"Genus Mutatio."

Harry tapped his wand on the guinea-fowl before him after giving a sharp quarter-clockwise spin. The fowl let out a shiver before changing into a guinea pig right before his eyes. The pig looked at him and let out a cute oink.

He patted the pig on its head. "Don't worry. You will be back to your original body in a jiffy."

"Potter stop petting the pig and bring it here if you want your work graded." McGonagall said sharply from behind her desk.

There was a smarter of chuckles in the classroom but Harry paid it no mind. In his defence, the pig he transfigured was too cute.

Casting the levitation charm he moved the pig towards Professor McGonagall's table. The Transfiguration professor took a good look at the pig and scribbled a grade onto her notepad.

"Off you go, Potter. Do remember to copy down the homework question from the board." said McGonagall before chucking the pig into a gilded cage after shrinking it in size.

Returning to his place at the front row he took out a small book from his backpack before scribbling down the homework question on the blackboard. The advantage of sitting on the front row was that he was far away from Ron Weasley who never knew when to shut his big mouth. Even now he could hear Ron murmuring about possible Yule Ball dates with Neville at the back seat.

"Mr Weasley!"

Professor McGonagall thundered and she began berating Ron for his consistent ability to disturb her class. As McGonagall was laying into Ron with everything she had, Harry eyed his partner. He eyed Hermione who was halfway through the homework question in the class itself. She was not the only one as he could see several Ravenclaws like Terry Boot and Anthony Goldstein doing the same.

Harry shrugged as he decided to do some advanced reading of Transfiguration text with fifteen minutes on the clock. Pleasing McGonagall had its perks as he found out with being allowed to drop Divination in favour of taking on Arithmancy. Now, he aimed to drop Muggle Studies in favour of Ancient Runes.

McGonagall had nearly chewed him out on asking that as she had already helped him drop Divination. In his defence, he learned of the ritual to stabilize his magical aura far later else he would have asked for Muggle Studies to be dropped as well. Despite her ire, McGonagall did speak with Professor Babbling and managed to arrange a meeting on his behalf. It fell to Harry to convince Professor Babbling that he can cover a whole one and a half years worth of material in a short amount of time to be of any good when the OWL's came along next year.

Harry's stomach growled signalling he was dying to have some food to sate his needy stomach. He was burning through calories by keeping his exercise regimen. Now that he had recovered somewhat from years of malnutrition thanks to Madam Pomfrey's advice he was back to train his body to an acceptable standard. To that end, he has been increasing his physical training. Now that his body could take some strain he was slowly transitioning into some weight training. Nothing major as he was still growing but mostly giving some training to his legs for quick movement.

A few more minutes later the bell rang and he was out of the class like a speeding bullet. He speed-walked all the way to the Great Hall to have his lunch way before anyone else. At least, he thought he was going to be the first one in, only to come face to face with a half-filled Great Hall. On the Gryffindor table alone there was the fifth year and seventh year students. The only other table that was packed with students was the Hufflepuff table.

Seeing the steamy spread on the table he skipped over to the Gryffindor table and began to fill up his plate earnestly. He picked up two slices of bacon, a cup of beef, a chicken leg, some bread and some tomato sauce. When the first slice of bacon slipped into his mouth he hummed appreciatively at the spices before watering it down with a bit of water. Maybe it was because he was hungry as hell, the food tasted heavenly which was already pretty much divine to start with as Hogwarts food was the best.

"Where are the others?" asked Katie Bell whom he had not at all noticed in his rush to stuff food into his needy stomach.

Swallowing down another piece of bacon he turned to Katie. "I was starving and I made a run for it. They must be catching up sometime soon."

"Are you sure our brother didn't infect you with anything Harry?" asked George wriggling his eyebrows.

"Yeah. Only our dear little Ronnikins would make a run for food." supplied Fred with a grin.

"I'm a growing boy. I need my food to stay healthy and strong."

"Oh yeah. That you do oh great champion of champions." George performed a fake bow.

"Oh, shut up. I've had Transfiguration all morning and McGonagall didn't let us so much as twitch in her class. I'm hungry enough I might just swallow an elephant whole." said Harry before diving into his food giving no heed to the smatter of chuckles the twins and Katie let out.

