Bear with me on this Daphne, her leash is being made.
HOGWARTS' EXPRESS
Harriet managed to find a compartment at the near end of the train. She placed her things inside, locked it, and took her time to observe the other students outside who were still talking to their parents and older students chatting amongst themselves.
"Is he here yet?" She heard from outside her window.
A girl who seemed to be a year younger than her was the owner of the voice. Besides her were a family of red heads, a plump woman, two twins and freckled boy.
"Nope," the youngest boy said as he too searched the crowd.
Suddenly, a commotion started which attracted Harriet's and everyone's attention.
"So much for a handsome brave boy," She turned away from them and leaned backwards before falling asleep. Like most of the muggleborn witches and wizards, the story of the boy who lived was not as appealing to them as it was to the rest of the magical population.
A pudgy boy had entered the station with her grandmother and even reporters turned up to interview him. Thanks to him, most compartments were empty as many flocked inside and around his compartment to talk and even see him.
The boy who lived was a pureblood of the sacred 28. Neville Longbottom was not quite comfortable with such fame. He was friendly and polite to everyone as his grandmother instructed him, but it still reminded him the prize of it all was the life of his parents.
About two hours later when knocking on the door to her compartment woke her up. A woman with a trolley stood there.
"I'll take one of everything." She said after eyeing the contents. "How much is it?"
"Eleven sickles and seven knuts"
She paid the woman and placed everything on the table.
"Isn't the compartment a little too big for you alone?"
"I love the silence." She said without turning to the woman as the compartment slid shut.
The Trolley witch sighed as she moved on.
Harriet settled herself with all her treats and nibbled in silence for the rest of the ride.
The train arrived at a dark platform where Hagrid was. Hagrid called the first years toward what appeared to be a black lake.
"Ooooh!" Loud sounds of amazement echoed as they all witnessed the majestic sight of the castle.
She shared her boat with two twins and an Asian girl to cross the black lake. They passed under a cliff, through a dark tunnel, and in front of the large, oak door.
"Everyone here? Still got your toad Neville?" He said towards the plump boy who nodded, yes.
Three knocks from the giant and the doors swung open. A tall witch in green robes with a stern face stood facing them.
"Here they are, Professor McGonagall," Said Hagrid.
"Thank you, Hagrid. I take it from here."
She led them to a small room where they received a lecture about the sorting process and house points and relations.
The woman left them with the instructions to tidy up and wait for a few minutes before fetching them for the sorting ceremony.
While waiting, she heard all manner of rumors about it, but she knew it involved just a hat from all of Mrs. Bathilda stories. Though the ghosts fazed her with their appearance, she had initially doubted her on that and simply thought the woman might be going senile.
"My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserve? He gives us all bad names and you know, he's not even a ghost -" Harriet had the impression these ghosts were childish.
"The ceremony is about to start," A sharp voice had cut off the ghosts. "Form a line and follow me."
They were all surprised again when they saw the Great Hall. It was simply mesmerizing, thousands of candles floated within the room. The ceiling was a velvet black dotted with stars and from behind her, she heard a voice.
"Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about in Hogwarts, A History." Whomever the voice belonged to was definitely, a bossy know it all likely to be a Ravenclaw.
There were four long tables filled with students, each house with a table of their own. Another table was at the top of the hall occupied by teachers. At the center, Harriet saw the Dumbledore she heard so much about from Mrs. Bathilda. The woman might be old but not completely lost it as she had originally thought, maybe some of her words held meaning.
Her attention diverted from the staff as she heard singing. She missed the frown from Dumbledore who had been watching her too intently.
Having accepted the nonsense she had heard for 3 weeks, Harriet listened to the Hat and applauded with the rest after it finished.
Apparently, the brave and daring were sorted Gryffindor, the loyal and hard working to Hufflepuff (unattractive name), nerds to Ravenclaw and the cunning snakes in slytherin.
"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted." She said. "Abbott, Hannah!"
She watched as students whose name were called being sorted into different house, and the Gryffindors being too dramatic after getting Neville to the other house's dismay. The Patil twins
She shared a boat with were placed in different house, a couple more names before finally her name was called.
"Potter, Harriet."
She sat on the stool and the hat covered her head and vision.
"Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage for Gryffindor, perfect mind for Ravenclaw, Hardworking quality for Hufflepuff and talent and potential to be an excellent Slytherin,"
"Where shall I put you?" the hat asked.
'Wherever I will excel more,' she thought. "A thirst to prove yourself, ah yes – no doubt about that, slytherin will on the way to greatness if you can use all your traits combined instead of focusing on only your slytherin traits." The hat advised.
