52Once returning to school Harry and his friends continued to learn as much as they could. Throughout the next term Harry's friends had managed to finish all the spells and theory up to the end of first year and were working their way through the second year courses. One morning Harry and Neville were finishing their run around the lake and turned towards Hagrid's hut. Looking at the hut Harry saw smoke coming from the chimney and the windows boarded up with what looked to be makeshift insulation of clothes and other items.
When Harry and Neville knocked on the door for their regular chat with Hagrid in the morning they were surprised when the door only opened a crack and they could feel the heat coming out of it already. "Hey boys, now's not really a great time right now so I'll owl you when you can come next time." Hagrid said before shutting the door.
"Well that was odd." Harry said with a smile as he turned to Neville, "Do you think we should find out what's happening inside?"
"I think we should." Neville said with a grin.
"Come on Hagrid, open up. We know that something is going on in there. If you don't tell us then we might just have to go and tell a teacher." Harry said.
All of a sudden the door opened and Hagrid waved them inside quickly looking over their shoulders to check if anyone had seen them. Walking into the hut Harry saw that every window was boarded up and the fire was roaring with what seemed to be a large egg in the middle of it.
"Uh Hagrid, what's that?" Neville asked while pointing at the egg.
"That's a dragon egg. I won it at the pub last night." Hagrid explained.
"Hagrid, you do know that those are extremely illegal right?" Harry asked.
"But it's been my dream for the longest time to raise a dragon. No one will have to know." Hagrid all but whined.
"But where will you raise it? You do realize that you live in a wooden hut right?"
"I'll take care of it in the forest once it's too big for the hut." Hagrid said as if it was the obvious solution.
"Hagrid, there are so many other creatures in the forest, there is no way that the dragon would be good for their habitats, let alone for their populations. You have to give it up." Harry said.
"But the egg won't be able to survive travelling. It needs to be heated constantly." Hagrid said.
"Well, maybe we can wait until it has hatched before moving it." Harry suggested.
"But it's always been my dream to raise a dragon."
"Hagrid, this is a school and a dragon is a creature that if not taken care of and treated properly has the potential to kill thousands of untrained wizards let alone school kids. If you want to raise a dragon then Hogwarts is not the place to do that." Neville said logically.
"I guess you're right." Hagrid admitted softly.
"Do you mind if I ask professor Flitwick for assistance in moving this dragon? He might even need to ask Dumbledore for help if he can't do anything. But we are just students and we can't do this on our own." Harry asked.
"Of course you can ask him. I'll send you a letter when it's hatching if you want to see."
"I would love to see it hatch Hagrid, but in the meantime I think we should go and talk to Flitwick now before I forget and tell him we have a dragon issue to deal with." Harry suggested.
"Alright. I suppose I'll see you lot after some of your runs, or if the dragon hatches first." Hagrid said.
"See you later, Hagrid." Neville said as he and Harry walked out of the hut and made their way towards the castle.
"I can't believe that Hagrid has brought a dragon egg into a school." Harry stated. "That's so irresponsible."
"You're sounding like Hermione now." Neville teased.
"She would be right. But that brings up a good point, do we invite the girls along to see the egg hatch? Because most of them haven't talked to Hagrid more than once or twice in all our time here. But at the same time some of them would probably be really annoyed that they missed out on seeing a dragon hatch." Harry contemplated.
"I think that we should first ask Hagrid if we can bring them along because to be fair it is his decision to make. We're already involving Flitwick and potentially Dumbledore so it really isn't our choice to make." Neville answered.
"You're right, let's just go talk to Flitwick after breakfast and not tell the others until we have talked to Hagrid, maybe we can visit him tomorrow morning again to ask."
After breakfast Harry and Neville left the girls to their study in the den as they made some excuse about asking Flitwick to go into more detail for the analysis on their performance in France with them before they made their way to his office. As they knew on most Sunday mornings before their team training Flitwick tried to get through as much marking as possible as having Harry as his apprentice and training his friends in dueling took up a lot of his time that he would normally be using to mark homework. So when the pair walked up to his office they were unsurprised to find out that he was in his office and literally up to his neck in papers that he had to mark.
