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!

A/N: As an aside, since I took so long in posting again (throws back the rocks you all threw at me), I decided to post 3 chapters at once. :P

Chapter 25

Tuesday night found Ron partially copying Harry's astronomy homework, partially doing it on his own in the common room. It found Harry finally getting a chance to look in those books that he was mentioned in.

He skimmed through the books, getting an idea about what all was in them. During the process he found a paragraph or two on his parents and himself in each one. One book mentioned his dad was an Auror, which Ron explained was a dark wizard catcher. None of them said what his mom did. And none of the books had a picture of his parents. That put him in a foul mood as he was finally hoping that he would get to see what they looked like.

It was midnight before Ron finished, but Harry waited up with him. He packed his library books into his book bag. He would return them in the morning.

Thursday was his first ever flying lesson. They would now be taking place right after lunch, instead of that free period.

"Wonderful, I've always wanted to make a fool of myself on a broom in front of Malfoy," Harry muttered to Ron as they walked to where Madam Hooch and the Slytherin's were standing.

He was thrilled when the broom flew into his hand the very first time he said, "Up!". Only Malfoy's broom had done the same thing. He snickered when Ron's broom flew up and hit him in the face, which caused him to huff at Harry in return.

Harry was so excited when Madam Hooch explained to them how they were to hover. His adrenaline was rushing through him until Neville took off prematurely. Then fear shook him. He gasped in horror with the rest of the Gryffindor's when Neville had fallen and broken his wrist.

When Malfoy grabbed Neville's remembrall and flew into the air with it, it was anger that took over then.

Without knowing what he was doing, he hopped onto the broom and flew into the air. It was then that he realized that he was a natural at something.

When Malfoy had thrown the remembrall, he still had no idea what he was doing. All he knew is that he needed to catch it so that it didn't break. Sure, he could see the castle wall in front of him, but it didn't really concern him all that much. He never even fully realized that he had flipped at two difficult angles as he had caught the tiny ball.

He was elated as he landed, a huge grin on his face as the adrenaline coursed through him again. At least until he saw Professor McGonagall coming in his direction.

During dinner as Harry whispered what happened to Ron, he was a ball of energy. He was supposed to be Gryffindor's secret weapon.

They were chatting idly while Harry waited on Ron to finish eating when he looked up and saw Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle.

"Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the muggles?" Malfoy had a smug look on his face.

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," Harry said coolly.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," Malfoy stated. "Tonight if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only - no contact. Trophy room is always unlocked. Crabbe is my second." With that, he stalked off.

With hesitation in his voice, Harry asked, "Ron, what exactly is a wizards duel?"

As they got up to leave, someone tapped Harry on the shoulder. Turning around, he saw Hermione glowering at him.

"I couldn't help over hearing what you and Malfoy were saying and you mustn't go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if your caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."

"And it's really none of your business," Harry said turning to leave, very frustrated.

"Good-bye," said Ron.

After crawling back into bed, Harry grabbed his journal from his trunk, lit his wand, and started writing.

...

Okay, so what ever Hagrid took from that vault is currently under that giant three headed dog. I didn't see the trap door but Hermione did. The package was small, but it doesn't have to be big to be important.

At least now we know why the third floor corridor is forbidden.

Oh, and Malfoy is still a git. I suspect Hermione was right about him never even planning to show up, but she doesn't need to know that I think she was right.

...

Harry Potter

After he resealed the journal and put his stuff away, he crawled back into bed for sleep.

The next day, Ron and Harry were amused to see Malfoy look surprised to see them. Harry did see that Hermione and Neville did not want to ever go near the three headed dog again, which was sad because he and Ron were quite keen on another adventure.

When mail call came, he was very surprised to see a long package being delivered to himself.

He was positively gleeful when he ran into Malfoy on the stairs as he headed towards his dorm to put the broom away and got to tell him that he had an exception to the first year broom rule.

Malfoys' face was priceless.

That evening, unable to wait on Oliver Wood to start flying again, he took off on his Nimbus 2000 and flew around the Quidditch pitch. Flying, as he found out, made him feel so free.

Once Oliver arrived and had explained the rules and all of the balls to him, he had looked at his new captain and said quite calmly, "So no pressure huh?"

