a gryffindor study group, but Harry lost track of him after that, more interested in talking to a Ravenclaw sixth year who was interested in the idea of using ambient magic as a power source.

He also got the chance to meet some of the other teachers. He quickly found that there were two teachers for just about every subject and they alternated year groups, each one teaching four classes one year and three the next, always keeping the same students through all seven years. It was actually a really cool system. One teacher bothered Harry for a full fifteen minutes, finally getting around to asking why his eyes were brown since they'd been so green when he'd been a baby. Harry was more than a little creeped out at his teachers having seen him as a baby and being so worried about his eye color.

"I do have green eyes!" he finally exclaimed. "I'm just wearing contacts!" Then he'd walked away to find a quiet corner of the grounds where he could sit and think.

Being around so many people was hard for him when most of his life he'd had private tutors and never socialized with anyone. After several deep breaths, he pulled out his phone and called his dad, comforted by the ringing noise at his ear.

"Harry?"

"Hey, Dad. Being around this many people is stressful. And everyone wants to talk to me. I'd much prefer to not be famous. The pointing is a bit more than irritating and the comments about my eye color are frankly disturbing."

Nathan sighed. "I know you're used to it being just you, but this is something you're just going to have to face."

Harry wished his dad would be more helpful than that. Eventually, their conversation moved around to the clubs and Nathan told Harry to join the band and learn to play an instrument. It looked good on a record and would be a 'valuable life skill.' Harry doubted this, but agreed anyways. Nathan also suggested joining a study group to help him get used to working in teams, which was important for getting a job, and to look at the drama club to help him with public speaking. Harry denied the last suggestion straight-off, but actually considered the study group idea. It was nearly a half-hour after he'd called that Nathan had to hang up for another meeting and Harry sighed, stuffing his phone back in his pocket and looking up at the slowly darkening sky. He missed America and really wanted to be back in his Portland apartment.

When Harry finally worked up the courage to face the crowds of people again and wander back into the castle and then the Great Hall, he nearly left once more. The stares and whispers and pointing were penetratingly awful. He didn't want to be noticed like that. His dad was noticed occasionally in certain circumstances and his cousin was nearly always pointed at and whispered about in science conventions or any other place where people knew anything about technology or weapons, but Tony always seemed to enjoy it to a certain extent and Harry simply couldn't understand how. It was awful.

He bravely crossed the entire hall though, and plunked down in a seat next to Blaise.

"Where were you?" Malfoy asked from across the table.

"I went out to the grounds to think," Harry said, plopping a big spoonful of mashed potatoes onto his plate next to a slice of roast chicken and a mound of carrots.

"Why?"

"Because... it's not really any of your business Malfoy."

Harry raised a forkful of green beans to his mouth and tried to ignore the blonde.

"People just want to know about the hero of the wizarding world. If you gave them the information they wanted, say... through me, they might leave you alone."

"I'm not an idiot, Malfoy. If I start telling them things, they'll expect to know every detail of my life and they'll never leave me alone."

Malfoy shrugged and took a large bit of something—Harry wasn't paying attention to what it was.

Harry got a lovely piece of apple pie for desert—although it was nothing compared to the pie at the cafe down the road from their apartment—and then he and Blaise followed an upper classman down to the common room.

"Are we friends?" Blaise asked nervously.

"Yeah," Harry said. "Definitely."

The other boy smiled.

Harry went straight to his dorm to avoid as many people as possible and played his music while reading on his bed, as had become usual. It was only about eleven when he managed to get to sleep. Slowly, he finally was adjusting to the time zone. Harry was both pleased and angry about this. Some part of him just didn't want to adjust because that meant that this living in Scotland thing was permanent.

Harry slept quite late the next morning, as did most of his classmates, but when he finally awoke and emerged from the showers dressed in loose red sweats and a grey Stark Industries t-shirt, he plunked down on a couch next to Blaise, who was reading a textbook. "Have you had breakfast yet?" Harry asked, adjusting the glasses on his face as he did so (he almost never bothered to put in contacts on the weekends).

