Harry Potter, the Arch-Magus

by

the DragonBard

******************************************************
I do not own any of these characters, or any of the games, books, movies, 
skills, spells, items, or techniques mentioned in this story, except those 
specifically created by myself. All others are owned by their respective 
copywrite holders and/or creators.  Especially any characters from the Harry 
Potter series, which is the property of J.K. Rowlings, or any parts of 
Dungeons & Dragons, which is owned by Wizards of the 
Coast.======================================================

Chapter 5

	Harry was sitting in the Hogwarts Library, reading, when Hermione sat down 
beside him, setting down her own large pile of books.

	"Hi."  Harry said with a small smile, looking up from the paper he was 
writing for a moment.

	"Hello."  Hermione said, smiling back.

	The two of them began reading, with Hermione glancing at Harry 
occasionally.

	"What're you working on?"  Hermione finally asked.

	"Some extra-credit assignments for Charms,"  Harry grimaced.  "I'm 
researching spells that are self maintaining, and I'm supposed to figure out 
how they do so, and what makes them different from the spells that require 
an effort on the caster's part to maintain."

	"That sounds very interesting."  Hermione said.

	"It is."  Harry said.

	Hermione frowned after a second.  "We haven't covered any self-sustaining 
charms yet."

	Harry nodded absently.  "Yeah, he gave me some book titles to look up.  
Said anytime before summer break would be okay."

	Hermione glanced at what she could see of the cover, making a note of the 
title for later reading.  She was a trifle jealous that Harry had shown 
himself so talented

	Harry turned his attention back towards his work.  Though Hermione noticed 
he was frowning a bit.

	"Everything, okay?"  Hermione asked.

	Harry set down his quill and book, and shrugged.

	"Yeah."  He sighed.  "Pretty much.  It's just that, something doesn't feel 
quite right, and I just can't place it yet.  Not to mention the fact that, 
I'm surprised we're getting taught cantrip spells, but not the cantrip 
skills."

	"Cantrips?"  Hermione frowned in confusion.  "What are those?"

	"Oh, sorry."  Harry smiled in embarassment.  "That's what I call these 
really simple spells we've been taught so far.  I also use the term for... 
er skills, is the best way to put it, that aren't spells, but can help with 
magic."

	"Oh?"  Hermione found this fascinating.  "Such as?"

	"Well, being able to feel your magic as you're casting a spell, being able 
to clear your mind and focus, stuff like that."

	"Where did you hear about this kind of stuff?"  Hermione asked, excitedly, 
then worriedly glanced at Madame Pince, the librarian, who was glaring at 
the two of them.

	"Was it from your books?  Like the invisibility spell?"  Hermione 
whispered.

	Harry nodded.

	"Can... you do those kinds of things?"  Hermione asked, slowly.

	Harry nodded again.  "It's pretty simple, once you get the hang of it.  
Then again, you could say that about most skills."

	Hermione frowned in thought for a moment, then seemed to come to a 
decision.

	"Harry,"  She said, turning to look at him.  "Would you please teach me?"

	Harry stared in surprise.  "What do you mean?"

	"I've been hunting through the text books, the books in the library, I've 
even talked with a few of the upperclassmen, and none of them know anything 
like what you told me about on the train."  Hermione said.

	Harry blinked in surprise, both at the question, and at the fact that even 
upperclassmen hadn't heard of some of the stuff he and Hermione had talked 
about.  He hemmed and hawed for a few moments, scratching the back of his 
head in thought.  "Honestly, I'm still figuring things out myself."

	"Then tell me what you can."  Hermione pleaded.

	Harry sighed.  'I just 'know' I'm going to regret this.'  He thought to 
himself.

	"Alright, I'll teach you as much as I can." Harry shook his head.

	"Thank you, Harry."  Hermione smiled.

	Harry glanced over at the glaring Madame Pince.  "Maybe we should talk 
about this someplace else, as I think the librarian is getting irritated at 
us."

	Hermione paled a bit at the thought of angering the guardian of the books, 
and the two quickly gathered what they had chosen to check out, and left the 
library.  It was a short time later that they found an unused classroom, and 
sat down.

	"I'm going to give you some of the background information I have.  If I've 
already told you this, I apologise."  Harry said.

	Hermione took out some parchment, and prepared to start making notes.

