Harry Potter and the School of Change

Chapter 1: The Necklace and Stone

Harry Potter was sitting in his bed, beaten flashlight in one hand, quill in the other. Leaning over his school text, he quickly jotted something down and with a flourish, finished what ever he was writing. One can suspect that his writing was not normal, nor his school text, for you see, Harry Potter is a wizard.

He is no ordinary wizard either, for he is the "Boy Who Lived", the only person ever to survive the Killing Curse, Avada Kedavra. He also happens to have the most evil wizard in a century trying to kill him.

But right now, he was only worried about finishing his homework. He had just finished his Potions essay, "Explain the uses and effects of the Polyjuice Potion and similar potions." Assigned by the meanest professor in the school, Professor Snape.

Smirking, he got up silently and went over to his old trunk, remembering his second year and how he had used the potion to sneak into the Slytherin common room, one of the 4 houses at Hogwarts, his school. Putting his book and assignment carefully away, he heard a tapping at his window and then a sudden boom!.

Startled, he scrambled as quietly as he could over his trunk and to his window. Checking the digital clock on the bookshelf, he noticed it was 12:05. He had been fifteen for 5 minutes already! Turning back, he opened the window and watched while several owls flew over to his bed and perched on the bed, all except for one. This one flew straight over his head and was now hooting excitedly, if not a little dazed.

Must have been him at the window...

Grabbing the tiny owl, named Pig, he got the note off its leg and let Pig go. Pig, sensing his freedom, went straight to Harry's own owl, Hedwig's, bowl. Shaking his head, he walked over to his bed and sat down, avoiding any owls in the process. Taking all the packages and letters off the owls, 3 official owls, 2 with Hogwarts crests tattooed on their legs flew out the still open window.

He decided to open his letter from Ron first.

Dear Harry,

Happy Birthday! How are ya? Muggles treating you fine? Errol and Hermes brought your gift; it's from all of us. You'd better like it! Dad found it on one of his Muggle searches and we all fixed it up. Herm'll be proud of me; I actually went to the library! Tell us how you like it!

-Ron

Smiling, he went to the very large package with, in bold letters, Weasley, and ripped off the wrapping, being thankful for the snoring coming from the other room. A tornado couldn't wake them.

Opening the box, he gasped. Inside, there was a slim trunk, with 6 keyholes. Grinning, he took the keys out and opened each compartment one by one. In the last one, there was a small room. Inside, he could see another box in the corner.

Wondering what more there could be, thinking about how the Weasleys had already outdone themselves, he climbed carefully in and walked to the box in a couple of steps. On top, there was a piece of paper.

To our Primary Investor,

We at Weasley Wizardly Wheezes wish to inform you that thanks to your generous donation, you have been accepted as an anonymous partner, receiving 20% of all profits and an equal part in all decisions involving the company. We wish to thank you for your time and hope for a fruitful future.

-Fred and George Weasley

Co-Presidents of WWW

P.S. The box is full of several prototypes and we wish for your opinion on these items.

Never thought Gred and Forge could sound so professional...

Shrugging, he put the paper back down and opened the box.

It was brimming with seemingly innocent objects, their only giveaway being each had a paper beside it with bright bold letters saying 'Warning, Read before Experimenting'. Grinning, he looked at some papers with heading such as: Syllable Scones, which made you take every other syllable out, or Deep Peep Pie, which made you peep uncontrollaby like a chick for 5 or so minutes.

After several minutes of sifting through the various pranks, he decided to look at his other presents.

The next one he saw was a heavy-looking package, with Hedwig glaring balefully at it. Must be from Hermione. Looks like another book...

Opening the letter first, he skimmed it and smiled.

Dear Harry,

Happy Birthday! I just came back from Italy. It was fascinating! Ron thinks I went to visit Viktor, and he won't believe that we're just friends. Anyway, I think you'll really like this book, it's about...never mind, you'll see.

Hope you're well,

Hermione

Slightly confused, he opened the package and gasped for the second time.

