Chapter 1

The charity ball was held in far too small of an area that contained far too many people to be comfortable. The air inside the ballroom was stifling and constricting, hotter than what a normal cooling charm could aid with, while the air outside in the gardens was a bit too humid to breathe and filled with copious amounts of insects that made an annoying droning voice in the summer evening. The two different types of air met and mingled where there were large open balconies spaced along the length of the room filled with people eager to meet others who were more important and affluent than they. Suck ups.

The food, served on elaborate but overdecorated self-replenishing plates on both sides of the room was mediocre at best and dismal at worst, almost to the point where it was as bad as Alex's cooking, though Harry had previously thought that nothing could be as bad as that. (The Potter family's house elves were known to be among the best in the wizarding world, so Harry assumed that it made sense for all foods outside to not taste as good when compared to the meals that they had at home.) There was an annoying buzz of conversation, not unlike the humming of the insects outside taking over the summer night. Harry could see and hear introductions, false joy at meeting higher-ups in The Ministry (when they just needed to use them to secure promotions or raises), and the sickening sweet acidic taste of overplayed flattery that hung in the air like cloying incense.

He was bored.

The order twin watched his brother animatedly chatting to a group of adoring ministry workers for a while, probably about quidditch teams and the World Cup last year, the first that the family had been to, from his exaggerated swinging arm movements and attempts to mimic what he assumed to be the Canadian and Scottish seekers as they chased the snitch around the field, Alex had been quite taken with them and hadn't stopped talking about them for weeks following the final match. After the fifth time Alex stretched his arms out in front of him and made a face which he probably intended to look dashing and cool but in reality made him look not dissimilar to a confused grindylow, Harry concluded that there was absolutely nothing at all remotely interesting to do in that overcrowded and obnoxiously loud area.

Shouldering the worn messenger bag that he liked carrying around, Harry silently slipped out of the absurdly coloured ballroom. (he usually liked the colour green, but it was a nauseating vomit colour with specks of red and pink throughout. Looking at it while being choked by the hot, humid air was headache-inducing) Harry headed down a hall with flickering torches on either side of it to what he hoped would be the library, or at least a quiet area where he could sit in peace until it was time to leave. As he walked, the bag, heavy with books and knowledge, thudded against his thigh in a steady rhythm as his shoes made clacking sounds on the stone floor of the corridor. Harry hoped he was going the right way. The year before, the ministry had had another ostentatious event in the same old building, and he remembered finding the library somewhere around that area.

He walked for a few minutes and then followed a side corridor for a bit more, taking a few more turns along the way. Then, after a final right turn, Harry stopped when he realised that the torches on the sides of the continuing part of the corridor weren't lit. When he pivoted to walk back the way he had came from, he realised that he wasn't too sure of which direction that was, whether it was left, left, left, right, left or left, right, left, right, right. Perhaps, it would be neither, and he would be even more lost than he was now. Cursing his abysmal sense of direction, Harry looked down the corridor and concluded that the lack of light probably meant that he wasn't allowed to go that way. After peering down the hallway some more, Harry decided, allowed or not, it looked interesting enough to continue walking further along. If anything, he might find something interesting to occupy himself at the next year's party, provided he could find it next year. (He didn't count on it, honestly)

The thuds his bag made against his leg echoed along the corridor as the child rambled along. The lack of light made it hard to see where he was going, especially since his vision was fairly bad to begin with, but Harry was fairly sure he wouldn't stumble on the stones that paved the ancient-looking mansion's floor. Spying an intricately-carved door that was slightly ajar on his left, Harry stopped walking and pushed at it first with one hand, and then with two when he realised that the old wooden creation was far heavier than he had anticipated. He could feel beads of sweat starting to form on his hairline as he strained. His arms hurt a little. Finally, after several minutes of heaving and shoving, Harry resorted to leaning his back against it and using as much power as he could muster to push with his calves and feet, the door lurched open a bit more with a low groan, just enough for Harry and his bag to squeeze through.