	"There are basically eight different schools or types of spells.  Each 
school is determined by what the spell does, and how it works.  The first is 
Conjuration.  Conjuring spells are those that make physical objects seem to 
appear from nowhere, either by creating something from thin air, or spells 
that teleport creatures or objects.  The second type of spell is Illusion, 
which is pretty much what it says.  Third is Evocation, which is mostly 
attack spells.  Fireballs and lightning bolts, stuff like that.  Basically, 
any spells that shoots energy.  The fourth type is Enchantment, which are 
spells that affect the mind or the emotions of the person the spell is cast 
on.  Fifth, is Divination, all spells that you use to get information are 
part of this group.  Sixth is Necromancy, which is made up entirely of 
spells that deal with death and undead creatures, and stuff.  The seventh 
group is called Abjuration, which are all spells that prevent or counter 
something, or protect you.  Then there's Transformation.  Most of the 
transformation spells are like what we're learning in transfiguration, but 
there's a lot of spells I'm not sure why they're there; like levitation and 
flying.  Basically, it's any spell that changes something."

	Hermione nodded, writing down the information as it was given to her.

	"Most of these groups,"  Harry continued.  "Have their own subgroups.  
Conjuration is divided between summoning spells, teleportation spell, 
healing spells, and creation spells, those that create things from thin air. 
  Evocation is divided into subgroups, based on what kind of energy the 
spell uses.  Illusion spells are based on the nature of the illusion, what 
its purpose is, etc..  There's a lot more too it than that, but I'd have to 
dig up the 'Players Handbook' first.  That or try and find where I have it 
written down in my notes."

	"'Players Handbook?'"  Hermione asked.

	"It's one of the basic rule books you need to play 'Dungeons & Dragons.'"  
Harry said.  "I think it's got the best way of organising spells and magic.  
Then there's the system in 'Mage: the Ascension.'  They divide spells based 
on what the magic's meant to affect, divided up into Spheres rather than 
what the spells do.  They had as Spheres ; Matter, Spirit, Mind, Life, 
Space, Time, Force, Entropy, which deals with stuff like destiny and death, 
and something called Prime, which seems to be about magic and the nature of 
existence itself.  It's not bad, but I don't completely agree with the 
Spheres they chose.  Not entirely sure why, I just don't."

	"Are there other systems?"

	Harry nodded.  "There's a couple.  One that is dependent on how the spell 
is cast, whether it's a ritual spell, or a spell you can cast pretty much at 
the drop of a hat, or if you use written symbols to cast the spell.  Also, 
you can catelogue spells based on what you use to power the magic, which 
seem to have an effect on what the spell can do, and how well it does it.  
Not to mention there are other ways to group spells by what they effect, a 
bit better than the Spheres.  The groups are called Colleges.

	"There's Earth aka Nature or Green Magic, which draws its power from all 
aspects of nature, and the natural world, but mostly life and living beings. 
  That's best for things involving life and the elements.  There's Order 
Magic, Elemental Magic, Mind Magic, Chaos Magic, Death Magic, Blood Magic, 
etcera, etc."  Harry waved his hand, indicating that there were tons of 
other types of magic.  "If you can think of it, there's probably a magic 
that's tied to it somehow.

	"There's also something called 'Wild Magic.'"  Harry said.  "It basically 
means magic in a very raw, uncontrolled state.  It's very powerful, but very 
dangerous, since it doesn't have the control that you normally have.  It's 
kind of like the difference between a wild and a domensticated animal.  Both 
are esentially the same, but there are differences in the way they act.  
Wild magic doesn't follow the same rules that normal magic does, and can do 
some things that are otherwise impossible."

	That seemed to spark a thought in Hermione.  "The books I've read mentioned 
accidental magic, and that it's common in magical children, before they go 
to school.  I wonder if there's any connection between accidental and Wild 
Magic."

	Harry grew thoughtful.  "Interesting idea.  It's entirely possible, but I'd 
have to do a bit of studying first.

	"Well, getting back to the explanation, Death and Blood Magic, and probably 
some other kinds as well, seem to be classified under the title 'dark magic' 
or 'the dark arts,' which is as good a term as any.  Though I think the term 
black magic is more traditional, honestly."

	Harry knew he was babbling a bit, but after his meeting with Flitwick and 
McGonagall, he had found he enjoyed talking about magic.  It had been 
difficult for him to correlate all of the information he had gathered over 
the years into a way for someone else to understand, so in his free time, he 
had been writing down some notes of what he had gathered about magic from 
all of his reading.  It wasn't perfect, but it 'did' make things easier for 
him.

	Hermione finished her notes on what he had told her, then glanced at him.

	"You said that there were other ways of casting spells.  Could you give me 
examples?"  She asked.

