A/N: Thanks to nekoboy13 and setokayba2n for reviewing. If anyone has any critique on my writing or writing style, I'd love to hear it. I plan to do a bit of a time skip next chapter and get us to the Hogwarts Express. Summer is stretching out too long. I'm trying to reach 100k words by the end of July. I wouldn't want the first year to stretch past 120k, because that's the point I think it would get obnoxious. Does anyone have any opinions on the chapter length?

Disclaimer: JKR owns HP, not me.

Chapter 9: Ancient Runes Lesson

I was so excited I couldn't sleep very well. My first magic lesson! Thankfully, Remus had a few potions in stock to help. I got a dreamless sleep potion off of him to use for the night. I had been re-reading my Runes textbook until midnight so I was as well prepared as possible before having to request the potion from him.

I woke up an hour early, getting ready by wearing a blue robe, a white shirt, and dragonhide shorts. It was a new look, shorts. I sent Pobby to pick up Hermione at her home at 8:45, which was on the other side of London, and she was the first to arrive just a couple of minutes later. Arriving in the drawing room, where I was sitting on the loveseat in front of the fire, she said, "Wow! Harry. That was unpleasant. But wow…" as she looked around the room. "The paintings move!" She said and peered at one of an ancient Black.

"Yes, we do," the painting said to her, scaring her and sending her back a step. "Where is the light in the room coming from?" She asked, looking around.

I looked around too, not having noticed it but… there were no light bulbs or lamps. There was just… light in the room.

"I don't really know. We can ask Remus during our lesson. I'd suspect it's something Runic in nature." I said. On that note, the doorbell rang, and I heard Remus get it. That would be Marcus. Then, the floo started up and out walked a tall girl with white blonde wavy hair.

"Hi. I'm Lily Moon. A pleasure to meet you two." She said, first shaking Hermione's hand and then mine. Lily was wearing a white closed robe that complimented her hair, while Hermione was just wearing a green sweater. Lily had a white leather backpack as well, that she flicked her hair behind.

"So you like the color white?" I asked.

"Well.." she laughed, "It goes with my hair, and it is the color of the Moon. I have to keep a theme going." She said, joking. I laughed.

"So you've tutored with Professor Lupin before?" Hermione asked her, as Marcus walked through the doorway of the drawing room, came in, and shook Lily's hand.

"Marcus Fenwick-Hitchin". He said.

"Lily Moon, a pleasure to meet you, and yes, Hermione he has instructed me and Oliver and our cousin, who we share. Oliver and I aren't related though."

"Who is your cousin?" I asked while Hermione asked at the same time, "What did he teach you?"

"Cedric Diggory. His dad is my mom's brother and his mom is Oliver's dad's sister. The answer to your question," she followed up, gesturing to Hermione, "Mr. Lupin tutored me in maths to prepare me for the second-year of Arithmancy, Oliver too."

Speaking of Oliver, at that moment the floo started up again and a boy appeared. He was wearing a black closed robe and had dark hair and a pebble-shaped face and a small nose. He was a little pale, but not ghastly so.

"Hello everyone, I'm Oliver Rivers. The Seventh, but that's not terribly important. I know Lily but am afraid I'm not quite sure who everyone else is. You must be Harry, though?" He said, outstretching his hand to me. I shook it and then introduced my friends.

"Marcus Fenwick-Hitchin. Hermione Granger." I said, pointing at each of them. He shook their hands before the floo started up again and another boy tumbled out.

"Am I late?" The boy asked, actually somersaulting out of the fireplace. He popped up onto his feet a second later. "Roger Malone, everybody. How are we mates?" He chipped in a very Australian accent.

"I'm Harry. Everyone, he was the recent addition. Nice to meet you, Roger." I said, outstretching my hand. He faked like he was going to go for it, pulled back, and then swooped in for a hug instead.

"Nice to meet ya, mate." He said, patting me on the back. Then he greeted everyone else normally with a handshake, and they all introduced themselves by name.

When that moment ended, Remus came into the room and said, "If everyone will follow Harry into the classroom, we can get started. Everyone has their kits and book?" Everyone nodded or murmured yes, and I started walking into the classroom. All the other kids followed me.

The table was round and had seven seats, one for each of us and plenty of space to work. There were also desks on the side of the room away from the window. Adjacent to the window was a chalkboard. We all sat down, with Remus coming in last. "Remus, Hermione and I had a question," I spoke up.

"Oh, of course, go ahead."

"Well, how does lighting work in wizarding rooms? It seems to just… be there?" I asked.

