It had been three weeks since the start of his private lessons with Professor Snape, and Harry now had the first paragraph of page ten memorized by heart. He had been practicing this one particular spell over and over until he had gotten it right. They had tried the same approach with a number of other spells, which Harry could also now perform without speaking a word, but had not had any luck incanting them aloud.

"Perhaps it is time for a different approach Mr. Potter," Severus was saying one evening after an hour of failed attempts at the Lumos charm spoken aloud. Harry was also still having trouble reading a new paragraph out loud without mangling it badly. He dearly hoped it wouldn't take him weeks to master every spell he was to learn, or else he'd still be in first year when Ron was graduating.

"S sir?"

"Open your book to page fifty seven." Harry opened his Charms book to the middle. They hadn't gotten this far yet in Charms class, and Harry wondered why they were on this page.

"St sticking charms s sir?"

"I want you to sing the first sentence Potter."

Harry's eyes grew large and if not for keeping up appearances Severus might have laughed. Instead he said, "Do not give me that look Mr. Potter."

"B but sir?"

"Recite rule number seven to me Potter."

With a sigh he said, "I will d do as p professor Sn Snape t t tells me."

"I'm waiting," he crossed his arms.

With a frown Harry looked down at the first line and with a nervous feeling in the pit of his stomach, a high-pitched squeak came out instead of words.

"I don't hear a song filling my office Potter. Keep going."

Harry opened his mouth and tried again, wondering how the melody would come out. "Sticking ch charms were f first in invented by medi w wizards of the day, t to keep th their pat patients st strapped in bed wh when th they w would not stay."

He looked up, surprised that he had not fumbled every word, as he usually did upon reading a new sentence out loud.

"Very good Potter."

Harry paused, thinking, and then said, "How?"

"Singing has been proven to reduce stuttering."

He paused again as he recited words and said, "But I can't s sing all my sp spells sir, or or I'll be a f fool!"

"A fool who passes all of his classes and goes on to graduate school. Or do you wish to be dropped at the end of the year for low grades? Besides, the singing helps, and is not meant to be permanent. It is only meant to get your mind to make the connections necessary for a regular speech pattern to develop. Once your brain gets used to the new connections, the words should come more easily without singing."

He gave Harry a stern look at the doubtful look splayed across his face, and then said, "Try the Lumos charm again... in song."

"One one word?"

"Yes."

Another sigh, and Harry tried to figure out to do what was being asked of him before he sung "Luumooos," from high to low. The tip of his wand lit up, and Snape gave a nod of approval.

"Granted, because of the way some spells need to be pronounced, singing will not be effective with everything, but for reading from now on, you will sing it until you are able to say it, understood?"

Harry groaned, but nodded, lest he have to recite rule number seven again. He couldn't deny that he wasn't happy being able to do more spells now.

And two weeks later he couldn't deny the power of song as he sung to himself all throughout the day and night when he thought nobody was around. He had managed several more charms in class, even new ones, and had even transformed his round pincushion into a square in Transfiguration class. His professors all beamed at him when he did well, except for Snape, but Harry had a feeling that Snape was just as proud of him.

Ron too seemed to be impressed with Snape's tutelage, as Harry was now able to give some unstuttered commands to the chess pieces each night.

"You're getting loads better mate," Ron told him one evening when Harry almost got a whole sentence out without the double up of syllables.

Harry waited, and then said, "Thanks."

Ron grinned. "I reckon he can't be too bad if he's helped you this much." Unfortunately Harry thought to himself, he had been forced to tell Ron about the singing, because Ron had caught him several times singing memorized instructions from spell books at night.

"Thought you were going barmy at first with the songs, but it is helping isn't it?"

"Yes."

"Well at least you're doing well. I can't believe you got an O on your last Potion's essay." Ron gestured down at the essay he was trying to complete and said, "I got a D on my last one and I'm sure I'll get another on this one. I mean, who can be expected to memorize the ingredients to bruise balm? Not like we'll ever need to make it with Madam Pomfrey always stocked!"

Harry sat up straight and looked around to make sure they were alone in their little corner of the common room, and quietly sang out, "Yurgon Roooot, swan feathersss, three d drops pineapple, f firefly wingssss."

"Seriously?"

Harry nodded and Ron demanded he sing it again so that he could write it down. "No wonder you're getting good grades in Potions if he's making you memorize the whole text in song!"

"You c can do it t too."

Ron raised a brow, and remembering the upcoming test on Monday, allowed Harry to teach him the melody that he used to memorize this particular potion.

"Great, now I just have to remember the amount of each if he asks for that. Thanks Harry!"

Harry grinned and they continued studying in this vein for a while, Harry stopping every once in a while to sing out a list of ingredients or instructions for Ron to write down.

* * *

"Hey P P P P Potter!"

Harry turned around and glared. This was Draco's favorite way of greeting him, even in the middle of the day.

"What D Draco?"

"Ooh, so you can talk better now? You're almost up to monkey standards you know. Maybe soon they'll let you move into the zoo to live out the rest of your life." He laughed, and Harry continued his glare.

"Know what I think Potter?" He didn't wait for Harry to answer, and said, "I think you won't finish first year. A little less of a stutter doesn't mean much when you still can't do the sp sp spells!" He laughed again at his own imitation of the Gryffindor.