"Professor Flitwick, could we talk to you about something?" Neville asked.
"Of course boys, please come in." Flitwick said, rather glad to have an excuse to stop marking his papers for a little bit. "What can I help you with?" He asked once the boys sat down.
"Well, when we went to visit Hagrid after our usual morning run, we found something rather unusual in his hut today." Harry said.
"What has he done now?" Flitwick said with a sigh.
"Hagrid is now in the possession of a dragon egg." Neville said. "We've convinced him that he can't raise it in the school but the egg won't survive transport to anywhere else as it is too close to hatching."
"I'll need to talk to headmaster Dumbledore about how we should transport it safely but I'm sure that he will be able to get some dragon handlers to come and pick it up." Flitwick said. "In the meantime, I would appreciate it if you told me once it hatched so that we can transport it as quickly as possible."
"Of course, professor. We will let you know. See you this afternoon for training." Harry said before walking out of the door with Neville following close behind.
"Well, anything to get out of marking more homework." Flitwick muttered before getting up and walking towards the headmasters office.
Line Break
After two weeks Harry and Neville got an owl from Hagrid saying that the egg was starting to crack. In the end Harry's friends all got invited to watch along with Flitwick and Dumbledore so it was quite a crowded hut. "I must say I kind of hoped that there would have been more going on when a dragon hatches." Tracey said after having been sitting there for ten minutes staring at the egg in slightly awkward silence.
"Well what did you expect Tracey? It's not like it will explode out of the egg." Hermione said.
"Actually, this does seem to be taking longer than expected." Hagrid said. "After the first cracks the average time that a dragon would take to hatch is actually around only ten minutes. But I do think that normally the fire they are in is hotter which helps them to break the egg for some unknown reason."
"Perhaps I can help with that." Dumbledore said before waving his wand. Immediately a very strong flame flew out of his wand which caused all of the occupants in the hut to flinch away. Looking at the fire beneath the egg, there was a strong flame that was nearly engulfing the egg and everyone quickly noticed the difference in hatching speed. "It's a nifty charm that I've learnt over the years."
With a quick look Harry noticed that the cracks were spreading quicker and soon enough Harry saw some claws poking through the egg, quickly followed by the rest of its body. Seeing the small dragon Hagrid started cooing and saying "It's so cute, Dumbledore are you sure that we can't keep him here. Little Norbert wouldn't hurt anyone."
"I'm afraid not Hagrid, besides I've already arranged for the transportation this weekend. So you will have three days with little Norbert before they will have to take them away." Dumbledore said with a small smile.
"Oh all right Professor, I will have to make the most of it." Hagrid said with a small smile.
"Thank you for letting us see this wonderful experience." Harry said.
As all of his friends echoed his sentiment they began walking out of the hut with Flitwick and Dumbledore walking out behind them. "Mr Potter, would you mind if we had a little chat." Dumbledore called out.
"What did you do Harry?" Hermione demanded.
"Nothing. I'm sure you can ask the headmaster as well." Harry denied.
"That's correct, there is nothing wrong. I would just like to talk to the person behind this little group of yours. I'm sure that you will hear all about it later but for now this should be private." Dumbledore said with a small smile. "Would you please come with me to my office, Mr Potter."
"Of course." Harry replied before turning to his friends, "I'll see you guys at the Den later on guys. Maybe even lunch if it takes too long."
The Headmaster led Harry through the halls of Hogwarts while they talked about the charm that Dumbledore used on the fire which Harry learnt was actually created by Dumbledore just for the occasion as he had read up on dragon's hatching habits.
Eventually they walked up to a gargoyle statue and Dumbledore said "Mars Bars." Before the gargoyle moved to the side and revealed a set of stairs that led up to the headmasters office. Looking around Harry saw that the office was rounded and filled with bookshelves littered with books that were no doubt priceless and various other trinkets around the shelves.
But no matter how important all of the other books would have been, Harry's attention was constantly drawn back to the magnificent bird sitting on a perch on the bench. The bird had a magnificent plumage along with an aura of warmth and comfort that calmed Harry's nerves at being called into the headmasters office.