It read:

An Idiot's Guide to Animagi

By

Farula Swillinger

He looked inside, it had everything about turning into an Animagus and steps even a real idiot could follow. Grinning, he opened the 4^th compartment in his trunk and decided that that would be his compartment for "unusual" things.

He quickly opened one of the letters that had arrived with a Hogwarts owl. It said on the front in barely legible scrawl Harry Potter.

He smiled; this was from the Gamekeeper of Hogwarts, Hagrid. He read through the letter and opened his gift. He pulled out a soft doeskin wand holster with an imprinted stag and lily. He wiped a single tear out of his eye and put the holster gently to the side.

He only had two more packages left, one, he could see, was from Dumbledore, and the other simply had Padfoot written on the side. He smiled, Padfoot was really Sirius Black, escaped convict, and also Harry's godfather. He decided to open Dumbledore's letter last and grabbed Sirius' letter. He read the letter, learning that he was currently staying at Moony's and that Dumbledore had found and given him Crouch's Invisibility Cloak, so Harry shouldn't worry. He also said that Harry should study extra hard and that his gift would help a lot with that.

Harry opened Sirius' gift and pulled out a small book called The Ultimate Collection of Wizardly Usefulness. Looking at it strangely, wondering why Sirius would give him a book, he opened it carefully, seeing blinking instructions, saying that he could simply flip through the lists of charms, potions, and other things and tapping the name with a wand would reveal full instructions and information on the subject. You could also tap the search button while thinking of a certain thing you want information on and it would come up with a list of entries closest to the thing you wanted. He decided that Sirius came up with a useful gift indeed and vowed to read as much as he could and practice them when he got to Hogwarts.

He looked to the last letter and the small package beside it. He delicately reached and grabbed the letter and package and opened the letter.

HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore

(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. Of Wizards)

Dear Mr. Potter,

We wish to inform you that you have been accepted as one of the Gryffindor Prefects of your year. Due to circumstances, there will be 3 prefects per house. The other Gryffindor prefects in your year are Mr. Weasley and Miss Granger. Your prefect pin will inform you of prefect meetings and changed passwords.

I also have a charmed necklace given to me by your mother to be given to you on your 15^th birthday. It will mask any of your magical activity. I suggest you practice certain duelling charms before the school as we are restarting the Duelling Club with myself and Professor Flitwick teaching. We are also holding a new class which is mandatory for all 5^th years and up. Your supplies list is included.

Professor Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster

Dumbledore's letting me do magic over the holidays?!? He looked curiously toward the package on his lap and slowly opened the package. He looked at the wax paper and unwrapped that too. Inside there was the necklace.

The necklace was made of shining platinum in the form of a crest. Harry knew for some reason that this was the Potter crest. In the middle, there was a rearing lion and phoenix intertwining with twin wands criss-crossing behind them. The wands were shooting sparks, which were represented by miniscule red stones and tiny specks of gold. In each of the corners, there was a precious stone that glimmered unnaturally. There was an emerald, a sapphire, a ruby, and a diamond. He weighed the necklace and discovered that it weighed almost nothing. On an impulse, he pulled the necklace around his neck and it automatically seemed that it was always there.

Grinning widely, he picked up his was and tried a simple levitating charm.

The book Hermione gave him started levitating and Harry flew it around his room several times before he placed the book back into his trunk. While he was doing the charm, the necklace had glowed and all the stones picked up an inner light. When he finished the charm, the necklace stopped glowing.

Waiting a few minutes and realizing that no ministry owl would come, he strapped on the wand holster and placed his wand inside. Hiding it in his worn pyjamas, he sat down on his bed and pulled out Sirius' gift.

He decided to go to the duelling section and began reading about different types of duelling and strategies. He just got to "So, you wanna duel defensively?" before he began to nod off.

