A/N: I do not own Harry Potter or any character thereof. Only the story line is mine so please don't sue! I don't own anything!

Chapter 23

The first day of classes were exciting and boring at the same time. During roll call most every teacher paused when they had got to Harry's name. Professor Flitwick even toppled off of his desk after he gave an excited squeak.

That had made Harry groan, which caused Ron to grin at him.

Since it was technically the first class for each subject, the teachers lectured them for about 20 - 30 minutes on the rules and expectations that they each had. The rest of the class time had been spent just taking notes.

McGonagall had been the only teacher to not stop on Harry's name that day. He also confirmed his suspicions about never wanting to cross her. She was very strict. He was in awe along with the rest of the class when she had transfigured her desk into a pig and back. Harry realized, of course, that it would be a long time before he would be able to do that, but it was still cool to see.

By the end of the day, only Quirrell had assigned any homework, and it was just reading.

"Let's head to the library Ron," Harry said after they deposited their books during the last free period of the day.

"Please tell me that you are not a bookworm."

Harry grimaced. "Hardly. I just want to look around and maybe look at those books that I'm supposed to be mentioned in."

Ron still didn't look convinced.

"I bet they have books on Quidditch ..." Harry grinned as he watched Ron's face light up. He knew that that would get him.

As soon as they entered the library, they were pounced upon by Madam Pince. She explained the rules and how the library worked. Harry was inwardly pleased to know that the first year curfew was extended to 10 pm as long as they had a pass from the librarian that showed the times that they entered and left. (Normal curfew was 8:30 pm for the first years.)

As Harry looked around the library, he felt his heart skip a beat. There were thousands and thousands of books here. After 10 minutes or so, he found the books Hermione had told him about. He then sauntered over to the charm section. He wanted to see if there were any more charms that had to do with calendars.

"Probably not," he muttered as he picked up a few books to scan their contents. Harry figured that he was probably the only one in the world who wanted to make a calendar just to have something to hang on the wall.

However, he was surprised when he found several books that mentioned the charm and ways to improve it.

He pondered for a minute about what to do. He didn't want anyone to see him carrying an armload of books. He decided that he would come back when he could and look through them, so he wandered off to go find Ron.

After he checked out the books that he was named in and Ron checked out a couple of Quidditch books, they headed towards the common room.

Once there, Ron introduced Harry to wizards chess. Like most everything else Ron owned, his chess set was ancient. However, in this case, ancient was a good thing. The pieces were, in a fashion, alive, moved, gave advice, and argued. It was indeed an unbelievable thing to watch. In fact, Harry lost to Ron in 10 minutes.

After Ron put his chess set away, they went to dinner. During dinner, they laughed and talked about classes and even Quidditch.

Harry had finished eating long before Ron did.

"I'm finished now," Ron said finally. "Let's go back to the common room. I want to look at the books I got from the library."

Harry nodded. He had only ate half of his plate but he was quite full.

As they made their way back to the common room, Harry's scar twinged a bit but not too badly. He glanced around but didn't see anyone lurking about.

While Ron read 'History of the Chudley Cannons', Harry actually read the assigned reading that Quirrell had given them, even though his defense books had been one of the ones that he had read over the summer in it's entirety.

Ron never even noticed.

Around 8:30, snacks popped into existence on a couple of tables through out the room, which scared him almost as badly as the owls that flew in that morning at breakfast had. Once he got his heart out of his throat, he drank some pumpkin juice.

"Ron, I'm going to bed."

"But it's early."

"Yes, but I woke up 2 hours before you did."

Ron laughed. "That you did. Night Harry."

"Night."

After Harry changed, he pointed his wand at the curtains around his bed and made them close.

...A green light rushing towards him while a man with red eyes laughed ...

Harry struggled awake and reached for his glasses through his curtains. After slowing his breathing down, he realized that he was drenched in sweat and tangled in his sheets. Glancing at the clock, he saw that it was 3:35 am.

