Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy Chapter 3 (Patreon)

Hello friends and fans, Kairomaru here with chapter three of Harry Potter and the Artificer Legacy. This chapter Harry gets to Hogwarts and gets sorted. He’ll go through some classes and make a new friend. Plus he sets himself up a private workshop/practice room in an out of the way classroom to continue his Enchanting.

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Chapter 3 – Sorting, Classes, Crafting

Harry disembarked from the train at Hogsmeade Station, at least Tonks said that was what the station was called, and followed the instructions Hagrid gave. He got into a boat with two girls and another boy. He didn't even really notice much about the other three soon-to-be students, far too excited to see Hogwarts for the first time. Hagrid had said in their letters that the first sight of Hogwarts was truly amazing. The gentle giant hadn’t been exaggerating, the magnificent first sight of Hogwarts truly lived up to the expectations Hagrid had given it. After getting off the boats and being led to an antechamber by a witch called Professor McGonagall they’d had a scare with actual ghosts, which Harry had felt was an interesting experience. It also made him a bit curious about how ghosts ‘worked’ for lack of a better term. Only at Hogwarts for a few minutes and already new curiosities were appearing. They were led into the Great Hall by Professor McGonagall to the looks and stares of the rest of the school. Professor McGonagall began calling off names and one by one the new students went up to the small stool with the odd singing hat to be sorted. A handful of minutes later and he had the ratty old hat on his head and was about to be sorted.

“Hmmm, how interesting.” The voice of the hat murmured into his mind, startling him a little. “You have courage, but it's a more cautious sort, more for experimenting rather than bravery. Not particularly suited for Gryffindor.”

Harry didn't really have an opinion on that, sure both of his parents had been Gryffindors, but if the magical talking hat said Gryffindor wasn't for him then that was as good a reason for not being sorted there as any he supposed. Besides, he'd been observing the Sorting so far, he had a feeling a lot of the headstrong and brash types went to Gryffindor. Intelligence didn't seem to be held in high regard in that house and stupidity could easily be mistaken for bravery. He’d seen ‘tests of courage’ done by some of the ‘rougher’ children in Primary School. Usually it ended up with the child in question getting caught trying to shoplift. Not brave, just stupid, in Harry’s opinion.

“You have ambition, and are rather cunning. You could do well in Slytherin.” The hat stated in his mind. Harry grimaced in distaste. Malfoy had gone to Slytherin and he didn’t really want to interact with the blond prat.

He knew what the hat was talking about in terms of ambition though. Harry wanted to secure his future by fixing his Family’s financial situation and by becoming stronger and more knowledgeable in Magic. With financial security came stability and with magical knowledge and power he could, theoretically, go out into the world and study all sorts of Magic. Perhaps even unravel ancient secrets or create wondrous Artifacts the world had never seen. In the meantime, there was no need to put up with people like Malfoy when there were other options available.

“Not Slytherin then.” The hat agreed, feeling Harry’s displeasure at the offer. “You’re not afraid of hard work either. Hufflepuff would be good for you. You could make friends there.”

‘I already have a friend there.’ Harry thought back. ‘But she graduates this year so there isn’t much point in going to Hufflepuff based on that.’ Harry reasoned. Other than Tonks it seemed as if most of the people of the Magical World were going to be more interested in befriending his fame rather than him.

The hat almost seemed to sigh. “I see that holds little appeal for you, very well then. You do have a good mind and want to learn, so it better be...Ravenclaw!”

Harry took the hat off his head and walked over to the table of blue and bronze, trying to ignore the loud cheering that had started after a moment of stunned silence. The other students around him went to introduce themselves with far too much enthusiasm to even pretend at being casual, but were fortunately not nearly as annoying as Malfoy had been. The last few students were sorted without incident and the Headmaster stood up to speak.

"Welcome!" Dumbledore greeted. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"

‘Why?’ Harry thought to himself, before examining the food that had suddenly appeared. That was another interesting bit of magic he’d eventually look into. A lot of it seemed to be several varieties of meat, with various vegetable dishes between the platters of meat. Harry picked out some vegetables, potatoes and a bit of steak for himself. The goblets were filled with some kind of orange liquid, but it certainly didn’t smell like orange juice. A tentative sip sent an unexpected rush of sweetness onto his tongue. Was this made from pumpkin? Who added so much sugar to pumpkin? Who decided to juice pumpkins? What was wrong with normal fruit juices? Were they not ‘magical’ enough? Thankfully there was a pitcher of water within arm’s reach and Harry was able to switch drinks. He spent the rest of the feast filling his stomach and politely declining conversation with anyone that looked at his forehead before speaking to him. The feast eventually ended and Dumbledore stood up to speak again.

"Ahem, just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you.” Dumbledore started once he had everyone’s attention. "First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."

That sounded reasonable to Harry. Even a regular forest wasn’t something you should be wandering into haphazardly. If the Forbidden Forest stayed true to form for the Magical World, it was probably filled with monsters like feral werewolves, red caps, trolls, and giant spiders.

