The right path

Nine

Two weeks had passed since that night. Harry had tried speaking with James about the thing he felt when he met Tom's eyes, but every time he tried, James would refuse to tell him anything. He had said it was 'up to him to find out' but promised to tell Harry if he hadn't solved it by the time he had to leave back to Death's realm. After all, when he did have to return, he would need to have a lengthy chat with Harry, telling him about the Horcruxes and all of the things he would need to know by then. Of course Harry was not exactly happy with this deal, but stopped trying to get an answer by that means. It would just be a waste of time.

Classes had started and Harry had found everything considerably easier than what he remembered things to be. Having the entirety of his magic made a huge difference after all. He could feel magic in a way he never did before. It was as if a big burden was lifted from his very core. He had particular ease with charms and transfiguration, classes in which he could finish the classwork in his first attempt perfectly. He was still excellent in DADA, or even better, as he could predict the opponent's next move just by the magical currents shifting. At first he was worried about that class, considering he had two incompetent teachers before, so he reread all the material for the previous two years, finding he knew most of it by heart, due to his constant 'accidents' with Malfoy and his gang. In herbology and potions, surprisingly, he had the upper hand, as in the future they taught them more theory so they could understand the why's, rather than mechanizing the process. Harry never thought he would be thankful for Snape's classes, but now he had to admit even he had a better grip on it than most of his classmates. Mind you, Slughorn, the current potions teacher, was amazed by his 'natural talent' and his 'incredible intuition towards the reaction of ingredients'. Aritmancy and Ancient Runes were very theoretical classes, but very interesting. They were the only ones that took most of Harry's time for reading and research. He was glad he took them, they were challenging him, when the other classes did not, and they were damn useful. History was still taught by Binns, and it was, obviously, just as horrible. At first he didn't even attempt to pay attention, but when he started having the Magical development class he changed his mind. There they started with some magical theory and a brief introduction to the development of magical techniques throughout the ages. Some of the things they saw in that class overlapped with some things he should have known from his History classes, and he was annoyed by the fact he didn't know. So he started reading the recommended books for history during the class, instead of trying to listen to Binns. He had become such a bookworm this days, who would have thought? Now Harry could understand why Hermione had spent so much time reading the classes' material, even more so because he now had more time to do all of that instead of losing his time whining about the workload with Ron.

Harry was considered one of the brightest wizards in school by now, even when the term had barely started, but he was not the best really. There was a lot of work to do if he wanted to achieve that, although he wasn't sure that was his goal. Mind you, he already had a lot of attention put into himself, he didn't really want to be noticed that much. In fact, it was starting to annoy him because he had two people he didn't particularly like staring at him all the time.

The first one he expected. Tom had been observing him since the incident in the dorm, but it intensified when Harry started challenging him in the classes. Before Harry arrived, Tom had no one to compare his abilities and magical grip to, but now Harry was able to follow his pace in classes with no problems, and this led to Tom watching Harry more intently with every passing day. Harry was a little bit confused by this, he expected the other boy to hex him into oblivion or something like that. He never really considered the other boy to be patient, or to tolerate competition. That's when he realized he had a big prejudice against the other boy, and decided he would try to be more open-minded about him. The other person observing Harry was, of course, Dumbledore. Harry didn't expect the old man to notice him that soon, but his great performance in transfiguration ended his hopes of being left alone for a while longer.

In fact, his excellent performance in almost every class had acquired the attention of other students. Harry had felt weird when the young McGonagall approached him in the charms corridor three days into the term. She apparently had been a hatstall too, and wanted to shake the hand of her 'multipotentialite colleague'. She was impressed with his work in transfiguration, and they started talking about it some time. She was what Harry considered his first friend here, and he was astounded that it was her stern transfiguration teacher from the future. From that day on, they have small conversations when they have a mutual free period. Today, for example, 'Minerva' (as she insisted her last name was too formal for friends) had learned that Harry was a good Quidditch player. Being a great player herself, she insisted on going out to fly someday, and encouraged the young boy to attempt to enter his house team. The tryouts were going to be held in two days, and Harry was so looking forward to it. He missed flying so much, even when this time's brooms were not as great. Maybe he would try to modify a broom to see if he can achieve more speed? Seems like a good project, but it will have to wait until he advances more in his magical theory understanding.

Another unexpected friendly visit occured Friday last week, when the first year Prewett twins approached the boy because he was 'ol' Minnie's friend' and they took it he was good for a Slytherin. Or they said that, in fact they were escaping from Minerva, the strict Gryffindor prefect, because of a small prank they pulled in the common room. It was a twin thing to be prankster, it seemed. When Harry first saw them he had a small heart attack too, they looked disturbingly similar to Fred and George, the only difference was the lack of ginger head, replaced with brown locks. They even had the same initials as them! Fabian and Gideon. He later came to the realization that they were Ms. Weasley's older brothers, with Molly not yet being born. He hadn't known her maiden name, but there was no mistake in the boy's features, he could already see it was true. Although they had a younger brother now, from what he could gather, a four-year-old called Bilius. Sometimes the twins would pester Harry to help them escape Minnie's wrath, and Harry would comply, amused by the familiarity of the situation. Some decades in the future McGonagall would be chasing after the next generation of twins, after all. The idea warmed the boy's heart a little bit.

Yet, Harry hadn't been able to talk to Hagrid, as he didn't really know how to approach the half giant. He was planning on talking to him about magical creatures, but he never had the chance. After all, the Potter boy was taking the class that enabled him to have knowledge in this area, but Hagrid was just a first year, there was no way Harry could 'find out' about the other boy's interest in that area.

However, his notorious friendship with the Gryffindors was starting to be a problem within his own house. Even when the house prejudice was not bad, the rivalry between Slytherin and Gryffindor was already very strong. Some of his classmates didn't care about his friendly relationship with the other house, but there were some others that viewed him as a traitor or something of the sort. He had had to endure some 'helpful advise' from the others that thought him ignorant of the situation because of being new in school. He always replied to all of them that he was aware of the rivalry, but he had a bigger plan. Harry had discovered that Slytherins admired you if you had your goals well established and you worked for them since the very beginning. Nobody questioned his motives after saying he had a 'bigger plan in the making'. Although, everyone in his house was strangely polite to him at all times. He couldn't exactly call them friends, but he and his dorm mates had very pleasant talks every now and then, even talked about Quidditch a little bit. He felt welcomed. Not as in Gryffindor with Ron and Hermione, but okay. Better than the rest of Gryffindor during last year for example, when everyone was against him.

Potter didn't exactly know, but everyone was staying out of his way instead of making a bigger fuss because of Tom. For a strange reason nobody in the Slytherin house comprehended, Riddle had declared the boy off limits.

It was something that had never happened before, but Riddle seemed to know what he was doing, and everyone respected it. It seemed their leader was weighing the newbie. Who knew, maybe the Potter boy was going to be important in Riddle's plans.