"Ahh, I see you've noticed Fawkes." Dumbledore said. "He is a phoenix, one of the few in history that has been a wizards familiar. He came to me after my duel with Grindelwald and has been my faithful companion ever since. But alas, I have not called you here to talk to you about Fawkes, as magnificent as he is. No, I called you here today to have a conversation with you as your magical guardian."
"What is that? I've never heard of it before." Harry asked.
"It is the person who makes all legal decisions for a person in the magical world. Now it is generally the person's parents but there are numerous reasons why that is not always the case. Some of which may be that they are muggles, others are dead, others are considered ineligible to take care of children. But regardless of the various situations that people may not have their parents as magical guardians, what happens is that the head of house of that child is considered to be their magical guardian until they come of age.
In your case though I have personally taken care of it as you are such a high profile case and the rest of the options on your parents will were unable to take care of you. As such, you were sent to your closest living relatives while I took over the duties of your magical guardian. Now as you were still a child and not at all involved in the magical world, there were no decisions that I needed to make as your magical guardian. But now that you have rejoined us in the magical world this is a conversation that we should have."
Dumbledore took a deep breath before continuing. "As I am your magical guardian and therefore responsible to ensure your wellbeing and development, there are now some responsibilities that I must complete. First off is all about your health. Have you had the vaccinations and checkup with Madam Pomfrey that all muggle-raised students get?"
"Yes, I did, and that is actually something that I would like to talk to you about now that I know you are the person who placed me with my family." Harry said. "During the checkup with Madam Pomfrey she noticed some scarring on my core and was unsure about what caused it but she said that it would be fine in the next few years. I think that you know about the person who caused this scarring."
Dumbledore sighed and said, "I was indeed the person who placed bindings on your core and you deserve to know why. I would appreciate it if you could hold your questions to the end. When I first found you that Halloween night I found you with your old scar bleeding and a large amount of dark magic surrounding your scar. I took you with me to Hogwarts that night and had Poppy give you a check up and she told me something that I had been afraid to hear. The dark magic was a leech of some sort on your magic.
Even as a baby you were extraordinarily powerful and already performing accidental magic after only seven months. So when I noticed that your magic was being leached into some sort of dark magic I reached out to many of my contacts who were all unsure of what was happening. In the end they recommended that I bind your magic to cut off its source of sustenance in the hopes that it would die on its own from lack of magic. I was told that there was about a thirty percent chance that it would continue to survive and it depended on how fast your core grew and adapted to the reduced amount of power that you had access to."
"But it survived, and probably would have hampered my core's growth if the binds stayed on and the leach didn't get removed." Harry said accusingly.
Dumbledore looked up sharply. "It got removed. What was it?"
"It was called a horcrux. The goblins described it as a soul container." Harry said.
"A Horcrux," Dumbledore said with a worried look on his face. "That is very worrying, I will need to do more research on that. That would mean that Tom will return."
"Who is Tom?" Harry asked curiously.
"Why none other than the dark lord himself." Dumbledore responded.
"Are you saying that he will return eventually?" Harry asked sharply.
"Yes, but I am quite certain that you will be ready for it once he has returned." The headmaster attempted to reassure him.
"But he'll want to kill me after what happened when I was a baby." Harry said, panicking.
As Fawkes began to sing Harry calmed down and the headmaster said, "Mr Potter, you are already one of the most talented students that has ever passed through the halls of Hogwarts and that is after having been raised in a muggle home. I am sure that in the next two years you could complete your NEWTs and start masteries if you want, and more importantly you have so many loyal friends who would stand with you against Tom. Once you have completed your NEWTs and maybe even some masteries, I would be happy to teach such a wonderful student." The headmaster reassured.
"But aside from that, I would assume that the goblins removed the bindings at the same time as the horcrux." He said curious.
"Yes, they took the bindings off in the weeks leading up to my seventh birthday with the final binding and the leach being taken off on my seventh birthday." Harry answered.
"Just in time for your first magical maturity." Dumbledore commented. "I'm sure that it is one of the reasons for your power."
"That was my theory, after having been told that my magic had to work with only a small portion of it to create enough of it to not only sustain my growth, but also supply the leach with enough magic for it to survive. I am pretty sure that is one of the reasons that I am so powerful now." Harry explained.