Oliver had laughed. "None what-so-ever Potter."

Saturday found Ron and Harry playing chess and exploding snap in the common room. After dinner that evening, they headed to the library.

Harry had become a slight procrastinator this past week. With the exception of anything that had to be done right then, he had not done it. So now he and Ron both were quite a bit behind.

They went back to the back of the library to the secluded table that Harry had found and liked. They decided to work on the Herbology essay first.

It only took about 45 minutes for Harry to write 12 inches, so he switched over to Potions. About 6 inches through the first essay (Snape had assigned two, as he said that he normally would), he looked up to find Ron staring at him strangely.

"What?" Harry whispered.

"Why are you doing Potions so soon?" Ron asked, sounding annoyed.

"Because I'm putting off transfiguration and astronomy until last since those are the ones that I have the worst trouble in. And besides," he dropped his voice even lower, "if I'm to have any sleep this week, I need to get all I can done this weekend because of practice."

"Good idea," Ron stated as he reached for his transfiguration stuff.

At 9:50, Madam Pince pounced like a vulture on prey. "It's almost time to leave boys. Clean your mess up. Now!"

"Yes ma'am," they both muttered.

Harry put his completed Herbology, Potions, and Charms assignments away. Then he and Ron cleaned up their spare parchments and notes that had managed to end up all over the table.

On their way out of the door, Madam Pince gave them a pass that let them have permission to be out should they be accosted by a teacher.

Which they were.

"M-m-mister P-Potter. Mister W-Weasley. It's a-after c-c-curfew for f-first years. D-Do you h-have p-p-passes?"

As Ron handed him their passes, Harry's scar started to twinge, but as Professor Quirrell sent them on their way to Gryffindor Tower, it stopped. He never gave it any more thought that night.

He slept fairly well, but woke up at 5:00 am. Annoyed with himself for waking so early, he slunk off for a shower.

By 6:00 am, he was working on his Defense essay the common room. Around 7:00, Ron stumbled down the stairs towards the shower. By the time he was ready for breakfast, Harry had just finished the essay.

Breakfast talk consisted of Quidditch. As they were finishing up their meal, the twins headed their direction.

"Morning," Fred or George said.

"Hey," Harry replied.

"We came to -"

"Bring you the -"

"Schedule." They both whispered together. They slid a piece of paper toward him before they turned their attention to their own food.

Potter,

McGonagall gave me a copy of your schedule. Until our match with Slytherin get's closer, we are going with the less vigorous training times, which is only 3 days a week. Once mid-October hits, it will be increased to 5 days a week, with the side option to increase it more.

Your current training times are Mon, Wed, Fri 3:30 - 5:30 pm. From 6:30 - 8:00 pm on the same days the rest of the team practices, so you will be required to attend both sessions.

Oliver

"Please tell me that he is joking about increasing the time to more than 5 days a week?" Harry whispered as he handed to note to Ron so he could read it.

Fred shook his head no. "He's a bit fanatical about this. You'll see."

"Ugh," groaned Harry.

Once in the common room, they played a game of chess. "That's all I have time for Ron. You saw that schedule, if I don't do the homework as it comes up, I'll never get it done if I want to sleep."

Ron frowned but nodded. After all, nothing was more important than Quidditch.

Harry grabbed his stuff then went to the library.

He was working so hard on his astronomy homework that he worked right through lunch. By 4pm, he decided to get started on Binn's work.

At 5:30, he looked up to see Ron grinning and jumped.

"Bloody hell Ron, scare me to death why don't you."

"Sorry," he said chuckling. "You have much more to do?"

After catching his breath he replied, "Yeah. I need to finish Binns work and I've still yet to do McGonagalls."

Ron nodded. "Let's go eat. You missed lunch you know."

After dinner, Harry returned to the library. Binn's essay had only taken another 10 minutes to complete. So, he pulled out McGonagall's and glared at it.

An hour later he found himself beating his head against his hands. He suddenly became aware of the fact that he was no longer alone.

Looking around, he saw no one, but sensed someone by the book shelf. He slid his wand down into his hand. He didn't do anything though because who ever it was didn't mean him any harm. However, how he knew that he had no idea.