"I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors." Dumbledore continued.

That was a rule Harry didn’t plan on following. He had already learned to conjure fire and water but he had no plans to stop there! He planned to conjure lightning as well since Hogwarts’ ancient stone walls were non-flammable and non-conductive. He wouldn’t be able to learn how to do that if he followed that ridiculous rule.

"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch." Dumbledore announced next. Harry knew only the basics about the sport. He knew it was played on flying brooms and that the player composition made no sense. The Seeker made every other position redundant unless the game was both very long and mostly one sided.

"And finally, I must tell you that this year the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a most painful death." Dumbledore finished up the announcements with that ominous warning. Why did that also sound like some kind of ‘important plot point’ from his fantasy books?

"But before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" Dumbledore exclaimed with a large smile. Harry didn’t even know Hogwarts had a school song.

-Ravenclaw Dorm-

Harry collapsed on his very comfortable bed, face down, and exhaled into his pillow with deep sigh. He still felt like his ears had been physically assaulted from hearing the 'school song'. Good music was hopefully not a rarity in the Magical World or else Harry would have to create a trinket or charm that could record Muggle music so that he’d have something nice to listen to. To be honest he had mixed feelings about the Magical World so far.

On the plus side, he was able to study and learn more about Magic here. There was already so much he wanted to know about and even more he wanted to breakdown to figure out how it worked. The wealth of knowledge here at Hogwarts would definitely help him achieve at least part of his goals.

On the negative side, the Magical World had almost no technology to speak of. Everything was either purely mechanical or ran on Magic, there was nothing like electricity or even batteries. Harry already knew that Magical Items couldn’t be mass produced; they were literally a work of a Magical’s mana woven and bound to a physical object. If a group tried to assembly line that it would leave you with a failed enchantment and most likely a destroyed item. But surely some Witch or Wizard somewhere had tried to make a Magical battery at some point, right? If not, then why? Surely it was possible with the right runic sequence? Those were questions for later.

But at least Ravenclaws got single rooms. Having to share a room with someone would have sucked since Harry had his own room for as long as he could remember. For now he’d put the questions aside and get some sleep. Classes started tomorrow and he wanted to be well rested for them.

The next morning the school year got started in much the same way as a non-magical one would, though with much different subjects. Harry’s thoughts on his classes varied greatly depending said subject.

Herbology wasn't something that Harry could claim any real interest in. He also wasn’t impressed by Astronomy and its old fashioned telescopes. Magic made up for a bit of the difference between the old telescopes and modern ones. However buying some newer Muggle telescopes and enchanting them would produce a far greater degree of clarity. He had quickly decided that History of Magic was either a free period or a time to do something else. Their ghostly teacher was literally quoting the book verbatim which made the class itself completely redundant. Not to mention that Binns seemed obsessively focused on the Goblin Wars, to the exclusion of the rest of their textbook in fact.

Charms class was interesting, but they hadn't done anything more than the Lumos Charm and the Color Changing Charm so far. Harry had already mastered the Lumos Charm to a degree that most adults hadn’t and wandlessly at that. The Color Changing Charm was a fun novelty but nothing more than a parlor trick by comparison to the spells Harry had already read about.

Transfiguration was equally interesting and near the end of his last class Harry had been staring at the silver needle on his desk in quiet contemplation. The other students were struggling to get even a minor change in their matchstick, while he had managed to do it on the first try. He had attempted some small wandless transfigurations after returning from Diagon Alley. It had been incredibly difficult, but Harry had hoped to be able to alter the properties of materials to make them easier to work with. Wandlessly he hadn't managed anything significant, maybe a slight change in color at best. With his wand it had been almost easy by comparison. Did his previous wandless practice accelerate his magical ability with a wand? Or was the magical focus just multiplying his meager wandless skill with this branch of Magic?

"Well done, Mr. Potter!" McGonagall had praised him sounding very impressed. "I haven't seen anyone manage their first transfiguration attempt that quickly in many years. Ten points to Ravenclaw."

"Thank you, Professor." Harry had replied. While it wasn’t actually his first try at Transfiguration he didn’t think she’d believe him if he told her he’d been practicing it wandlessly.

Then Potions had come around and Harry found out what a bad teacher looked like for the first time. He still remembered his first Potions Class. It had all gone downhill when Snape got to his name during attendance.

"Ah, yes," Snape said softly when he reached his name during roll call. "Harry Potter, our new...celebrity." Harry held back a sigh, that tone portended nothing good coming from this man. Potions Class was most likely going to become his least favorite course soon.

"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," Snape continued in a near whisper. "As there is little foolish wand waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death. If you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

Harry thought that speech sounded kind of rehearsed. Snape probably used it for the first class every year. He would probably use it on the Slytherin/Gryffindor class too, when they had their first class. It wasn’t a bad speech though, just a little over the top.

"Potter!" Snape called suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"I have no idea, sir." Harry answered. He hadn’t spent very long going over his Potions textbook. It just wasn’t as interesting to him as conjuring lightning or the myriad of other spells he could start learning. Not to mention the vast amount he was still learning about Runes and Arithmancy.