"Could I ask roughly how powerful you are? I already know from all of your teachers that you are very talented and years ahead in any wanded subjects, but how powerful are you truly?" Dumbledore said while leaning forward onto his desk.
"Flitwick described me as someone with the potential of a titan of magic." Harry answered honestly. "This was around the time that I started training with him and since then I have grown in strength. Master Flitwick seems to think that my spells are now more powerful and faster than his."
"Ah yes, your training with Flitwick. That was something else that I wished to talk to you about." Dumbledore said.
Harry looked up sharply and said nearly desperately, "You can't make me stop. Can you?" He ended hesitantly.
"No, my boy. I don't intend to although with some obscure laws I probably could. But rest assured I don't wish to stop you from achieving either your charms mastery from Filius, or to continue learning about dueling from him until you are satisfied that you have learnt everything that you can. What I have wanted to say is that I can tell that you are no longer challenged by the classes that you are included with, somewhat like me when I was a young Hogwarts student."
Dumbledore's eyes twinkled more as he continued, "Now I'm sure that your teachers are still much more knowledgeable than you in most ways, but I would expect that you can perform most of the practical spells up to at least your owl year and possibly some NEWT spells too. Am I right?"
"Well, Master Flitwick has been teaching me most of the spells and even silent casting, but I'm sure that there are some that I haven't learnt quite yet. But I have managed to keep up with most of the theory in my own time with my friends."
"That is most impressive, and you are very far ahead of where I was at your age. But that does prove my point, for most subjects you are incredibly far ahead of your peers and it is not helping you to progress your education. I want you to be honest with both me and yourself right now. If you had to say what year you are in for theory and practicals in each subject, what would you say?"
Harry paused and thought for a moment before saying, "For charms, I would be able to do almost all of the spells up until seventh year, for transfiguration I don't quite do it the normal way, after talking with Mcgonagall I've started just visualising it and not using any incantations for everything that I've used for a long time. So I can do the transfiguration but I don't know all of the conventional spells. But there are some of the more advanced things like self transfiguration that I struggle with because I end up using my metamorphmagus abilities instead."
"That is most impressive. Using will and intent in transfiguration is actually mastery level and being a metamorphmagus is very rare. I'm surprised that you haven't accidentally morphed yourself in public before and gotten exposed." Dumbledore said.
"It was mainly through the meditation that I've done since I was a child. It was actually how I found out about the blocks and the horcrux, although I didn't know what it was called at the time. But eventually once the blocks were removed I worked to change all parts of my body and now have complete control. Plus with the occlumency that Flitwick has taught me I am now at tier five and can completely control my metamorphmagus skills. But I am at a bit of a roadblock in my studies for occlumency because Flitwick can't teach me anymore and I can't reach the seventh level without more instruction from either books or teachers. But I can't get to the books unless I'm an adult so I'm stuck for now.
Anyway back to classes. For defence I am up to about seventh year spells with once again only a few spells like the patronus charm, but aside from that I'm pretty much done. For potions I know all the theoretical knowledge up to seventh year, but I haven't gotten to brew them yet because I don't want to do it without supervision. So instead when I'm in class I just brew them with my own modifications to try and make it more efficient and take less time to brew.
Astronomy I'm finished with the theory and can do star charts in my sleep because of my eidetic memory. History is the same because I've just read the books up until seventh year. Herbology I know all the theoretical knowledge but I've struggled to get experience with the practical side of it as I don't have access to any of the plants past first year."
"That is most impressive and I'm sure that when you combine your studies in occlumency with your natural eidetic memory that it is even easier for you to recall things that most people with tier seven occlumency shields. But it does seem that aside from Herbology you aren't exactly learning much in class and even then it is more just that you are gaining practical experience and not actually learning things." Dumbledore said.
Harry shrugged before saying, "That's basically true, but I'm sure that most of the teachers, aside from Binns, have more to teach me than just the syllabus so occasionally I'll get some snippets of knowledge that I didn't have before."
"But if you are honest with yourself would you agree that the majority of your class time is wasted and could be spent self learning more advanced things?" Dumbledore asked.