	Harry shrugged.  "There's a lot of ways.  I've read books where the spells 
were created as computer programs, or they've used some kind of mathematic 
equations as the spell.  A number of authors have used various kinds of art; 
music, sculpture, painting, poetry, even dance as the way their wizards cast 
spells.  I've also read books where they use what they call techno-wizardry, 
or techno-magic, which is combining magic and technology in a way to do 
different things.  Some magic systems involve carving or drawing shapes 
called rune magic, or putting spells into tattoos so they can be used by 
non-mages.  There's also different ritual magics, where the spellcaster has 
to do several different things to cast any spells.  The rituals usually 
involve either religion in some way, or certain 'Laws of Magic.'"

	"Laws of Magic?"

	"The Laws of Magic are some general rules and guidlines that a lot of 
writers use to make spellcasting easier.  They aren't hard and fast rules, 
really, but a lot of authors use them.  There's three of them that I can 
think of off the top of my head, though different books had extras, but 
these are the most common:  Law of Sympathy, or 'like equals like.'  
Basically means that if have something that either resembles or symbolises 
something else, then you can use that symbol to manipulate what it 
symbolises.  The better the symbol used, the more effective the spell.  Then 
there's the Law of Contagion, that basically says that any object that was 
once a part of something else, like hair or nail clippings, can be used to 
affect the whole.  The third law is the Law of Names.  The Law of Names says 
that, everything has its own personal name, that perfectly describes that 
person, object, or creature, and that the name gives power over that which 
it names."

	"That sounds a bit like the Law of Sympathy, just that the true name is the 
perfect symbol."  Hermione said

	Harry nodded.  "Yeah.  I think it's supposed to be a way to make sure the 
magic effects only the specific individual you want it to."

	"Well, getting back to what we were talking about, the way I prefer to work 
magic is something called 'Will and the Word'  though it was often called 
sorcery as well in the books.  Basically, you focus your will, and then use 
a word or phrase to help shape that will."

	Hermoine frowned.  "But, I've seen you work magic without saying anything."

	Harry nodded.  "That's because, instead of a word, I usually use an image, 
or visualise what I want to happen, to shape and focus my will.  Remember, 
it's not the how you shape your will that's important, but the will itself." 
  'Though it does seem that whenever I stop concentrating, I loose hold of 
the effect.  Maybe I need to try using words instead.'

	"Okay,"  Harry said, after he decided to table that thought.  "Here's a 
cantrip.  It's not that easy to do at first, but once you can, it tends to 
be a lot of help."

	Hermione nodded, eager to learn one of Harry's cantrips.

	"Okay, the first thing I want you to do, is close your eyes."

	Hermione was a bit surprised, but just shrugged it off, and followed 
Harry's orders.

	Harry nodded.  "Okay, next, I want you do imagine a small fire.  It doesn't 
have to be big, just a candle flame will work."

	Hermione nodded, to show that she had understood, and was ready for the 
next part.

	"Okay, Hermione, now I want you to do is to take everything you're 
thinking, feeling, all of it, and start feeding it into the fire.  Let the 
flames burn it all up, until there's nothing left in there but you, and the 
fire."

	Harry watched as Hermione attempted the trick, seeing the frustration begin 
to show on her face.  It kept growing, until Hermione finally opened her 
eyes, frowning.

	"I couldn't get it to work."  She said.  Harry could see her eyes begin to 
tear up.  "Every time I put something in, I couldn't stop thinking, and I 
had to put the thoughts in, and I got frustrated... and I... "

	"Now... just... hold on."  Harry stuttered.  'Oh no, she's crying!  Now 
what do I do?'  "I told you this wasn't easy.  It took me over a week before 
I could feed everything into the fire, and even longer before I could do it 
whenever I wanted, or without closing my eyes."

	"Really?"  Hermione asked.

	Harry nodded.  "Really.  It was a real pain, but it made everything so much 
easier when I finally got it done.  Now, I don't even need to use it most of 
the time, unless I'm doing something new, or that needs a lot of 
concentration."

	Harry conjured a hanky for Hermione, and handed it to her.  She gratefully 
accepted it, and began to clean up a bit.

	"Keep it."  Harry said, when she tried to return it.  "I'll just conjure 
another one if I need it."

	Harry frowned at the hanky, turning it from the plain white it was, to a 
more Gryffindor red, with an embroidered 'H. G.' in gold thread at a corner. 
  Hermione smiled a bit at the gift.

	"Now remember, try it when you get the chance, but don't get frustrated if 
it doesn't work.  Just keep working at it, until it happens.  After that, 
you'll find it much easier to form the Void."  Harry said, smiling.