"SLYTHERIN!" the hat shouted. Applauses came from the slytherin table as she made her way there.
The potter family while not one of the sacred twenty-eight families of purebloods, was one of richest, only below bigger houses like the Lestranges, Blacks and Malfoys.
For the heir of the potter family to be a girl, most of the boys viewed her as a ticket to great wealth and to some girls, a threat to their own future.
Harriet was not aware of this but it would not be long before it began to rear its head.
The high table was also filled with confusion as each whispered amongst themselves concerning the background of the daughter of who was once the greatest and brightest witch of her time, Lily Potter and the one of the most talented wizard, James Potter. Most shocking was the fact that there has never been a record of anyone in her family to be anything but a Gryffindor.
Most were dismayed at this, even Hagrid who Harriet could clearly see with a crestfallen expression.
"One would have thought that you aren't the granddaughter of the inventor of the Sleekeazy's Hair Potion," said a voice beside her.
It was a blonde girl with blue eyes with a friendly smile that Harriet knew was not friendly at all.
She only raised a questioning eyebrow at the girl. She knew her hair was quite wild, but she simply chose to leave it as it was. The hair looked stylish by itself.
"I'm Daphne, Daphne Greengrass," she asked.
"I know, and I like my hair as is." She said stiffly.
The headmaster stood and gave his bizarre speech and the feast began.
"You'd thing he's mad with the way he always acts." Daphne said in an attempt to strike a conversation.
This girl reminded her of the know it all, but instead of trying to catch attention with knowledge, Daphne was simply trying too hard to be her friend. A little bit too hard.
She ignored her for the entire meal. A ghost covered in blood, known as the Bloody Barron was floating around and encouraging first years to win this year's house cup like the six previous consecutive times.
The food faded and desert appeared. Harriet was afraid she would turn into Dudley if she kept this up every day. 'It would be a sad existence for sure.'
Suddenly, she felt eyes on her. Turning her gaze to the high table, emerald met black. It was only brief but she felt her entire life flash in her eyes before she averted her gaze frowning.
"It's never a good idea to look directly into other wizard's eyes you know especially if they are legilimency." She heard Daphne say.
"What's legilimency?"
"Mind reading, skilled wizards are able to see memories and thoughts of others through eye contact." She was internally happy that Harriet was asking for information from her, but masked this joy well.
"Most wizarding families, big and knowledgeable ones always tells this information to their children. They also tell them early on how to avoid legilimens attacks, by not looking them in the eyes."
"Thank you," she replied grudgingly as she thought.
From the hooked nose and oily dark hair, Harriet knew this was infamous Snivellus from her father's logs. Her eyes darkened and her impression of him soured as the man had already invaded her personal privacy in the worst possible way.
"Everyone should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. Mr. Filch, the caretaker also reminds you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors,"
"Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term and if interested, report to Madam Hooch.
"And finally, the third floor corridor on the right hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death." The headmaster announced.
Harriet developed a new impression of Hogwarts. The school is not as safe as she has constantly been hearing people say.
"And now, before going to bed, let us sing the school song."
Harriet watched half amused and half annoyed at display. She reminded herself that, either the headmaster was close to being as senile as her neighbor is or he was simply trying to cheer the new students by looking dumb.
"Slytherin first years follow me." The new slytherins followed thee prefect who introduced herself as Gemma Farley.
They moved towards the dungeons as the prefect kept explaining some of the things including the school timetable, slytherin reputation and the like.
"Breakfast is always served at 7:30AM while lessons start at 9AM -" "Thanks to our ghost being the Bloody Barron, Peeves the Poltergeist never attempts to bother any of the slytherin's quarters -"
Harriet was lagging at a considerable distance behind the group as she lazily sauntered forward.
"You're falling behind," she heard familiar voice ahead of her.
"Don't worry, I've had enough sweets to last me days on the train." She answered in straight face.
"Who said anything about sweets?"
"Isn't that why people are so eager to get there fast?" Daphne smile and shook her head. "Let's be honest with each other Greengrass, what do you want from me?"
"You are cute and the Potters are more well known. Give it time and you will have boys tailing you for your money and girls trying to gain favour." She started, "I want us to form a partnership that would benefit each other."
"How will I benefit from this?"
"Alliances are better formed earlier, once we have new agendas of our own, it's safe to have people we can rely on for help."
Harriet examined the girl whose maturity exceeded that of a normal 11 year old.