He thought about going back to sleep, but he knew that it would be pointless. After one of those nightmares he never could return to sleep.

Slowly getting out of his bed, he glanced around the room to make sure that he didn't wake anyone. Satisfied that he did not, and that everyone's curtains were closed, he made the torch above his desk slightly brighter before reaching for his shower supplies.

Once he was showered and dressed, he glanced at his schedule and put what books he needed into his bag along with the appropriate supplies. He then picked it up and headed towards the common room.

Throwing himself into one of the more cushy armchairs, Harry grabbed his book of spells from his bag and started to read through it. By the time he saw Ron stumble down the stairs with his eyes half closed, he had not only found the answer to his library book problem but he also found an answer to his maneuvering in the dark problem. However, as there were now people around, he did not want anyone to see him mess up or not even be able to perform the spells.

He put his book away and waited for Ron to finish getting ready. Finally by 7:00 am, they were trudging along to breakfast.

Tuesday passed much the same as Monday did. They only had one new class today and Harry got a shock when he saw the teacher enter the room through the blackboard. However, he soon realized that no matter how interesting the book may have been, Professor Binns only had one tone of voice. By the end of class only Hermione had managed to stay awake.

After dinner Harry and Ron played chess again. He was not very good, but Ron humored him. Just as they were about to start a second game, a shadow fell across the board.

"Don't you think you two should be doing the homework that Professor Binns gave us?" asked Hermione.

"First off we don't have history of magic again until Thursday and secondly, who do you think you are? Our mother?" asked Ron while glaring at her.

"Hmph! I just thought that you would want to do well in your studies." With that said, she stormed off.

"Mental that one ..." Ron muttered as he directed his pawn to go somewhere.

Harry nodded in agreement.

The next morning, Harry sat up tangled in his sheets and sweating again. He glanced at the clock. It read 5 am. He groaned. At least it was later than the past two mornings.

He was up, showered, and dressed before Ron even made it out of his bed.

At one point, the dorm was empty so he pulled his spell book from his bag and opened it to the spell that would more or less turn his wand into a flashlight.

He read the section about how to turn it on and off twice before he started to try it. It was only in chapter 4, so he hoped that he wouldn't have too much trouble with it.

Picking his wand up, he gave it a quick flick in the air at the same time that he said, "Lumos".

His wand flickered. "Hmm ... Maybe I'm not concentrating hard enough," he mumbled to himself.

"Lumos." This time it worked. He grinned. He then said, "Nox" as he flicked his wand again and watched as it worked on the first try.

During breakfast, people were still out right staring at him. Harry was now to the point of ignoring almost everyone but Ron and his dorm mates.

Wednesday passed much the same way. The only new class was at 11pm, but before that time arrived, McGonagall had given them homework. Harry wanted to do the work in study hall as he knew that he would be too distracted in the common room to do it there. After begging, Ron came with him.

However, as soon as they got to the door and saw who the proctor was, Ron wanted to leave.

It was Professor Snape.

By this time, they had already heard the horror stories about him by the older students. During the opening feast Harry had gotten the impression that Snape didn't like him very much, but he wasn't afraid of the man.

Harry grabbed Ron and dragged him in the room. A set of rules appeared in front of them. They took them then sat down at one of the tables. After reading them over, they fished for their transfiguration books, notes, and other supplies. McGonagall had given them a 12 inch essay that was due on Friday.

They worked in silence for about 20 minutes. It was then that Harry glanced up. Snape was prowling the room silently. When he glanced in the direction of where he and Ron were sitting, Harry let his eyes drop back to his book.

Ten minutes later, Harry became very frustrated. He pulled his tape measure out. He only had 4 inches wrote so far, yet it looked like Ron had at least 8 or 9 already. He placed his head in his hands hoping, that it would help him clear his mind. He was having issues understanding the material.

