Rising to power.

Classes.

Harry quietly followed Archades towards the Hogwarts grounds to where the first year students would learn to fly a broomstick. Their first week of school had finally ended, but instead of being able to do some independent study on this cold Saturday morning, they were dragged out of their dorms to participate in flying practise.

Their first week of classes had been interesting, in Harry's opinion, but not very exciting. Luckily for him, he had the foresight to map out where all of his classrooms were before classes began, unfortunately, a lot of his classmates didn't share the same foresight and wound up arriving late to class on more then one occasion and losing their respective houses valuable points.

The castle itself didn't really help matters in regards to students making their way around the castle, what, with the school's one hundred and forty-two staircases, doors that weren't really doors that would rather strike up a conversation with you then let you pass, and the constant menace which was Peeves the poltergeist, who still hadn't gotten over the fact that he couldn't get the jump on Harry.

Then there was the most miserable excuse for a human being on the planet, Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker and his demon cat Mrs. Norris, who patrolled the corridors constantly just waiting like a predator for someone to make the slightest of errors so they could leap on them and dish out their unholy justice. Harry was one of the unfortunate students to get on his bad side immediately in their Hogwarts career when he had his football confiscated by the lousy excuse of a caretaker for juggling it in one of the courtyards to pass time during a free period – that was his only football too!

If the ghost, the poor architecture, or Filch himself weren't enough to deal with, there were also the lessons which almost bordered on downright boring for the black haired youth. Harry had assumed that once he entered Hogwarts, he would be able to apply all of the magical theory he had studies in his life to practise and get to do some spells, but instead they were forced to stick to the basics, and for Harry, re-learn all the simple theory Remus had drilled into his head long ago.

Some of the classes, like Astronomy, were fun for Harry for non-academic reasons where they'd meet up in the astronomy tower Wednesday night at midnight to study the night, learning the names of planets, stars and other galaxy related phenomena. What Harry thought made the class so enjoyable was the absolutely stunning view the astronomy tower gives the students with their magically enhanced telescopes of outer space, unhindered by light or air pollution living near a city would provide.

Three times a week with the Gryffindors they would head out to the school's greenhouses to study Herbology with a dumpy little witch called Pomona Sprout - the head of Hufflepuff house – who taught them all about magical plants and fungi and how one would go about caring for and using them.

The one class, surprisingly enough, that Harry enjoyed the most was History of magic; surprising because so many people would think otherwise about the class. The subject was taught by a ghost by the name of Cuthbert Binns who had one day fallen asleep in front of the staffroom fireplace and woken up the next morning to teach, leaving his body behind. Unfortunately for the spectral professor, Harry didn't much like the time he spent droning on about several names and dates of important historical events, so instead, he used the time in the class to sneak in his own books and have a quiet read. Harry was just thankful that no one from his own house or the Gryffindors had spotted him or they might just feel the need to stick their noses in his business and stop his free study period.

One of the classes Harry had been looking forward to was Charms, taught by his head of house and well known Duelling champion Filius Flitwick. Unfortunately, the tiny professor who had to sit on a pile of books to look over his own desk had spent the first week of classes going over the basic Levitation charm with the first years, a charm that Harry took one try to master – he didn't think it was that difficult. So, instead of listening to the endless repetition of the incantation 'Wingardium Leviosa' and Stephanie constantly trying to tutor Archades on how to perform the spell correctly, he would read ahead in the coursework and quietly practised the rest of the charms they were set to learn in their first year. When Professor Flitwick had asked why he wasn't doing any of the work, he had quietly responded by levitating his lesson's handout sheet to the shocked professor and continued with his independent study.