Prodigy

When Harry got back to Hogwarts, he headed down to the dungeons for another lesson with Professor Snape. Harry also prepared himself for the somewhat difficult conversation he would be having with the Hogwarts professor. Arriving at his destination, Harry knocked on the door.

“Come.” Harry heard from the other side. Harry opened the door and entered quickly.

“Good morning, Professor,” Harry greeted the potions master.

“Good morning, Mr. Potter. I'm pleased to see that you're on time today,” Professor Snape replied. Harry took a deep breath.

“About that, sir. I discovered what happened last time, and have taken steps to insure that it does not happen again.”

Snape raised an eyebrow, but let Harry continue.

“Last night I began my study of wands and wand making. As I was headed to bed, I discovered a note, buried under some other papers, that you had sent me to prepare for the last meeting. I can only guess that I received it while I was working on something, and forgot to look at it at a later point. As I mentioned earlier, I took steps this morning to insure that such an event does not happen in the future. I apologize for it happening the first time.”

Snape nodded, but asked, “And what steps were those?”

“Well, I've initiated negotiations with the goblins to get a full time personal secretary who will be able to keep track of such things,” Harry explained.

“Is that a fact? Are you sure that it's wise to trust a Goblin with that level of responsibility?” Snape asked. Harry frowned at what seemed to be some underlying animosity towards the Goblins evident in the Professor's voice.

“Well, if I trust them with my banking and business needs, I think I can trust them to expand that to handle my day to day business as well,” Harry pointed out. Snape merely nodded before changing the subject.

“Have you made any progress about what we spoke about last time?”

“I have given it some thought, especially they Wolfsbane problem,” Harry started. “I think there is a bigger issue there than we realize.”

“What do you mean?” Snape asked, genuinely intrigued.

“Well, the Wolfsbane potion does not really do anything to address the underlying problem - the werewolves themselves. It only addresses the symptoms. I think that if a solution is to be found, we need to look at how werewolves came into existence.”

“I see. You're actually going for a complete cure to lycanthropy, which is a bit more than what I was looking for. Have you given any thought to a temporary improvement to the Wolfsbane potion?”

“A little,” Harry answered, pulling out his potions chart and laying it on the desk so both he and the professor could look at it. “Substances A13, C25, D1, and H24 are the substances that make up aconite. Since H24 is an inert substance, it has very little effect on the potion's brewing. By reducing the amount of H24 in the final potion, we might be able to increase the potency of the final product.”

Professor Snape listened closely while Harry was explaining, but at the same time was trying to take in as much as the potions chart as possible. What Harry was saying made quite a bit of sense, so it was time to hand out the first assignment.

“That does sound like it has a lot of potential. Your first assignment is to brew the potion as you suggested it,” Professor Snape said. He didn't bother to mention the fact that brewing the unmodified Wolfsbane potion was not taught to any year at Hogwarts, and to have a first year brew such a difficult potion was completely unheard of. Snape was actually excited to see what would happen.

Harry nodded his acceptance, and pulled out his M-Machine. Snape watched as Harry wrote furiously for the next thirty minutes. Looking over Harry's shoulder, he saw several different equations, ratios, and potion steps. That was when Snape received another shock. Harry didn't know how to brew the regular Wolfsbane potions; he was creating his own recipe on the fly, based on his own observations and knowledge!

Eventually Harry stopped scribbling, looked up and said, “I'm going to need to head back home to pick up these ingredients.”

Without another word, Harry vanished silently. Snape was startled by the casualness that Harry apparated. He would give nearly anything to be able to do that. Snape waited patiently for his student to return. And he waited, and he waited some more. Finally, about half an hour later, Harry returned.

“Was there some problem?” Snape asked immediately after recovering from Harry's sudden (and very quiet) arrival.

“Sorry it took so long, but I wanted to check my other supplies while I was there. I think we need to start breaking down potions ingredients again, and store them here. I can get my machine for that when I'm done brewing this potion.”

“That sounds like a good idea,” Snape mused, inwardly excited to be able to work with such a machine.

Harry nodded and began setting up his workspace. While he was setting the ingredients out, a cauldron floated from the nearby wall and landed on the burner in front of Harry. A ladle for stirring came floating next and landed gently next to the ingredients. Harry's M-Machine was the next thing to begin to move; it landed directly in Harry's hands as soon as he was done placing the ingredients where he wanted.