	"Are there other things like this, other 'cantrips' that you know?"  
Hermione asked, curiously.

	Harry nodded.  "Yeah.  Though, it's probably best if we wait until you've 
gotten a bit further with the Flame and the Void before you start working on 
them.  It'll make things easier."

	"Is that the name for this?  The 'Flame and the Void?'"

	"One of them, anyway.  The other name is 'the Oneness.'"  Harry explained.  
"The reason being is that, when you achieve the Void, you're supposed to be 
much more aware of things, and able to do them more easily.  Also, it helps 
you to focus, calm, and center yourself."

	Hermione nodded in understanding.

	"What are some of the other cantrips?"  She asked.

	Harry pursed his lips, and mentally debated with himself about telling her, 
but decided that, so long as she didn't know how, it would be okay.  There 
had been a few minor accidents early in his self-training that could have 
turned out very badly, had he messed things up, so he didn't want her to 
practice some of them on her own.

	"Well,"  He began  "One thing I've worked on is a way to actually 'see' 
magic.  I call it mage sight.  Doesn't seem to be as instinctive as it is in 
some of the books I've read, so it isn't that easy.  Not very sensitive yet, 
but I hope to reach a point where I can easily tell not only that 
something's enchanted, but the strength and nature of the spell as well.  Of 
course, there's probably spells to do all that, but I figure if you can do 
it just by looking, it'll make things much easier.

	"Another cantrip I've been considering developing is astral projection.  
It's where you temporarily seperate your spirit from your body, and either 
allow it to move around the physical world, or travel to other, less 
physical, planes of existence."

	"Planes of existence?"  Hermione noted the unfamiliar term.

	"Planes of existence are... well it can mean a couple of different things.  
Sometimes they use it to mean a different universe, or another dimension."  
Harry explained.  "Other times, they use it to mean a different level or 
area of reality.  Like the Afterlife, or something like that."  'I'm 
surprised she hasn't come across the term before in her reading.'

	Hermione jotted this information down, nodding when she was reading for him 
to continue.

	Harry continued, giving Hermione a few more examples of cantrips he planned 
to teach her.  Hermione soaked them up like a sponge, already making plans 
to go through the library, to research anything about the skills Harry 
mentioned.  There hadn't been much of anything on what he had mentioned 
earlier, but she was sure that, with a bit more time, she could find 
something.

	After all, it wasn't like Harry could have been the first person to 
discover this, could it?

- - -

	Harry kept a carefully neutral face as Quirrel stuttered out his lecture to 
them.

	'This guy may be brilliant at theory, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd 
faint before he could defend himself.'  He thought to himself.

	From what Harry could gather, between the stutters, their first year of 
Defense against the Dark Arts (DADA for short) would be almost entirely 
theory, as the spells used in DADA were simply too difficult to be learned 
until they had at least a terms worth of charms and transfiguration spells 
under their belts.

	In fact, the name of the class was a bit of a misnomer, as they would cover 
not only protecting against dark magic but also dark magical creatures such 
as vampires, werewolves, bogarts, and such.

	When Quirrel finally paused, and asked if their were any questions, Harry 
raised his hand.

	"M-mmr Pott-tter."

	"I actually have two questions."  Harry waited for a second, until Quirrel 
nodded for him to continue.  "The first question is; just what are the dark 
arts?  What makes them different from any other spell or magical creature 
that can do injury, or is otherwise dangerous?  My second question is; if 
there is such a thing as 'dark arts,' than is there such a thing as 'light 
arts?'"

	Most of the class just looked at Harry as if he was crazy.  However, 
Quirrel's look was very different.  For just a second, it was almost as if 
the stuttering professor was trying to read Harry's soul.  The moment 
quickly passed, however, and Quirrel returned to his normal self.

	From what he was able to tell, between the stutters and everything, was 
that the dark arts were dark because they drew their power from an 
individuals dark side for their power.  Dark magic spells were strongest 
when they were cast with some negative emotion feeding them.  Dark creatures 
were those whose magic made them associated with darkness, such as the 
vampire's weakness to sunlight, the werewolf's madness, or the bogarts use 
of fear as a defense.

	Harry nodded.  "What is light magic than?"

	Quirrel frowned.  "I'v-ve nev-verr hearr-rd of light magic."

	Harry frowned in response.

	"If the dark arts get power from negative emotions and death, than light 
magic would get its power from life and positive emotions."  He reasoned.

	Quirrel blinked in surprise.

