I was trying to decide which field of magic to start my independent study on. There were quite a few subjects available in the library, and I had been able to narrow it down to four choices. Alchemy, healing, enchanting or warding. Which was sadly still too much.

I turned to the bored out of her mind Susan, whose brown eyes had been staring into nothingness for the past dozen minutes or so. I had no idea why she had stayed behind with me, but I could use her presence.

"Hey Susan, do me a favour and give me a number between one and four." I said. To which she shook like a wet dog and expressed her confusion through a very articulate.

"Wut? Oh ok, two then."

Healing. There weren't really many books about healing in the library, but I had included it due to the presence of our resident healer Madam Pomfrey. I would have to go speak to her soon.

I went to leave the library "Come dinner is starting soon."

Susan looked shocked at the amount of time we had spent researching the sorting system, or shocked that it was so little?

"Wait what was with the numbers."

"Just a decision I had to make."

-/-

After dinner I went to the hospital wing, alone for once. Not that I minded my classmates, I just didn't want to spend the entirety of my time at Hogwarts with them.

I found the strict looking medi-witch sitting behind a desk in her office. She looked up at my entrance and muttered a question about how someone managed to injure themself on the first day.

Her gaze swept over my analytically.

"What is it, you don't seem injured, headache?" She asked, to which I flipped my shoulder length hair out of my face, and gave her my best charming smile.

"Oh no, I was just wondering if Hogwarts offers courses on healing." The shock value value of a 11-year old trying to appear sauve was not to be underestimated. She blanked out for a moment, then started inspecting me.

"You look to be in first year, isn't it too early to start deciding on a career?" Giving her my best confused look and trying to look innocent at the same time wasn't easy, but I think I managed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"What do you mean Madam, I just think it's interesting." I said with my best innocent voice.

Which she seemed to swallow hook line and sinker, since her facial features relaxed and she started speaking with more warmth.

"Well I do sometimes offer courses to people who know they want to become healers, but I'm not quite sure if I should take you on and risk your grades suffering." She brought up a valid concern, where would we be in life without good grades? Probably dead.

Giving her my best sincere smile, I simply offered to wait until christmas so the professors could get a better grip on my student behaviour. She could then consult them to see if I could survive a bigger workload.

Nodding her assent she shooed me off outside, saying she had work to do. Which I somehow doubted, given the empty infirmary.

On my way back to the Puff common room I found an abandoned classroom and started practicing my stunning spell.

I had actually hoped to use the room of requirement for my training, but I had decided to delay visiting any places I really had no business knowing about, at least until I could use magic to detect anyone spying on me.

Excluding the third floor as one of the places I wouldn't visit of course. I hardly had no reason to not know about it.

Immortality I already had, but unlimited gold, now that, was tempting. Not because I was in need of money really, but simply because I enjoyed the feeling of having things.

I was actually fairly well-off for my age, the few weeks spent as a wandmaker having grown my Gringotts account to a bursting 56 Galleons.

But back to the spell I was trying to learn.

Basically, Stupefy was the best spell at ending one on one duels, expect the killing curse.

Petrification, hexes, heck even transfiguration, you could reverse all these things if you had enough will or magical power.

But unconsciousness, now that was a state that one couldn't easily get out of. Due to well, not being conscious enough to even try.

Learning spells wasn't as easy as people thought though. Oh sure first year spells were easy, but that was because they were first year spells.

A spell of average power and complexity, like the stunning hex and the shielding charm, took two weeks each to learn.

Something like spell deflection, a technique every fighter needed, took months to acquire and years to master.

Until I could do that, I would simply have to do with my slowly improving shield charm.

Exhausting myself several times with the stunning spell, I decided to go visit Fluffy the three-headed dog.

It was almost curfew, so I hurried up to the third floor corridor and unlocked the door. Opening it slightly I peeked in.

Yep, the cerberus was there. It would have been a real waste to spend an entire year training to pass the obstacle course that was the third floor, only to find out I was in an alternative universe or something.

On the staircase between the third and second floor I saw Snape, the verb was apparently mutual. Giving me a suspicious look he passed by me. Just when I though I would get off without having to interact with the man, he called my name.

"Weasley." I turned to him pointing a finger at myself. You mean me?

"It's almost curfew, hurry up."

Blinking from the weird encounter I entered the Hufflepuff common room a few minutes later, only to find all of the housemates in my year waiting for me there.

"Where have you been Ron? We were getting worried." All of their faces were turned towards me in a very creepy manner.

"Ugh I got lost?"

Hufflepuffs.