Harry's first instinct would be to say no because most of his teachers aside from Binns and Quirrel still taught him stuff on occasion, but after thinking it through for a few seconds he realized that Dumbledore was right. Harry sighed before saying, "Yeah, most of the stuff I'm learning at Hogwarts is through self study or Master Flitwick and the other teachers aren't teaching me new things."
"Well then, I suppose that there are a few things that we can do to help you with this issue that you now face." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Almost all of these options will take you out of the classes so that might be a negative, but if you wish to continue learning at your own pace then you will not be able to spend any time in those classes. The first option is that you now completely self-study and you can take your NEWTs in all core classes at the end of this year, or next year if you don't quite feel comfortable and then the year after that you can complete any electives that you want using the same method. After completing your NEWTs for all subjects you may choose to either leave school or gain masteries in any subjects that you wish if the teacher would be willing.
The second option would be for you to start self-studying for the electives this year as well. This will mean that you have a much greater workload and it is less likely that you will be able to finish your NEWTs this year unless you don't take the electives as well. After you have completed them then you can choose to continue with masteries for whatever subjects that you decide to take.
Or your third option is to not take any electives until your third year with the rest of your friends and focus only on the core subjects. This will likely help you to complete your masteries faster and give you something to do with your friends in your third year."
Harry paused for nearly a minute to think through his options. 'I want to learn to be the best I can be. My friends will understand that and I spend a lot of time with them outside of class as well. I think that learning about runes and arithmancy will help give me something to do so that I can start a project to work on with my friends. I am not really in a rush to complete my NEWT's anytime soon so I don't think that the electives would be a downside in any way. I think that completing at least one mastery by the time that I have graduated would be really nice but I think that with some hard work I can get at least two.'
"I think that the second option is most appealing to me. But would it not be dangerous for me to learn something like runes on my own?" Harry queeried.
"I agree, and I must apologise for my wording, I didn't mean to imply that I would be letting you study it completely without supervision. What I meant to say, but did not properly convey, was that you would be able to go at your own speed with Bathsheda's supervision, by going through the books in class at your own speed. I would organise a similar arrangement with Septima if you wanted to take Arithmancy. Would you take another elective as well?"
"I think that care might be interesting but it isn't exactly something that I would try and get a mastery in." Harry said, "It's kind of just the most interesting of the remaining three and I feel like getting ten OWLs and NEWTs would be a good goal."
"An admirable goal." Dumbledore replied, "But a subject like Care requires practical experience with animals which if you wish to go at your own speed would require for you to find someone who would be willing to show you many dangerous creatures." Dumbledore finished with a twinkle in his eyes.
Immediately realizing what Dumbledore was hinting at Harry said sarcastically, "Hmm, I wonder who I know that just so happens to be interested in dangerous creatures and would likely be extremely happy to show me all about them."
"Indeed, I'm sure that if you get enough practical experience with him at an expedited pace that you can self-study enough to pass your OWLs and NEWTs. You might even find that after dealing with enough dangerous creatures that you could in fact get a mastery." Dumbledore said.
"Wait, is that even allowed? Like doesn't he need a teaching license or mastery to properly teach me?" Harry asked.
"But he isn't teaching you, he is just showing his friend some of the creatures that he holds a passion for. Then you self-study for your NEWTs and just use your extra knowledge that you conveniently gained while being with your friend." Dumbledore said with a smile.
"Alright, I'm okay with that. But just to confirm I will not be going to any of the core classes at all. Will I be tested on the progress or anything?"
"Well, I think that it would be best if you were given assignments that you must complete within a certain time frame. This will likely include more than the regular spells on the syllabus as you have already said that you know most of the spells so this will hopefully make things interesting. But I'm sure that each teacher will figure out the best ways for you to do this. So yes, you will no longer be needing to go to any core classes." Dumbledore said. "Now in regards to the electives, I'm sure that you will be able to learn very quickly with your memory and occlumency skills so we will give you one month to learn as much as you can. After that test you will then be given an accelerated course which should hopefully match your pace.
"That sounds acceptable to me." Harry replied. "Just out of curiosity do you know if anyone could help me to reach the seventh tier of occlumency?"