There was an open window on the opposite wall of the mysterious room but it was missing curtains. The sunlight of the summer solstice provided more than enough illumination to make out the contents the new location. It was moderately sized, Harry noted, with an unlit fireplace that had a rusting poker strewn across its sooty hearth, and bare of furniture save for a couple of rickety-looking wooden chairs clustered in a half-circle away from the entrance. It was quiet, though, which was what really mattered. Sweet, beautiful, peace and quiet, bereft of the drones of both insects and humans alike, it was perfect.

Harry briefly wished his parents had taken him to Diagon Ally to get his wand prior to this party, so he could at least attempt to transfigure some furniture while he was waiting (the chairs looked liable to collapse under their own weight any second.) He had most of the spells from his mother's The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 memorised, and a few from the grade 2 textbook. It would have been more fun to actually do the spell than read about it. Stupid underage magic laws.

Emerging from his thoughts, Harry noted that everything in the room looked relatively clean, save for a thin layer of dust over everything which indicated both that the room hadn't been used in a long time, as well as that the house didn't have any house elves at their service, or that they, like The Ministry's blundering employees who hosted parties similar to these on its behalf, had forgotten that this room existed. Harry made a face when he imagined what Missy, his favourite house elf at the Potter estate, would say if she saw the large amount of dust floating in the air being illuminated by the sunlight streaming in through the window. It was a pity, the room could be quite cozy if it was cleaned up properly, with a few more pieces of furniture.

Covering his hand with the sleeve of his robes, Harry brushed the dust off of two of the chairs. He gingerly settled down on the one closest to the window. There was a creaking sound, but it didn't break under his weight, so he scooted a bit further back, sitting in the middle and crossing his legs under him, and retrieved Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them from his bag. Harry placed the book on his lap and deposited the significantly lighter bag on the second chair he had cleaned. Finding his bookmark, he relaxed into the surprisingly comfortable chair and continued reading about where Merpeople lived.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

"Oh!" a shocked voice exclaimed, startling Harry from his chapter on Erumpents and their feeding habits. He slipped his bookmark into the book again and closed it before looking up at the owner of the voice so at least he wouldn't lose his page if he was going to be kicked out for "unlawful trespassing" or whatever the adults called it.

A girl with short brown hair tied up in a high ponytail was standing in front of his seat, one hand resting on her waist. She didn't look cross, just surprised, and Harry briefly entertained the thought that she, perhaps, was an auror in disguise come to arrest him before dismissing it. Nobody, not even the idiotic Ministry, would send aurors on missions to incapacitate children who were simply reading.

"Hullo" he said simply, trying to look as innocent as possible. It was a look that he often used on Missy to beg hot cocoa in winters, and it generally worked.

"Hi" she said, "How are you finding this gathering?"

So she's a pureblood, and a member of the older families then. Harry deduced quickly, she's observing the older tradition of asking about the satisfaction of others before inquiring into other, more pressing, matters. A prestigious family probably, one that cares enough about their reputation to teach their children to observe the same traditions even around those around their age, even in informal circumstances. So, a pureblood family with a child. Hmm. Not a Malfoy, not with that hair. I know for a fact that Notts only have one child, a son, as do Zabinis. I know Daphene and Astoria, which eliminates the Greengrass family So, probably a Parkinson then. Their daughter's name was something flowery, if he remembered properly. Violet? No. Rose? Don't think so... Pansy? Pansy! That was it!

Feeling satisfied with his conclusion, Harry replied, "I'm finding it well, though a slight bit tedious, thank you. Yourself?" There," he thought, I've replied the proper way as well

She gave a brief, satisfied, smile, "The very same. I'm Pansy Parkinson" she said, before extending her hand in offer of a handshake. So I was correct. Good.

Harry took it with a smile of his own, "Harold Potter, call me Harry."

The conversation paused while they shook hands, then Pansy continued, "I had no idea that anyone else knew about this place, actually. You shocked me a bit, I'm sorry if I startled you."

"No, it wasn't your fault. I don't think most people assume that there's a person reading in every room they walk into," Harry replied jokingly, "especially if they thought that nobody else knew about it. Are you hiding from the atrocious wallpaper in the main room as well?" He was rather proud of being able to use the word "atrocious"; he'd only learnt it the day before and had been looking for an opportunity since.