Ever so slowly, the hall began to fill in and he was joined by Hermione along with his other yearmates.

"Why did you run away?" asked Hermione, once she sat down next to Harry.

"I was starving."

"Some of us do have an appetite for food rather than studying Hermione." said Ron as he too plopped down opposite Hermione and began piling his plate with food from the table.

"I know. But, I also know some who have an appetite for just food alone." Hermione fired back as she cut carefully into the bacon on her plate.

Fred and George laughed while Ron turned beet red. As usual, this was more than enough to spark a shouting match between Hermione and Ron.

Harry focused on his lunch and quickly finished it before he carefully stepped out of the Gryffindor table. The meeting with Professor Babbling was arranged just after the lunch break and he didn't want to appear tardy to the professor. But, just before he could extract himself he came face to face with a fifth-year Hufflepuff girl.

"Hi, Harry."

The girl whom Harry struggled to put a name to the face smiled shyly and fluttered her eyes at him.

"Hello." he greeted back struggling to find the name.

"Umm…I came to ask whether you'd like to go to the ball with me Harry?" the girl asked as she tucked her curly brown hair behind her left ear.

"Oh! I'm sorry. I'm already going with someone else."

"Oh, umm…okay then. Are you sure?"

"I am sure."

"Have a good day, Harry."

"Have a good day yourself."

After the Hufflepuff girl left he shouldered his backpack only to be stopped by Ron's comment.

"You said no to a Hufflepuff in favour of going with a Slytherin!"

"Yes. And the next time you think you have a say in my personal affairs think again before opening that idiotic mouth of yours. Who I go with or not go with to the Ball is my business. Keep your nose out of it if you know what's good for you." Harry said sharply.

After giving the red-head nuisance a glare he was out of the Hall with hasty long strides.

It was only a few days back he was thinking Ron might not be much of a moron. Harry was already regretting to make that assumption.

Standing before the oak doors to Professor Babbling's quarters he knocked twice and waited patiently. Before today, Harry had no contact with the illustrious professor of Ancient Runes. The same could be said of Septima Vector who for all intents and purposes looked like a model more so than a professor.

McGonagall looked like a professor, not Septima Vector.

The Arithmancy professor was far younger than any of Hogwarts professors he had ever encountered. From his minor enquiries, he learned Professor Vector was two years senior of Bill Weasley which put her in the age bracket of 20-25. He also had it on good authority that Professor Vector was a Gryffindor. While the Professor has a reputation for being overly strict he did not find that to be true in his admittedly few interactions. She also happened to be a half-blood.

Bathsheda Babbling, on the other hand, was a complete mystery. The only things he knew about her are she is a Pureblood and she teaches Ancient Runes. Other than that Professor Babbling remained a mystery which sort of surprised him. Either she has the most unimpressive personality or she has somehow mastered anonymity.

"Come in."

A soft voice carried over to his ears from the room.

Harry pushed open the door and he stepped in only to feel a slight shock pass through his body.

"That's interesting." observed Professor Babbling who was sitting behind her desk peering at him from behind her thick googles. She was wearing a black sleeveless jacket over a green sweater. Her blonde hair was neatly pulled back and a green hat on her head.

"Pardon?" he shook away the feeling and looked curiously at the Professor.

"You stepped over a mild detection ward and your reaction intrigues me. Not many have the affinity to sense subtle magic weaved around using runes. It is a rare talent."

"Oh." Harry looked at the door where he could make out a few runic scripts. "If you say so, Professor."

"Take a seat, Mr Potter. I suppose you want to get a straight answer whether or not you will be allowed to take my classes instead of Muggle Studies."

"That would be appreciated, Professor." Harry said, taking the offered seat with a nod of appreciation.

"In that case, I don't think it is functional to have a student join my classes after an entire year has passed. Runes are complex as they are an entirely different language. You need to learn the basics to even hope to comprehend what I am teaching this year. The OWLs will be phenomenally harder." said Professor Babbling.

"But…" he was interrupted by a raised hand from the Professor.

