Disclaimer: Same as before. J.K.R still owns god knows how much of Harry Potter, i don't own diddley squat.

Back at it again, chapter two of "Harry Potter: His own person"

Let us procceed.

-September 2nd 1991, Hogwarts Great Hall, Breakfast-

"Harry, you look awful!"

"Gee thanks Hermione, I love being complimented first thing in the morning." came the sarcastic response from the tired-looking green eyed young man. Though his posture and clothes were impeccable as always (Thank you grandpa Charlus) his eyes sported heavy bags under them. He acted as if nothing was wrong, ignoring the sporadic muscular spasms in his legs.

"Err, sorry, but you really do. Did you even sleep at night?"

"Yes Hermione, I did. I am completely fine."

Susan and Hannah had noticed Harry's state, so they made their way to the Ravenclaw table alongside Tonks. Susan sat to Harry's right, trapping him between herself and Hermione, while Hannah and Tonks sat across them at the table.

"So, Harry" started Tonks "You look like shit. Why?"

Hannah, Susan and Hermione looked straight at the relaxed form of Nymphadora Tonks, their eyes wide and jaws slack. The majority of the Ravenclaw table within earshot sported similar faces. When noticing the attention, she shrugged "What? He does."

Harry chuckled lightly before answering, ignoring his chicken salad which didn't seem to be anywhere else on the table (Hermione had looked for it) for the moment to respond "Well, my Nymmy always was a straight shooter. The response to your question is that I'm using that exercise method."

Tonks blushed in a mixture of outrage and embarrassment, before ignoring the snickers around her and asking "Why? Isn't that going to be problematic? I mean, first week at Hogwarts and all? I know I have enough problems with the staircases. I swear to Merlin it's like they're out to get me."

"Your stair bullies aside, the reason I'm doing it is because I don't really know Hogwarts well enough to find myself training grounds. Searching for them and doing recon of the castle without having to let myself slack off is the best solution."

"What exactly is this exercise method you're talking about?" asked Susan. By then over half the Ravenclaw table was listening in, the prospect of learning something new tickling at their 'information senses'.

"Basically, you make your muscles continuously expand and contract, stretch and compress and overall any type of movement which helps in making them stronger, more durable and more nimble. I cast a spell at myself before bed to make it happen, so when I wake up, while the mind is rested, the body is tired." Harry Punctuated that with a yawn "It's not a widely used method because when you're actually awake you feel like hell, tired, sluggish, irritable and you can have the most sporadic muscular spasms until your body is used to it. I give it two weeks to get settled into it, but until then I'm gonna look like death warmed over."

"I don't envy you" said Hannah, before changing subjects "So, which class are you most excited about?"

Hermione's eyes gained that fanatical glint "Charms! After that book thing in the train I've been practicing my levitation charm and reading up on the other ones ahead, and they're fascinating! But transfiguration sounds like an amazing class too, the art of turning one thing into another! But, History also sounds promising, knowing what happened before and how we can change based on it! It's all very exciting!"

Harry, Susan, Hannah and Tonks were gaping at Hermione.

"I'm even more tired just from listening to that."

Hannah, Susan and Tonks nodded in agreement with Harry, drawing a blush from the bushy-haired girl. Before anything else could be said though, Harry spoke up.

"I'm looking forward to potions. I'm dying to touch a cauldron again."

Tonks grimaced at that "Don't get your hopes up, Harry. If there's anything good in the subject of potions, Snape can suck that out of it. I swear to god, with all the black the man wears and the cold classrooms, you'd think he's a dementor!"

"Professor Snape, Miss Tonks" came the amused voice of professor Flitwick as he distributed the class schedules to his claws, causing the female metamorphmagus to jump lightly in her seat before blushing "Sorry professor. And I'm sorry for comparing Sna- Professor Snape to a dementor."

"Well the dementors never did anything bad enough to warrant such offense." Harry deadpanned, causing the majority of the listening students to gasp, Tonks to choke on nothing, Hermione to gape, Susan and Hannah to snicker and Flitwick to reign in his Guffaw into a chuckle, his eyes shining with mirth. He handed Harry his class schedule and fought hard to keep his voice from breaking "You need to respect your professors Mr. Potter. Since you're new you'll be getting only a verbal warning, next time It'll be loss of points"

"Sorry professor. I'll know not to offend Professor Snape in the presence of the staff again. Thank you for the warning." Flitwick choked back a laugh as he walked away "My pleasure Mr. Potter"

Susan kept gaping as Hannah asked "You Really have a bone to pick with Professor Snape, don't you?"

Harry shrugged, having already cast a discreet Muffliato around their group to keep their talks private "Well, he has been trying to get into my mind since I showed up."

Susan's face changed, her jaw set as she ground out "He what?"