	"Well, the only sp-pell I know lik-ke that-t is the Pat-trrronus."  Quirrel 
said.  "It-t's a verrry diffic-cult-t spell, used-d t-to d-drrive away 
dd-darrrk-k c-crreat-turres, succ-ch as Dd-dement-torrrs, and 
leth-thifold-ds."

	Harry was rather surprised at this, but decided to keep quiet, as he 
noticed several of his classmates giving him strange looks.  Even Padma 
looked a bit confused.

	After that, DADA continued with no interruptions, and Quirrel's stutter 
even seemed to relax a bit.  However, Harry could tell something strange was 
going on.  Harry quickly left as soon as class ended, heading to the 
Ravenclaw dorm, the definition of dark magic on his mind.

	'From what Quirrel said,'  Harry thought to himself.  'the dark arts are 
basically like the Darkside of the Force, but there doesn't seem to be much 
of a Lightside to balance it.  Just the neutral magics we're being taught.'

	Harry shook his head.  Every day in the Wizarding World just seemed to 
bring more and more questions, and confusion.

- - -

	Harry was sitting down at breakfast, when Hedwig flew to him, carrying a 
letter.  Harry was rather surprised, as he had yet to write anyone.

	'Who would use my own owl to write me a letter?'  Harry asked himself

	He quickly took the letter from her, giving her an affectionate rub of the 
head, and offered her a piece of sausage, which Hedwig quickly accepted.  A 
quick glance was all he needed to tell it was from Hagrid.

	Dear Harry.

		I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a 
cup of tea with me around three?  I want to hear all about your first week.  
Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

	Hagrid.

	Harry smiled, and quickly wrote on the back of Hagrid's note, accepting the 
invitation.

- - -


	Not too long after, Harry found himself heading for his first potions class 
of the year.  He was a bit apprehensive, though he was also excited and 
looking forward to it at the same time.  Apprehensive, as that was one magic 
he was completely unfamiliar with, so all of his information about it came 
from the books he had picked up.  It was for that same reason he was 
excited.  It was completely new to him!

	'I wonder if potions and alchemy are related.'  Harry thought to himself.  
He had yet to find much information about alchemy, and no real definition 
for it yet.  About all he got were a few names of famous alchemists;  
Flamel, Paracelsius, Agrippa, and a few others.  'I guess I'll ask the 
teacher about it.'

	The class was double potions, with both the Ravenclaws and the Hufflepuffs. 
  Harry had heard from older Ravenclaws that Snape was not one who suffered 
fools or incompetents gladly.  There were a few other grumbles, but Harry 
wanted to form his opinion on his own, so decided to try and keep an open 
mind.

	The students gathered outside of the potions laboratory, waiting for the 
door to open, when Snape appeared, directing them inside with a sneer.  As 
they went in, Harry could 'feel' Snape's gaze on him, and even without 
looking at the professor, he could tell that it held the same kind of 
contempt and loathing that his aunt and uncle had looked at him with.

	'This, does not bode well.'  Harry thought to himself.

	Harry decided to sit beside Padma, who smiled at him shyly, before turning 
her attention to Snape.

	As soon as all of the students were in the classroom, Snape launched into a 
speech about potions, and how he could teach them to do anything, without 
'useless wand waving' as he put it.

	'I wonder if he's only good at potions making, or just a potions fanatic?'  
Harry pondered at the back of his mind.

	It was then that Snape, after commenting on Harry being a 'celebrity' began 
to fire off questions at him.  Fortunately, Harry had done quite a bit of 
reading to prepare for this class, and was able to answer them with very 
little difficulty.

	This only seemed to enrage the potions master, who stared Harry in the eyes 
for a few moments.  Harry again had the sensation of 'something' touching 
him inside his head.  It wasn't like the all-enveloping feeling of the 
Sorting Hat, but more like the spider legs that he had gotten when 
Ollivander looked in his eyes.  On a hunch, supported by Kenobi's advice to 
Luke about clearing his mind to keep the secret of Leia being his sister, 
Harry called up the flames, and stuffed everything into them, until the Void 
appeared.  Once that happened, Snapes eyes grew wide.  The spider leg 
feeling seemed to fade, and then, with a sneer,  Snape snarled at them to 
write what he had said down, and gave them a recipe for a potion, and 
commanded that they make it.

	Harry rolled his eyes as he began to gather his potion ingredients.

	'What, no instructions on how to do something, or anything about the 
potions, just 'here's the recipe, now make it!'?'  Harry thought.  'Bloody 
Hell, those upperclassmen weren't exaggerating the fact he's a flaming 
arse!'