* * *

Harry woke to the annoying dinging of Dudley's old alarm clock. Rubbing his emerald eyes, he picked up his glasses and sat up. Looking over to the worn dresser, he sighed and got up to get dressed in Dudley's old clothes. Once dressed, he looked to his desk and saw his letters, and decided he would reply to them later. He grabbed his supplies list and his wallet and looked around for anything else he needed.

He opened his door and creeped downstairs, into the kitchen. Grabbing a piece of toast, he momentarily stopped and listened to the snoring upstairs. Opening the door, he slipped outside and closed it silently behind.

He sat on the front lawn and started to warm up for his daily run. Ever since he came back from Hogwarts, he had started running daily and going to the local community gym on Saturdays for the free karate classes. He decided that any type of defence Voldemort might not expect was a good defence.

Done with his warm-up, he started running, heading for the library where he worked almost everyday. He decided to get a job to keep his mind off Voldemort and to start earning money for himself, instead of living off his inheritance. Another perk of working at the library was the library happened to have a small magic section closed off to Muggles. This had probably surprised him the most, that Little Whinging had a fairly large wizarding population and even had a small alley of magical shops, called Whinging Way. The library was completely managed by wizards and backed the alley itself.

He ran through Whinging Way and stopped at the back door of the library. Seeing Justin, the old wizard who managed the library, he waved and walked over.

"Hi Justin, should I go to the front right now?"

"No, No, t'day's yer berthday, go oot an' 'ave fun. Heere's th' pay fer th' past week. "

"Are you sure? It's ok if I work today, you know."

Justin thought for a minute and opened his mouth to speak. "Hmm...we'vn gotten sum real ole' books an' we've gotten no room for them naow. Ken ye go through dem an' throw oot whichever ye don' want? Ye ken keep whichever'd ya like. The're bay de magic section, since de Muggles ken't look at sum dem. Dere's sum udder ole' stuff ye can 'ave if ye wan'. "

Harry nodded and walked over to the section with the magic books. Looking down, he saw a large ragged box filled with all sorts of books. Beside the box, there was a large pile of very old-looking things.

Pulling out an old wooden stool from the pile of junk, he sat on it and found that it was very comfortable and soft, for a stool. He decided that it had a softening charm on it and that it would be useful for when he was sorting the books.

Next, he pulled out a ragged canvas bag and looked inside. He put his hand inside and discovered that it was an bottomless bag. He put this bag aside, thinking that it would be very useful for shopping.

He continued sifting through the objects, he decided that even though everything was old and ragged, and most things even broken, everything could be very useful and could be fixed easily with a little magic. There was a cracked foe-glass, and ancient crystal ball cracked in several spots, a huge iron sneakoscope, an extremely old-looking Wizard's Wireless, a backpack made of cracked leather that was feather-light no matter what you put in it, and even a tiny magical tent with a small bathroom, an old smelly bed, and a very rough-hewn table and chair. Everything had a very musty smell, but he supposed that some spell could get rid of it. There were some very useful Muggle things too, so he decided to keep those too.

Everything would probably take a very long time to fix, so that was probably why this person decided to give these away, he reasoned. Putting everything into the ragged canvas bag and then putting that into the old leather backpack, he moved his stool next to the box of books.

Inside the box, there seemed to be hundreds of books, some without covers, but most just very ragged looking. On top, there was the whole collection of Lockhart books and some very boring books on American politics. He automatically put those books in the "garbage" pile and looked underneath. These looked much more promising. There were many old Muggle books that were mostly full of poems or were classics.

There were a great lot of magical books too. He pulled out his supplies list and looked at it.

