For the next week after learning about the Philosopher's Stone, Harry attended his classes like a normal student as he finally got to properly learn more about this world's magic.
For the most part Harry excelled in his classes. He had already been using magic for decades, so it was simple for him to adapt the majority of those experiences to his classes here as well. The only difference was that Harry would have to use his wand and say the words.
Transfiguration and Charms were both simple in the practical lessons, as Harry was the first in both classes to either Transfigure a match into a needle, and use the Lumos spell. Of course, Hermione was always right behind him.
Herbology was also fun since Harry was given access to so many new plants to sample for his Alchemy and Potions. The first time Hermione saw him pluck a random leaf from a plant and eat it, she gave him a weird look.
Wednesday nights were for Astrology, which Harry also enjoyed as he compared the differences in the night sky between this world and Nirn's.
Of course there were also classes that were the bane of Harry's existence, like History of Magic, or the practical theory segments of Charms and Transfiguration. Harry knew they were necessary, but that didn't mean he had to like them.
The greatest disappointment amongst Harry's classes though had to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, which was arguably the most important one to him considering Harry's desire to seek justice for his parents' deaths. Professor Quirrel was a nervous wreck of a man that seemed impossible to take seriously as he barely managed to stutter his way through their classes.
Additionally, Quirrel's classroom also had the overwhelming odor of garlic that permeated the entire room, made worse by the fact that Quirrel was too terrified to even open the windows to let it ventilate. Supposedly it was to ward off a vampire that Quirrel apparently feared was out to get him. But when Harry offered to deal with said vampire, as an experienced slayer of the undead, Quirrel just looked at him as if he was some horrific monster that had grown a second head.
Finally, it was friday. The final day of the week they had classes, and they would spend their morning in another class that Harry had been looking forward to, Potions.
"I swear Harry you are the ONLY Gryffindor that is actually looking forward to double Potions, WITH the Slytherins!" Ron exclaimed with disbelief as they made their way to the classroom, which was located down in the dungeons.
"No he's not Ron! I happen to be looking forward to Potions as well!" Hermione huffed indignantly.
"YOU don't count. You're the same person who thinks that History of Magic is fascinating!" Ron countered.
"A History of Magic IS fascinating! And Harry thinks so too, right?" Hermione returned while looking at Harry pointedly.
"If Binns wasn't teaching the subject, sure. But with him in the equation, Sorry Hermione." Harry said with a shrug.
The poor bushy-haired girl looked to her fellow first years one by one for support, but they all gave her nods of agreement regarding History of Magic, which left her pouting all the way to the classroom.
When they arrived the Slytherins were already waiting for them as they occupied half of the classroom, leaving the other half for the Gryffindors as they too took their seats. As he sat down, Harry gave a brief nod to the Slytherins he was on fairly decent terms with, Daphne Greengrass, Tracy Davis, Blaise Zabini, and Millicent Bulstrode.
On the other hand, Draco Malfoy had apparently decided to make Harry his mortal enemy. Not that Harry truly cared. But because of that, both Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle, who were apparently Draco's lackeys, were also against him, while Pansy Parkinson was practically Draco's fangirl.
Just as the Gryffindor's finished setting up their Potions equipment, the door opened silently as their teacher swooped in with flourish of black robes.
Severus Snape was a gaunt, pale man with a hooked nose and emotionless black eyes, which swept the room before Harry felt them land on him intently. He was also sure he saw the edge of Snape's mouth quiver slightly, but the professor moved too fast for him to be sure as he took his place at the head of the class. Where he began with a roll-call.
Snape's eyes flitted from student to student as he called their names, the Slytherins being graced with what might have passed for a look of warmth or familiarity, while the Gryffindors were targeted with looks of pure disdain, as if none of them were worth his attention. Then there was Harry.
"Ah yes... Harry Potter, our new.....celebrity." Snape drawled in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
"Tell me Potter..." He began, roll-call seemingly forgotten as he stalked towards Harry. "What would I get if I added the powdered root of Asphodel to an infusion of Wormwood?"
Harry cocked a brow at the sudden pop quiz, but he still answered after he recalled the properties of the two ingredients in question.
"A sleeping potion so powerful it's known as the Draught of Living Death." Harry answered smoothly, prompting Snape to quirk a brow.
"And tell me..." He continued, ignoring the correct answer. "Where would you look, if I told you to find me a Bezoar?"
Harry frowned as he thought of the item in question. He knew what it was, what it did, but not where to find one since he had been too focused on finishing his workshop to do more than peruse his textbooks.
"I don't know." Harry finally answered after drawing a blank.