Deciding he was safe, he returned to his reading. At 9:00 pm, he finally finished his transfiguration essay, which included a particularly nasty drawing.

After he packed his bag again, he glanced around the room and eyed one of the vacant chairs before leaving to search for Madam Pince to get his pass.

At 3:30 on Monday, he met a couple of other teammates. Alicia Spinnet explained that the earlier practice times was just for those who were free. Oliver then showed up and fitted Harry for a uniform.

He was exhausted by the time he had trudged into dinner (in his school robes). He ate with Ron and explained how practice went. After eating, he went back out onto the pitch.

By 8:30, Harry was sore and could hardly keep his eyes open. He nodded to Ron as he climbed the stairs. He groaned when he heard George (he thought anyway) tell Ron that after a week or two that would get used to the schedule.

Wednesday found him and Ron in Snape's study hall doing homework. He wanted to try to get what he could done before practice. He caught the Professor eyeing him but he saw that he had his expressionless mask on.

He had still yet to figure out why this man didn't like him all that much. As far as he could tell, the other teacher's did, at least to a degree.

On Thursday, Harry actually slept (instead of just day-dreamed like most of the students) through History of Magic which Dean and Ron found highly amusing, so when he got to charms he actually felt refreshed.

"Today class, we are going to do the cushioning charm that we've been discussing. Everyone practice the flick, swish, and flick motion."

Everyone did.

"Now, everyone repeat after me. 'Spongify.'"

Everyone did as he said.

Professor Flitwick then called everyone up individually to perform the charm on a small section of the floor.

Outwardly, the floor never changed in appearance but if you touched the square it was as if it was a cushion.

By the time it was Harry's turn, only Hermione had gotten it on the first try.

Harry performed the charm and was pleased that he too had done it on the first try, but he unknowingly added to much power behind it and the entire floor turned into a giant cushion.

When he realized what he had done, he groaned while a few people laughed. "I'm sorry Professor Flitwick," muttered Harry.

The professor chuckled a little bit himself. "It's quite alright Mr. Potter. You did get it on the first try, you were just a little over enthusiastic." He canceled the spell as Harry went back to his table.

"That brings us to another important part of spell work. The amount of power you put behind a spell will, in turn, cause different results. Now, Mr. Potter, how much power do you feel that you put behind that spell?"

"Er ... barely any Professor." Harry whispered. He saw Flitwick's face and dropped his gaze. He figured that he was in trouble.

"Were you concentrating very hard Mr. Potter?"

"Yes sir. I wanted to do it on the first try."

"It's possible that with you concentrating so hard on the spell you didn't realize how much power you were using. That's perfectly normal." He paused for a moment, as if he wanted to say something else but decided against it. So he continued on around the room instead. "Now, let's continue. Mr. Weasley, it's your turn."

While Ron was attempting his square, Harry finally felt the color return to his cheeks. A glance over at Hermione saw her staring at him with her eyes slightly narrowed.

During Potions class a couple weeks later, Harry was bottling his potion, pleased that he had gotten it right. As he was returning to his seat to clean up his station, he heard Neville's cauldron hiss. He pulled everyone within his reach back as it melted, a reflexive action on his part.

"Idiot Longbottom. Let me guess. You stirred counter clockwise instead of clockwise then added the frog's tongue before you removed it from the heat?"

The Slytherin's were snickering delightfully behind Snape's back.

He vanished the potion and told Neville to sit down before he caused any more damage.

"Why, Mr. Potter, did you not stop him? Trying to make yourself look good again against his mistakes? Ten points from Gryffindor and a zero for the day."

Snape turned to go investigate the other's potions.

Harry had his mouth open to complain but a glare from all of the Gryffindor's silenced him.

On the way out, Harry got in step by Neville. "You know that I didn't deliberately let you mess up right? I was cleaning up my area. I'm sorry Neville."

"It's alright Harry. I know you didn't let me mess up on purpose. I'm just not any good at potions."

"I would have said something had not half of the room glared at me."

"Really, Harry. There's no need to land yourself in detention," huffed Ron.

By mid-October, Harry had finally managed a balance between sleeping, classes, homework, free time, and Quidditch, at least until Oliver upped the practices to 5 days a week.

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

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!)