"Well, it is runic. The rooms here have Runescapes in the ceiling which set the room to have a certain light level at certain times of the day. You can change it, of course, just by tapping your wand on the wall. At Hogwarts, they have lantern lights that are also runic, and they use to use fire runes but now use light runes. That'll actually lead us into our first lesson well. Someone tell me the difference between magical fire and magical light?"

Hermione raised her hand like a rocket. Everyone turned to look at her. Remus chuckled. "Hermione, there are seven of here. You can just say it out loud."

"Well, a magical fire has heat and luminosity, whereas magical light just has luminosity," she stated.

"Well, can anyone tell me the difference between the rune for fire and the rune for light?"

I spoke before Hermione could. "The rune for fire is a circle and is older than the rune for light. The rune for light is shaped kind of like the Greek Omega, or a circle on a line."

"That's right. But actually, let's talk about that idea of older. Where do runes get their power?"

Lily spoke up then, "From intent."

"Whose?" Remus spoke.

"Everyone's," Oliver replied.

"Elaborate," Remus requested.

"Well, spells need intent to be cast, it's the most important thing, and that intent comes from the caster. With Runes, the intent is also the most important thing, but it's the intent of everyone who has ever used that rune compiled that gives that rune its strength. You can't just make up a rune, it'll have no power at all. Runes are powerful because when you use it you have a certain intent with it but really because someone three hundred years ago also had that same intent with it, and a person a century before them, and a person a century before them. The older a rune, the more powerful, but also the least specialized. The newer a rune, the less powerful, but usually more specialized." Oliver said.

"Couldn't have really said it better myself. One thing you got wrong though. If you make up a rune, it won't have no power. It'll just have an infinitesimally small power because there would only ever be one instance of someone in the universe using it for that purpose. Indeed, older runes are more powerful and the newest runes that are in any way useable are at least a century old. Current professional Runecrafters incorporate newer runes into their Runescapes, but they won't contribute any effects for many years until there are enough instances of intent in the universe to give them specialized power. Thankfully, we have thousands and thousands of runes that are a century and older and have been in use quite extensively, so newer runes aren't needed to come up with amazing creations or wards. Any questions?"

"How is intent compiled?" I asked.

"Well, the common theory is that the ley lines have something to do with it, but other than that we don't really know. The closer to a ley line, the stronger the effects of Runes."

"Could you elaborate on the ley lines, and what they are?" I asked.

"We're getting a tad bit off topic here, but it is still relevant. Ley lines are like pipelines of magic. Magic is generated in the bodies of magical creatures, beings, and witches and wizards. We can only store a certain amount, however big our magical core is is how much we can store, so when we make more magic then we can store, it's released. This free magic lingers around a while as ambient magic, but is drawn towards the ley lines, where magic is moved around the earth. Most magical homes are built on a ley line, along with practically any magical structure. Convergence of ley lines is where the most magic rests, like Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, or the other wizarding schools. Runes can work off of ambient magic, but ambient magic only pools together in large amounts in places where lots of magical beings and creatures live and give off excess magic, which is why a lot of objects rely on wizards to manually charge them: they can't always rely on ambient magic. That leads me to our first lesson nicely."

Remus passed out six wooden blocks with the rune for light inscribed into them, the omega shape and kept one for himself. "I carved these last night," he instructed, "and I've already tested them all. What I want to teach you is how to charge them. It requires no incantation, just the intent of pushing the magic through your wand and into the block of wood. Wood stores magic well, so we'll be self-testing to see how much magic you put in naturally, and what amount of time that's going to turn into. In this case, the size of the light is limited by the size of the rune. Wood does have a maximum amount of power it can hold, like all materials, and for a piece of wood this size and type, you could overload it. This will let magic seep into the air. Please try not to do this. We'll do this at some point in our lessons so you can experience what not to do. Everyone take out their wands and try to push out just a tiny bit of a magic. What tiny means to everyone right now is different, but hopefully we'll all be able to get on the same page. When I say tiny, I want the amount of magic equivalent to thirty seconds of light. Let's start with Hermione." He said. "I'll time you."

She already had taken out her wand, and then touched the tip to the rune and scrunched up her face. Nothing happened for about fifteen seconds before the rune started lighting up and she brought the wand off. Remus cast a spell with his wand that brought up a ticker of numbers to count every second the piece of wood stayed lit. We got up to twenty-seven before the light flickered, dimmed, went out, and Remus said, "Just marvelous. Already on the money, Hermione."

"Harry, you next. While I time him, Hermione you may try again, to get the feeling down. Keep the amount of magic you're pushing low, just about the same as last time."