	Harry resolved to do his best to study the basics of potion preperation, 
and see if there was anything about the hows and whys of potion ingredients. 
  'Maybe even something that tells me what the various ingredients do, and 
what their purpose in the potion is.'

	Harry sighed as he went back over the recipe for the potion.  With the 
horrid teaching styles of Binns and Snape, it was going to be a lot of work 
to get decent grades in those classes.  Especially with his teaching of 
Hermione, and working on his other magics.  He was just glad that, now that 
he was at Hogwarts, he would have much more research material, and wouldn't 
be limited to just what he thought up himself.  Still, he wished he could be 
in two places at once.

	Harry paused.  'Two places at once.  In Mage, the wizards have means of 
magically doing that.  Plus, there are spells to, at least temporarily, 
increase your mental abilities, both in Mage and in D&D.  If I could figure 
out how to do that, I could be studying, or working on my own projects, at 
the same time I was in class, or someplace else!  I could boost my mind, so 
whatever I wanted to, I could remember instantly!'

	The prospect of what he was contemplating was so exciting, that Harry 
almost made a major mistake with his potion.  Thankfully, Padma caught him 
just before he dropped in the nettles, while Snape was beratting a 
Hufflepuff.

	Harry pushed thoughts of being in two places at once, and increasing his 
mental abilities, to the back of his mind, and focused his attention on the 
potion in front of him.

	Needless to say, when Snape passed by Harry and Padma's table, he insulted 
everything about the potion, how it was too thick, the wrong shade, etc.  
Harry could 'feel' the hate coming off of Snape, so wasn't certain if Snape 
was right, or if he was lying through his teeth.

	'I wonder if any of the seventh-years would be willing to tutor me.'  Harry 
gathered his things together, and left the potions classroom.

	"What's a matter with you, Harry?"  Padma demanded.  "If I didn't catch 
your mistake, than the two of us would have ended up in the hospital wing, 
like that Gryffindor I heard about!"

	"Sorry, got to thinking about something else, and got distracted."  Harry 
apologised.  He then paused for a second.  "Question, why are we being 
taught something so easy to make dangerous, on our first class, when we're 
being taught the simplest spells in the other classes?  Shouldn't we be 
starting on something very simple, and relatively safe?"

	Padma, and a few others who were in their potions class, stared at Harry 
for a few moments.

	"I don't know."  Su Li, a fellow Ravenclaw said.  "That's an interesting 
point."

	The others, who were still around, began muttering among themselves about 
Harry's question.  Now that they thought about it, it 'was' kind of strange.

	'Not to mention the fact that Snape barely gave us any instructions on how 
to prepare the ingredients, and what the dangers were.'  Harry thought to 
himself.  'It would be like one of my primary school teachers telling us to 
add two numbers, without explaining how to add.  That's not even counting 
the fact that a small mistake could wind up hurting you badly!'

	Harry sighed.  'Didn't even get to ask him my question about alchemy.'

	Harry decided to head off to the library to study, and look up any 
interesting spells.  Not to mention, make up a list of what to teach 
Hermione.  Unfortunately, it was just at that moment that Snape stalked out 
of his classroom.

	"What are all of you doing, standing out here?"  Snape demanded.  "Two 
points from each of you for blocking the hallways, and five points from 
Potter for questioning my teaching style!"

	With his job of creating misery in all non-Slytherins done, Snape stalked 
off, leaving the unhappy first years heading back to their common rooms.

		Harry began to grumble to himself.  'What is it with that git?  We just 
got out of class for pity sake.  Anyway, I don't think simple questions like 
that are grounds for taking points.'

	Harry continued grumbling in his head about Snape as he headed off to the 
library.  'If things keep like this, I'm going to have to look into what 
kind of protections students have from abuse of authority.'

- - -

	Harry headed off to Hagrid's shack, followed by Hermione.  Harry had spoken 
with Hermione shortly after his unpleasant first potions class, and had 
mentioned he was going to Hagrid's place for tea.  Hermione asked if she 
could come with him, as he had seemed rather pleasant from the little she 
had seen of him prior to the Sorting.

	It had been rather easy to find, with a few quick directions from one of 
the Gryffindor upperclassmen.  Apparently, Hagrid was a favorite of the 
Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs.

	As soon as Harry knocked on the door of Hagrid's shack, there was a loud, 
booming barking behind the door accompanied by frantic scratching.  Then, 
Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang -  back."

	Hagrid poked his head out, telling them it would be a moment, as he 
wrestled with the unseen Fang.  A few seconds later, the door was opened, 
with Hagrid holding an enormous boarhound by the collar.