"So why don't I just end it now then? A little jinx to put you out of your misery then? Promise I won't stutter it out and make the pain last long." Several students had come around the corner of the brightly lit corridor, but Draco raised his wand anyway, determined to make a fool out of Harry. But before the words could leave Draco's mouth, Harry had his wand pulled and had shouted, "Expelliarmus!" He didn't know what made him do it. He hadn't been able to manage that spell yet, and Snape had told him it wasn't even taught until second year.

Draco flew backwards, wand flying out of his hand, and his head smacked the wall on the other side of the corridor. Confused, Draco shook his head as students laughed at him and applauded Harry, who finally had a spell go right for him when he needed it to. Harry couldn't help but grin as people slapped him on the back, and Draco got up and ran off to escape the laughter.

"Nice one Potter."

"He deserved it."

"Keep it up."

The news of his defeat of the snotty Slytherin spread like wildfire and soon everyone was congratulating him. This on top of his defeat of the Slytherin team the next day during his first Quidditch match had Harry floating on a high note.

That was until the Halloween feast that night.

Ron was stuffing his face when he received a dirty glare from Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown a little ways down the table.

"What's that all about then?"

Neville spoke up and said, "I heard Hermione Granger's been in the girl's bathroom on second floor crying all day. Something about something you said to her?"

Ron rolled his eyes as he set his roast chicken leg down on his plate. "Oh come on, everybody is tired of her acting like a know it all!"

Just then the doors to the Great Hall burst open and Professor Quirril ran in, pronouncing in a terrified stutter, "T t troll! I in the d dungeons! Thought you ought to know." He promptly passed out just in time to miss the panic that ensued as students rose and screamed, and Prefects were instructed to take their houses straight to their common rooms.

Harry's first panicked thought was, ‘Snape! Snape is in the dungeons!' but with a quick glance around he found him at the Headmaster's side at the staff table, and calmed down a little bit, wondering why he was so worried that his heart was fluttering in his chest like it would give out at any second.

"Come on," said Ron, pulling Harry towards his brother Percy, who had taken charge of their group and was leading them away from the candy laid table.

They were on the second floor, getting read to head up the stairs to the third when Harry grabbed Ron's arm and said, "H Hermione!"

Ron rolled his eyes. "Oh bloody hell, why us?" They ran off in search of the girl's loo and rounded the corner near it just in time to see an enormous, skulking figure slumping inside.

"We must be barmy," Ron groaned, and Harry nodded, before they ran into the bathroom behind the twelve-foot troll.

Hermione screamed as she came out of a stall and saw the beast, and Ron shouted for her to duck as it swung it's club and narrowly missed her head, instead smashing stalls and taking tiles off the walls.

"Do something!" She shouted.

"Do what?"

"Anything!"

Harry stepped forward first and raised his wand to try to use Expeliarmus, but before he could think and get the incantation out, the troll had seized him by the ankle and was hanging him upside down.

"Ron!"

"What? What do I do?"

Harry waved wildly, trying to think a spell out at the troll, but nothing happened, and instead his wand got shoved right up the troll's nose, and he couldn't yank it back out again. He thought Lumos for some reason, and the wand lit up, the light now visible out one of the troll's dim eyes.

Shrieking at the light and trying to shield it's eyes, the troll let Harry go and he slammed into the floor with a crash as the troll fell backwards onto the stone sinks.

"Swish and flick Ron!" Hermione shouted, motioning with her own wand, as she hid under a crushed stall door.

And then suddenly Ron had levitated the Troll's club and dropped it on its head, and the troll had come thundering down, landing with an echoing boom.

Water spewed out of the broken sinks, but other than that it was quiet.

"All right then Harry? Hermione?"

"Yes," they both said as Professor's Dumbledore, Snape, and McGonagall came around the corner to find the demolished bathroom and the three guilty looking Gryffindors.

"What on earth?" McGonagall was the first to speak and she couldn't even get the rest out as she had put her hand over her mouth in astonishment.

"What is going on here?" Snape demanded in a threatening tone. Harry dropped his head immediately and looked repentant and guilty, Severus had not failed to notice.

"It's all my fault Professors," Hermione said as Ron helped drag her up out of the broken wood that had once been several bathroom stalls.

"Oh?" McGonagall finally seemed able to speak again.

"Yes, well, I'd read all about trolls and I thought I could handle it on my own and, when Ronald and Harry realized what I'd done they came looking for me. Harry stuck his wand up the troll's nose and cast Lumos, and while the troll was blinded by the light Ronald levitated it's club and knocked it out. And I'm very sorry," she added, not wanting to get into trouble by her lie.

"Twenty five points from Gryffindor," McGonagall said at once, "for seeking danger and trouble Ms. Granger." She paused for a moment, and looking as if it may have been against her better judgment, she added, "And fifty points to Gryffindor, for sheer dumb luck."

Harry and Ron looked at each other in awe, before Harry saw Snape's angry face and looked down at his shoes again as if he'd been caught with his hand in a cookie jar.

The teacher's ushered the three of them out so that they could take care of the mess and the unconscious troll, but on his way out Harry noticed a deep gash in Professor Snape's leg. He looked up with questioning eyes at the man, but got no response as he was pushed out the door by McGonagall.