Once in a century Genius

"Mr Potter. Our new celebrity." Snape drawled and Harry held the urge to bang his head on the table and groan.

Could this things become anymore cliched?

Why had he thought that coming to the potions class would be anything but a waste of his precious time.

Oh, because it will keep Albus off his back.

He's not even afraid of the old man. Wary, yes? But afraid, no.

Still, the rest of the staff might not notice the irregularities regarding him but Snape, who was a double agent for both Voldemort and Dumbledore, would definitely notice his actions and then report them to Dumbledore at soon as possible.

So it was within his best interest to act like a normal kid in front of Snape.

Now only if the bloke would not go out of his way to bother him.

The only reason he was tolerating Snape was because he knew from the movies that no matter how badly Snape treated him, he always looked after him as well.

"Tell me… What would I get if I added powdered root of Asphedel to an infusion of wormwood?"

Dear god! Even the questions he asked are the same ones.

Does he keeps a list of questions that he usually ask to kid he doesn't like.

"Don't know." He replied nonchalantly and saw the Hufflepuff girl sitting beside him squirm in discomfort. What was her name again? Who cares. If he didn't already knew her then she was most likely a cannon fodder either way.

"Don't know, Sir." Snape said with his unusually soft voice that somehow still managed to echo in the dark room.

Harry wondered if there was some kind of spell that produced that sound effect or if it was completely natural.

"Don't know sir." He managed to say after controlling his budding irritation.

He could disrespect the man and then get into a childish argument with him but was there really a point to it all?

Just act like you're talking with a person whose mother died last night and everything will be just fine.

"Good. Let's try again." Snape said "Where, Mr Potter would you look at, if I asked you to find me a Bezoar."

"I don't know Sir." He said despite knowing the answer all too well. Just like he knew the answer of the first question.

"And what is the difference between the Monkswood and Wolfsbane?"

The only solace was the fact that at least there was no Hermione Granger in Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff house. It would be terribly irritating if someone raised his or her hand to answer the questions for him while he was trying to hold back.

He was even more thankful that there was no Malfoy in the class either. Because he was quite irritated already and if he would have to see that Blone Ponce smirk at him even once, he would sent the kid to the infirmary. After the class of course.

"I don't know sir." He said and wondered how long it will take for the class to end.

"Pity." Snape said, a tad bit more irritated by his nonchalant attitude than the one he saw in the movie. "Clearly, fame isn't everything. Is it Mr Potter."

He kept his head down and hoped that the bat would leave him alone after this. It was getting rather tiring to act like a scared little boy and he was never any good in acting either.

There was only so much he would take before he decided to blew up.

Thankfully, that was all Snape said before he went back to the podium and wrote the instructions on the blackboard and told the kids to follow those instructions and create the potion.

Harry had the distinct feeling that Snape should have told the kids a bit more about the ingredients and potions.

About taking necessary precautions to the most common mistakes that new students usually made, but who was he to complain.

Since creating potion was not something that alerted the trace, he had learned how it do it back in his home so he knew that he won't face any problem in the class.

He just needed to tolerate the man for four hours in a week and everything will be just fine.

—————

"Professor Flitwick?"

"Ah… Mr Potter. Come in come in. Please take a seat." Flitwick practically jumped with joy at seeing the son of his once favourite student coming up to him.

He had always lamented over the fact that Lily was a Gryffindor despite being a brilliant student.

The fact that Harry, her son joined his house brought him great satisfaction.

The fact that Harry was able to perform brilliant charms work, as shown by the lumos spell in the last class made him feel even more excited for the future of the young boy.

He had already planned to set up a meeting with young Harry in the future considering how the boy was a first year in his house and he made it his job to know each and every student of his house on a personal level.

But the fact that Harry came to his room himself was even better and made him wonder why the boy would seek him out so early in the term.

"Mr Potter" he said jovially once the boy comfortably sat down on the chair "What can I do for you?"

The boy waited a moment before answering "I read about a charm in one of the extra books I bought before coming to Hogwarts. It had a charm on it that I was very interested about."

"Oh! And what charm would it be Mr Potter?" Flitwick asked he found himself sitting on the edge of his with anticipation.

"The Gemino Charm." Harry said and Flitwick felt his eyebrow shot up in surprise.

"That is a Fourth year charm Mr Potter. I could understand why you would have difficulty in performing the…"

"You misunderstood me Professor." Harry interrupted him and Flitwick was almost reminded of all the times when Lily did the same thing. She might have been a brilliant student but patience was never her strong suite. Especially when she was excited about learning something new.

"How?" he asked getting even more interested in the conversation between the student and teacher.

"I already know how to successfully perform the Gemino Charm Professor."

"Really?" Flitwick asked in surprise and wondered how the boy was able to do it. The fact that he was able to perform a fourth year spell in his first year would make him nothing short of a prodigy. And despite all her talent, even Lily was never so good at understanding and performing such complicated charms at such a young age.

Of course, that was if Mr Potter was not lying to him.

But he wanted to give young Harry the benefit of doubt, just like how he would do for any other student.

"Forgive me but can I see you performing the charm Mr Potter?" he asked and gestured at an empty cup sitting on his desk.

Anyone else in his position, even Minerva might have called the boy a liar for saying that he was capable of performing a 4th year charm in his 1st year. But Flitwick was nothing if not indulgent with his claws.

"Definitely Professor." Mr Potter said and within the next moment there were two identical cups sitting in front of himself and Flitwick was left wondering if he gotten too old and if his eyes were still performing as well as they should.

No, he was not that old, yet. And no, his eyes were working perfectly well but what he saw in front of himself was something that he was finding hard to believe.

Mr Potter had performed the charm perfectly. But not only that, he had performed the charm without the proper wand movement and without the proper incantation and with the ease of a master. As if he had done such thing a thousand time before.

Now Flitwick himself could get away with things like this but he was a true master of his profession. Harry was not. And yet, the boy that done it.

The boy, who had not even joined the magical world for a month and he was performing complicated spells like he'd been doing it for a life time.

That was… shocking, for the lack of a better word.

This discovery needed some discussion with the other staff members and possibly the Headmaster. If only because he wanted to brag a bit about the once in a century prodigy in his house.

"fessor... Professor?" Flitwick jolted from his thoughts and realized that Mr Potter was looking at him with some concern. "Is everything alright Professor?"

"Yes yes. The charm was performed wonderfully Mr Potter."

"Thank you Sir. But I needed your help with something else."

"Oh Pray tell what it was Mr Potter?" he asked, getting excited once again.

"As you can see, the charm was performed perfectly but as of now, the cup is still a simple magical construct that would disperse in thin air after a given amount of time."

At Flitwick's nod, Harry continued "I want to learn a way to make these constructs permanent."

By now Flitwick was so surprised that he didn't thought that he could be any more surprised. But Mr Potter had proven him wrong once again.

"I can teach you how to make your constructs permanent. Or at least they'll remain permanent until someone destroys a part of the construct at which point they'll disperse into thin air. But that is a 7th year course material Mr Potter. Are you sure you want to learn it?" Flitwick asked seriously because he knew that such a project would take a lot of time. Perhaps even a whole month before Harry was able to successfully perform the charm and even then it was not even a guaranteed thing if he would be able to succeed or not.

"I'm sure Professor." Mr Potter replied and managed to learn to make his magical constructs permanent by the end of the day.

And Flitwick realized that he had not felt so exhilarated in many many years.

For he had a genius in his hand the likes of which had never been seen before in Hogwarts as far as he could tell.