I took out my wand, tapped the rune, and reached with my magic and pushed out a little. It was almost like a fart, in a weird way, just with magic. I got mine to light up in a matter of just a few seconds, taking less time than Hermione. Sadly, my rune stayed a light for quite a bit longer than the thirty seconds Remus wanted. "That's 97 seconds kid, you're going to want to tone that down." He said, as my rune lost its light after a long wait. "Let's try again."

I did it again, pushing the magic out perfectly in less than a second. This time, the rune stayed lit for only 44 seconds. "Closer, kid. You'll get it. And Hermione good job, it's just taking you a few seconds now to push the magic out. Marcus, your turn."

Marcus took a little over twenty seconds to light the rune, and it stayed lit for about forty seconds. "Good job. Let's do it again, try getting that lighting time down." Remus instructed.

Marcus managed to get it down to taking only seven seconds to light the rune after another try. Lily and Oliver performed similarly, taking about ten seconds to power the rune, but Oliver only lit the rune for twenty seconds while Lily lit it for fifty. Roger was able to light the rune in about five seconds, and it stayed lit for about forty-five.

"An all around great job everybody! Let's keep practicing!" Remus said. Then, we spent the rest of the lesson coordinating what a tiny amount of magic was, getting all within two seconds of thirty seconds. We learned what small was, about two minutes of light, what a fair amount was, about six minutes, a medium amount, about ten minutes, and an over average amount, which was twenty minutes.

He then gave us our first carving lesson and had us practice carving the rune for pushing, which was shaped like a U. That was difficult. No one managed to get anything he deemed acceptable. We then broke for lunch in the classroom, with Pobby bringing up pizza.

"Wow! That was fun." I said.

"Yeah, he's a really great tutor," Lily responded.

"I can see why my grandfather does this all day, it's a lot more permanent than spellwork. You feel like you've actually accomplished something." Roger said. "He said you met him getting your backpack protected?" He asked me.

"Yeah, he's a nice guy. How are you Australian if he's British?" I asked.

"Well, my dad's British but he's a magizoologist like my mum. She's Aussie and they met and fell in love and he came to live with her. It's not too terrible of a distance though, with floo and all." He replied.

"How does the floo work?" Hermione asked.

"Well, I had to get a permit to floo internationally whenever I wanted. The floo is like only a third as fast as apparition and only a fifth of a portkey, but is much more comfortable. Yeah, you're alone with your thoughts for a little while traveling across the world, but it's alright."

"And you're an animagus?" I asked.

"What? No, he's not... That's outrageous!" Lily said.

"Am too." Roger said, sticking his tongue out at Lily.

"Prove it," she said. "I bet you a galleon you can't shift into any animal other than yourself."

"Lily, you shouldn't make that bet," I said.

"What's an animagus?" Marcus asked as suddenly, Roger turned into something resembling a monkey. "A Sifaka Lemur!" I said aloud, remembering what Angus said. Then, the lemur jumped onto Lily's hair and climbed up her head before it started to transform back into Roger, knocking Lily and him out the chair and tumbling onto the floor. She started smacking him with her wooden block and yelled, "There's no way you're getting your galleon now you ape. Get off me!" Everyone just laughed their asses off at that hilarious situation.

"So, guess that proved it." Roger then said between laughs.

"That's amazing. I didn't know wizards had powers like that." Hermione said.

"I'm a metamorphmagus." I then said, because who doesn't like to be special and steal the attention?

"Really?" Oliver asked.

"Mhmm," I said, changing my hair blue. That was met by giggles and gasps. We continued to joke and get to know each other as we ate, Roger and I each fielding lots of questions.

After lunch, we went back to Rune carving lessons and all managed to get a good enough rune to test. When you applied power, the block would start moving in the direction the rune opened to. We got varied effects, like Roger's that veered slightly to the right, Lily's that stopped suddenly, and Oliver's that curved in a circle. Remus said we'd need to work on being precise.

The Next Day, July 31st, 1991

Grimmauld Place

I hadn't realized it but, today was Harry's eleventh birthday. It kind of just swept past my mind in the action of everything from the past few days. I didn't see any reason to have a party because the people I had met here I had only just met. All of us kids were in the classroom with Remus, learning to carve a few other Runes. The lesson ended and we made our way out into the drawing room, like normal. I went first, and when I did, a couple dozen people yelled, "Surprise!". It was all of the families from the kids from tutoring. Bill Weasley was there and had brought his younger brothers, a set of twins. Hagrid was there, and so was Andromeda and her family. I really wasn't expecting it. Remus and Sirius must have made plans behind my back.

