Bibsy apparated him to the 9 3/4 Platform with his truck early on September 1st.

"Remember young Master, if you ever need me, just call my name." She tells him before popping away. He chuckles as he grabs his truck and slips into the empty train, picking a compartment near the back.

He zones out as he reads a book for beginners at potion ingredient prep. Maybe Snape will hate him less if he didn't do damage to his station. Then again, he still looked like his dad's mini and he can be a bit impulsive... so there's that.

"Harry!" He looks up to see his female best friend smiling at the compartment entrance.

"Hermione!" He grins back.

"I'm loving the new look! And the glasses! And hair!" They laugh together as he attempts a mini model walk in the small space.

"Oi! What's going on here? Who are...Potter?!" He turns from Hermione to come face to face with Draco Malfoy.

"Draco! Just the person I was going to search for! We have been learning wizarding etiquette this summer and it would seem I did not answer properly when you offered your hand in friendship last year. You still said it in a git kind of way but we were both 11 years old, so time to move on," Harry beams at him, knowing it will throw off the blond heir.

"Oh...well okay. I'm happy you know how things work now. If you'll excuse me, I hear Theo calling my name," he disappears from the door with Crabbe and Goyle running after him. Harry turns back to Hermione and they burst out laughing the moment their eyes connect.

"Hey, what happened to Ron? He should have been here by now..." They peak into the walkway together as the train begins to move.

"I didn't see him when I arrived, actually I don't rememeber seeing any of the Weasleys. Only redhead I saw was Susan Bones..." they put their belongings down to go in search of their other best friend.

To their surprise he was sitting with Dean Thomas and Seamus Finnigan. Laughing, playing snaps and eating sweets with the boys. He sees them through the door window, and glares at them before turning his face away before they could open it and greet him. They stare at him stunned.

"What got stuck up his arse?" Hermione whispers to him. He shakes his head in confusion and ushers her back to their compartment.

"None of us argued through the summer right?" She looks at him as she sits. He shakes his head again.

"No, I've kept in contact with both of you the whole time and its just been about our summers as expected. He wasn't happy I declined staying over there, but we have had letters since that conversation. Same with meeting at Diagon Alley for our school shopping, I had already did it. After hearing how busy it was by you, I was glad I didn't go. It just would have meant more stares. My goal this year is to do my best in school but also not be focused on so hard as The Boy Who Lived. Thats a title others gave me, I'm just Harry. I think of it as my mother defeated him, not me." He tells her.

"Anyways, I'm sure we will find out his problem soon enough, did you bring them?" he changes the subject. She nods in excitement. He focuses on unshrinking the small table he brought while she pulls out a board game.

"I say we start with scrabble. First round we play normal. And the second round we can only spell out charms we learned last year or are in our current books," she lays it out on the table, nodding at his work in approval. "Good job Harry! I'm so proud of you!"

--

When they arrived, He shrunk his trunk and placed it in his pocket, released Hedwig to fly up to the owlery and showed Hermione the charm he used so she could use it too.

As they headed towards the carriages, Ron continued to ignore them so they shrugged for now and kept on. They were able to sit with Neville and Olver Wood.

Harry and Oliver immediately get into a discussion about Quidditch practice while Hermione engaged Neville in a topic on plants. When they reached the school, Harry stops Oliver before he could open the door.

"Oliver, one moment, I wanted to give you this," he hands over his shrunken Nimbus 2000.

"Harry! what?! Why?! I couldn't!" Oliver protest.

"Yes you can! I thought hard about giving it away. It was my first broom. However...you are a great captain Wood. You also only have this year and next year before you graduate. Let's win the house cup!"

"Did you get a new broom?" Oliver looks at him in excitement.

"Of course!! Nimbus 2001! And I wrote down a bunch of charms that will help us whe out there, like keeping us dry and warm when it rains. And a charm to keep us from being blown away by harsh winds, " they kept up the discussion all the way to the Great Hall on charms they shoudl all be learning. Harmione reminded herself to look at these spells too to learn.

By the end of the feast, Harry was ready to get some sleep. And get away from all the girls that were staring at him with fluttering eyelashes. Hermione mentioned it might be the silver glasses with his longer hair that was drawing them in.