Dumbledore looked over his half-moon spectacles at Harry before saying, "Within this castle, there are only two tier seven occlumencers. I am one of them but I am too busy to help you reach this level and my skill with legilimency, while adequate to help you reach the seventh tier, would not be a pleasant experience for you. Your other option would be for Severus to help teach you. Before I ask him though, can I give you a brief test on what each tier of occlumency gives you to ensure that you have gone as far as you can go on your own?"
"Of course."
"Give me a brief overview of what each tier of occlumency can give you." Dumbledore stated.
"Tier one includes basic meditation to clear your mind, this generally allows for people to think clearly and focus better. The second tier is more meditation to learn more about your mind to help sense when someone invades your mind. The third tier is when legilimency becomes necessary as this tier is when you learn how to sense people in your mind, and how to push them out. The fourth tier is when the first barriers are created, this is generally done through legilimency being used on you as the barriers are created naturally." Harry explained.
"The fifth tier is when most will create a mindscape but it can be created earlier, the mindscape is what allows for better recall as it requires sorted memories and can even help people to find their core. This is where most people stop as it allows for much better memory along with enough mind shields to protect from legilimancers that are tier five or below along with better control over their magic. The sixth tier is where the strongest of mind shields are formed, this needs a strong legillimancer, someone who is tier six or above, to continuously attack your mind. If done for long enough by a strong enough legillimancer, then the outer barriers protecting the mind will stop nearly everyone. This will also allow for the occlumancer to test out their own defensive constructs that were created for if the outer barriers were breached, this could be anything from dragons to catapults.
The seventh tier of occlumency is the most useful to people that are in combat situations as it allows for complete control over the mind, body and magic. This allows for the user to control every part of the body going from the heart rate to the muscle contractions, to even the speed of thought to a certain extent, but it also allows for greater control over the user's magic. This requires either another tier seven legillimancer who has also achieved tier seven in occlumency to help the user understand all the new things that can be controlled from the mind as if not taken care of properly then they may be overwhelmed. The other option is to read extensively on the new sensations that will occur when reached which has a much lower chance of successfully allowing the occlumancer to reach tier seven on the first try."
"That is very well thought out Harry, and I'm sure that most of it will have come from Filius." Dumbledore stated. Once Harry nodded in agreement Dumbledore continued, "Now, there is a little bit more to the later tiers but if Severus agrees to help you then I am sure that he will tell you all about it. Anyway, I will ask Severus to help you but it is his decision and not something that I will try and influence, but it is likely that he will ask your reasons for learning occlumency to this level so I want you to think about it in the meantime."
"Thank you professor, was that all?" Harry asked.
"Yes, although later on you will have meetings with all the necessary professors to talk about your schedule and the test for your new electives so I would recommend studying some of those subjects." Dumbledore said, "For now I'm sure that you would much rather be with your friends than with an old man like me so I believe I should let you go."
"Bye professor." Harry said as he walked down the spiral staircase and left to go find his friends.
"What a remarkable boy." Dumbledore muttered to himself, "He gets the best of both his parents and is far ahead of where I was in school. I'm sure that he will be more than ready to face Tom if he returns in the future."
Line Break
Once Harry made it to the Den he walked inside to see all of his friends doing different things. Hermione was reading a book as usual with Tracey and Hannah also looking over her shoulder at it making Harry think it was about healing. Padma and Parvati sat talking on the couch while supervising Daphne, Susan and Neville dueling in a free for all on the dueling platform.
Walking over behind Padma and Parvati, Harry leant on the back of the couch they were seated on and whispered to not distract the duelists, "My money's on Neville winning."
Padma and Parvati both squealed and turned quickly at Harry's sudden appearance behind them which made Susan get stunned by Daphne and before she could turn back to Neville she got caught in a body bind.
"Harry, don't scare us like that." The twins said while slapping him on opposite arms.
"Sorry, but I had to get out my predictions when I saw how close the duel was to ending." Harry joked.
"But it only ended because you made Padma and Parvati scream, otherwise it would have continued longer." Hermione challenged.
"Not much longer, to be honest I was already really tired and Susan was even worse, Neville was always going to win unless me and Susan teamed up which we agreed not to do, so the only thing that Harry might have changed was that Susan went down first." Daphne said.