It was then that he felt a shadow look over his shoulder briefly before moving on. He knew that it was Professor Snape but it still startled him slightly. At least he didn't jump.

By the end of the period, Ron had finished and was reading - or pretending to read (Harry noticed that his eyes were unfocused and unmoving) the chapter assigned by Binns. Meanwhile, Harry only had 6 inches finished on his essay.

In the hall, Harry audibly sighed.

"What's wrong Harry?" Ron asked as they headed towards the tower.

"I still need to finish the essay and I wish," Harry gritted his teeth as he sent a glare to a bunch of Ravenclaws that were gawking at him, "that everyone would stop staring at me. It's bloody annoying."

Ron chuckled. "Sorry mate. It comes with the title of the boy who lived."

Harry groaned and cuffed Ron upside the head just because he could.

"Listen, if you want, you can just copy my essay."

"Nah. Thanks though. If I don't do it, there's no way I'll be able to transfigure whatever she wants us to on Friday. It's actually one of the hardest classes for me so far."

Ron nodded.

At 10:30 pm, the first years gathered their astronomy things and went to the portrait hole. McGonagall then took them to the tower where they would be studying.

Harry found astronomy interesting and confusing. At 1 am, Sir Nicholas escorted them back to the common room.

The next morning, Harry slept until his alarm went off. Over half of the first years were asleep during Double History of Magic. Well Hermione wasn't. Binns however didn't notice, but he did assign homework.

During charms Professor Flitwick assured them that they would get used to the routine. They spent the rest of the class taking notes.

At the end of the period he wanted to ask Flitwick something so he had Ron wait in the hall for him.

After Hermione left (she always stayed after to talk with the teachers), Harry approached his professor.

"Er ... excuse me Professor Flitwick. I ... uh ... have a question if you have a minute."

"Of course Mr. Potter. What can I do for you?" Flitwick sat down on top of the cushions that were in his chair.

"I was wondering if some spells became easier if you practiced them a certain amount of times or if you always have to concentrate really hard to make them work?" Harry asked his questions almost sheepishly. He was still having issues getting his lumos spell on the first try and he was afraid that Flitwick might not help him since they had not covered that spell in class yet.

"Were you asking about a spell in particular?"

"Yes sir." Harry sighed. "I've been having trouble getting my wand to light on the first try when I flick it (he flicked it) and say 'Lumos' ..." He trailed off. His wand had lit.

"I think you may have just found your answer." Flitwick said excitedly.

"Er ... Nox." The light went out when he flicked his wand again. "How did I do that? Normally I have to be concentrating really hard and even then it takes me 2 or 3 tries to get it to light." Harry felt himself blush. It was probably a stupid question.

"Any time a spell is performed, no matter what type of spell it is, it requires concentration. However, there is such a thing as concentrating to much. Nerves also play a part in how effective the spell can be. As you go through your education, you will find a balance that is needed between your concentration, focus, and power, as well as factor in any other mitigating circumstances that will arise. Do you understand?'

Harry nodded. "I think so sir. Thank you very much."

Flitwick smiled at him as he went to join Ron.

After lunch, since they technically didn't have anymore classes that day, they crashed.

Harry woke up around 1:30. Everyone in his dorm was snoring which made him roll his eyes.

He grabbed his things for transfiguration, herbology, and astronomy and headed off towards the library to study. Before he left though, he scrawled a note to Ron telling him where he was on the chanced he woke up before he returned.

In the library, he found a small secluded area. He put his stuff down then went to retrieve those charm books that he had found earlier that week.

After scouring through them, he had found the spells that he wanted to copy. He then opened up his own book of spells to find the spell that allowed him to copy an entire page. It was towards the back of the book, so he figured that it would be harder to perform.

He laid a blank piece of parchment next to the page in the book he was going to copy. He relaxed himself then laid his wand on the page in the book. He tapped it once, said "Pagina Simulo", then tapped the blank piece of parchment once.

