Chapter 1 got expanded and split in 2, this is the second half of the original first chapter.
The next morning, Harry found Terry and Anthony, who everyone had immediately begun calling Tony, in the common room. "Morning, Harry, ready for classes today? I hope we don't have to start the week with Snape, or end the week with Snape, or …" Terry paused for a second. "Actually I don't think there's any time I want to have a class with Snape.
"I mean he does sound pretty awful, but he'll probably be too busy picking on the Puffs to come after us, I mean what's he going to do? Ask us questions that we won't have learned the answer to yet? We've all been reading ahead." Harry assured his new friend.
"Uhh, Harry …" Tony started. "You do know that he specifically goes after us Claws with questions like that, the Puffs don't care if one of them doesn't know something ahead of the classes, but in here … You'd better hope it's at least a year away on the syllabus if you want to have your reputation intact when you don't know the answer."
"Well then we just need to …" Harry paused for effect. "Study for potions like any normal claw would." The three of them burst out in laughter.
Making their way down to the Great Hall was an interesting experience. They were going up and down and up and down the stairs for what felt like an hour, with the staircase throwing them out one floor too high or one floor too low, over and over, right up until one of the prefects found them struggling and took them the correct route to the Great Hall. Apparently, once one got the timing down, they barely had to walk two flights of stairs to get right from the dungeons to the top of the main body of the castle. Obviously the many towers required further walking.
As the trio ate their breakfast, the fifth year prefects came down the table handing out timetables. Potions first.
"What a shocking way to come back to lessons after the weekend." Terry groaned. "Of course, of course, we start the week with potions."
"Chill out, mate, we have potions every week, doesn't matter when it is." Tony pointed out.
"And at least we get it over and done with this way." Harry offered.
The potions lab had an off putting aura, making you feel as if the shadows in the corners of the room were watching you, as if any mistake might be your last, and say what you will about Snape, the man knew how to terrify eleven year olds. He swept into the room, the doors snapping shut behind him, his cloak billowing out to the sides as he walked down the middle of the room. "It seems we have a celebrity in our midst." Snape drawled. "Mr Potter, let's hope that your fame is good for something. What would I get if I were to add powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
"The draught of living death, Professor." Harry replied, finding the question trivial.
"And where would you look if I were to ask you to find me a bezoar?" Snape asked, a hint of venom in his voice this time.
"In the stomach of a goat, sir. Or in the pocket of Bill, over there - I think he's afraid of somebody trying to poison him." Harry replied, earning a scowl from Snape, and a poorly suppressed giggle from the rest of the class.
"Arrogant, Potter, just like your father!" Snape snarled, before regaining his composure and starting the lesson.
The lesson didn't consist of a lot of teaching. Snape simply charmed a piece of chalk to write up instructions for a potion on the board and expected the class to get on with it. All of the students made a good start on the cure for boils that Snape had them working on, that is, until he began prowling around the room, eerily peering over the shoulders of his students. This threw many of them off, causing their potions to fail, sometimes catastrophically. By the end of the class, not only had almost all of the Hufflepuffs failed to produce a passable potion, but the majority of the Ravenclaws had also failed to produce a passable potion under Snape's intimidating gaze.
"You really put a target on your back there, Harry." Terry announced, as soon as they were out of earshot to the classroom. "Wouldn't want to be in your shoes for the rest of my time at Hogwarts. That man certainly knows how to hold a grudge."
"Well if that isn't the understatement of the century." Harry laughed."It would have been around fifteen years since he studied here with my father, if my Aunt remembered the dates right."
"Merlin!" Tony exclaimed. "That's one vindictive spiteful man. Fifteen year grudge. You're done for Harry."
The next lesson was Transfiguration, knowing that this was the class that would be most similar to the design work he'd done with his uncle, Harry was very excited. He hoped he wouldn't have any issues in transfiguration like he had with the Lumos spell the night before. Unfortunately though, what should have been a very simple walk through the castle to the transfiguration classroom wasn't so easy. The nearest set of back stairs was far enough out of the way that Harry and his friends would once again be at the mercy of the great staircase. This time, the staircase had seemingly decided that Harry would enjoy walking up wonky stairs that appeared to be straight, while his friends were unaffected. This led to his friends witnessing the Great Staircase's latest comedy routine: unsuspecting student falls up the stairs, never quite falling over, but absolutely incapable of regaining their balance. This time at least, Harry didn't have to deal with the stairs refusing to take him where he needed to get to, seemingly intent on making him fall straight up the stairs as fast as he could possibly go. Not being on the staircase for much time however, saved much of the embarrassment that could have been caused. Instead, Harry found himself arriving at the lesson well ahead of time.
As Harry entered the classroom, there was a cat sitting on the desk, no professor in sight. This seemed odd to Harry, who assumed it must be McGonagall's pet, since all the students were allowed pets, why shouldn't the staff also be allowed them.
This illusion was broken when, a minute or so after the lesson was scheduled to start, the cat jumped off the table, landing gracefully in the form of the Transfiguration professor. Harry's excitement couldn't be diminished by her warnings about the dangers of transfiguration, nor her explanations of how hard it was to achieve the best results in the subject.
Once it came to actually transfiguring objects, Harry found he was a natural, being the first in the class to successfully transfigure a matchstick into a needle and back, as well as vice versa. He found that his experience designing parts with his uncle allowed him to easily visualise the changes he desired in the object. By the end of the class, Harry had performed all of the inanimate to inanimate transfigurations from the first year textbook, before McGonagall had instructed him to learn the switching spell instead of the standard homework which would have been to continue learning the inanimate to inanimate transfigurations.