	"Make yourselves at home."  Hagrid said, gesturing for them to come inside. 
  As soon as they were in, Hagrid let go of Fang, who bounded up to 
Hermione, licking her face.  Laughing, Hermione pushed Fang away, wiping her 
face off.

	Hagrid handed her one of his enormous handkerchiefs, chuckling.

	"Sorry, 'times I think Fang there forgets he ain't a puppy."  Hagrid said.

	"That's okay."  Hermione said, as soon as she had the dog slobber off of 
her face.

	"Hagrid, this is my friend, Hermione.  Hermione, Rubeus Hagrid."  Harry 
said, introducing his friends to each other.

	With that out of the way, the three started on the small talk.  Hagrid was 
interested in how their first days of class had gone, and pleased  about how 
well they had done.

	"What I don't understand is Professor Snape,"  Harry said, shaking his 
head.  "It's like the man has it in for me."

	"Rubbish,"  Hagrid said.  "Why should he?"

	However, it was clear that Hagrid wasn't telling the truth.

	'So, Hagrid knows something,'  Harry thought to himself.  'Now, what could 
it be?'

	As he pondered this, Harry absently picked up a newspaper cutting, that was 
lying under the tea cozy.

	'GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST' the headline read.

	Harry quickly glanced through it, to find that the very day of his shopping 
trip, Gringotts had been broken-into.  However, the vault they had attempted 
to steal from had already been emptied.

	It didn't take a genius to figure out that the vault was most likely the 
one Hagrid had takent the mysterious package from.

	'After all, how many Gringotts vaults would have been emptied that very 
day?'  Harry asked himself.

	Hagrid looked at the clipping in Harry's hand, and grabbed it.

	"Sorry,"  He said, putting the clipping away.  "Bit of a mess.  Meant to 
clean up a bit before 'ye showed."

	Hagrid was looking everywhere, but at the faces of the two children.  It 
was obvious to the both of them that he was hiding something, but the 
question was, what?

	Harry and Hermione quickly finished their tea, laying aside their rock 
cakes.

	"That was rather strange."  Hermione commented as they headed back.

	Harry nodded.

	"More than you realise."  He told her, and explained about Hagrid's 
emptying of Vault 713 the day of the attempted robbery.

	Hermione's eyes widened.

	"Whatever was in that package, it must be very important, if the theif was 
willing to try and break into Gringotts."  She said.

	Harry nodded.

	"But what is it, why is it that important, and why was it moved that day?"  
Harry asked.

	Questions which neither of them had the answer to.

- - -

	Harry sat down at one of the several study tables in the Ravenclaw common 
room, and pulled out some notebooks, scrolls, and several books that he had 
decided to study.  A few of the purebloods scoffed at the obviously muggle 
notebooks.  Harry simply shrugged at them.

	"Makes it easier to keep notes together."  He said.

	Most of those who had scoffed, rolled their eyes at the thought, though 
several seemed to be interested in the concept.  Though they kept their 
interest to themselves mostly.  While Ravenclaw wasn't as into the whole 
'anti-muggle' attitude as Slytherin, it still had its proponents of the 
pureblood issue.  Most of them simply kept it hidden better than the average 
Slytherin.

	Ignoring the purebloods, Harry decided to write a letter to Chad and Mr 
Caufmann, just to let them know how he was doing.  After all, he didn't have 
enough friends in the world to simply ignore any of them, even if they 
wouldn't be seeing each other that much.

	To Mr Caufmann and Chad.

	How's everything going with you two?  I'm doing good, getting used to the 
new school, and classes.

	Everything's so different from primary school.  The kids in my dorm are all 
as interested in reading and studying as I am.  In fact, that's what the 
dorm is known for, so I hope to make some new friends.  I've already 
started, and gotten to know this one girl;  Hermione Granger.  From what I 
can tell about her, I'd be surprised if I wouldn't be able to get her 
interested in helping me set up an RPG or a SF/F club in the school.  She's 
already expressed an interest in some of the D&D books I've got.  There's 
also a girl named Padma Patil, who's in the girl's wing of my dorm.  She 
seems nice, though I haven't gotten to know her as well as Hermione yet, so 
I'm not sure if she would be interested in that kind of stuff.

	As for the classes... the History teacher is even more boring than you can 
imagine.  There's a bet among the upper levels that he's going to bore 
'himself' to death one day.  The Chemistry  teacher isn't the nicest guy in 
the world.  Seems to have it in for everyone, just about.  Punishes you for 
any infraction he can think of.  Supposed to be an expert in his field, but 
I guess it just prooves the old saying 'Those who can do, those who can't, 
teach!'  The rest of the teachers seem fine.  Apparently, most of them were 
here teaching when my parents were students.  I plan on seeing what they 
know, what stories they can tell me.