"That doesn't mean it is impossible for you to catch up. Nothing is impossible Mr Potter so long as we give our best effort. Now, I don't know much about your character to judge whether you can pursue my subject with utter dedication and hard work. So, I'll assign you a tutor who'll aid you in studying the subject at his/her leisure. If you impress your tutor enough with your work I'll give you a separate test this year that'll enable you to sit for the OWLs. Is this acceptable?"

Harry took a minute to go over the offer.

"I agree Professor. In the meantime, am I allowed to attend your classes in the following days?"

"Of course. Now, keep in mind you won't be exempted from the end of the year's exam if you agree. Obviously, you won't be taking the same test but you will have to attend one which I will conduct. I will give you the curriculum that you will need to follow and I will give you all the material you need but you will have to perform well if you hope to sit in my OWLs class. Is this clear?"

"Of course Professor. Hermione Granger already agreed to help me if you agreed. So…"

"That won't do." said Professor Babbling, shaking her head. "I understand Miss Granger is a close friend of yours. Her smarts aside, I don't think she will objectively judge your efforts, Mr Potter. I will select a student and you will get informed who that is Mr Potter."

He could hardly refuse the Professor so he just nodded in agreement. Cutting the conversation short he exchanged a few more words with the Professor before he was on his way to the Arithmancy class of the day. As far as strictness goes, Septima Vector looked far more agreeable than Bathsheda Babbling.

He was very fortunate to have picked Arithmancy as the subject was far easier to follow and study than Divination by his standards. All that had to be truly remembered were just some key properties of numbers and the letter that is assigned to each number. Now the only caveat was that the letters used were Latin script and sometimes even runic symbols. A Latin dictionary would do the trick and Latin was not that different from English truth be told. The few letters that the language can't cover were covered by some basic runes.

All in all, a wonderful subject to learn instead of slowly killing his brain cells in Divination class. The class was not even covering some advanced stuff like spell creation. The subject only dealt with the numbers behind the creation of some famous spells. Maybe spell creation will come up next year or at NEWTs level.

And as luck would have it he only had one hour of class that afternoon. Which left him free to deal with some personal matters. Saying a hasty goodbye to Hermione who was intent on going to the library he went in the direction of Moody's class. By a stroke of luck, the second years also had only one hour of Moody's class.

So, when he knocked on Moody's door he was immediately welcomed in.

"Sit down Potter. Now, what do you want?"

Harry was got a bit distracted by the spinning fake eye on Moody's face but he ploughed on.

"Sir, I was just wondering is there a spell that can translate sound to legitimate understandable words?"

Moody smirked. "Why ask me, laddie? It looks like you are looking for a translation charm and last I checked Professor Flitwick is far more experienced than me in Charms."

Here Harry hoped his acting skills were good enough to cover proper embarrassment.

"But, Professor Flitwick can't help me if it is related to the Tournament. And last time you did offer me advice…" Harry trailed off hoping he looked authentic before the fraud.

"Ha! While you have the brains to look for a translation charm I suggest you take a dip in water Mr Potter. What the air can't discern might unveil to you in a different medium." suggested Moody.

Harry stared dumbly at Moody for a few seconds before he acted as if a veil was parting before his eyes. "Of course! That makes so much sense professor. Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet laddie." growled Moody, as he quickly began to scribble down something on a piece of parchment before handing it over to Harry. "You showed an impressive piece of magic in the First Task. But, the other Champions will now take you seriously. I suggest you look up these books in the Restricted Section. I will write you a permission slip for Madam Pince."

Now, that was a pleasant surprise. Harry read the parchment. Moody had written him a list of books. Some of them were books on creatures, some advanced charms and curses. There was one Herbology book as well with a page number and everything. Clearly, Moody's desperation for setting up the final stage for Voldemort's resurrection was showing through.

Shaking those thoughts away he now had the perfect reason to use the Egg under a water body. This would ease Moody's focus on him, at the same time, it'd seem like Moody has him fooled. That's the way he preferred and Moody would remain his favourite DADA Professor whom he looked up to until the completion of the Final Task. Thats the image Harry will project and that's what Barty Crouch Jr will find if he is looking.