"Tut, tut, clearly fame isn't everything. Let's try again Potter..." Snape drawled.

More questions came and Harry was unable to answer any of them. Truthfully, he probably should have actually read through his Potions books, but learning how to hurl spells from his hands was a much stronger desire for him than learning about stirring a collection of odd ingredients inside a cauldron. He was an eleven year old boy, after all. With one last disdainful sneer, Snape rapidly went over the answers to the questions and instantly demanded to know why the rest of the class wasn’t writing them down.

This train of near harassment went on for the rest of the class. Snape stalked around the classroom practically glaring at every student’s cauldron as if they’d personally offended him. There was no encouragement or corrections, only yelling and point deductions, truly Snape had to be the worst teacher Harry had ever heard of. He spent the rest of the Potions Class in a bad mood. Maybe he could find some alternative to attending this particular class? Snape was clearly determined to pick on him for some reason, so actually learning anything from the man was doubtful at best and laughable at worst. Harry sighed as he left the classroom in the dungeons; the first week had been going so well until now.

“What’s got you so down today, nerd?” Tonks asked from beside him causing Harry to jump almost a foot off the bench he was sitting on in the Great Hall. Tonks’ laughter led to an embarrassed blush spreading across his face.

“Tonks! Do you really have to sneak up on me?” Harry demanded as he breathed out gustily.

“Yep!” Tonks replied with a grin. “So what’s got you all moody?”

“I think Professor Snape hates me for some reason.” Harry replied.

“To be fair, Snape hates everyone that isn’t a Slytherin, so you’re not the only one.” Tonks explained with a shrug.

“Why is he a teacher then?” Harry questioned only getting a shake of the head from Tonks in reply.

“Visiting again, Tonks?” A girl’s voice spoke from behind the two. Turning around the two came face to face with Penelope Clearwater the Ravenclaw Fifth Year Prefect.

“Yep, just checking in on Harrikins!” Tonks chuckled as she ruffled Harry’s hair.

“Oi!” Harry objected as he pulled his head away from her hand.

“While I can’t say I approve of this…‘relationship’ between a Seventh Year and a First Year, as long as you aren’t violating the rules I won’t say anything. I’m just glad Harry has at least one friend.” Penelope sighed as she looked at the two. Harry’s face was bright red in embarrassment while Tonks grinned back at her.

“He’s not my boyfriend, he’s my nerd, you’re just jealous that he likes me better!” Tonks laughed as she playfully stuck out her tongue.

“That’s fine.” Penelope sighed again. Dealing with Tonks was always an experience, though she did count the Seventh Year Hufflepuff among her friends.

“Join us for dinner Penny!” Tonks demanded as she pulled Harry into her side and motioned Penelope to take the spot beside Harry. Harry’s blushing looked to be getting to unhealthy levels as he struggled to get out of Tonks’ grip so Penelope sat down in the offered spot quickly.

“Are you alright, Harry?” Penelope asked once Tonks let the First Year out of her arms.

“I’m fine.” Harry mumbled as he looked down at his plate refusing to meet anyone’s eyes until his face wasn’t red anymore. Tonks’ snickering wasn’t helping on that front.

“That’s good. After not seeing you hang around with any of your year mates I was getting worried that you did not have any friends.” Penelope admitted. As a Prefect it was her responsibility to look after the younger students. Seeing a new First Year without any friends was worrying and Penelope felt like she needed to do something to fix the situation.

“What’re you saying, Penny? Harry’s got the two of us! We’re the best friends he could have, right Harry?” Tonks exclaimed with a wide grin.

“Yes, Tonks, thank you Tonks.” Harry mumbled quickly only to be pulled into another sideways hug by the playful Seventh Year. “Tonks! Stop it!”

“Nope!” Tonks teased as she ruffled his hair again.

“Tonks don’t harass Harry.” Penelope scolded getting the older teen to let Harry go again.

“Fine, ruin my fun.” Tonks grinned getting an eye roll from Penelope and a deadpan glare from Harry as he tried to fix his messed up hair.

The three chatted as they filled their plates with food and enjoyed their evening meal. By the end of dinner Harry definitely counted Penelope as his friend. Said Prefect smiled fondly at the First Year before both were pulled into a group hug by Tonks. Naturally there was much protesting from the Ravenclaw duo. 

It was Saturday after breakfast and Harry found himself walking around the castle. He was currently looking for a place to practice his Magic. Hogwarts was large and had a plethora of empty classrooms. While he could work on most of his trinkets in the privacy of his dorm room, casting spells could potentially destroy his bed or his possessions. So here he was roaming the halls of the castle looking for an out of the way place to practice. Imagine his surprise when he came across what appeared to be an old Ancient Runes classroom. There were charts on the wall detailing various Runes and their affects. Harry looked around the room finding nothing of interest until he looked through what would be the Professor’s desk. Inside a drawer of the desk laid three wooden cases. Upon opening said cases Harry found three Rune carving kits, most likely they’d been extras for the class when it was still held in this room.