His eyes lit up when he saw that it had worked. He proceeded to copy all of the pages out of the charm books he needed for his calendar side project. It took him about 10 - 15 minutes to copy what he thought he needed.

After he returned those books, he placed what he had copied into a separate folder then pulled out his transfiguration things in hopes that since he was in a better mood, it would help him understand the material better.

He was wrong.

By 3:00, Harry was ready to pull his hair out. He had 10 inches written now, which was better than before. He then re-read the chapter for like the millionth time as well as re-read the notes he had taken in class in hopes that maybe something would finally click.

It was 3:30 before he had finished. He had a feeling that whatever he was supposed to transfigure the next day wouldn't be pretty.

Sighing, he pulled out his herbology stuff. This subject was slightly easier for him.

It was only a 10 inch essay about comparing and contrasting the different types of fertilizers used while planting and caring for Midnight Bulbs. By 4:30 he had finished with it.

As he packed his things up, he was hoping that Ron was awake now because he was hungry. He found Ron in the common room playing exploding snap with his brothers, Fred and George.

"There you are Harry! I was about to come make sure that you hadn't fallen asleep in the library. It's time for dinner."

"Let me take my bag up then we can go."

After dinner Harry played exploding snap as well as chess with Ron until around 10 pm. He could no longer keep his eyes open. Even Ron was tired and he had a huge nap earlier.

The laugh was sinister. The red eyes glared down at him before sending the green light towards him.

Harry jerked awake and groaned. He almost screamed when he saw Scabbers (Ron's pet rat) staring at him beside of his pillow.

"Scabbers, you should be in Ron's bed!" Harry whispered as he scooted the rat to the foot of his bed.

He sighed when he saw the clock said 3:43. He tried to go back to sleep, but it was useless.

Picking up his wand, he muttered, "Lumos". He got down and unlocked his trunk and pulled out his first year journal. Unlocking it with the password, he grabbed a quill and some ink and settled back down into his bed.

He wrote until it was almost 5 am. He wrote all about his first week, everybody that he'd met, how it annoyed him that everyone gawked at him, and he wrote about his dream. He hoped that if he wrote about the dream that maybe he would stop having it - at least for a while.

After he put everything away, he packed his bag with everything he would need before heading towards the showers.

Double potions was his first class. He was both looking forward to and dreading this class at the same time. And to make matters worse, it was with the Slytherins.

Once inside the classroom, there were 4 students to a table. At Harry's table, Ron Neville, and Seamus were seated.

Nobody commanded a presence like Severus Snape. He strode in, took roll, then spoke in a near silent speech that everyone caught every word of.

"... if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Harry saw Hermione sit up even straighter than she already was. He wasn't entirely sure how that was possible.

"Potter!"

Harry started.

"What would I get if I added powered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Harry thought he had read a potion with those ingredients in his book but couldn't remember off the top of his head. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Hermione's hand shoot up.

"I don't know sir."

"Let's try again Potter. Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Harry knew what a bezoar was but had no idea where he would find one, so he replied, "I don't know sir".

He saw Hermione almost standing with her hand in the air.

Snape looked like he was pondering him for a minute. "What is the difference, Potter, between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"

"Their the same plant sir." Harry said without even thinking about it. He saw a flicker of ... something ... flashed through Snapes eyes, but it was only there for the tiniest part of a second. Out of his peripheral vision, he saw Hermione look slightly upset but she still had her hand up.

"Are there any other names for it Potter?"

Harry immediately thought of aconite but saw that Hermione was now standing with her hand in the air and was glaring at him. So he just shook his head no.

"You don't know?" Snape sneered at him.

"No sir."

"Clearly ... fame isn't everything," smirked Snape.

"Clearly, Hermione knows the answer, ask her," said Harry without even realizing it until it was too late.

The room went very silent. (The Slytherin's had been snickering up until that point.)

"Put your hand down you silly girl!"