"Happy Birthday, Pup. It seemed like you forgot in all the craziness going on, but every kid should have a birthday party. Before all the kids left yesterday, Remus sent them with letters for their families. I owled Bill, Hagrid, and Andromeda." Sirius explained.

"Thanks so much!" I said, actually tearing up, and I came and hugged him.

The party was fun. I got to meet everyone's families. Oliver's dad was a tad bit intimidating, but other than that, everyone was very nice. Mason, Marcus's younger brother, had come and was excited by everything magical around him. Lily's younger brother, Basil, and Oliver's younger sister, Heather, got along well with Mason, and they'd all be in the same year together next year. Fred and George mostly kept to themselves, being a couple years older than us and already having gone to Hogwarts until Roger's family arrived a bit lite. Roger had two older sisters that the twins annoyed, and a younger brother, Remington, who joined the younger kids. I wasn't exactly sure why Fred and George were there until Sirius led us to the rooftop and they started letting off fireworks they had created. For two not even third years, their work was pretty impressive.

Andromeda has brought her daughter, Tonks, who she introduced me to. Tonks gave me a few pointers, "Wotcher, Harry. Staying the same height helps with balance. Don't heal anything by shifting unless you've looked in a muggle anatomy book. If you get fat with your real body you won't be able to get too much smaller, make sure you're eating healthfully and get checked by a healer often. Oh, and don't try and change into an animal unless you become an Animagus. It's nice to have another metamorph in the family, though."

A Few Days Later, August 4th, 1991

Polly's Shop, Knockturn Alley

"I got your letter. Are they here?" I asked as I walked into the shop.

"Harry? That you?" He called from behind a curtain.

"Yes, it's me," I said. He walked out, carrying a large cage.

"You got eight, two earth males, two air males, two water females, and two fire females. The other buyers said they'd want the ones you didn't, so they let you have options."

Hmm, I couldn't talk to them here in front of Polly, even though I could hear them calling out for food. "I'll bring back the ones I don't want tonight, alright?" I said. I then had Pobby pop me back into my room at Grimmauld Place.

Side-along was much more uncomfortable than floo, but I didn't want to carry eight snakes through the Alley.

Setting the cage down on my bed, I spoke to them, "I am Harry."

"A speaker! A speaker! A speaker…" they all screeched.

"I have to pick which ones of you to keep as pets. Do you have any opinion?"

"Take me, Master." one of the fire females said. I lifted her out of the cage and set her onto the bed. They were all tiny, just newly born.

"Do you have a name?" I asked.

"No…"

"May I call you Hestia?" I asked. She slithered up my arm in response.

"Release me! I will not be bound!" one of the Earth snakes said, so I grabbed the other one and pulled him out of the cage.

"Are you okay if I take you?" I asked.

"I… do not care." He replied, curling up in a ball next to me.

I had left the cage open, and one of the air snakes managed to get out by using magic.

"Hi, Master! Take me!" He said, flying into my face. I screamed. Snakes were still scary, even if I could talk to them.

They all screamed louder than me but settled down after a moment.

"I'm sorry. I'm not used to snakes." I said.

"You'll need some guidance." one of the water females said, so I took her out of the box.

"Will you be it?" I asked.

"I will try," she replied.

So, I had my four snakes. Hestia, fire. Demetrius, earth. Zeus, air. Amphitrite, water.

They all seemed agreeable to their names, although Zeus was a bit too excited about his.

Letting them all curl up in the pocket of my robes, I had Pobby take the cage of extras back to Polly's.

"What do you guys eat?" I asked.

"They were feeding us bugs. They were alright." Demetrius replied.

"Hmm…" I said, thinking of what I knew we had.

When Polly came back, I had him buy crickets and used them to feed my snakes. They seemed content to just fall asleep after that. That's when I got a closer look at them. They were all metallic black and shined a rainbow shimmer in the light. Hestia has a big red O on the back of her head, Demetrius had a big green square on his, Zeus had a white swirl, and Amphitrite had a blue wavy line. The color of their eyes matched their rune. They were quite beautiful, and from what I had read, should grow to a foot long by the end of the summer, quite a magical feat from their current four or so inches. By the end of the year, three feet long, and then they'd be fully grown at five feet at the end of the next year. They supposedly slept a lot (a trait of the Alchemist snake due to magic use) but were very talkative when awake.

Pobby has been bringing me my mail, so I decided to flick through the magazines of this week that were published a few days ago. That's when I noticed not only was I on the cover of Witch Weekly, I was also on the cover of Spella Weekly. Witch Weekly, which was for younger women and teens, read, "Harry Potter! The Cutest Boy Wizard?" Whereas the magazine for older witches, Spella Weekly, was titled, "Harry Potter's Puzzling Past."