“This is great!” Harry exclaimed excitedly. He’d been convinced that he’d have to spend some of his limited funds to Owl Order a kit for himself. Both Tonks and Penelope had offered at dinner to pick one up for him on the first Hogsmeade trip of the year, but that wasn’t until near the end of October and Penelope told him the kits in Hogsmeade cost a Galleon and six Knuts. Owl Order kits cost a Galleon and three Knuts but had the standard eight Knut delivery fee added on top of that. Finding three kits in good condition would be a major boon to Harry’s crafting. Plus this room had plenty of space, it was a classroom at one point meant to house upwards of twenty students, so he could probably practice spells here too.

It was a happy Harry that made his way to dinner that evening. He’d left two of the kits in his newfound practice room and taken the third up to his dorm room. He’d immediately started looking into Rune-based locks in his Advanced Magical Crafting book. While he’d made sure to lock the room’s door a standard Alohomora would allow anyone to enter. It hadn’t taken him long to find the basics of a runic sequence meant to secure things and he’d used his new carving kit to make himself a Ward Lock. A Ward Lock was a fairly simple trinket that was made of either stone or metal. It required two pieces of either material and they had to be the same size to be paired together. The first object would be carved with the actual ward, the runic sequence that carried the effect of keeping people out. The second of the pair would be carved with the runic sequence for allowing someone to pass through the first object’s ward. When the first object was placed on a door that door became un-openable to anyone that didn’t have the ‘key’ to the ward. It didn’t stop anyone from knocking the door down or blasting it to pieces though. The other major weakness of a Ward Lock was that anyone could pick it up and move it. If you placed the Ward Object on the outside of the door it wouldn’t open, but any half-wit could figure out that taking the object off the door would remove the ward. Harry resolved himself to finishing his homework tonight so that he could attach his Ward Lock to the back of his practice room’s door tomorrow morning.

“Good evening Harry.” Penelope greeted her friend as she sat next to him for dinner. Tonks was over at the Hufflepuff table messing around with her House mates and causing much laughter. Harry knew the older teen had many friends and acquaintances but was still surprised to see just how much of her House Table she could pull into her ruckus.

“Evening Penelope.” Harry replied only to get a frown from the older girl.

“Harry I told you we’re friends now, you can call me Penny.” Penelope reminded him.

“Right, sorry, good evening Penny.” Harry corrected with a small smile. It was nice having some friends.

“Much better. Potatoes?” Penelope smiled as she offered him the large serving spoon.

“Yes, thank you.” Harry smiled back as he took the spoon and put some potatoes on his plate. The two engaged in mild chatting for the rest of the meal, mostly about how his classes were going. Just like Tonks, Penelope had no recommendations for dealing with Snape. The man was just dour all the time and unpleasant at the best of times. Dinner finished with a wonderful dessert, treacle tart for Harry, before they were all ushered back to their Common Rooms for the evening. A couple of hours later a satisfied Harry climbed into bed with all of his homework completed.

The next morning Harry had gotten dressed for the day and headed down to breakfast. Tonks was apparently having a lie in as he didn’t see her in the hall. Penelope was comforting another first year, Mandy if Harry remembered right, who was still hit with bouts of homesickness from time to time. A quick meal and Harry was walking out of the hall towards his practice room. He’d only gotten a few steps out of the Great Hall when a thought occurred to him. Even if he installed his Ward Lock on the practice room door any student who came across the un-openable door would most likely become curious about it. With a moment of thought Harry altered his course to his dorm room. Once in the privacy of his room he quickly opened his trunk and opened one of the expanded space drawers. Inside were dozens of stones he’d collected from Privet Drive and brought with him to use as testing material for new trinkets. Many simple trinkets and talismans could be made simply by carving the proper runic sequence into stone of the right size and shape. Metal also worked well for this purpose but until his Transfiguration skills increased, or he found a way to safely make a forge of his own somewhere in the school, he had no way to shape more metal. He was saving his last five metal bars from the summer day camp to make more Scouters later.

Quickly picking out a proper stone Harry took it over to his desk and opened his carving kit. Pulling out the etching tool he proceeded to carve the necessary runes into the stone to turn it into another Hiding Stone. Thirty minutes later and with some twine now tied around it, the new Hiding Stone was finished and ready to be used. Taking it with him Harry made his way to the practice room. Standing in front of the door Harry grinned at his own idea. Taking his new Hiding Stone from his robe pocket he hung it from the door handle and smiled when he noticed the slight glow the stone gave off. That meant it was fulfilling its purpose of hiding the door. The glow quickly faded and now the door would be less noticeable to all but Harry. Unless the person in question was actively looking for this particular door it wouldn’t be any more interesting to them than a blank section of the wall. Unlocking the door with a quick Alohomora, wandlessly at that, Harry entered his practice room and tied the Ward Lock to the inside handle of the door with more twine. A few quick tests to make sure the Ward Lock was working properly and Harry was laughing at his new personal room in Hogwarts.