"Yeah, passive legillimancy."

"THAT BASTARD!"

Hermione looked around the table, seeing that nobody seemed to have heard Susan's outburst "What? What do you mean getting into your mind? And why did no one react to Susan's shouting?"

"Well, he's been using a discipline of the mental arts called Legillimancy to try and look into my thoughts. He can't actually get anything from me though because I know Occlumancy. And about Susan's shouting, I cast a privacy spell after professor Flitwick walked past. Don't want anybody listening in on our conversation. Anyways, Snape's using passive legillimancy which means that as long as you don't look him in the eye, he couldn't get into your head even if he wanted to. I've been purposefuly looking him in the eye whenever I can just to see his frutration at failing to get in."

Harry's eyes shone with mirth while Susan started calming down. Hermione spoke up next "People can get into our heads? That's an invasion of privacy! Is there any way we can report him?"

Harry shrugged while Susan huffed disgruntedly and spoke "It's hard to prove an attempted mental intrusion, and even harder to prove a successful one. Add to that the fact that Snape is Dumbledore's man through and through and you can't really get anything to stick on him."

Harry nodded before picking up the thread "Even if we got him charged, Dumbledore would say something about ensuring the safety of the school, about him trusting Snape and the Greater Good, whatever it is that means for that week. So the best you can do is avoid looking him in the eye and learn Occlumancy. Susan probably has the basics already" Susan nodded at that "and I've been a reasonably okay occlumens for over six months".

Susan cut Harry off "Yes, yes and the Atlantic ocean is just a bit of water. I was with you when my aunt had her friend evaluate us, Harry James Potter, and I remember exactly what happened."

Hermione, Susan and Tonks leaned in interest and chorused "What happened?"

Susan grinned unabashedly while Harry looked away while giving a fake cough "He likened trying to get into Harry's mind with trying to break into Gringotts with a rusty spoon, then gave up on the mind arts altogether when Harry said he was practicing Occlumancy for 4 months."

The three other girls gaped at Harry while he surreptiously dropped the Muffliato charm and spoke out "Oh look it's Professor Sprout she's probably here to give you your class schedules gotta go bye!" before rushing out of the great hall leaving behind three confused and a resigned girl.

This time it was Tonks that spoke up "While he does like being complimented, he's strange with attention. He wants to get some of his own and he's good at managing it, but sometimes he'll do his best to get out of the spotlight because he says it makes him feel like his brother."

Susan shook her head "Harry will never be like Ethan. He's too good for that."

Ethan was walking past the group at that moment, and while he perked up at the first part of the sentence, his face locked into a scowl at the end. Pushing away the scowl, he remembered that Susan was the cute niece of the head of the DMLE and decided to push into the conversation.

Push being a literal term as he shoved himself uncerimoniously between Susan and Hermione "Hello Susan, how're you today?"

"Worse than I was 10 seconds ago, now if you'll excuse me I have places to be." And like that she got up and left. Ethan tried turning to any of the other girls, but each of them made their own exit behind an excuse, from "Studying" by Hermione, and "Gotta find Susan" from Hannah to "Have to feed my bedside LLamas" from Tonks.

It didn't need to be a good excuse.

-September 2nd 1991, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Noon-

"Well" started Harry "I was exploring a bit of the grounds and decided that this was as good as any to spend time at. Since classes start tomorrow, we could use our last free day at the lakeside. Maybe take a dip or two before it gets chilly."

"That's a great idea" started Tonks "But don't forget about the giant squid."

"Giant what!" Hermione squeaked. Susan and Hannah kept their poker faces, but leaned in to listen.

"The Giant Squid is a softie. I took a light dip already and swam alongside it."

"When did you have time to swim with the squid?" Asked Tonks suspiciously. Susan picked up on that "Yeah, you said nothing about it, and you don't seem to be wearing swimming trunks."

"Oh, that" Harry said with a dismissive shake of his hand "I swam naked and made liberal use of drying charms on my clothes and warming charms on myself."

Tonks once again choked on nothing, With Susan, Hannah and Hermione turning beet red. Harry gave them the 'Harry Potter Grin™', causing the three to let out an absentminded sigh as he walked away from them chuckling. When they finally caught themselves and noticed what happened they blushed even darker, with Tonks becoming red literally to her hair. They felt as if they were bright enough to replace a lightouse in a storm.

-September 2nd 1991, Hogwarts Great Hall, Dinnertime-

"Ugh, won't he ever give up!" Susan raged. Once again, she had seated herself at the Ravenclaw table with Harry and Hermione, alongside Hannah and Tonks.

The older male students were jealous of Harry's future prospects. Today they're cute, by the time they turn 17... And the kid already had them hanging all over him.