By the end of the lesson, he had lost two points from Gryffindor, despite brewing the potion correctly. On the way to transfiguration, he tried to figure out why Snape hated him so much.

However, transfiguration distracted Harry from his musings. After they handed in their homework, they were to transfigure a toothpick into a needle.

By the end of class, only Hermione had managed the actual assignment, on the first try even. Harry ended up with a silver toothpick. Ron's was half a tooth pick half a needle. Seamus blew his toothpick up. Dean's didn't do anything and somehow Neville had managed to turn his own hair pink.

Overall it was an amusing class.

After lunch, Harry and Ron went to visit Hagrid.

"Now Harry, I'm sure that Professor Snape doesn' hate ya."

Harry had noticed that Hagrid never quite met his eyes when he had said that but didn't get to ponder it very long because he saw a copy of the Daily Prophet.

He read the article about the Gringott's break in and about a million questions popped into his head, all of which Hagrid refused to answer.

He and Ron stayed up until 11 that night playing chess. Harry was getting slightly better, but he was still crappy. It didn't help that the chess pieces kept giving him bad advice.

Saturday morning found Harry sitting at his desk doing his history of magic homework. By the time he was finished, it was 10am and Ron was still asleep. Everyone else had already woke up and went down to breakfast. He started to go with Neville but knew that Ron would kill him if he went to eat without him. Sighing he pulled out his Defense homework and got started on it. He only had 2 more inches to write when he heard Ron stir.

"Good afternoon sleepy head," Harry said smirking.

"Afternoon?"

"Yup! It's almost lunch time."

"That would explain the hunger," Ron muttered into his pillow.

While he went to shower to officially wake up, Harry finished his Defense work.

Since Harry had missed breakfast, he was famished.

After lunch they played a round of exploding snap with the twins.

"Aren't you two ever going to do your homework?"

Ron glared up at Hermione. "It's Saturday and like I said before, you shouldn't care if we do it or not."

She stomped off again.

They lounged around all day. Harry and Ron had quite the laugh when the twin's stole Percy's Prefect Badge and he had to chase them around the room for it.

It was around 9 pm when Ron decided that they should start their homework. While Ron worked on his herbology stuff, Harry began his astronomy work.

It involved a lot of drawings and 18 inches of parchment on the movement of Mars and Mercury.

By the time Harry was finished with it, Ron had completed 3 other assignments.

Harry woke up at 3 am on Sunday from his nightmare again. It was getting old.

After making sure that everyone had their curtains closed, he sat at his desk and started working on his potions essay. He was aware that it was a week before it was due but he figured that he should at least get started on it.

Around 5:30, he took a shower and threw on his robes. On weekends they could dress casually but Harry preferred his robes to his cousins old things.

By 6 am, he was headed out the portrait to the library. He met Sir Nicholas along the way and they chatted until he reached the doors.

He nodded to Madam Pince then went to his little corner in the back.

While he was working on his potions essay, he felt as if he was being watched. He looked up and saw Professor Snape.

"Good morning Professor," said Harry.

"Morning Potter. Why are you up this early?"

Harry smiled. "I'm always up early. I thought I'd get a head start on your homework, sir."

"Already? Where is your sidekick?" Snape raised an eyebrow.

"Sidekick? If you mean Ron, he's my friend, not my sidekick, and I imagine that he's still asleep."

"Indeed. Have a good day, Potter."

"You too, Professor."

Harry watched as he walked away. The man seemed to be different outside of class. Naturally, there was no one around to see Snape being somewhat nice. No one would ever believe him. Chuckling he went back to his essay.

By 7:30, he was finished with his potions essay. He sat it to the side. With the exception of practicing his transfiguration, he was caught up on his homework. The only reason he didn't want to practice here was because he figured that he would get into trouble for yelling at a toothpick.

So, he reached for his notes that he had copied from the charms books, his book of spells, and an 18 inch blank piece of parchment.