Snape was completely befuddled. Watching Harry work was like watching a beautiful magical ballet of sorts that was perfectly choreographed. Everything was in its place by the time Harry needed it. Water had filled the cauldron from somewhere Snape could only guess - it had just appeared. He wondered if Harry had conjured it, or if it had been summoned in some way. The flame underneath the cauldron jumped to life, and soon the potion was simmering nicely. Two hours later, the potion was complete, and Harry finally stood back a bit to examine his work.

“What do you think, Professor? It needs to simmer for a couple days, but I think it will turn out just fine,” Harry said, breaking the comfortable silence that had settled.

“Indeed, Harry. It looks perfect, in fact,” Snape said. Harry smiled brightly. The two decided that they should probably begin breaking down potion ingredients for future use, so after Harry fetched the machine from his home, the rest of the afternoon went by in a flash. Since the machine was able to print out the data it was collecting, at the end of the day, Professor Snape had a potions table as well.

That evening, Harry decided to take a break from his studies to spend some time with his new friend Hermione. When Harry discovered that Hermione really didn't care for flying, he was immediately convinced to get her to change her mind.

“It's so much fun, though, Hermione! Come on, I can get Sirius's broom and we can go now,” Harry pleaded.

“I don't know Harry. One of my classmates was nearly hurt badly the first time we tried flying in class. Besides, I couldn't possibly take a teachers broom out! How do you have a broom anyway? You're a first year!” Hermione countered. Harry just smiled and explained how Sirius was his godfather, and he was sure the professor wouldn't have any problem with her borrowing the broom. As to the first year issue, Harry had no idea. But he did know that he had a broom, and it was too fun to just leave about.

“And lastly, Hermione, I promise not to let anything happen to you,” Harry finished. Hermione studied his face for a few moments before smiling slightly.

“There's no way I can get out of this, is there?” she said, although the smile remained.

“Nope!”

And so it came to pass that Harry Potter and Hermione Granger spent a lovely evening flying about the Hogwarts grounds.

The next morning Harry headed to the great hall once again and looked around for someplace to sit. This time he decided to try sitting with the redhead that had been at the detention. The boy was surrounded by a few others, but there was as spot in the group, so Harry made his way over.

“Mind if I sit here this morning?” Harry asked somewhat timidly.

“Sure!” One of the other boys spoke. Harry grinned and sat down.

“I'm Harry Potter,” Harry introduced himself.

“Dean Thomas,” The other boy said, “These other are Seamus Finnegan, Neville Longbottom, and Ron Weasley. We're all roommates.”

Harry smiled. It was obvious they boys had a good time together. He wondered if he would be able to fit in.

“So do you really have it?” Ron Weasley asked. Harry looked at him oddly, obviously not understanding.

“What do you mean?” Harry asked.

“You know, the scar?”

Harry's mood immediately darkened, but he really wasn't sure why. He lifted his bangs never-the-less so that the scar was shown. Ron grinned.

“Wicked,” Ron said. Harry, however, frowned.

“It's not really all that great,” Harry said, annoyed.

“But it means your famous!” Ron exclaimed. “I bet it's great to be famous, isn't it?”

“I really don't know,” Harry said honestly. “I spent most of my childhood with muggles, or by myself, actually. The only contact I've had with magic outside of Hogwarts is with the Gringotts goblins.”

“What have you been doing with them?” Seamus asked with a hint of distaste in his voice.

“Well, I've got a couple of business deals worked out with them, and I hope to have one as a personal secretary soon,” Harry spoke honestly, naively missing the character of Seamus' voice.

“A personal secretary? See it must be great to be famous. Only famous people have those. Or rich people,” Ron blurted.

Harry immediately shook his head. “No, that's not true. I'm simply too busy to keep track of everything, and a personal secretary made sense to me.”

The next few weeks passed quickly with Harry falling into a pattern of sorts. He would spend his time with studying wand crafting, working with Professor Snape splitting up different ingredients, being with Hermione, and making a few new friends during meal times. Among the people he felt comfortable with where Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Susan Bones, Padma Patil, and a few others. He didn't really see them outside of meals, however. Finally, with Christmas approaching, the school let out, and Harry prepared to spend his Christmas Vacation with his Godfather and Remus.

End Chapter.

A/N: First, I apologize for the shortness of the chapter, but the Christmas will be a longer chapter, so this seemed like a good place to end. In case you read the Outline I posted, I would like to say that this is no longer up to date. I keep tweaking different parts of the story as I go, and that means the outline is always changing. I have all next week off from work, so while I'll be focusing on my own business mostly, I hope to get time to write some more. They really need to see about expanding the number of hours in a day to 36…