That night Harry was walking to dinner a little early having spent a good chunk of the day practicing his Wandless Magic. He had made some progress with his Transfiguration but still nowhere near enough to use it to help shape materials for enchanting. The control and precision required for Transfiguration was going to annoy him until he got it right. But his Charms were coming along well enough he’d gotten both the Unlocking Charm, Alohomora, and the All Purpose Counter Spell, Finite Incantatem, to work wandlessly. He was still constantly practicing all of his Magic of course. It never paid to be lazy, as both Vernon and Petunia had told him and Dudley growing up. He was slowly making his way through the First Year curriculum for spells and the library was a wealth of interesting new spells just waiting to be learned and mastered.

Harry noticed upon turning a corner that a few Professors were currently making their way towards the Great Hall as well. Seeing as they hadn’t noticed him Harry simply couldn’t resist. Pulling his Scouter out of his robe pocket he placed it over his right eye and scanned the first Professor.

A ‘10112’ almost had Harry stumbling over his own feet. Who would have guessed that Professor Flitwick had so much mana? He’d heard that his Head of House used to be a professional duelist but he’d honestly expected Hagrid’s ‘7062’ to be near the top of the mana rankings.

A quick turn of the lens and Professor Vector, the Arithmancy teacher, was scanned. The ‘5994’ on the lens seemed respectable for a witch that was loved by her students for her calm demeanor and patient instruction.

The next Professor, Sprout, came in with a ‘6104’ and Harry didn’t have much thoughts on the mana amount of the Herbology Professor. He still didn’t have much aptitude for her class and honestly he doubted he ever would.

The group of Professors passed through the doorway into the Great Hall and Harry slowly walked his way towards the door. Just as he was standing in the doorway he glanced up at the head table. Seeing both Snape and Dumbledore already sitting down Harry carefully stayed out of sight and scanned them. Snape, his least favorite Professor by far, was first. Harry nearly choked on his saliva when ‘10848’ showed up on the lens. How the bloody hell did Snape have more mana than a former professional duelist? Any fantasy of a direct confrontation with Snape was quickly tossed from Harry’s mind. Until he got stronger, much stronger, magically Snape was far out of his league.

With a quick gulp Harry finally turned his Scouter onto Headmaster Dumbledore. He didn’t even attempt to keep up with the rapidly growing number on the lens and simply waited for it to stop climbing. He had to grab onto the wall to steady himself when the absurd number of ‘41310’ stopped on the lens. What in the actual hell was Dumbledore?! How could someone have such a high amount of mana? It was four times what a professional duelist like Flitwick had! What kind of outlier was the Headmaster? There were a dozen more questions already running through Harry’s mind as he stowed his Scouter away in his robe pocket. He wished that a way to quantify mana had been created centuries or even a millennium ago, just so famous Magicals from the past could have had their amounts recorded. Harry wondered how Dumbledore would compare to the Four Founders of Hogwarts, or how the Headmaster and Merlin would match up. Unfortunately no one would ever know the answer. Harry wondered briefly if his lessons and extracurricular practicing had increased his mana at all. He’d have to build a self-scanner like his first clay prototype to be able to measure his own mana again.

It was Tuesday evening and Harry was in the library looking up information for his Defense Against the Dark Arts homework. There was another class that Harry disliked. Professor Quirrel’s stutter made it almost impossible to follow what the man was trying to teach. Not to mention the overpowering smell of garlic that hung about the room. Harry had already taken to mostly self-study in the course just to look up spells. Grabbing a book that should give him enough information to finish his essay Harry walked towards the tables set up for students to study at. He noticed that a few tables were occupied by upper years and two were occupied by first years. The closest table of the two had the bushy haired girl from the train sitting by herself with a stack of no less than eight books next to her. The farther table had two members of his own House sitting together, Mandy Brocklehurst and Padma Patil. Deciding it couldn’t hurt to learn the name of the other girl Harry made his way over to her table.

“Mind if I sit here?” Harry asked getting the Gryffindor girl to startle slightly.

“Oh, um, yes of course.” The girl replied once she realized someone had addressed her.

“Thanks.” Harry said before setting his book down and getting out his quill and parchment. It had taken him weeks but he could finally write with a quill up to his own standards of penmanship. He still took notes on notebook paper and used a ballpoint pen for it, but he was finally able to turn in neatly written assignments and essays done by quill now. “I’m Harry by the way, Harry Potter.”

“I’m Hermione Granger, nice to meet you.” Hermione introduced herself before continuing to speak. “I’ve read about you, you know. You’re in ‘Modern Magical History’, ‘Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century’, and ‘The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts’.”

“I wouldn’t believe most of it.” Harry sighed as he opened his book. “If you believe everything that’s said about me then I’ve also ridden Dragons at age five and fought Werewolves and Vampires across Europe when I was nine.”

“Oh, that’s quite outlandish isn’t it?” Hermione asked with a grimace.

