Charms class ended up being a total bust after Harry's revelation. It had been too shocking to work out the math, especially since they all knew that every class they had would be the same. With combined classes, they would mostly be learning on their own and only have occasional guidance from the professors. If they were lucky.

The reason Harry had pointed it out was because combining classes with two distinctly different groups with slightly different philosophies about learning, was actually going to be detrimental in the long run. Even if the Hufflepuffs were hard workers when given a task, they didn't strive to learn as much as they could, like the Ravenclaws did.

It would be even worse with the Griffindors and Slytherins. Those two mentalities were diametrically opposed and the rumors were enough to let Harry know that he wanted nothing to do with their rivalry. If there was a class where nothing would be learned, it would be in their class. The teacher would be spending too much time keeping them apart and making them behave instead of teaching.

Herbology was next and Harry was a little excited, because he excelled at it. His Master Horticulturist and Botanist skills had combined under Herbologist when he read several books on Herbology and then added 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi. It had given Harry a massive headache for about six hours as the two skills merged into the magical version.

Harry's Pain Resistance gained fifteen levels to settle at 38 and that was not a fun skill to level up. He had no plans to keep levelling it up, either. He would when it was necessary; but, he had made it a habit to avoid anything that caused him enough pain to level the skill. That was just common sense.

Once the skill had completed, Harry used the piles of plant care guides and related books that he had bought from the secondhand store and they went right into levelling the skill up. He had been surprised there were so many so-called experts in the field of Herbology and the skill shot right up to 95. He hoped that by the time he went through the Ravenclaw Library, he could max it out and see if it upgraded into a Master Herbologist skill.

“Welcome to Greenhouse Three and the first class of Herbology. I'm Professor Sprout.” Pomona Sprout said. “In this class, you'll learn how to identify, classify, cultivate, harvest, and care for various magical plants.”

The other Ravenclaws looked interested to learn and not so interested in the hands-on parts. The Slytherins looked bored and not interested at all.

Pomona saw this and looked at Harry. “It seems I'm only going to have one eager student in this class this year.”

Harry nodded. “I've already memorized 1000 Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore, Winogrand's Wondrous Water Plants by Selena Sapworthy, and all three volumes of Flesh Eating Trees of the World.”

Everyone stared at him with shock on their faces, even the Slythrins.

Pomona was made of sterner stuff, though. “Is that all?” She challenged.

Harry smiled at her prompt, so he decided to show off a little. “I nearly bought out a secondhand bookstore and picked up Goshawk's Guide to Herbology, Magical Water Plants books for the Mediterranean and Highland Lochs, The Encyclopedia of Toadstools, Sub-Aquatic Botanical Mysteries, Healing at Home with Herbs, a generic ingredient encyclopedia, and the Herbivicus and Diffindo spellbooks.”

Pomona's face now resembled the shocked faces of the students.

“I bought all of the previous editions I could find and checked them for any omissions or changes, just in case. I didn't want to make a mistake with outdated information or not have as much knowledge as possible.” Harry said, smugly. “Did you know there are fifteen different plant care guides for sale at Flourish and Blotts?”

Pomona nodded slightly. “I've always meant to write one of my own to add to them.”

“Oh! That's another book I have, Hogwarts Castle: A History of Cultivated Fungus by Jeremiah Garnet. You should call yours Hogwarts Castle: A History of Greenhouse Plants in honor of it.” Harry said. “I can write really fast, so if you want to sit down sometime and work on it, let me know. I would be happy to transcribe it for you.”

Pomona's mouth opened slightly, as if she was going to say something, then it just stayed open and she didn't say anything.

“I believe the plants on the tables in front of us are nettles.” Harry said to get her back on track.

“Right you are, Harry.” Pomona said and nodded. “The nettle, also known as the stinging nettle, Urtica Diocia, or burn hazel, is a widespread plant known for the stinging hairs that grows on its leaves.” She said and then continued the lesson.

When the class was over and it was time for lunch, Pomona motioned for Harry to stay behind.

“Go on ahead. I'll catch up.” Harry whispered to his friends and they left to go back to the castle.

“Mister Bones, how skilled in Herbology are you?” Pomona asked.

“After reading all those books, I think I'm a step away from becoming a Master Herbologist.” Harry admitted, because he had a feeling that the professor needed to hear that.