He had only lengthened his hair to help manage it better, not for girls to stare at him with Doe eyes. Ron's sister being one of them. Ron had mentioned once she had a huge crush on him but that really just annoyed him because she didn't even know him. Whatever tales she heard to get her crushing that hard were false. He quickly decided avoiding her would be best.

Once in his dorm with the other boys, he quickly organized his things the way he wanted them, placed wards and such before getting ready for bed. Ron continued his scowling which Harry just ignored. The boy was a hot head, Harry was positive he'll learn soon enough what his problem was.

His routine from the Manor followed him to school some which meant he was up earlier than everyone else to take a morning run before breakfast. He pulled his potion vials he needed for the day with him that Bibsy had given him. He needed to talk to madam Pomfrey about a restock if that was possible or maybe he and Hermione could learn to make them.

You could ask snape, the back of his mind told him but he pushed that thought away for now. The man would just yell at him if he dared ask for help. Though he'd keep it under consideration. Snape was the one who made the potions for the Hospital Wings anyways, Himm and his NEWT students.

Hermione was already eating with a book open next to her when he arrived to the Great Hall. It was still early enough that the Great Hall was not filled with students yet.

'Harry! Since when do you get up so early?" She looks up at him in surprise.

"Since I started getting up for a run during the summer. I'm going to keep the habit," he answers as he fills his plate across from her. They chatted some about their time tables Professor McGonnagall handed them while they ate and Hermione pulled out a study binder to make for him. They agreed to make sure she made time for Quidditch and time just for them to hang out. Studying was important but so was just being the kids they were. She blushed awkwardly at that but nodded in agreement.

"What is that?" He looks up to see her staring at the potions he just chugged down.

"Oh, remember how I wrote that I got a full exam at St. Mungos?" she nods, "These are my presciption potions to get me caught up with my health and growth. The healer said I should have a growth spurt in height by christmas. This one is for malnutrition. I only have enough left for the week, so I need to see if Madam pomfrey has any available," he explains. She nods and hugs him on their way out, not seeing that their potions professor had heard that last conversion and for once was not scowling at Harry with hatred.

--

The duo was frustrated with Ron's attitude by the end of the first week back in Hogwarts. It had not gotten any better. Even Dean and Seamus were looking between them all in confusion.

Harry tried asking the twins but theydidn't have an answer and Ron avoiding them too meant Harry had a harder time to confront him about it.

On the other turnaround, Draco stopped picking on Hermione and greeted Harry every now and then. He didn't try to befriend them but Harry and Hermione appreciated the little changes given.

Harry was excited for all his classes. It started with Double potions in Herbology with the Hufflepuffs, and they were working with Mandrakes. As Ron was stillign being a git, Harry and Hermione partnered with Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott.

Transfiguration was harder yet easier as thanks to his mother's portrait talking to him during the summer, he was able to change the beetles into buttons by his third try. It was all about picturing it in his head as he cast the spell.

Defense turned out to be his worst class. Lockhart was a complete joke. His quiz was all about him, not defense and all the girls swooning over him, including Hermione, made him wonder if that was what was making them blind to his idiosyncrasies. He ignored the test to open his standard defense book year 2 instead and review it again as it was going to be needed.

Even so with majority of his classes being a good start to the school year, the weekend was welcome. He was already awake getting ready for his run when Oliver decided to wake the team up. He grabs his uniform and shoves it into a bag as he leaves the dorm to meet the team.

When Oliver told him on the carriage that he had a new plan, he had not expected to see 3 boards worth of notes and drawings to overview. When they finally made it out, it left a very upset Oliver to learn that Slytherin was taking over the field to train their new Seeker, Draco Malfoy.

To calm his captain down, he pulls him aside to suggest a run around the lake and they could practice some of those spells they talked about. Oliver was still upset but agreed. The run did good to wake the others up so when it was time to start practicing the spells, he led the way to a waiting Hermione who seemed to have been able to get his stalker Colin Creevey away back inside.