She laughed, "It is horrid, isn't it? It's supposed to be the "latest thing" among the higher ups in The Ministry." her voice became a shrill falsetto when mimicking the adults, with a dramatic shudder for emphasis, "My mother was threatening to paint the dining room in it, though Merlin knows how we'd manage to eat there afterwards."

Harry grinned with her. She seemed nice, and she seemed to dislike the same things as he did, which meant that she was pretty okay in his book. "Are you going to Hogwarts this year? You seem old enough." he asked. Hopefully she was, they could laugh at the awful tastes of others together.

She nodded, "Yes! My parents are taking me to buy my supplies in a few days." She paused, "I think I'll be in Slytherin, most of my family were in Slytherin. My mum says I show a lot of Slytherin qualities."

"I'm going as well," Harry responded, "though I have no idea which house I'll be in. My family has a lot of Gryffindors, but I don't think I'll be one, I'm not nearly impulsive enough."

She snickered, "Those Gryffindors are far too foolhardy. Better be in Slytherin, you'll live longer too!"

Harry took his bag off the moderately un-dusted chair and put it onto his lap. He motioned Pansy to sit there with a small movement of his hand, and they sat like that until the sun had set and the moon had risen into the air. He talked a bit about the magical creatures in his book and Pansy listened, sometimes adding small things she knew about them that had been passed along in the family through bedtime stories. When the stars came out and twinkled brightly, Pansy, with the enthusiasm of a 10 year old, pulled Harry to the window and showed him the constellations that she had learnt.

"It's the Big Dipper, Harry. How do you almost make it up to your eleventh birthday without knowing what the Big Dipper looks like!" Pansy exclaimed.

"They all look like shimmering balls of light to me!" Harry protested weakly, "Where was it again?"

"Under Draco, the dragon. I showed that constellation to you only about ten minutes ago, don't tell me you forgot that too." she rolled her eyes, smiling. "It's made out of seven stars, and it looks sort of like a giant, stellar, soup ladle."

By the time their parents had come to retrieve them, with the aid of some child-locating charms and a nifty spell to push open the heavy door, Harry and Pansy found that they quite liked each other's company. The families walked out together, navigating through the mansion using a navigation spall that James had cast. It was left, left, right, right, right, left, and that irked Harry. The entire time, Alex was going on about how cool it was that Harry found an almost-secret room inside the old mansion and about other interesting people at the gathering that he had talked to. Pansy's mother fawned over "the little saviour" but Pansy sent Harry a sympathetic look while walking next to him.

At the entrance of the mansion, the two families that had been walking and conversing together parted to go their separate ways. Harry was surprised with a hug from his new friend and the promise of the loan of an astrology book. He decided to send Pansy a copy of Humanoid Creatures and Their Origins the next time the family went to Diagon Alley and they promised to write to each other once they had purchased their owls.

Even though it was a Ministry event, which normally automatically made it terrible, Harry thought that this was one gathering that he wouldn't mind going to again.

Not that he would, mind you. Newfound friend or not, it was still a Ministry event, they were bound to mess up the next one.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

A/N: New Chapter out? In a day? I was hit with a drastic case of the writing virus, and (sadly) I don't expect it to happen too often. I'm (not) sorry that Harry was a mini-Sherlock at the beginning of the chapter; Sherlock's one of my favourite characters from literature. Also, don't panic, I plan to only have Harry and Pansy have a platonic relationship. (unless you, the readers, would like them to get together at some point)

To address the concerns in a few reviews about too many Slytherin!Harry and Gryffindor!Sibling fics, I completely agree. However, in order for some things I have planned to happen, Harry needs to be in Slytherin with Slytherin connections that are forged by being in the same house, and Alex needs to likewise be in Gryffindor for the same reason. However, I think I'll make a very Gryffindor Harry, (as Gryffindor as a Slytherin can get) and a fairly Slytherin Alex. However, I'm going to try write about house unity, so Harry will probably have friends in Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw (in addition to Slytherin, of course), but I plan on Alex being a prat at the beginning to Slytherins (he is James' son, still) and the Gryffindors following his example. (so, not many Gryffindor friends in the beginning for Harry) Alex, of course, will have a circle of Gryffindor admirers.

If there are any characters you particularly want Harry or Alex to become friends with, please tell me about it!