Pomona gave him a look of disbelief and pointed to a random plant across the greenhouse.

“Venomous Tentacula, or Venemous Tentacular, expels venom from its shoots and its spikes are deadly. Its bite is highly venomous and could easily stun or kill. Its juice is also a less than lethal poison.” Harry said, understanding the prompt.

Pomona turned and pointed at something else.

“That's the immature form of Devil's Snare. A magical vine-like plant with the ability to grow quickly and can constrict or strangle anything in its surrounding environment or anything that happens to touch it.”

Pomona did this three more times and Harry said what each plant was and gave a short description. He didn't even have to cheat and use the blue boxes that he could easily see, either. He had memorized everything he could, just as he claimed.

“You actually know how to care for them all, don't you?” Pomona asked, clearly surprised.

“Potentially.” Harry said and she raised her eyebrows at him. “I've read about how a lot of other people care for them. I have no idea how a person of your experience would do it or if the methods I know of are applicable to the plants you've raised.”

Pomona actually smiled at this. “Mister Bones... Harry... you just gave the perfect answer to the hardest question that any herbologist has to answer.”

It was Harry's turn to look surprised.

“You see, if you go into any situation and fully expect to know exactly how to handle things, especially magically grown and influenced plants, then you are an idiot.” Pomona said with a brilliant smile. “It's my job as a professor to teach students to not be idiots.”

“Ohhh.” Harry said as he understood what she meant. “You need to be open to continue learning, even if you already think you know it all.”

You have gained +2 Wisdom.

Congratulations! Landmark reached. +6,000 XP. Perk unlocked: Knowing The Truth. This perk allows you to find and highlight fabrications and outright lies in the written word.

Congratulations! Your Speed Reading Skill efficiency has doubled. Your mind is no longer bogged down by the minutiae of sentences and paragraphs and you can practically absorb the concepts directly.

“That's exactly right, Harry.” Pomona said, quite pleased. “If you are free this Sunday, will you join me for a spot of tea and perhaps some crumpets? We can discuss the things you already know and perhaps lay the groundwork for my future book.”

New Quest! Help the Herbology Professor fulfill one of her lifelong dreams of being published.
Rewards: Loyalty of Pomona Sprout, 25,000 XP, your new name gaining fame, 100,000 galleons, 50% buff when learning Herbology.
Failure: Disappointing Pomona Sprout, staying mediocre, losing 50,000 galleons, 25% debuff while learning Herbology.

Accept quest?

“Yes! I'll be happy to have tea and help you.” Harry said and smiled as he accepted the quest. “I'll even bring the tea and a few things to nibble on.”

Pomona nodded. “Off you go, then. Your friends will be wondering what I'm doing with you.”

“You shouldn't worry about your reputation, Pomona. I'm much too young physically to engage in a romantic relationship, even if I have kissed an older woman several times already.” Harry said.

Pomona was too shocked by his cheeky answer to do anything but nod.

Harry nodded back and left. He had a painful lunch to attend and he had to figure out if he could sit facing the wall and block out most of the popups. Maybe he could bribe the older year students to let him sit at the far end of the table near the door and face that way.

*

The seventh years didn't want to move, even after Harry had explained about getting headaches when he was at the far end near the teacher's table. He offered to pay them and they had all laughed.

“Look, save your handful of sickles and knuts and buy sweets from the third years after the first Hogsmeade visit.” An arrogant seventeen year old said.

“Yeah, even if we did take your money, it would only be for this one time.” The guy beside him said. “How dumb would you feel about giving us your pocket change every single meal to sit close to the door! That's so stupid!”

Everyone around them laughed and looked amused. Only one of them, a pretty blonde girl, wasn't laughing as hard and had a slightly sympathetic look in her eyes.

The pocket change comment had reminded Harry of the muggle bank teller and he smiled. “Eliza, hand me that basket of dinner rolls in front of you.”

Eliza did so and Harry wasted no time as he dumped the basket out on the middle of the table.

“What are you doing?!?” The arrogant student exclaimed and knocked a few of them away from his plate of food.

“Showing you my pocket change that you and your friends so graciously declined to accept.” Harry said and set the basket down on the end of the table and then started to pretend to dig into his robes. He pulled out a handful of galleons from his front right pants pocket and tossed them into the basket, then did the same for the left front pocket.