The black boy nodded, not looking up from the book.

"Okay," Harry said, more cheerfully than he felt. "See you later then." Then he stood up and went to his dorm, putting his ipod and phone into his pocket before leaving the common room in search of something to fill his growling stomach.

Unfortunately, once he finally did manage to locate the great hall, the earbuds were nearly useless against the surge of people wanting to talk to him because nobody knew what they were. In fact, they even seemed to attract attention. He was shocked to realize that the fewer people that were around, the more of them would be willing to try to initiate conversation. Sighing deeply, he pulled the earbuds out and ate his muffin and banana while deflecting and avoiding personal and ridiculous questions.

He found himself repeating over and over again that his name was Harry Stark, his father was Nathan Stark, he had lived in America for practically his whole life, no—he did not hate or resent non-magicals, and no—he was not ashamed or in any way upset about being sorted into slytherin, nor did it make him evil.

Finally, too frustrated to deal with people anymore, he fled the hall for the comforts of the first empty classroom he could find. Pulling out the phone, he called his dad, desperately trying to hold back the tears that came from being overwhelmed, frustrated, and homesick.

"Harry, it's nearly three in the morning. What is it?"

He'd forgotten the time difference and suddenly felt guilty on top of everything else. "I'm sorry Dad," he said, barely managing to keep his voice from shaking.

"No, Harry, what is it?"

"It's... it's just so lonely here. I mean, ev-everyone wants to t-talk to me, but they just want to be able to say that they know a famous p-person." He lost control over his voice as he spoke, and he pulled his knees up to his chest as he leaned back against the stone wall. "I g-guess I'm homesick."

Nathan grimaced, though Harry couldn't see it, and sighed into the phone as he sat up in his bed."Harry, I know that this is a huge change for you, but it's important. You're strong and you'll get through it. Have you had breakfast?"

Harry nodded. "Y-yeah. B-but everyone was crowding me. Every time I get around people, they all come at me at once with all kinds of really personal and offensive questions and it-it's hard."

"I know it's hard, but it will get better once you start taking classes and getting to know some of the other students in a less superficial way. Time is all that will help, son. Time and distractions."

"But why do I have to be here? Why isn't there some kind of non-boarding school?" His voice was shaking less again now, for which both his and his dad were grateful.

"Hogwarts is the best place for you to learn about and develop your magical abilities. You need the training it can offer," he tried not to get upset, but they'd been over this many times now and he was tired, so his grumpiness was beginning to surface.

"And why won't they use my name?"

Nathan blinked at the fast change of subject and rubbed his temple. "What do you mean?"

"They k-keep calling me Harry Potter. No one will listen to me when I say my last name's Stark."

"I'll send a letter to the headmaster about it, alright?" Harry nodded. "Now go find a friend and try exploring the castle and grounds a bit. Or read up for the classes you're starting tomorrow. Preparation goes a long ways. Maybe practice some basic charms." Harry sniffed. "You need to refocus on something besides how much you don't want to be there. The more you think about that, the worse it will be. I'm going back to sleep Harry. I'll call you tonight."

Harry nodded again. "'Kay."

"Goodnight, son." Nathan hung up and Harry pushed the phone back into his pocket, curling up tighter against the wall, resting his forehead on his knees for several minutes before forcing himself to stand up.

Slowly, he made his way back to the common room, where he spent the rest of the day reading with Blaise.

It was about seven when Harry's phone started loudly playing 'Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' once more, this time for the whole common room.

"Hi Dad," Harry said, sounding both miserable and irritated as the people around his looked at him hike he was completely insane.

"You feeling better?"

"A bit. I wish you'd quit using that ringtone though."

Nathan chuckled. "Good, you can joke. What did you do over the afternoon?"

"I read. I've got class tomorrow, you know. Me and Blaise plan on being at the top of everything."

"Great. Professor McGonagall assured me that if you seemed to be progressing faster than the other students, she'd work something out so you could learn at a more appropriate pace. That means do your absolute best. I won't have you bored and underachieving."