“Yeah, I’d only just discovered my magic when I was eight. So I don’t know who thought I was riding Dragons and all the other stuff.” Harry shook his head in exasperation. “So what are you reading?”

“Oh just some extra books for classes.” Hermione replied as she patted her stack.

“Ok, but do you really need that many? We only have six classes right now.” Harry stated as he looked at the stack of books.

“It’s just a bit of light reading.” Hermione responded with a nod. “Unfortunately none of my House mates feel the same way about our studies. So I’ve…” She trailed off into mumbling that Harry couldn’t make out.

“What was that last bit?” Harry asked after finishing the sentence he’d been writing. “I’m afraid I didn’t catch it.”

“I said I haven’t been able to make any friends.” Hermione muttered lowly while looking down at the table.

“Well I’m no expert on making friends but it could be you aren’t looking in the right place.” Harry replied getting Hermione to look up at him in surprise.

“What do you mean?” Hermione questioned.

“Wait right here and I can probably show you.” Harry answered as he stood up and made his way over to his two House mates. “Hey Padma, Mandy, how are you two this evening?”

“Hey Harry, I’m good.” Mandy replied with a nod and a smile.

“Doing some studying.” Padma motioned at their four books.

“I see, do you think you could help me out? You see the girl at the table I’m sitting at?” Harry asked getting Padma and Mandy to look over for a moment before turning back to Harry and nodding. “She’s a rather studious Gryffindor and because of that she hasn’t been able to make a single friend so far. I was hoping we could help her out and show her that not everyone in the castle is put off by being a good student.”

“Why isn’t she in Ravenclaw with us then?” Mandy asked already standing up and gathering her books.

“Why would she end up in Gryffindor of all Houses?” Padma questioned also gathering her books.

“No idea, but I think a few friends that are both good students and sociable will do her a world of good.” Harry responded with a smile which both girls returned. The trio made their way over to where Hermione was still sitting getting the bushy haired girl’s eyes to widen.

Introductions were quickly made and Hermione was practically hugged by both Ravenclaw girls when she’d told them of her lack of friends in Gryffindor House. Within the span of their near two hour study session the three girls and Harry had all become friendly with each other. Hermione’s beaming smile as she, Mandy, and Padma set up another study date together could have blinded someone. With a smile of his own Harry left the library with his homework finished and followed along behind Mandy and Padma back towards Ravenclaw Tower.

‘You did some good today, Harry old boy.’ Harry praised himself mentally as the trio neared the bronze knocker that guarded the Ravenclaw Common Room. While Padma and Mandy were distracted by answering the knocker’s riddle Harry managed a quick scan of both girls. Mandy had a mana amount of ‘118’ and Padma had a ‘114’ both girls were about average among all the First Years Harry had been able to scan so far.

It was October thirtieth and Harry was in his practice room going over his spell repertoire and looking over his in-progress trinkets. Things had gone well in the almost two months he’d been at Hogwarts. He’d made close friends in Tonks and Penelope while having friends in Hermione, Mandy, Padma, and Hagrid of course. Draco was becoming a bit of a pest but thankfully Slytherin and Ravenclaw only shared two classes a week. Looking over his current work Harry smiled at having completed another self-scanner. This one was made from stone thanks to Tonks transfiguring it for him. She’d been curious about why he wanted a stone frame but he’d just told her it was a secret and she’d sworn to get him to tell her before she left for the Yule Break. Now having the means to measure his own mana again Harry started pouring his mana into the frame and watched as the number made of light within the frame increased. When it finally stopped Harry whooped with joy at the number displayed. After all ‘364’ was just under a hundred more mana than he’d had before term had started.

“Now that I know this works and it didn’t get damaged from use I guess I should give this invention a name too.” Harry smiled as he looked over the Rune carved stone frame. “Maybe another acronym? It could become my thing.” He chortled to himself as he thought it over. After five minutes of thinking he announced his self-scanner’s name, at least to himself. “Transfigured Energy Scanning Talisman or T.E.S.T. for short, I wonder if I can market this as well? ‘Get your Test Frame and discover your own Magical strength.’ Sounds like an acceptable marketing line.” Harry chuckled as he set the frame down on the Professor’s desk he’d appropriated for his work table. He’d talked to both Penelope and Tonks about possibly starting up an Owl Order business. Even underage children could do business through the Owl Order service. Since Owl Order took care of all business operations and costs of shipping said products with their massive flock of highly trained owls anybody could sell through them. The company took ten percent of the profit as their share but for Harry any money coming in would be worth it.