Fifth year students will require:

Þ 1 focus stone (customized to yourself)

Þ 1 silver or pewter necklace, ring, or bracelet

Þ 3 Muggle exercise suits

Þ 1 small mirror

Þ 1 magically enhanced sword (appropriate size)

Þ Refills for Potions Kit

Books:

Þ Mind Over Magic: A Practical Approach

Þ The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 5

Þ Advanced Potions

Þ The Basic Rune Dictionary

Þ Foreign Magic: A Basic Guide

Þ Animate Transfiguration

Þ Practical Defence

Þ Muggle Methods of Defence

Þ A Theorem of Magic

That's a lot of stuff! I wonder what it's all for... Shaking his head, he dove into the box and dug out several books that were on the list. He had also found a great many other interesting books, most of which Hermione would fawn over. There were several potion books, a thick volume on pranks, many spell books, and many other books on more subjects than he could count. There also were many back issues of all types of magazines, The Charming Journal, Transfiguration Today, The Quidditch Times, Witch Weekly, and others.

Most of the books and magazines in the box he had decided to keep, so he stuffed them all into the canvas bag, which he put again in the leather backpack.

The things he didn't take he put back into the box and brought it out to Justin.

"Did purty good wit th' clean oot, didn' ya?" Justin inquired

"I don't know why somebody was throwing all that away. Most of it just needed a little fixing and would be good as new!" Harry speculated.

"Oy wuz cleenin' oot de hoose an' found awl dat stuff. Oy had newer or better stuff, so oy decided ta throw et oot. An de library goot a huge shipmen' o' books, so de old wuns 'adda go. Might 'as well 'ive 'em ta sumone else who could use et den throw et all away, roight?"

"I guess...Thank you for letting me sift through all that and letting me have whatever I wanted. Now I need to go buy the rest of the stuff on my supply list. Good-bye!" Harry waved and went out the door, list in one hand and an old backpack on his back.

Harry decided to see if the tiny bookstore in the alley had the rest of the books he needed. He found the clerk and asked about the books. He smiled and nodded and came out of the back room with a heavy box with several huge volumes in it. He stared at the books wearily while he paid for them. After paying, he stuffed the books into the bags and went to the knick-knacks store across the alley.

When he went inside, an elderly lady named Phyllis greeted him.

"Hello Harry. What are you looking for today?" she asked in her gentle voice.

"It says on my list that I need a focus stone. What is it and can I get one here?"

"A focus stone?? They want you to have a focus stone?? That's rather strange. To answer your question, focus stones focus your magic, like wands, but with less control. They magnify your magic too, if used correctly. They can be dangerous too, so that's why we use wands instead. And yes, I do sell focus stones. I have a talent of making them, but since they aren't used often, I need to have my store of knick-knacks to support me." She led him over to a room full of large polished stones.

" Now, this will be rather like choosing a wand. The right stone will glow for you. Let's start, shall we? Hold out your wand hand, palm up, please."

She went to a shelf covered in polished stones and picked up a jade shaped in a pyramid. Placing it in his hand, she grabbed it back and took a sapphire shaped in a cylinder. As soon as it touched his hand, she pulled it back. This continued for a long time, until almost all the stones had been tried out. She sighed and finally went to a mahogany box, carved with swirling designs. She slowly opened the box and gently pulled the stone out.

It was possibly the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. It was a perfect sphere that was perfectly balanced. The stone was swirling with what looked like a liquid form of light. It sometimes slowly faded into different colours, but always resembled liquified light. As she neared Harry, it started glowing brighter and brighter. As she placed it in Harry's hand, the room suddenly exploded with light and a glow surrounded Harry, which could be seen when the light faded down.

"Well, I've never seen that happen." Breathed Phyllis, "That stone is my life's pride. Each stone-carver creates a stone like that once in their life, and most are not chosen. They have special powers in them. When you use it, you will have enhanced control over the magic and could probably see the raw magic through it too. If you touch your wand to that type of stone, it will transform into a staff, which is several times stronger than before. This stone has accepted you as something equivalent to a companion, so it will seek to protect you. Use the stone well, and good luck in your following years."

Harry, still feeling the warmth from the stone, put the stone in the mahogany box and put the box gently in his bag. Dazed, he pulled out several galleons out of his wallet mechanically and walked out of the shop.

He made it back to the Dursleys safely and walked up the stairs into his bedroom, ignoring Petunia's cries about the old backpack.

* * *