"Well, he did fall off his broom on his head most of the time. I don't think even magic can restore dead neurons. Especially those that started out dead in the first place." The fact that Harry said it all in a deadpan tone just added to Tonk's laughter. She was crying from laughing so much.

"He's been trying to corner Susan all day! Doesn't he get it that Susan only has eyes for the black haired, green eyed Potter!?" Hannah said in mock anger, the effect being failed by the massive grin on her face as she watched Susan light up like a christmas tree.

"Well, to be fair, it's the same thing for you. And Tonks. And Hermione eventually once she gets to know me well."

Hannah shut up with a pretty blush, as did Tonks and Hermione. Harry grinned angelically at the girls before digging into his dinner of Lasagne.

"Harry, where the hell did you get Lasagne? I don't see it anywhere else on the table!" Tonks huffed out.

"Made it myself. Sirius told me about the kitchens and I convinced the House Elves to allow me to cook for myself. Was a hard sell too, but I managed to pull it off. I make it a principle to cook for myself whenever I can. Constant Vigillance and all that. Susan knows what I'm talking about."

Susan nodded while Tonks laid her head on her crossed arms and whined absentmindedly in a tone she thought was low "Handsome, charming AND he can cook? What's next?"

"I can also sew, tend to plants and animals, do dishes and play musical instruments." Tonks jumped and her blush exploded to astronomic proportions, pulling giggles from the other; butall good things must end eventually.

"Mr. Potter, the Headmaster would like your presence in his office after dinner."

"May I know what this is about, professor Flitwick?" The half goblin shook his head "I have no idea either, Mr. Potter."

"Well, then would you mind accompanying me as my head of house and stay for the duration of the meeting?"

Flitwick nodded "Of course, Mr. Potter."

As Flitwick walked away, Tonks asked Harry "What was that about?" to which she received a headshake and a muttered "No idea".

After dinner people started vacating the great hall, and Harry found himself being lead to the Headmaster's office. After Flitwick said the password (whizzing feezbes) causing the gargoyle to step away from the staircase, they walked up to a wooden door.

Harry felt the tingle of a ward before a voice called from beyond the door, before Flitwick had even knocked on it "Come in, Fillius."

Flitwick shook his head as he opened the door and walked in "One of these days, Albus. I'll figure out how you do it."

"Do what?" the old Headmaster asked while stroking his beard. Harry had to withold his displeased sigh at seeing Ethan sitting on a chair across from the headmaster, an empty one next to him.

"Please do sit down, Harry. You may go now Fillius."

"Actually, headmaster, I asked professor Flitwick to keep me company as my head of house, and I prefer standing. Thank you."

"Harry, surely you don't need your head of house with your mother in the room?" Harry looked away from the headmaster, cursing the fact that he had tunnel-visioned for a while. Looking at the back of the room, he could see Snape over at one side of the headmaster, and Lily Potter at the other. Eliminating any and all emotion from his face, with his green eyes becoming as glacial as his tone, Harry responded.

"Professor Potter's presence does not change my request for Professor Flitwick's presence, as she is not my Head of House, and please refer to me by my surname, for we have no rapport or closeness enough to warrant the use of a first name, headmaster."

Dumbledore frowned for an instant, not used to people dismissing his familiarity (after all, he was Albus Dumbledore, leader of the light, who wouldn't want to be close to him!) before his grandfatherly persona re-established itself "Now Harry-"

"Mr. Potter."

Dumbledore sighed dramatically, Lily look ready to cry, Ethan was scowling at him and Snape was glowering hatefully.

Harry was having fun.

"As you insist... Mr. Potter, I simply wanted to inquire to you and your brother as to how you feel about the school so far."

"Is this something you do with all students attending Hogwarts, headmaster?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled as he spoke "No, Mr. Potter, I've set aside this block of time specifically for you and Ethan here." 'I just have to show him the attention and caring he craves, and then I have a grindstone to sharpen Ethan against'

Harry's next words derailed both Dumbledore's and Snape's trains of thought.

"Well then I'd rather not be here right now,headmaster. I am not a fan of preferential treatment, so if you won't do so for the rest of the student body then thanks, but no thanks." he said, before turning to his head of house "Could we leave now, professor Flitwick? I need to organize my supplies for tomorrow's classes."

Not waiting for Dumbledore to respond, Flitwick nodded and shepherded Harry away "Of course, Mr. Potter. You have a long day ahead of you."

"Please call me Harry, professor."

And those were the last words heard before the door to Dumbledore's office closed. Dumbledore sighed before speaking "Ethan, my boy, you are free to go as well."

The-Boy-Who-Lived nodded uncertainly, before making his way out of the office. As soon as he walked past the gargoyle, Lily Potter stopped being capable of holding back her tears anymore "He doesn't even recognize me as his mother anymore! I'm just professor Potter to him!"