"Tut tut." Snape sneered victoriously. "Clearly, fame isn't everything. Tell me, what is the difference between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?"
Harry blinked as he was suddenly thrown a curveball. Again, Harry knew what Wolfsbane was and how it was used in potions, but he had never heard of Monkshood before. And as such, Harry was unsure what the difference was until he could try some to compare them.
"I'm not sure. Perhaps we can learn about it in class." Harry replied, to which Snape's brow twitched.
"How disappointing... Five points from Gryffindor." Snape sneered, before turning away while flaring his cloak out dramatically.
"A Bezoar is a stone taken from the stomach of a goat, which will save you from most poisons. Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant, which also goes by the name of Aconite. Well? Shouldn't you all be writing this down?"
As everyone moved to write down what Snape had told them, Harry stared at the back of the professor, his eyes narrowing slightly as a suspicion began to creep up within him.
A suspicion that Harry decided was spot on as the class continued.
Their first assignment was to pair up and brew a potion to cure boils, simple enough.
Harry moved with machine-like precision as handled the ingredients and prepared them for the cauldron he and Hermione were sharing. The entire time Snape was prowling around them, unrelentingly criticizing the Gryffindor students over anything and everything he could, but never once doing the same for the Slytherins. He even pretended not to notice when Crabbe and Goyle's potion somehow turned to the same color and consistency as mud.
Knowing from experience just how dangerous Alchemy, or potion brewing as it was called here, could be, Harry kept an eye out on his fellow Gryffindors while he worked to make sure none of them did anything too dangerous. And sure enough, while Snape was busy preening over how perfect Malfoy's stewed horned slugs were, Harry noticed Neville about to add the porcupine quills to his and Ron's potion BEFORE taking the cauldron off of the fire.
"Hold it!" Harry exclaimed, grabbing Neville's arm before he could drop them, and possibly sparing them all kinds of problems.
"You have to take the caudron off of the fire first. Otherwise you could melt through it by mistake." Harry explained to Neville patiently, guiding him through the process as the crisis was averted.
"What do you think you're doing, Potter?" Snape demanded as soon as Neville safely resumed brewing.
"Your job, apparently!" Harry snapped back, making Snape widen his eyes slightly before they filled with a non-too-subtle fury.
"Oh? And do you fancy yourself to be a professor now?" He asked, his anger barely contained.
"HA!"
Harry however surprised him as he let out a sharp, dry laugh, before he sneered, "I don't have to be to know how a teacher is SUPPOSED to act. Or are the standards different here? Does being a teacher of Hogwarts mean you just get to bully and belittle the students you don't like?"
"..."
The crackling of flames and bubbling of brews was all that could be heard in the wake of Harry's rant, as Snape gave him a look that could have even given a dragon a run for its money. And Harry knew all about getting the death glare from dragons.
"Twenty points from Gryffindor, and a weeks worth of detentions for your cheek, Potter."
"No thanks." Harry said, collecting his things and making for the door.
"Where do you think you're going?!" Snape snarled, his earlier calm completely forgotten.
"To go and find something more productive to do with my time." Harry called without looking back, before closing the door behind himself.
More angry than he had truly been in a while, Harry went straight back to the Gryffindor common room while intending to spend some time in his trunk. But as soon as he crawled through the portrait hole, he was greeted by none other than Percy Weasley.
"Harry? Aren't you supposed to be in Potions right now?" Percy asked immediately, obviously trying to act the figure of authority.
"Snape was being a manchild who didn't want to do his job, so I left to go and find something more productive to do with my time." Harry replied cooly, earning him more than a few incredulous looks from the Gryffindors who were scattered around the common room.
"Seriously?!" Percy exclaimed, taken aback by Harry's sheer nerve in doing that to SNAPE of all people.
"Yeah. Speaking of, is Snape as bad to all of you as he was to us?" Harry asked curiously, to which several Gryffindors nodded their heads, commented in affirmation, or just flat out shuddered while turning pale. Harry's expression darkened.
"Percy, what kind of jewelry do you wear?" Harry asked suddenly, pulling a roll of parchment and quill from his bag.
"Jewelry? I've never thought about..." Percy said awkwardly, his ears turning slightly red.
"Just name something. It doesn't matter what, as long as you wear it." Harry stated impatiently.
"I guess, maybe a ring or something?" Percy eventually answered, and Harry wrote it down next to his name.
"Thank you." Harry said, before moving on the other remaining Gryffindors in the room, who all gave him curious looks as he took down their names and preferred piece of jewelry. Then, right as he was about to head up to his dorm room, a certain duo came down the stairs of the boys side that he was happy to see.