Harry nodded, still sounding a bit sad as he answered. "No problem."

"Bed no later than nine—I'll be waking you up at seven."

Harry groaned and Nathan smirked. "Just, use a different song, please."

"No. Goodnight, Harry."

"Night Dad."

Charms with Hufflepuff was first thing after breakfast and the class was more fun that Harry had expected. It started out with roll call and when Professor Flitwick got to 'Harry Potter,' the little man squeaked and fell backwards off his stack of books. Harry winced and blushed, but put his hand in the air. "Professor?" he started as soon as the man could be seen from behind the desk again. "Uh, it's just that my name... isn't Potter. My last name is Stark."

Flitwick had been shocked, as had a lot of the rest of the class, based on the gasps, but had actually accepted it with a smile and a "Your parents would have wanted you to be happy like that, Mr. Stark," and moved on.

They started with some magical theory, going over why wand movements and incantations affected spells, and talking about safety rules, like never trying a new spell without a teacher or without knowing what it was supposed to do. They also talked about wands and other kinds of focuses and they got to try the lumos charm. They got to ask lots of questions and Flitwick was happy to take the class in the direction the students steered it towards, which was more like what Harry was used to, despite there being more students. That actually made it more fun.

At the end of class, they were assigned to write three paragraphs explaining how wands focus magical power and Harry stood up with a smile to start the long trek down to Herbology, Blaise next to him and Malfoy plus goons following behind and to the right.

To his great pleasure, Professor Sprout was just as accepting of his last name and unlike Flitwick, didn't treat him any differently than the other students, which was a nice break from the constant singling-out.

The first lesson was about dandelions of all things, as soon as the safety talk was over, and the assignment was a eight-inch description of the plant from whatever they could find in their books or the library.

As soon as they got into the entrance hall, a prefect coming down the stairs pointed them towards the showers, which could be entered from the grounds. Not being covered in dirt anymore, which although they hadn't actually touched, seemed to float in the air and get all over them anyways, was nice, and Harry actually managed to enjoy lunch.

The brief break before their next class gave Harry the chance to pull out a notebook and pencil and write down a quick rough draft of his wand analysis, which he could flesh out and rewrite on parchment later. As his classmates looked on incredulously, Harry just smirked, glad he'd been reading ahead.

The Defense classroom actually took quite a while to find, and Harry and Blaise, who had also been working on the Charms assignment, were three minutes late. Thankfully, most of the rest of the class was a couple minutes later than them and the teacher had obviously been expecting this, because the small man with the turban didn't start the class until after 1:40, by which time, Harry had already happily waved Neville over to where he and Blaise were sitting. The chubby boy looked at Blaise suspiciously, but seemed to trust Harry enough not to question it too much. Harry was happily chatting with both of them (well, mostly Neville because Blaise didn't talk much) when the professor—Quirrel, as he later found out—started taking roll.

The stutter was a bit distracting at first, but Harry got used to it pretty fast. Professor Quirrel had given him an oddly piercing look for several moments after Harry explained that his last name was Stark, but had eventually nodded with an "o-of c-course," and moved on.

They started on what exactly the dark arts were, which was an incredibly interesting topic, and Harry eagerly took notes. They still hadn't come to a clear conclusion about what made a spell 'dark' even after two hours, and that had Harry excited. The assignment was to look up the difference between light and dark spells in from two different sources and compare and contrast them. Harry could already tell that he was going to love this class. His two friends thought he was a bit insane when he couldn't stop grinning.

Neville went off with someone from Gryffindor named Seamus and Harry and Blaise spent half an hour finding the library then forty minutes looking up dandelions. The librarian, despite being unfortunately less than blessed in the area of aesthetic attractiveness, was incredibly helpful and almost smiled when Harry said please and thankyou.

Harry was in quite a good mood, and wasn't even too bothered by the staring as he ate his chicken and rice. By seven, his herbology and charms assignments were complete and he had a summary of the passages on the dark and light arts from his magical theory and defence textbooks.