Oliver liked the run so much he decided they would start doing that every morning when he learned thats what Harry was already doing. Harry himself didn't mind the company.

Breakfast was over by the time they went back inside so they followed the twins to the kitchens for something to eat.

It was later that night in the library looking for a certain subject when he heard it.

Let me kill you...come to me...

What the bloody hell? He checked the time and decided maybe it was time for bed. He had a scrabble match with Hermione the next day anyways.

--

September flew into October. The spells the team learned meant when he came back inside after practice, his clothes were still dry after flying in the rain. And it was a quick scourgify that got rid of the mud before he trailed it across the halls. He made it to his dorm to change just in time for dinner.

When Halloween arrived, he was sure his friendship with Ron was over. It was like he had taken over for Draco with the bullying. He made fun of Harry when he learned he was taking potions for his health and made sure to call Hermione a swot any chance he could which was almost always. She had come to studying in the stands during his practices when weather allowed it just to get some space from the common room.

Ironically, in their loss of Ron, their gain was Neville. He taught them Herbology that they weren't even teaching in claass yet while Hermione helped him with potions and Harry helped with his confidence. He didn't tell Neville, but he had wrote to his gran about Neville needing a new wand that worked properly with his magic. She was taking Neville during the winter break for a new wand.

Somehow too, they had built of a group learning to play the board games Hermione had brought to school. Scrabble, Monopoly, Uno, poker, jenga, and trivia that Hermione had worked like the scrabble to do magic knowledge instead of muggle questions. Susan Bones and Hermione had gone together to get it made into an official club while he heard the twins muttering between each other to make magic versions of all of them. At least he knew what to get them for yule. Actually he thought it might be a great idea to buy a set of each game to give to each common room. He quickly put an order in for all of his christmas shopping even though there was almost 2 months before winter break between then and now.

He had all this on his mind as they eventually left the Halloween feast back to their dorms. it took him a second to realize everyone had stopped inthe halls, blocking the way. He had hold of Hermione and Neville to not get separated as he pushed through the crowd.

He had not expected to see a dead cat and red writing on the wall. Filch was screaming at non other than Ron, Dean, and Seamus.

"You killed my cat!! You killed my cat!!" They watched as Dumbledore and the other Professors came through to investigate.

The Chamber of Seacrets has been opened. Enemies of the Heir Bweware.

It was on his mind as he lay in bed later that night. He was sure he had heard of it before but couldn't figure out where.

The beginning of November started in whispers. While he was intrigued, he was also glad that for once, it wasn't about him.

While Hermione searched for answers, he focused on Potions. So far, he had had his potions appear by his bed side weekly with no explanation after he had talked to Madam Pomfrey. He had expected to have to walk to the hospital wing to get them.

Professor Snape appears to also be ignoring him. It was better than being mocked so he sure wasn't complaining. He made sure that in response, he didn't mess up his potions assignments to ruin the peace.

He also used that peace to put in a request to use one of the empty potion labs to perfect his potions work. He wanted to learn how to make healing potions like that. His usual favorite subject would have been defense if he didn't have such an awful teacher but with Snape not breathing down his neck, it wasn't such a bad subject. Hermione thought the extra work was perfect for helping Neville. The less melting cauldrons the better. They borrowed Harry's potion ingredient book during these lessons.

--

Once Hermione got her answers about the story of the Chamber of Secrets out of Professor Binns, she had immediately wanted to be a detective to check out the area. Like everyone else, it was still the talk of the school.

Harry cut her off so fast when she started questioning who could possibly be the heir, she practically had whiplash.

"No Hermione. Despite the talk of the school, I do not want to waste breath on the subject. If whatever petrified Mrs Norris comes after the students, we will not be the detectives on it, instead focusing on protecting each other. Got it?" He didn't mean to sound harsh but there was a bad feeling in his gut that he was eventually going to get pulled into this somehow and he really just wanted to just let the adults handle it.

"If you would like to figure it out, you can figure out what did it, not who is the heir, and then all I ask is that you give that information to ALL the teachers. One of them is bound to listen unlike last year..." she stares at him a moment but eventually nods in agreement. She undterstood why he felt that way. He almost died last year getting involved.