"Fred, George, I was wondering if the two of you could help me with something." Harry called out to them.
"Sorry Harry..."
"We're a little busy." The twins answered one after the other.
"I'll pay you." Harry immediately offered, two Galleons suddenly appearing in his hand, and then both twins were standing at attention.
""What do you need?"" They asked in unison.
"I need you two to fill this out." Harry said, handing them the roll of parchment with the few names he had already collected. "I need the names of every Gryffindor student on here, along with their preferred piece of jewelry. Go ahead and add your own names as well right now. When you're done, come and find me in the trunk at the foot of my bed."
Looking even more confused than the other Gryffindors had been, the twins quickly wrote their names down before going off to do their job.
"Oh yeah!" Harry called out to them before they could leave. "I understand how much you two love pranks, but I hope you understand that I am paying you for this. So I expect professionalism."
"Of course Harry!"
"We'd never cause mischief when there's money to be made!" They declared passionately, before departing.
With that done, Harry quickly entered his dorm before entering his workshop and going right to the forge. Before doing anything though he first thought about what materials he wanted to use, before finally pulling out several pure golden ingots along with all of the rubies he had in his collection. Nothing like Gryffindor red and gold.
With that done, Harry scattered some Fire Salts throughout his forge to invigorate it, before he pulled off his robes so that he was only in a pair of trousers as he got to work.
Over an hour later, Harry had company as Hermione, already figuring where he went, entered the trunk as well to check on him.
"Harry?" She called out, following the sound of metal clanging to find him hard at work in his forge room, but the forge was so hot that she couldn't even get near him as Harry focused intently on his work.
"Blimey!" A new voice swore, and Hermione whirled around to see Ron, Dean, Seamus and Neville all entering the trunk as well, their eyes all wide as they looked in every direction.
"What are you doing in here?!" Hermione asked them.
"Following YOU!" Ron retorted irritably.
"Well don't touch anything!" She declared, immediately taking the role of babysitter upon herself since she knew how dangerous most of the stuff in Harry's collection was.
"What's Harry doing?" Seamus asked while approaching the door curiously.
"Forging. But I don't know what he's making or why." Hermione answered.
"Forging? You mean like the goblins do?" Ron asked.
"Better." Hermione preened, having already seen some of the things Harry made himself, and fully believing that there was no way the goblins could compete.
With their afternoon free, the boys decided to hang around Harry's workshop while Hermione kept an eye on them, and Harry continued working. So they were all surprised when later they were joined by two more redheads.
"Blimey..."
"No wonder Harry's paying us if he could afford something like THIS."
Voicing their awe, Fred and George looked around in wonder at the workshop while Hermione readily approached them.
"And what are YOU two doing down here?" She demanded. Ron and the others were one thing, as they were Harry's dorm mates and bound to find out about the workshop eventually. Fred and George on the other hand were known troublemakers.
"Relax your bushyness."
"We were invited!" They proclaimed while sticking their chests out proudly.
Hermione was about to retort, when Harry suddenly emerged from his forging room for the first time since he started.
"All done then?" He asked the twins while approaching them.
"Done and done."
"Almost." They proclaimed, handing the list over to Harry, which was only missing the names of the Gryffindors present.
"Excellent. Here's your pay." Harry said while flicking the two coins to the older boys, who caught and pocketed them in a single movement with wide grins on their faces.
"So what is this place Harry?" Ron asked while looking around in awe, which made the rest of the boys look at Harry pointedly as well.
"My workshop." Harry answered absentmindedly while looking over the list.
"Workshop?"
"Yeah. Hey, I'm pretty busy right now. Hermione, can you give them the tour and let them know what NOT to touch. I have to get back to work. Also, feel free to practice Magelight if you want afterwards."
Without waiting for an answer, Harry immediately went back to his forge since he now knew exactly what pieces he needed to make, whereas he had just been making rings and necklaces for the last while.
"Right then! Follow me!" Hermione declared, puffing herself up with pride from the trust Harry was showing her.
She showed them around the main room, especially the bookshelves, before showing them the display room, peeking into the forge room, glancing into the Alchemy room, the Enchanting room, and finally the training room.
"Blimey..." Seamus uttered in awe, even as Hermione approached one of the wall racks and picked up the same staff she had been working with.
"Yeah. Harry's pretty amazing." Hermione replied, before she also began practicing with Magelight once more, while the others watched since the tour was over.
Eventually though the group began to disperse, especially once dinner time approached. Leaving only Harry and Hermione in the workshop as one worked relentlessly, and the other tried to cast Magelight with the staff.
Eventually...