First, Harry performed the original calendar spell. Then he performed the spell that allowed him enlarge it to fit the boundaries of the paper. Scowling, he muttered, "Finite."(He had found that spell earlier that week.) After the parchment rid itself of both spells he started over. This time he got both of them right.

He then performed a charm on the calendar that let him change the months on it. Satisfied with that he rifled through his notes and found the spell that made the calendar remember anything that he wrote on it, even after changing between months, unless he erased it.

Grinning, he reached for the spell that would allow him to write with his wand. He had read that the magical calendar could not be written on by a quill, that it had to be done magically (which made sense). He read the spell over a few times. The theory behind it was complicated. Harry had a sneaking suspicion that this was way beyond his first year, but he wanted to try it.

According to the notes he had, there were different wand movements depending on what a person was trying to write on. He paid close attention to the part about writing in a small contained spot on parchment. That sounded the most like what he was trying to do.

Pointing his wand over the coming Monday's date, he said, "ascribo Herbology essay due." He tapped the square 3 times and was pleased to see the words appear in the box.

He quickly changed the month to November and back again and saw that the writing stayed. Using another spell, he erased what he had wrote, then placed it back.

It worked! Harry was beaming. He was quite proud of himself. He finally had something to hang up.

He glanced down at his watch and saw that it was almost 9:00. He looked up and saw a cat watching him. It was actually staring at him intently. It kind of spooked him a little bit.

He leaned over and whispered to it and he scratched behind it's ears, "I don't think Madam Pince would let you in here. You better leave before she see's you." He shooed the cat away gently. (What he didn't realize was that was Professor McGonagall. She never showed the students her form until their 3rd year so she knew that he had no idea who it was.)

As he packed everything up, he wondered if Ron was up yet. He was hungry.

In his dorm, he realized that Ron was not awake which annoyed him. He unpacked his bag and proceeded to update his calendar with the assignments that were due. He also placed the day that he knew he was going to have a test in Herbology on there. He then put the calendar in its designated spot on the wall.

While he waited on lazy bones to wake, he wrote in his journal.

At 11:15, he put it away and poked Ron to wake him up.

"I'm hungry. It's lunchtime. Up!"

Ron muttered something incomprehensible as he headed off towards the showers.

As they ate lunch and talked a little bit, Harry looked around and realized that for the first time in a long time, he felt like he really belonged somewhere.

It really was an incredible feeling.

A/N: I'm sure that if you read all of that, you're probably wondering if every chapter is going to be like that. They won't be. I just wanted to let you see the first week from Harry's point of view.

A/N: Thanks everyone for the reviews so far! They encourage me! (Grin)

A/N: If you're wondering why I chose a calendar of all things for Harry to make, especially with him being a boy, in most of the books, Harry makes one the muggle way before returning to school to count down the days. Now he's made one the magical way.

A/N: Warning, Harry will be powerful, but he won't be super powerful. He will still have to struggle with certain things as well as deal with other childhood issues. Harry is going to be incredibly smart, but don't worry about him out-doing Hermione ... to an extent anyway. (Evil smirk) And to alleviate some fears, he won't all of a sudden wake up and realize woah, I can take on the world! It will be a slow on going process. (Smile)

A/N: This story will stick mostly to canon of the Sorcerer's Stone book, and some quotes are from the book directly. However, every once in a while, a scene or two from the movie may sneak in. (All that of course aside from the fact that a lot of scenes from my own mind are sneaking in as well - evil cackle!)

A/N: Some of what's written in the Sorcerer's Stone will change to suit my whims for my own story! Don't hate me! (Evil smirk!)

A/N: Sorry for the long time in between updates. I got so concerned with actually writing the chapters, I keep forgetting that I need to type them and post them. So the next couple of days is going to be spent typing up the chapters that I already have written (which is quite a few). Hopefully after I do that, I'll be able to post the next chapter soon afterwards! )