He would have completed the assignment, but he was a bit worried about not getting back from the library before curfew, so he called his dad instead.

"Harry, I can't talk right now. Is it urgent?" Harry should have expected this. It was a miracle it hadn't happen before now. The fact was, his dad was an important and very busy person, and he shouldn't have forgotten it.

"No, it's fine," Harry said, his mood sinking faster than it had any business doing.

"I'll call you as soon as I get the chance."

And so it was, that Harry sat reading his textbooks for the next hour and a half before his phone rang. He stuck his tongue out at the people who gave him disgusted looks for the odd noise and answered.

He was much less excited than he had been earlier, but he still told his dad everything than he'd learned that day and was at least happy again when he went to sleep that night.

The by-now-all-too-familiar-song and the groans of his classmates had Harry waking up Tuesday morning with a groan of his own.

History after breakfast was unconventional to say the least. The Slytherin and Hufflepuff first years filed into a classroom, pulled out their history texts and various note-taking devices, and waited, chatting amongst themselves, the Hufflepuffs watching the Slytherins suspiciously in general, but watching Harry with interest. When the teacher came into the room through the blackboard though, it attracted everyone's attention.

Roll call was quickly dispensed with. Once again, Harry corrected the professor on his name. The ghost looked at him oddly, nodded, and then moved on without saying anything on the subject. And then they started what seemed to be a very rehearsed lesson. Professor Binns' voice was quite monotone as he began talking about the three theories of the origins of magic.

Everyone just sort of looked around at each other oddly as iff to silently ask 'is this actually what this class is going to be?' Harry answered their nonverbal question by raising his hand.

Professor Binns looked up at him with a confused expression.

"Yes, Mr. Stevens?"

Harry scrunched his eyebrows together at the name, and decided he should probably do some research on whether or not ghosts learned new things. "Professor," he asked, "how do non-magical creation myths tie into the theories on the origins of magic? Are there people who believe that magic was simply a part of the creation of man in general? There's a story in christianity about how some people were cursed by a god to have dark skin. Could magic be a kind of god-given blessing? Not that I'm religious—I'm just curious if there are any wizards who look at it hat way. Or are magical and non-magical creation myths entirely different and unrelated?"

Half of the class was looking at him cross-eyes like he'd gone completely insane and the other half was ignoring him and had gone back to either trying to stay awake or trying to sleep.

The professor was one of the ones who was looking at him like he was mad. That expression didn't last though, and soon, the ghostly professor was rubbing his chin in thought. "Mr. Stan, those are some very astute questions. Have you already done research on the subject?"

"No, sir, I just read the first few chapters of the text book and skimmed some other history texts."

Professor Binns nodded, then proceeded to divert from his lecture to answer the questions. "There are some who believe that, Mr. Samuels. Many muggle-borns choose to tie magical origin theories into their own religious beliefs and religion is something that has been highly debated in the magical community over the centuries, but..."

It was incredibly fascinating and Harry jumped to write down all the interesting bits.

Homework was three paragraphs explaining the three main theories of magical origin and two more explaining what the student believed or thought most likely. Harry was thrilled. Most of the rest of the class was irritated.

Harry finished up his Defense assignment in the library before lunch and started the history essay before lunch and Transfiguration took prescedence.

As it turned out, Professor McGonagall was the kind of teacher who believed students should learn by doing, so after a lengthy lecture about safety and dangers, she passed out match sticks for them all to turn into needles.

Harry had trouble at first, but eventually he forced himself to relax and focus and the matchstick elongated, pointed, and smoothed out, turning a bright silver. He was awarded ten points for his accomplishment, but when Harry picked it up, it didn't feel heavy enough. Taking a risk, he broke it in half, reveilling wood inside.

"Professor?"

She came over quickly and looked wide-eyed at the two pieces.

"Is it supposed to still be wood inside?"

"No, try focusing on changing the entire object instead of just its appearance."

Harry nodded and tried again, and when he picked up the pieces that time, it weighed more than it had before and he couldn't break them. That earned him another five points.

