Chapter 4: Explainable Changes
Harry woke up to find himself in the Leaky Cauldron. At first, he was very confused, but after a minute to get his thoughts in order, and recall the events of the day previous, Harry got to work. First and foremost, he sent a letter to McGonagall asking for a schedule change. He had suffered through Divination one time already. Instead, Harry was torn between the choice of Arithmacy or Ancient Runes. In the end, Harry just took both, deciding nothing else during the school year would keep him interested. He already had a mediocre understanding of Ancient Runes, but that would most likely only last him halfway through the year. As for Arithmacy, Harry was going in blindfolded. Harry only knew what the course description told him: 'A class examining the finer points of the magical properties of numbers and sequences, and how a wizard can utilize them to their advantage.'
Harry shivered, the class wreaked of Hermione. None the less, it beat Divination any day of the week. And besides, it would keep Harry's doors open as to what he wished to be in the future. Harry doubted he would be an Auror again, but one can never be too sure. The paper work though, oh the paper work.
Still, being smart never hurt anybody.
Next on Harry's list was trying to figure out how to explain Harry's sudden prowess at almost every subject he was going to take. At first, Harry thought about writing it out to a potions error, which caused him to suddenly gain godly powers *. Then on second thought, there were a lot of flaws with that plan. Rather, Harry went out and bought extra reading material, then he would have his nose in the book most of the time, and he could chalk everything extra he knew to a book. Made enough sense.
So Harry went out and bought a couple books, mostly stuff he was interested in that he had not yet gotten the full hang of. He would say he got way ahead during the summer and now he was reading extracurricular works. Hopefully Ron wouldn't call him the Hermione number two.
There was one book, however, that caught Harry's eye. It was named, A Beginner To Expert Guide To Spell Creation. Harry briefly cracked it open and looked over the prerequisite stuff he needed to know. Most of the things inside were fifth year material, so he would have to work on the stuff secretly. Harry bought the book, the size of Hermione's light reading, and a blank, leather bound notebook. He was most likely going to have time during the year, so why not study spell creation. Harry was pretty sure if he could master it, it would make things a lot easier this time around.
So Harry spent the rest of his days wandering around Diagon alley, much like he did the first time, except this time he actually did buy a rather nice pair of dragon hide gloves and a pair of magical contacts for his eyes. He of course had to finish his homework, but it was extremely easy for Harry. Though he did pretend it was hard so he could swipe the free sundaes off of the ice cream parlor again.
He spent time thinking about his friends, with whom with he was going to reunite. In the future, Hermione had not changed much over the years, her knowledge growing while she worked away her days in the ministry of magic. Ron had always stuck by Harry, except maybe those few occasions. Maybe they should spend some time together this time around. Maybe mess up Fred and George's reputations a bit. Then there was always Neville and Luna and everyone else. Heck, maybe he could even straighten up Malfoy. Maybe thats a bit of a stretch. Number one on his list would probably be hanging out with the Weasley's a bit. Speaking of the Weasley's they were currently in Egypt. Harry hoped they would be back soon.
The days began to dwindle down, and it eventually got to the day that Ron and Hermione were going to come visit. Harry was sitting in the lobby of the Leaky Cauldron, waiting out the last hour. He was nervous and excited at the same time. He had to stay cool though. Stay cool...
"Harry!" came Hermione's distinct voice. Harry whipped around and saw Ron and Hermione walking towards him.
"Hey Hermione, hey Ron. How's it going?"
"Fantastic. Is there something wrong with you mate, you look kind of different?" was Ron's shrewd reply.
"You twit, he finally got rid of those glasses. Really Harry, it looks great. Now I won't need to continuously repair them!" Harry let out a chuckle.
"Yep, by the way, thanks for all those times Hermione." Hermione raised an eyebrow, but answered none the less.
"It was no problem, really."
"So, when did you get here Harry? Me and Hermione were thinking we would have to search all over for you"
"Its Hermione and I" was Hermione's stiff reply.
And thus the usual argument broke out, saving Harry from having to lie once again. They bickered awhile, went to the magical pets shop, bought Crookshanks, bickered some more, and ended up right back in the Leaky Cauldron. Harry looked over and saw Mr. Weasley reading the Daily Prophet.
"Hi Harry, how are you?" said Mr. Weasley as he looked up. The newspaper sported the headline for Sirius Black.
"Sirius Black..." Harry started as he began to wonder how long Sirius could stay in the Shrieking Shack. Harry quickly resolved to meet with Ron soon and convince him to take Scabbers to Dumbledore.
"...rry, Harry! Are you alright?" said Ron, waking him from his thoughts.
"Yeah, I'm fine Ron, just thinking" was Harry's reply. Mr. Weasley suddenly had a worried look on his face.
"Harry, you're not going to go after him are you?" said Mr. Weasley, assuming that Harry's reaction was because he already knew the truth.
"No, of course not. I was just thinking about how Sirius Black wasn't given a trial and-" Harry was cut off by Mrs. Weasley entering with the twins, Percy, and Ginny. Percy came directly up to him, and gave him the same pompously greeting as the previous time. He was then interrupted by Fred and George, who joked about him making Head Boy. Harry was then approached by Ginny, who mumbled a hello before running off to join her mom. Harry hoped that she would get over that quickly.
The day passed quickly after that, and soon enough it was dinner. Mr. Weasley discussed their arrangements for getting to King's Cross the next morning with Percy, then talked about Sirius Black with Harry. Harry had to keep himself from yelling out Sirius' innocence, but he held his tongue because he knew it was only a matter of time now. Peter would pay and Sirius would go free.
And thus another day came to a close for Harry, as he backtracked to his room, and got everything ready for the next morning. He had quite a long road ahead of him.