Sniffling loudly, she mumbled "Who could blame him?" before her tone of voice picked up gradually "After all, me and James have forgotten about him. We've done so since..."

At that point her crying stopped as she looked up to Dumbledore "Ever since Ethan was declared The-Boy-Who-Lived"

She buried her face in her hands, before she started blubbering "I knew I'd regret it. I told James and you, but you had to do it, now look what happened..."

"Now now Lily..." Dumbledore tried calming her down, before Lily snapped at him "YOU COST ME MY CHILDREN! ONE OF THEM IS AN ARROGANT, INSUFFERABLE BRAT WITH A SUPERIORITY COMPLEX..." she trailed off before picking up miserably "And the other one doesn't even spare me a second look. And it's all your fault headmaster."

Dumbledore seethed internally. He had the Potters where he wanted them, the elder Potters trusted Dumbledore blindly, listening to anything he said, while Ethan grew into the perfect Gryffindor, the weapon to help fight for the light side! His sacrifice would help redeem Tom and his followers, and he would be heralded as the greatest wizard since Merlin for guiding the saviour of the wizarding world!

If Lily started questioning him there and then, Everything might change. That was unacceptable.

Putting on his grandfatherly persona, he spoke softly to Lily "Do not worry Lily, this is nothing more than youthful behaviour from Harry, most probably derived from sibling jealousy. If you show him treatment equal to that of Ethan, I fully believe that he'll join the embrace of his family soon. I will, of course, do my best to help. So go to your quarters and rest up today, and tomorrow you can face this."

Lily nodded and sniffled again, making her way out of the office. As soon as she was out, Dumbledore sent a plethora of locking and privacy charms at the door before turning towards his potions master.

"Severus, Harry Potter is being a most difficult child. Two days in and he's already endangered the greater good! We need to get things back on track!"

"And how would you go about doing this, headmaster?"

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled "We make use of your skills of course, Severus. You could brew some loyalty potions keyed to me and the Potters, and the house elves could ensure he consumed them. That would be a problem solved, and another person to join our plans for the greater good."

'Your plans most likely, old man' Snape thought before answering "I will see what I can do, but I fear it might not be so easy."

"How so?"

"The boy is paranoid. He's like a miniature version of Mad-eye. High level privacy and silencing charms, all of his belongings are with him at all times, the boy doesn't even allow the Hogwarts house elves to wash his clothes, he does that on his own! A behaviour shift so massive from that to fully trusting you and his family would be too suspicious for those close to him. That is assuming the potions even affect him."

"What do you mean with that, severus?"

"The boy has superb Occlumancy skills."

"Truly?"

"Yes, headmaster. It's very solid, all of my intrusions have been harmlessly rebuffed. No matter how much I tried, I could never find a weakness in his shields. And he makes it a habit of constantly meeting my gaze purposefuly." Snape said with more than a little anger.

"Severus, do not worry. I believe in your brewing skills. You will not fail me."

Snape nodded "Of course, headmaster." before making his way out of the office.

Dumbledore unwrapped one of his lemon drops and popped it into his mouth, as he took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose "Things get more and more complicated. Now that the philosopher's stone is in place, Harry Potter happens..."

From a perch in a corner of the room, a Phoenix let out a mournful trill, asking itself when his companion lost himself so.

-September 2nd 1991, Ravenclaw House Male First year dorms-

"So the old man wants to potion me to the eyeballs and have me dancing to his tune?" Harry said after deactivating his discreet listening charm. It was a fancy piece of work, created by mixing different obscure magics from the Black and Potter libraries with some runes, and it showed itself very useful.

As he changed for bed, he took a look at his right bicep and returned to his natural shape, which was a slightly more athletic, heavily rituallisticaly-tattooed self 'Well, I've got these babies dealing with mind altering potions and most poisons, but the girls could be affected. I'll have to figure something out for them and soon'

Returning to his day-to-day form, Harry started working on his overnight body workout as he laid in bed. He already knew this would be a good, successful year to him, but the presence of the Philosopher's stone at school... Either he kept it and made himself rich and immortal (Well, he was already very rich and immortality sounded boring), or he delivered the stone to it's owner after it was reported missing, and gained favour from the Flamels, possibly gaining a great teacher or ally in the proccess.

And no one would blame him for studying the stone a bit beforehand, professional curiosity and all that.

Yes, This would be a good year.

Aaaaaand... Scene!

Holy shit, Dumbledore is crazy as hell! Manipulating people left and right for his greater good, no bueno. Fortunately, Ethan Potter is there to save the day!... Wait Ethan is the useless one, right?

Ah, it was Harry, right. Let's trust in Harry to trounce the cantankerous old codger.

Like always, Rate and Review. Ciao.