Penelope’s reaction when he’d showed her his Scouter and explained its function had been more than amusing. Tonks had almost fallen over from laughing so hard. But the Prefect had agreed that if he could make enough of them that he’d be practically guaranteed to one day be approached by some big names looking to sponsor him as an Enchanter. That suited Harry just fine, he’d get to continue crafting and honing his skills and one day he’d create a true Artifact and earn the title Artificer. Incidentally Tonks’ smug smile at getting her updated mana reading when Penelope got her first was amusing as the two girls playfully jibed at each other over their numbers. Tonks’ new reading had gone up to ‘4776’ while Penelope had a reading of ‘2812’. He’d also learned that Tonks was a Metamorphmagus during the course of the conversation when Penelope had brought it up and the Seventh Year had demonstrated for Harry. That had set his curiosity into overdrive for a few moments and Tonks had laughed herself silly at his multitude of questions. His curiosity had gotten completely derailed however when Tonks had made a lewd innuendo about Harry wanting to ‘examine’ her. Penelope had scolded the older girl while Harry had tried to hide his furiously blushing face.

Harry chuckled at the memory of his fun loving friend and locked up his practice room, or was it a workshop now? Heading up to Ravenclaw Tower with confirmation that his mana was increasing would see Harry getting a good sleep tonight. Penelope was helping him write up a promotional ad for the sale of his four new Scouters for the Owl Order service. Technically he’d made five but he was keeping the fifth one hidden in his workshop/practice room in case the one he was currently using was ever broken. After discussing it with Tonks, Penelope, and even Hagrid they’d settled on a price of ten Galleons for each Scouter. It was on the high end, price-wise, for an Owl Order item but as soon as people found out it was not only made by Harry Potter but what it was capable of there would be no end of people wanting one. 

The next evening the Halloween Feast was in full swing. Decorations were all over the Great Hall and almost everyone was in a festive mood. Harry was sitting between Penelope and Mandy and enjoying the Feast. While it was the anniversary of his parent’s deaths he’d never known them and had done what little mourning he was capable of long ago. From the way Hagrid had described his parents to him he was fairly certain that both would rather he enjoy himself with friends on this day instead of mourning them. He could see Tonks over at the Hufflepuff table putting on a show with her Metamorph abilities getting cheers from her House mates. Just over halfway through the Feast Professor Quirrel had barged into the Great Hall screaming about a Troll in the dungeons before promptly falling into a dead faint. The cacophony that had created had taken three loud blasts from Dumbledore’s wand to silence. The Headmaster had instructed the various Prefects to lead the rest of the students back to their Common Rooms while the teachers went to deal with the Troll. As the large mass of students began to move Mandy had caught up to Harry and told him of Hermione’s absence from the Feast. According to Padma’s sister Parvati, an insensitive Gryffindor named Ron Weasley had insulted Hermione and she’d run off crying. Padma and Mandy had both tried to talk Hermione out of the bathroom she’d been holed up in and had only left after Hermione had promised she’d come to the feast later.

“Well shite, I’ll try to let a Professor know, go with the others and tell Penelope where I am.” Harry told Mandy as he dashed off in the direction the Professors had headed in. Less than a minute later and Harry wasn’t sure he’d be able to catch up to the Professors at all. So the next best thing was to go up to the bathroom that Hermione was in and take her to Ravenclaw Tower until the Troll was dealt with. Rushing up the stairs Harry sprinted down the corridors until he almost gagged on the foul stench coming from ahead of him.

“Ack! What the bloody hell is that smell?!” Harry coughed as he rounded the corner to the corridor that Hermione was supposedly in. “Oh right, Trolls are supposed to smell horrible.” Harry muttered to himself as he watched the large grey-skinned beast lumber into the bathroom in shock. A moment later a scream tore through the air and Harry was moving before he could think. Shoving the door open Harry was met with the sight of destroyed bathroom stalls and Hermione trying to hide under the sinks. The Troll, Mountain Troll if the books he’d bought on Hagrid’s recommendation were correct, turned to look towards the banging door as Harry caught Hermione’s eyes.

“Harry?!” Hermione cried out in panic, the Troll slowly turning to look at her again when she yelled.

“Don’t worry Hermione! I’m going to get you out of here!” Harry yelled with more confidence than he felt. The Troll growled as it turned back towards Harry as he yelled. With a grunt the Troll hefted up its large wooden club and prepared to swing it down on Harry. He wasn’t about to let that happen though. With a crack a ball of fire appeared in Harry’s right hand. He chucked the fireball at the wooden club causing the dried wood to catch fire. The Troll suddenly feeling the heat of its club looked up at the flaming wood and bellowed in surprise. The large, smelly beast tossed the club away from itself in panic and stared at the flames in confusion. While the Troll was distracted Harry motioned for Hermione to crawl towards him. She hesitated for a moment before slowly crawling towards her friend, just as Hermione was crawling out from under the last sink the Troll spotted her and tried to grab her. 

“No you don’t!” Harry yelled conjuring up five Lumos orbs in front of the Trolls face. The orbs went from slightly bright in the lit up bathroom to blinding in an instant as Harry poured his mana into his spell. The Troll roared in pain as it covered its eyes and tried to swat the orbs of light away. Hermione rapidly ran to Harry and tried to cling to him. “Out the door Hermione!” Harry ordered as he pushed her towards the closed bathroom door.

“What about you?” Hermione asked only to get pushed harder towards the door.