"That's an unusual problem you have there, Mr. Stark. You need to make sure you're focusing on changing the composition instead of just what it looks like. For most people, that's the same thing, but you seem to have a deeper understanding of scientific concepts. I see it occasionally in muggle-born students, but not normally to such a degree."

"Yeah, I had to think about the atoms changing. I've got a bit of a headache now."

"Hmm, I'll have to think on that, Mr. Stark."

Blaise gave him an odd look as the professor walked away. "What are atoms?"

Harry smiled lightly. "They're what make everything at an atomic level."

Blaise shook his head, not understanding.

"Maybe I can explain it to you when we've got more time. I might be able to do it over a weekend."

Blaise shrugged and focused on changing his needle back to a matchstick. Harry did the same with his pieces.

At the end of class, Harry asked for a map and McGonagall smiled. "Most people like to figure it out for themselves and don't bother asking. It is a magical castle, mind you, and things don't always stay the same, but this is a rough outline of where you can normally expect things to be." She then pulled out a folded piece of parchment and handed it to him.

"Uh, could I have one for Neville too?"

She gave him an extra and he thanked her before rushing out of the room to where Blaise was waiting for him in the hall.

From there, they went to the library again, and Harry had finished all of his homework assignments before dinner. Blaise didn't finish up quite as fast, but he certainly wasn't struggling. Harry was just used to doing much more.

After dinner, Harry read some more. He was getting bored of reading textbooks and wished he could watch some tv or build a robot, but it did manage to stave off some of his boredom.

Wednesday was Charms, Herbology, and Transfiguration again, and although Harry was having fun learning, he was feeling extremely underworked. He was used to a very high-stress school life and this was like a vacation. He didn't like it much.

They had flying lessons thursday afternoon though, which was exciting to say the least. Malfoy tried taking Neville's remembrall after he'd fallen from his out-of-control broom, but Harry scowled at him, said "You're going to loose us points. Plus, what you're doing is incredibly childish," and folded his arms to wait. Malfoy blushed, tossed the ball to Harry with a muttered, "Those things are useless anyway" and turned away to talk to Crabbe and Goyle. When Harry realized that his feet had left the ground, it came as a complete surprise to him.

Thankfully, he was firmly planted back on the earth by the time Madam Hooch came back.

When they finally got to fly, it was one of the best feelings ever. Harry had flown before with various inventions of his father and cousin, but this time, he was in control and it felt great. Madam Hooch said he was a great flier and gave him a pass to try out for the quidditch team if he wanted to. He wasn't sure he wanted to play a sport, but the witch also said that he could use the school brooms to fly on Sundays when she was teaching advanced flying classes if he wanted.

Friday morning brought potions again, which was interesting, if a bit of a hostile environment, and Friday afternoon brought incredible boredom.

Saturday morning, they all got back the results from the math tests they'd taken the previous week and Harry was not at all shocked to find that he'd passed with flying colors. He'd always been good at math.

Madam Hooch came to talk to him personally about it after breakfast.

"Your math scores were off the charts, Mr. Stark. I have to ask you: did you ind a way of cheating on the test?"

"No, ma'am. I didn't even use a calculator, no matter how much easier that would have made things. I finished normal high school math levels two years ago and I was working on advanced calculus before I came here."

She looked shocked. "Well, then, I don't seem to have any choice but to put you in my math 8 class. It's almost exclusively seventh years, but I have to put you somewhere."

"It's fine," Harry said.

She nodded. "Saturday at seven, third classroom on the right in the corridor on that side of the great hall. You're not from the normal stock, Mr. Stark," she said as she walked off. Harry wasn't quite sure what that meant.

I took the idea of math classes taught by Madam Hooch from the story De-Aged by The Bibliomaniac. All credit for that idea goes to that author.

Please leave a review! Thank you to everyone who has already-they mean a lot! I'm happy to answer any questions and I don't have problems handing out spoilers for those who want them. :)

Thanks for reading!

-MP