Daphne, as a girl from a pureblood family, received strict disciplinary training on etiquette and manners from a young age. Such teachings were to groom a girl into finding a perfect future husband. Such life had made most of the pureblood witches more mature and manipulative while Harriet's maturity came from living with her relatives and later herself.
From the history of magic, and the constant nagging of Mrs. Bathilda, she knew Greengrass was a house belonging to the sacred 28 families, basically, this girl had more ambitions than Harriet knew but none would most likely bode well for her.
"Okay, you have yourself an alliance."
Daphne smiled and adapted the same speed.
They arrived at a stretch of damp stonewall where the prefect turned to her right and said, "Pureblood" and a passage revealed itself to be a concealed door.
"The password changes every week and its normally posted on the noticeboard." She said as she indicated towards the board.
Greenish spherical lamps gave of the room a grand but cold atmosphere. There were leather sofas, a crackling fireplace, tapestries on the rough damp walls and the green windows gave a clear view of the depths of Hogwarts' lake with the occasional strange and weird life forms passing by.
"This is the common room which you will spend most of your time in with either friends or even group discussions. You are all absolutely not allowed to bring other house members to this place nor reveal the password under any circumstance."
"Our emblem is the serpent," A male prefect appeared indicating towards the large emblem proudly visible at the mantle. "The wisest and most flexible of all creatures, as you should be. The female dormitories are on the right and the male on the left, boys are strictly not allowed to visit the female dormitories or you will trigger an alarm and be severely punished."
Gemma led the girls up their dormitory while the male prefect took the boys.
Harriet found her shared room, five four-poster beds adorned with green, velvet curtains. Their trunks already placed and to her utter vexation, Daphne was in the same room too.
"Isn't it great? Were roommates too,"
Too tired to talk, she changed and fell on the bed, falling asleep as soon as she hit the bed.
"No matter, we'll be spending a lot of time together, Harriet." Daphne said with a sinister smile as she went to sleep, confident that with time, she would have the Potter heir by the palm of her hand.
Harriet walked with Daphne Greengrass towards the Great Hall and both had breakfast.
"He's kinda cute though."
"Which part, the fame, wealth or chubbiness?" Harriet asked.
"All of it, aren't you interested in him at all?"
"Should I?" she asked absentmindedly. Daphne was quite adamant in finding what ticks her, what interests her, but Harriet gave none away.
Harriet was tempted to threaten the girl to leave her alone but knew it was not a good idea, especially considering that she had only been aware of this world for just 1 month compared to Daphne who lived in it her whole life. She sourly sucked it up and answered any question simply with half interest.
After finishing their breakfast, they both passed the frustrating stairs and arrived to their first lesson.
They had joint classes History of magic and Herbology with the ravenclaws, charms and transfiguration with the hufflepuffs, Potions and defense against dark arts and flying with the Gryffindors.
On their first day, Monday, they had Charms and History of magic. Professor Flitwick was extremely short and spoke with a squeaky voice but was quite a good instructor. Professor Binn, the ghost was a different story. He reminded her of Bathilda from the perfect quoting of the book word for word in the entire lesson. This was possibly her least favorite lesson and she had been wrong thinking it could not get any worse.
Professor McGonagall was as strict as ever but her initial demonstration and subject were quite interesting.
Her changing from a cat to human made Harriet remember the Marauder's adventures of becoming Animagus. Her changing a desk into a pig reminded her of Hagrid's failure to do the same to turn Dudley into a pig.
Their first task was transforming a match into a needle, and it a very hard task that only Harriet was the only person who managed at the end. Professor McGonagall had praised her as one of the few who had achieved the task on their first lesson but told them there was another in their year, a Gryffindor, who managed at half the time it took Harriet.
Defense against dark arts with the Gryffindors was mostly theoretical and their professor, Quirrell, was scared of everything in his sight. They learned about the classification of different creatures from beings to beasts.
They also had Herbology with professor Sprout where they learned about caring plants, and their different uses. They also had Astronomy class, which took place only Wednesdays at night by observing constellations through their telescopes.
Then came the day she was mostly tempted to sleep through.
"Missing a single day without an explanation of why from either the school nurse or a professor would not bode well for you."
"He saw my memories, without my permission."
"Then hate him and not the subject. Also, never look him in the eyes and find books on occlumency or something. But I'm not sure even you can grasp it as it's an extremely advance magic, it's beyond even N.E.W.T. level." Daphne said in frustration.
"Don't you have any information on occlumency?" Harriet said.
"No, it's only mentioned along with how to avoid legilimens attacks. Both are rare and extremely difficult arts to master, even most adults struggle with its basics due to the discipline and control of both emotions and thoughts one must have."