“I’m following you, of course!” Harry stated as the Troll recovered its eyesight only for Harry to make the Lumos orbs flash brightly again. The beast roared again trying to swat at the orbs, but light had no mass and the Troll couldn’t destroy the orbs by hitting them. Hermione wrenched open the bathroom door and held it open for Harry who slowly backed up and exited the bathroom. Just as the door closed Harry shifted his Lumos orbs through the color spectrum making each of the five orbs a different color. After the door clicked into place Harry began to switch each orb from normal brightness to blinding one by one, over and over again. Keeping this light show spell going from a distance was taxing, much more than Harry thought it would be as he felt his mana decreasing.

“Harry, we should run!” Hermione stated as she grabbed his arm and tried to drag him away.

“I’d love that, Hermione, but if I move from this spot I won’t be able to keep the spell going.” The confused roars and bellows of the Troll in the bathroom were a testament that Harry’s spell was keeping the beast disorientated. “If you could get the Professors over here as soon as possible I’d greatly appreciate it.”

“I can’t just leave you! We should just run!” Hermione practically begged as she stared at the door of the bathroom.

“Once the spell stops the Troll is going to be enraged and it’ll break out of the bathroom. If it does that there is no telling where it’ll charge off to. That’s why I need to keep the spell going while you get the Professors here.” Harry tried to explain calmly but some strain seeped into his voice from having to split his focus between Hermione and his spell.

“Mr. Potter?! Ms. Granger?!” McGonagall exclaimed as she came charging around the corner with Flitwick and Snape in tow. “What on Earth are you doing here?!”

“Hermione was in the bathroom, didn’t know about the Troll, I came to get her and take her to Ravenclaw Tower. Troll walked into the bathroom before I could get here and tried to kill Hermione. I’m distracting it with a variation of the Lumos Charm, but I can’t keep it going for long.” Harry hurriedly explained as the Troll’s bellows could be heard echoing from the bathroom.

“Move aside, Mr. Potter, we’ll handle it from here.” Flitwick stated a look on his face Harry had never seen before. He looked like a man that knew he was going to have to do something unpleasant.

“Yes sir.” Harry nodded as he moved aside and cancelled his spell. The three Professors opened the bathroom door and were able to see five differently colored orbs of light for a moment before they disappeared. The Troll, still covering its eyes, stood huddled in the far corner as if to escape the painful flashes of light.

The situation was resolved in a matter of moments after the door was opened. A single spell from each of the three Professors had the Troll knocked unconscious, bound up in chains, and sedated completely before the beast even fell to the floor. Snape and McGonagall approached the beast as Flitwick went to console the two students. The events afterwards were a bit of a blur for Harry, probably because he was suffering from a sudden drop in his mana from keeping his spell going for an extended period of time. But he and Hermione had explained why she was in the bathroom, McGonagall was already planning out Ron Weasley’s punishment at that very moment, and how Harry had come to try and get her to safety after not being able to find the Professors. Harry lost points for his House at first but ended up with a net gain of twenty points after Flitwick and McGonagall were done. It was only after being taken back to Ravenclaw Tower, getting scolded by Penelope while she was hugging the life out of him, and finally getting to sleep for the night that Harry realized some very important details from his and Hermione’s encounter with the Troll.

Shortly after waking up Harry continued to lie in bed going over last night’s incident. He’d read about Mountain Trolls in the books Hagrid had recommended. He and the gentle giant had even had a discussion about them along with various other Magical Beasts over the couple of visits where Harry had gone down to Hagrid’s hut for tea. So there were a couple things that stood out as strange to Harry as he laid in bed thinking. Firstly, Mountain Trolls were known to be dumber than most dog breeds so how could one just wander into Hogwarts? Secondly, while Hogwarts was near some mountains, said mountains were still dozens of kilometers away from the school grounds so why would a Mountain Troll go walking so far from its territory? Thirdly, and most suspiciously to Harry, the Troll was wearing a vest and loin cloth. Mountain Trolls frequently walked around naked in the wild, but this one had roughly sewn and stitched clothing. Having learned how to stitch and sew himself Harry had spotted the rather well fitting vest and the loin cloth that was tight on the Troll’s waist to keep it from falling off. Trolls couldn’t even make fire for themselves, much less tan leather and sew it into clothing. That could only mean that the Troll was provided those clothes and if that was the case then that Troll wasn’t wild. Somebody was taking care of it, somebody who had most likely let it loose into a school full of children.

Harry really hoped his feeling of ‘turning point in the story’ was wrong as he was once again reminded of his fantasy books from his Primary School library.

Unfortunately, he didn’t think he was wrong at all.

-End Chapter-

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So there’s chapter three! Harry meets and befriends Penelope Clearwater, Hermione, Mandy and Padma. He also sets up his own personal space in Hogwarts to work on his Enchanting. Plus he deals with the Troll situation on Halloween completely differently. How will Harry’s new Owl Order business work out? Will Harry figure out what’s in the Third Floor Corridor? What happens on Christmas this year? Keep on reading to find out!

Until I get your reviews, later!