	Well, that's all I have for the moment.  Hope to hear from you soon (or at 
least before the end of the school year, and yes, I'm talking to you Chad.)

					Your friend


					Harry Potter.


	Harry gave the letter a quick read-through, and set it asside.  He'd send 
it with Hedwig tomorrow.

	'Okay, that's done.'  Harry turned to one of his spellbooks, or rather, one 
of the notebooks where he had put all of the questions about the Wizarding 
World that he wanted answered.  There were quite a few.

What is alchemy?  How is it related to potions?
Is there a ranking system for wizards, and if so, what is it?
If there are dark arts, then shouldn't there be light arts?
If light arts exist, why doesn't there seem to be a class for, or any 
mention of, them?

	and the last, and possibly most important one...

Why am I getting all of these funny looks when I ask about something, or 
mention something that's completely obvious?

	Harry crossed out the question's about the light arts, and replaced them 
with;

  If wizards are so concerned about the dark arts, why hasn't more effort 
gone into the light arts?
Why does Hogwarts seem to lack so many things that you would think one of 
the world's greatest magic schools would have?

	Harry sighed.  So many questions, and no idea where to get the answers.

	'Most of the time I stay in the Headmaster's office, but I'm certain he 
won't mind you coming to visit occasionally. I look forward to our 
conversations.'  The Sorting Hat said.

	Harry blinked in surprise, as the memory popped into his head.

	'Of course, the Sorting Hat!'  He thought to himself.  'It should have at 
least 'some' of the answers to my questions.'

============================================================
	For those of you who are much more familar with the D&D and other various 
magic systems than I am, and believe that I have made some mistake in 
Harry's explanation, just let me remind you that this is just the way Harry 
understands it.  Even with all of his brains and creativity, he's only 11.

	Sometimes I wonder about the Wizarding world.  I mean, Hogwarts is supposed 
to be their equivalent of the big named schools, like Oxford, MIT, Harvard, 
etc.  However, there's a lot that seems to require being self taught, or 
that requires you being taught at the job.  Dumbledore is specifically 
mentioned as being as good as he is 'because' he taught himself, most of 
Harry's skills are self taught (because of the Tri-Wizard Tournament) and so 
on.  Also, you can't tell me that the diverse needs of all the jobs in the 
wizarding world, are covered by the bare handful of classes you get at 
Hogwarts.  Especially since bureaucrats take the same courses.  That would 
be like a guy getting an engineering degree, and then going into politics.

	There's a lot of information being given by Harry in this chapter.  I'm 
kind of afraid that this is a bit of an infodump.  Too much info given in 
extra large bites.  If you feel this is the case, please tell me, so I can 
try and not repeat it.

	Basically,  there are at least three ways of organising spells.  First, by 
how the spell works, what it does;  called schools.  Second, by what the 
spells affect or does; you can use Colleges or Spheres for this.  Third, by 
the method of magic working; be it Rune magic (magic involving use of drawn 
or carved symbols), ritual magic (magic involving multiple elements involved 
in the casting of), potions, spells (such as Charms and Transfiguration), or 
other methods.

	Yes, I am aware that White Wolf has altered things, replacing Spheres with 
the Arcana, however, at this point in the timeline, Harry hasn't come across 
the new system.  Though, I do believe that seperating the Sphere Entropy 
into the Arcana Death and Fate improve things.  It's going to be a bit 
before Harry comes across this new way.

	For those curious; the schools come from Dungeons & Dragons, Colleges come 
from GURPS, Spheres come from Mage: the Ascension,  and the idea of 
organising magic working by casting method, comes from RIFTS.

	In this story (at least for the moment) I'm defining the dark arts as magc 
that draws its power and shape from pain and negative emotions such as hate, 
and those magics whose purpose is to cause death, and suffering.  Light arts 
are those whose power is drawn and shaped by postive emotions.  So far the 
only examples of the light arts we've seen in canon, are the Patronus, and 
the magical protection that Lily's sacrifice gave Harry.

	All curses, hexes, and jinxes, are technically part of the dark arts, even 
if only to a minor degree.

	I'm not to fond of my definition of what dark magical creatures are, but 
that's the best one I can come up with at the moment.  I may eventually 
refine it for this fic.  If so, I'll think about replacing the one in this 
chapter.



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