Everyone at the table had fallen silent as Harry did the same for his back pockets, then he took out three handfuls out of his right robe pocket and three more from his left robe pocket. He then dug into the inside breast pocket and added two more handfuls to the nearly overflowing large bun basket.

“Look, everyone! There's my pocket change!” Harry said as he lifted the basket up to show everyone. “I commend the seventh year Ravenclaws for not wanting to degrade themselves by accepting my pocket change to do me a favor.”

“There must be over sixty galleons in that!” Someone nearly shouted.

“Great guess, Mandy. It's exactly seventy. Ten handfuls of seven each.” Harry said and looked at the arrogant seventh year that didn't look so arrogant now, and then at the guy beside him. “Who's stupid now?”

They didn't say anything as Harry put his gold away in the same spots that he had taken them from.

“We can't accept the deal now, can we?” One of the other seventh year males asked.

“What deal?” Harry asked and almost laughed at the expression on the guy's face. He took out his wand and swished and flicked it at the scattered rolls on the table.

Everyone stared as all of the buns floated up and went back into the basket where Harry pointed his wand.

“I'm sorry for bothering you by asking you to move down one single spot for me to sit.” Harry said as one last jab at the morons.

Every single person within hearing distance winced at that and the arrogant guy and his friend made groaning sounds. They were never going to live long enough for everyone to forget what just happened.

“It was nice meeting you, Eliza.” Harry said and tried to not wince too much as he walked down the aisle between tables to sit with Padma.

“We don't have to stay here, Harry.” Padma said and stood to stop him. “You can't sit facing the wall, either.”

Harry looked at the spot and realized she was right. There were two tables one way, and a table and a bunch of tapestries the other, with the teachers and the things behind them if he tried to face the front of the hall. He sighed and Padma took his hand to lead him back out of the Great Hall.

“People are already taking bets on when we're going to kiss.” Padma whispered, her face flushed.

Harry couldn't stop his smile. “When did you place the bet for?”

“Parvati did it and she picked this afternoon after classes and before supper.” Padma said and smiled. “We agreed to split the winnings.”

Harry chuckled. “It's not a real betting pool if you're not cheating and stacking the odds in your favor.”

“I knew you would get it.” Padma said, quite happy.

“I definitely will.” Harry said and winked at her.

Padma stumbled a little and was glad she had a firm hold of Harry's hand.

They spent lunch in the hallway outside the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom and shared some more of Harry's wrapped food.

Padma had only done this twice and she was already completely enamoured with the handsome young man, despite only knowing him for two days. When Harry admitted that he had cooked the food, Padma mentally promised herself that she was going to try her best when they had their staged kiss later.

Soon it was time for class to start and the door opened. The hallway was suddenly flooded with the stink of garlic and mustiness, which was a bad thing to have in an old castle and with so many young lungs breathing it in. That wasn't what stopped Harry in his tracks, though.

It was that Quirinus Quirrell's blue box listed Lord Voldemort (Spirit) as a willing possession.

Harry wasn't an idiot, though. “Padma, I forgot my class things back in the dorm. Do you want to come with me to get them?”

Padma nodded and took his hand. Harry quickly strode away and he didn't go to the Ravenclaw dorms. He went right to Professor Flitwick's classroom and entered.

“Mister Bones, the last time I checked, neither you nor Miss Patil are in my third year Charms class.” Flitwick said, almost jokingly.

“I'm sorry to interrupt you, sir. Our defense professor is being possessed by an evil spirit.” Harry said and saw the disbelief on the professor's face. “There's a reason I can tell and its a secret that shouldn't be shared openly.”

Flitwick looked at the several third year students that had already arrived in the classroom. “It would be best to step into my office, Mister Bones.” He said and hopped off of the desk to land on the floor without breaking stride and he walked out of the classroom.

Two doors down was his office and the three of them stepped inside.

“Privacy as well, sir.” Harry said and pointed to the door and then the floo.

Flitwick nodded and waved his wand at both things. “We are secure, Mister Bones.”

Harry took a deep breath and let it out, then he reached up and pulled a piece of fake skin off of his forehead. Padma let out a squeak of fright and then she gasped, because she could now see the famous scar.

“My birth name was Harry Potter.” Harry admitted.