Throughout the week, Harry saw his next-door neighbour fairly often: Daphne, he'd learned she was called, was sharing nearly half his classes, along with the rest of the Slytherins. This didn't mean he got to talk to her though, as she was always with her friend Tracey. Fortunately for him though, she was constantly rebuffing Malfoy's efforts to gain her affection, seeming finding her fellow Slytherin's attempts at wooing her laughable at best.
A class Harry had been looking forward to since first seeing it on his timetable was introduction to flying. He'd been told by Hagrid that his father had been one of the best Quidditch players in recent Hogwarts history, leading the Gryffindor team to three successive victories in the Quidditch Cup in his final three years at the school. Harry wasn't interested in becoming a seeker like most players were, the idea of systematically breaking down the defence of the opposing team before effortlessly scoring seemed like a much better idea to him.
As soon as the lesson began, he took to flying like a fish to water, performing complex zig-zag manoeuvres, and flying circles around everyone else in the lesson. When he returned to the ground, Madam Hooch recommended he apply to his house's second team. While first years couldn't own their broom or play for their house in the Quidditch Cup, any student in the third year or below could apply to join the second team, which would play friendlies against the other house's second teams in order to prepare players to take over from their older counterparts.
Having researched the construction of brooms, Harry could think of a number of improvements that could be made. Firstly, whoever designed these things didn't know the first thing about aerodynamics, the broom didn't take into account anything about how the rider would interact with the air around them. They also didn't consider the potential of using movable aerodynamic components to allow for sharper turns than would otherwise be available using only magic. Having discovered this, Harry began to draw some sketches of how he would design a broom if it was down to him. He started by redesigning the front of the broom in a way that would cause air to pass over the rider as long as they tucked in properly. He then added adjustable aerofoils to the back that would allow the broom to either turn more sharply or allow for lateral movement of the broom without turning in case the rider wanted to dodge something. Unfortunately for Harry, he would not be able to make any of these changes in his first year due to the fact that even if he did manage to get selected for the second team, he'd have to borrow a school broom that he wouldn't be allowed to modify to his liking.
Not many turned up to the Ravenclaw Quidditch tryouts, with most of the Claws preferring to study in the library or in the Ravenclaw tower. This did mean though, that Harry made the second team even before getting on the broom. Despite this, the captain of the second team, Roger Davies, was impressed with Harry's agility on the broom, making him the left chaser for the team over a second year who would start on the bench.
Outside of his studies, Harry analysed the team's playbook, coming up with new plays and formations that he felt would improve the team's offensive capabilities. Bringing these up in training did not go over as well as he'd hoped though, with the other players dismissing his ideas as best left for professionals given their complexity. This quick dismissal of his ideas irked Harry, not liking the way that the other players wouldn't even attempt any of his ideas, preferring to stick to slow and predictable plays that could be defended against by anyone with any understanding of how to play.
In the run-up to his first game, a number of concerning things seemed to be happening around Hogwarts. Firstly, rumours of a giant three-headed dog in the corridor that Dumbledore had warned against visiting began to spread around the school. Harry tried to stay as far from that corridor as he could, not wishing to come face to face with such a beast given his limited magical ability. Then came the strangest event. The stuttering defence professor came running into the Great Hall to warn the residents of the castle of a troll in the dungeon before fainting and collapsing to the floor. This sent the school into a panic. The teachers left to go and find the troll, locking the door to the hall to ensure the safety of those within. With everything going on, Harry was left to wonder how this could possibly be one of the leading magical schools in the world. Any respectable muggle school he'd heard of would never allow anything this insane to happen.
Putting his concerns aside, Harry continued to study alone in his room between classes and Quidditch practice. He enjoyed the respect that the other Ravenclaws had for his peace and quiet while studying. This schedule continued up until his first Quidditch game against the Slytherins who'd just come off the back of a convincing win against the Gryffindors.
Harry felt nervous lining up for the game in front of the small crowd that had gathered around the pitch. Fortunately, unlike the first teams, the second teams didn't draw a huge crowd. As the game kicked off, the Slytherins went straight on the attack, having all clearly played before. With very little he could do about it, the Slytherin chasers executed plays that saw them ducking and weaving all over the pitch, dominating the possession. When the Ravenclaws did get the ball, the Slytherin beaters managed to lay down enough suppression fire with the bludgers that it was nearly impossible to make any progress towards the goal.
When the score reached 100-0 in favour of Slytherin, Roger called a time out, instructing Harry to lead the attacks as the smallest and nimblest member of the team. While Harry didn't enjoy his small size being pointed out, he did agree with the strategy. Marcus Belby, the other chaser on the team, would work with Roger to provide Harry with one on one chances against the Slytherin chasers.
Once back out on the pitch, the new strategy seemed to work, the newfound attacking ability of the Ravenclaws forcing the Slytherins to play more defensively. The score was brought to 130-70 before the Slytherins used their timeout to make a change. When play restarted, Harry found himself being constantly marked by Daphne, who up until this point had mainly been playing the same role as Harry. The next time Ravenclaw got a possession, Harry was passed the quaffle to make a run on goal. Now with Daphne defending him however, he'd lost a lot of the advantages he'd had against the bigger Slytherin chasers. As he flew at full speed towards the goal, she easily overtook him, causing him to bank sharply away from her as she gave chase. She continued to follow him as he dived suddenly towards the ground, with everyone else having stopped to watch the brilliant display of flying being put on by the two first year chasers. At the last second, Harry attempted to pull out of the dive, a move that was normally used by seekers in an attempt to throw off their counterpart. Daphne, seeing this coming, pulled up slightly before him, causing him to pull up into the bottom of her broom sending them both spiralling into the ground.