"Come on...." Hermione groaned as she tried to cast the spell yet again, almost expecting it to fail. Instead however, the end of the staff shined for a second, before producing a sphere of light that hovered in the air in front of her.
"!!!"
"I did it! I DID IT!" She screamed happily, practically jumping up and down in the joy of her accomplishment.
"Harry! I did it!" Hermione cried as she hurried to the forge room, only to realize Harry was no longer there. Instead, she found him in the Enchanting room, where he was bent over his Enchanter with an expression of intense focus. On the table, Hermione noticed one of the pieces of jewelry that Harry had been working on, as well as a large gem unlike anything else she had ever seen.
Hermione watched as the gem pulsed rhythmically with a low light, before the glow transferred to the ring sitting on the table beside it. A few seconds later, the light died down.
"Alright. What is it Hermione?" Harry asked as he turned his attention towards her, surprising Hermione as she got a good look at him.
Just as before, Harry was still shirtless while only wearing trousers, showing his skin that was spotted with patches of soot from his hours at the forge. Aside from that, his skin seemed to glisten from the sweat that covered his body.
"Hermione?"
"Ah!" Hermione sputtered, recalling where she was as her face turned a brilliant crimson.
"S-sorry! I just wanted to tell you that I did it!" She quickly explained, before waving the staff to produce a glowing ball of light.
"Excellent Hermione. Well done." Harry praised her as he would any other student, before he picked up the ring he had been working on.
"Here, this is freshly Enchanted." He said while offering it to her, making Hermione's breath hitch in her throat as she beheld the ring.
It was beautiful, crafted from pure gold that shimmered under the glow of Magelight, with a single ruby that sat snugly on it as it shimmered.
"Harry..." Hermione breathed as she accepted the ring with shaking hands, admiring it before slowly sliding it onto her index finger.
"It's dual Enchanted, one to make the wearer better at Potions, and the other to make them more proficient at Alteration magic. In theory, it might also boost Transfiguration since they're so similar. That'll need to be tested though."
Hermione barely heard a word Harry said as she admired the ring, the first gift she ever received from a boy. From ANYONE outside her family.
"Thank you..." She said quietly, cherishing the ring.
"You're welcome. Now then, can you go and try to get all of Gryffindor gathered in the common room?" Harry asked her suddenly.
"Huh?" Hermione uttered at the request.
"Can you try and get all of Gryffindor gathered? I have something to say to them. Get Percy to help if you need to." Harry repeated, before turning back to his work as he continued Enchanting numerous rings and other pieces of jewelry.
Hermione didn't know why, but she felt more than a little irritated at that moment, and spun on her heel with a huff before leaving to do as Harry asked.
Soon enough, as they finished their dinner, all of Gryffindor was hunted down and returned to the common room as they all wondered what was going on.
"What's up Percy?" One of his fellow fifth years asked curiously.
"I don't know. Apparently Harry wanted to talk to all of us." Percy replied, also recalling his conversation with Harry earlier that day. Sure enough, Snape seemed in an even fouler mood than usual that afternoon when Percy passed him in the halls.
Thankfully they didn't have to wait long, as Harry appeared from the boys dorm with a few boxes in his arms, looking exactly as Hermione left him. Shirtless, and covered in soot and sweat.
"Thank you all for coming." Harry began as he set the boxes down on one of the tables.
"It has come to my attention that Snape doesn't particularly like Gryffindor.(There were a few snickers at that) And so, since he apparently hates us and doesn't want to do his job as a teacher, I decided to try something."
As he finished speaking, Harry opened the boxes to display their contents to the room, and there was a sharp intake of breath from the girls in particular when everyone saw what was within them.
In one box were dozens of rings, another held necklaces, the third bracelets, and finally the fourth held earrings. The shocking part? ALL of them were made with pure gold and flawless rubies, making each of them VERY valuable as they were.
"I made one for everyone, along with a few extras of each in case there was someone we missed." Harry started explaining. "Each and every one is Enchanted to make the wearer significantly stronger at brewing potions, so you all NEED to at least wear them during Snape's classes."
As he spoke, Harry began distributing the accessories to the entirety of Gryffindor House, who also treated them as if they were priceless treasures.
"Harry... Do you even realize how much just ONE of these is worth?" Percy asked in awe, even as he slipped the ring Harry gave him onto his finger. Curiously, it fit him just right.
"Probably a few hundred Galleons." Harry said in a dismissive tone, shocking the other Gryffindors even more.
"You're just handing out several thousand Galleons worth of jewelry, just like that?" Angeline Johnson asked him skeptically.
"Seeing Snape's expression when all of Gryffindor House become his best students is worth it." Harry replied, which shut up any other arguments from his housemates.