"Anyway, what did Dumbledore want to talk to you about?" Hermione all but demanded.
"Hermione." Harry said with a stern voice, "You're doing it again."
"Sorry Harry." Hermione said quietly.
"Look I know that you are a very curious person but some things are private, in this case it's fine but there are situations where you can't just demand people's private information." Harry paused before saying, "Anyway I talked to Dumbledore about a few things like his phoenix and the checkup that I had as he is my magical guardian. Then we talked about my education and how I am not learning anything in classes anymore."
"What do you mean? I told you to pay more attention in herbology." Hermione said sternly.
"It's not that Hermione, it's the fact that I've studied all the theory up to the middle of seventh year for herbology and all that I'm missing is the practical experience. So, when I talked to Dumbledore we decided that I would have to talk to each teacher and I would be given individual lesson plans that will have me complete my OWLs this year and NEWTs next year. This means that I won't be in any of your classes anymore." Harry said.
"But, we hardly get to see you in classes anyway." Susan said.
"I agree, but to be honest I'm just not learning anything and aside from spending time with you guys there isn't any reason for me to stay in the class. But we are meant to be learning there and we hardly get to talk so I figured that with the amount of time that we spend together outside of classes that it would be alright if I left those classes."
"So are you just going to be self-studying until you eventually take your NEWTs?" Neville asked.
"I am also going to start taking the electives now, otherwise Dumbledore said that I could get my NEWTs this year and take electives next year. But I thought that maybe I could start some sort of project throughout the year which would give me something to do. So I'm going to need to self-study them for the next month or so."
"But what are you going to do after that? Are you just going to leave?" Hermione asked almost desperately.
"No." Harry said immediately to reassure his friends, "I will be staying here for all seven years. Even if I have to duel Dumbledore to do it." Harry joked.
"Don't even joke about that." Hermione said, sounding aghast.
"I'm sorry, what is more likely is that I will be getting a few masteries before you guys graduate and if I finish them before you guys leave then I might see if I can get a job as an assistant professor." Harry explained.
"That would be so fun." Tracey exclaimed. "We wouldn't have to do our homework because you would let us get away with it, we would be able to skip classes, we could be caught out of curfew." Tracey finished wistfully.
Harry laughed at what she was saying and was ready to deny it before Hermione turned on Harry and nearly yelled, "Harry James Potter, if you get this prestigious job then you had better not take advantage of the position that it grants you. You had better not do anything that Tracey just suggested." Once she finished her small rant to Harry she then turned to Tracey and noticed all of their friends laughing in the background.
"Hermione, Tracey was just winding you up, besides we are all still in our first year of school, there will be many more years before there is even the smallest of chances that I could become a teacher's aid, let alone a professor." Harry said calmly.
"I'm sorry. But anyway this is so exciting, what kind of project do you think that you will make for runes?" Hermione asked.
"Well there are a lot of options for me to try. But the first thing that came to mind was that I could try and figure out some way to measure magical power. I'm not sure about the theory but I hope that it's something that I can figure out with the help of professor babbling. It might even help me complete a mastery in runes which is something that I'm interested in."
"That's something that no one has ever managed to do." Padma said, "But I have complete faith that if anyone could do it then you would be able to."
"Hopefully we can help you test it out." Daphne said, "I must admit that I am a bit more curious about where we match up with you."
"I would be happy if you would all help out." Harry said, "But for the next few weeks it will mean that I can't help you all out with your homework." he joked.
"Aww man, are you sure that you can't just not do runes?" Tracey whined.
Everyone laughed and enjoyed the time they spent together for the remainder of the day which included lots of jokes, lots of laughter and a few duels finishing with some study.
Authors Note
Thanks for reading, I hope that you understand why I made some of the choices that I did but to be honest I think that regular classes just wouldn't help him and giving Harry projects to make then I can slow the projects down a bit. Feel free to leave a review if you want and I am thinking of making another fic but if I do then it would slow down these updates to where I'm thinking of alternating one every three weeks but that is definitely not finalised. It would be a Percy Jackson fic so if you would be interested in that then feel free to either message or review.