They both had cover photos of me at Sirius's Trial, although Witch Weekly's had one of me smiling and Spella Weekly had me doing a quizzical look.

I opened to Spella Weekly's article first.

Harry Potter's Puzzling Past

By Emily Lanwin

Everyone knows the story of how Harry Potter saved the wizarding world. Just a baby, he survived the killing curse. Albus Dumbledore took him that night and has kept him hidden from the world ever since. We hadn't seen him in a decade until he showed up for the trial of Sirius Black, his godfather. (Sirius Black was declared innocent of all charges.) Harry was accompanied by Andromeda Tonks and Remus Lupin, the Daily Prophet reported. But just who are these two, and what does it possibly reveal about Harry's past? Well, Remus Lupin was the best friend of James Potter in a quartet of Gryffindor boys made up of himself, James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew (who is currently being searched for as the real perpetrator of revealing the Potter's location and killing twelve muggles). He attended Hogwarts and was a Prefect there. He graduated and became a tutor for both wizarding and muggle families, but there was no sign at all of him raising Harry Potter. So, could Andromeda Tonks have been the one to raise the boy hero? Our sources say no, she was just his lawyer, and an ex-member of the Black Family, having been disowned for marrying muggleborn wizard Ted Tonks. So the question remains, just who raised Harry Potter? Harry Potter was unavailable by owl.

Well, this made me think. I could try to write a whole book, which I probably wouldn't have the time to do, or I could sell my story to a magazine. Hmmm. That might be the route to go. Not as profitable, I'd imagine, but much less effort. I'm not sure I had the material to fill a book anyway, those bitches were long. Looking through the rest of my mail that Pobby deemed relevant, I saw the letter from Spella Weekly requesting an interview. I decided I'd read through the Witch Weekly and then try and create a bidding war on the story between every publication I thought would be interested. I opened the Witch Weekly magazine next. The centerfold actually contained a large poster of me, walking down the steps from the Wizengamot seats onto the floor. It was honestly a pretty good photo, with a bit of sultry eye contact at the end. I hadn't even realized my photo was being taken. Did this mean witches and wizards were going to have my poster up on their walls?

Harry Potter! The Cutest Boy Wizard?

By Anonymous

At age eleven as of July 31, Harry Potter will be beginning Hogwarts this year. Yes, you heard right witches, he's coming to Hogwarts. His smile is beautiful, his scar is beautiful, his hair is luscious, and he's quite the looker. Now, don't get me wrong, he's eleven, but you can tell there's a wizard underneath him that's going to be as hot as a magma python in a few years. At the Wizengamot trial of his godfather, Sirius Black, he sported Hebridean Black dragonhide boots purchased from Madam Malkins, as well as a blue robe. So, we went to her for a comment, "Now, I don't reveal things about my customers. All I can say is he came in for a full wardrobe, and I outfitted him. He was quite a polite boy and very inquisitive. My bet is on Ravenclaw. Now go bug someone else, it's Hogwarts season and I have robes to make!" Now, isn't that the scoop! A full wardrobe? Did he have a growth spurt? A Healer from St Mungo's who we reached out to said he is on the taller side for his age, so ladies (and you couple of gents), watch out in a few years. And her bet is on Ravenclaw? Both of his parents were Gryffindors, as well as James's father Fleamont Potter and his wife Euphemia Potter nee Longbottom. Being a Ravenclaw will surely be new for the Potter family, but considering his unknown childhood, anything is possible. What do you think of the wizarding world's savior? Harry Potter was unavailable for comment.

Well, Witch Weekly, Spella Weekly, and the Daily Prophet seemed like the major players in British periodicals. They'd probably be the most interested and have the deepest pockets. So, I penned them a letter.

Dear Editors of Witch Weekly, Spella Weekly, and The Daily Prophet,

I will be telling all to the highest bidder. My childhood and why I was unavailable by owl. It is the biggest piece of news you'll have had in years, I promise. I'll be willing to tell you after a non-disclosure agreement at a meeting, and then I'll allow a bidding war to occur. I'd like to meet tomorrow at five pm at my home, 12 Grimmauld Place. Please be ready to make your offers. Please bring contracts, a reporter, and a photographer to take the interview. I'll also allow you to make offers on any other story you think you might want. I'll bring the secrecy contract and see you then.

Sincerely,

Harry Potter

I also wrote up a message for Andromeda, asking her to write up what I needed and to meet me there tomorrow. I then had to pick out what I wanted to be photographed in! Ugh, I didn't want to be Gilderoy Lockhart, but I was feeling like him.