Harriet sighed and got up.
"We've already lost the time for breakfast." Daphne said as she eyed her watch.
"Sorry mom, it won't happen again."
"Hardy har har, very funny," Daphne said as she started tossing Harriet her uniform. "Fast so we can get early, I don't want to be on Professor Snape's bad side."
About fifteen minutes later, they were together with the Gryffindors in the cold dungeons. Around them were jars filled with creatures and organs floating in storage liquids.
"So, do you have any plans this afternoon?"
"Yes, I have a meeting with Hagrid." She said hoping it will dissuade her from coming.
"The Giant oaf?" Daphne regretted her words as she saw very calculative look cross her eyes. 'Did she just think of many ways to kill me just for insulting the mammoth?'
"Alright, alright, sorry for insulting him," she said hurriedly.
Further conversations halted as Professor Snape, dressed as an overgrown bat sauntered into the room.
The man exuded authority as he scanned the room. Harriet could feel his lingering gaze on her an instant longer than to other before he went to call their names, stopping only to insult Neville.
"You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I do not expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses... I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, and even stopper death, if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."
"Longbottom," said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"
Neville stammered as the professor kept throwing more and more questions at him. Harriet saw a bushy haired Gryffindor constantly raising her hand as if her life depended on her answering the questions. Snape never gave her the chance.
"Maybe she was too annoying to be sorted into ravenclaw." Harriet grunted in approval. "She should at least pretend she was trying to help her fellow Gryffindor instead of trying to show off her own 'superior intelligence'." Daphne said with a sneer.
The reputation Snape had of favoring Slytherins was blatant for even a blind man to miss. House points were taken from Gryffindors for the slightest mistake and more were awarded to Slytherin for the most menial of tasks.
The man frequented her desk a little too much, and was even kinder to her than to the others. Such an act only raised red flags in her mind. Was it because he was her mother's friend, or was there another reason? It still didn't matter as the man was already in her shit list.
"Aaah!" Harriet sighed as she watched Neville's body covered by angry red boils.
"Let's hope that simple potions brewing won't kill the Dark Lord's slayer" Snape's words echoed as he instructed Seamus to escort him to madam Pomfrey.
"Can I come?" Daphne asked,
"No, he's afraid of slytherins." "Okay!"
After having lunch, Harriet parted ways with Daphne. She made her way out of the castle and across the grounds to a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest.
She knocked the door and heard loud barking from inside as well as Hagrid's voice reprimanding the dog.
When he opened the door, his expression paled.
"Hello Hagrid."
"Ha... Harriet! C'mon in, make yerself at home." He said nervously.
"Hagrid," she said in amusement to ease his fear, "I'm not going to turn into a snake and eat you just because I was sorted into slytherin." However, the reassurance spooked him more.
"You're my friend and we had a deal, remember?"
"Sorry Harry, 've always had bad luck with slytherins since I can remember."
Hagrid recounted his story about Tom Riddle, his pet spider and how he set him up to be expelled and had his wand snapped. Harriet in turn told him about all her classes and professors.
When Harriet's sight fell on the piece of paper from the Daily Prophet, she saw news about a break-in at Gringotts but chose not ask after remembering Hagrid's words not to ask him of it. She was certain it was what he had taken that the robbers were after.
It was already evening by the time she returned to the castle. Weighing her options, she turned and headed towards the library in an attempt to hide from Daphne. It always worked on Dudley and his goons.
She had a new priority, finding any and all books on occlumency and legilimency. Lucky for her, Madam Pince was helpful in pointing her in the section containing books on occlumency but told her that Legilimency ones were in the restricted section inaccessible to her without a permit from a professor or unless she was a 6th year student.
She passed by the engrossed Gryffindor who was pilling up book in her arms, making Harriet wonder why was she in Gryffindor and not Ravenclaw. She returned to check out the books, madam Pince raised an eyebrow.
"Did Professor Quirrell infect you with his new found delusions?" she said amused.
Protection Charm Your Mind: A Practical Guide to Counter Legilimency by Fransciscus Fieldwake.
Guide to Advance Occlumency by Maxwell Barnett
"Just heard it somewhere and thought I should check it out."
"I don't think you'll get anything but please take care of the books, I will thoroughly check them for any blemishes." She said as the quill wrote her name and books. "Good day miss Potter."
Harriet carried her books and exited the library. She had about two hours before dinner and she had yet to complete her potion essay. Hopefully, it would save to distract her from Daphne's presence until Dinner in the Great Hall.