Welcome to the World
I Wont Be Sad But In Case I Go There Every Day
To Make Myself Feel Bad There's A Chance
I Start To Wonder If This Was The Thing To Do
--'Call It Off' by Tegam and Sara--
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Originally byKyuubi08(First Years, This Way)
Adopted by Shimo Ino
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Harry woke in the morning feeling more rested than he had ever in his miserable eleven years of life. His other dorm mates were still sleeping, they should be, he thought grabbing his glasses and looking up at the clock. It was only six! Most people were still asleep at this time. Harry had always been an early riser–he had to be. The Dursely's had always demanded that he be ready for their needs, whatever time.
He took his time going through his new furniture, looking over the plain wood and seeing that his trunk was in place he decided to shower and get dressed. Everything in the Hufflepuff rooms were made of wood, and inside the bathrooms there was ivy growing on the walls and ceiling, letting in the rising sunlight. It was a beautiful effect, making the marble room light up. After he was done, the pre-teen put some of his favorite books in his bag, not knowing which classes he had first and walked down the hallway to the vaguely noting that in one of the ajar doorways a large gaggle of sleepy girls who were applying make-up in front of a large mirror that was imbedded into part of the wall. He smirked slightly. They probably didn't even realize that the door was open.
Common Room where only a few other students were up, some reading or dozing off and several others lulled around waiting for others to wake up. When he walked into the room several of them looked up and stared, and he ducked his head and headed to the older Puff that had introduced himself yesterday, Cedric Diggory.
"Good morning Harry," He waved kindly and offering the younger student a seat. Harry sat down next to him, and looked at the book he was reading from. It was definitely a different language, and was made up of several different looking kinds of strange letters.
"Morning, Cedric. What is that?" The brunette looked sheepish for a moment before saving his page and showing Harry the cover. In a fancy lettering, it read 'A Guide to Ancient Runes and other Magical Languages Volume I'.
"Ancient Runes?" He asked in a confused voice.
Cedric noticed his confusion and elaborated. "Ancient Runes is one of the 'extra' classes that any student can take in their third year. Most people take the classes that match up with what they'd like to do in their life. Like myself-" He pointed. "-I want to be a warder, a Quidditch player or an independent spellcrafter."
Harry's eyes went round. "Wow! What other classes are you taking?" He asked excitedly.
Cedric laughed and pulled out two more books. "Care of Magical Creatures and Arithmancy. Care of Magical Creatures is pretty straight forward, we're supposed to learn about feeding, harvesting, and taking care of magical creatures. Arithmancy is the study of magical numbers, and how they are used in magic."
"So, they're specialized classes?"
The handsome boy nodded. "Pretty much. There are actually a lot of them, but Hogwart's only teaches a few, you'd have to go to a wizarding collage to learn about any of the other fields."
"Oh there you are!!" Harry heard the cry from the dorm hallway where Morgana was hurrying from. Her hair was slightly sticking up in the back and she was pulling a robe over her school uniform. Her tie was nowhere to be found, and several books and papers were sticking out of her brown messenger bag. "Mornin' kiddo!"
"Good morning!" He greeted back nervously. Harry was excited, it was his first day and his mentor was a bit . . . loud.
"You look ridiculous." Cedric grinned. Morgana took a look of confusion on her face, and self-consciously patted her hair down. "Am I good now?" She asked Harry, spinning on her heel.
He nodded and Cedric chuckled.
"Well! Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I think that we need a proper introduction. I'm Morgana Bard originally born in Great Britain, but raised in the US."
He blinked. So that was the accent! "I'm Harry Potter, born and raised in Great Britain."
"Well I believe that we should head down to breakfast! Classes start in an hour I think, and while we walk there, I'll show you some cool stuff! Bye Cedric!" She waved. The brunette didn't notice but as soon as she left, the handsome boy gained a blush. Harry did though.
As they walked out of the Hufflepuff main room, Harry found himself a few hallways from the main lobby. The entrance/exit was a large, wooden, rounded door painted a faded yellow, with a black badger on the front. The house voted every seven years on the badgers new name, and the last ballot decided on Gus.
"Bye Gus!" She called cheerfully as the beast purred.
"Don't you have any friends to wait for?" Harry asked hesitantly, half expecting her to dump him any second now as they passed several ghosts discussing an recent exorcism.
She waved her hand. "Nahh, they can take care of themselves. And besides, I'll see them during class." The two made it to the Great Hall in record time and seated themselves around the middle of the table. They both ignored the students that were up and staring at the 'legend'. "Sooo, what exactly has Cedric told you about Hogwarts?" She asked, piling on food for herself.
He picked up his fork and deposited some eggs on his plate. "Well we started talking about the classes that you can learn about in your third year. Nothing else really."
"That's good," She nodded pushing some tomato slices onto his plate with a firm glare that meant 'eat it and like it'. "I can ramble with a clean slate. Now . . . where to start?"
As the boy-who-lived filled his plate and began to eat, Morgana pondered over her 'charge'. The kid was adorable with his little glasses, and stunning green eyes, small frame, and too big clothes.
. . . she should actually be looking into that. Morgana had her suspicions, but when it came to Magical Britain, even being prepared for the worst doesn't mean that you can be survive it. In fact being more prepared actually could make your 'case' look even worse!
It was like the Salem Witch Trials, if she may be ironic, where you were guilty as hell until innocent. And even then, your name was left with a giant black mark for the rest of your life.
She shook her head. Thinking about politics this early in the morning wasn't good. Especially when it involved Dumbledore and his unorthodox methods. Looking into the goblet heading her silverware, she happily found steaming milk chocolate and vanilla coffee. Mmmmmmm.
"Well basically you can have anywhere from three to fifteen classes a week depending on your schedule, year, and house. When most of the others in our house come to eat, Madam Sprout will hand out our schedule's for this week. Pass me the ketchup?"
"Sure, and so the classes switch around?"
She nodded and poured some on her scrambled eggs. "There is no real method to their madness." The older Puff shook her head. "I'm always surprised that the teachers haven't burned out yet."
"Why?"
"Well, they each have to teach upwards of five hundred students a week. Can you imagine the mental and physical strain on the brain?" She tapped her noggin. "We may be magical, but we're not immortal."
He nodded swallowing bacon.
"And there's also the House Points. See over there?" She pointed to four large crystal hourglasses that stood on either side of the Great Hall doors. Each was color coded and he could immediately tell which one was his. "The yellow and black are ours right?"
She beamed and swallowed. "Very good! The blue is Ravenclaw, Red is Gryffindor, and Green is Slytherin. Each year, the houses start out with one hundred 'points' and if a student does something wrong, points are taken away from a teacher. At the end of the year the points are tallied up and the House with the most is the winner. I actually think that its kinda silly."
"Really?"
"Yeah, because the Potions professor uses it unmercifully to add points to his house so he can win." She looked up in distaste at the sallow man who was glaring down at her pupil. "Slytherin has won for nearly seven years running all because he just cant be reasonable."
He had nothing to say to that. The strange, sneering man had glared at him after all, and he didn't like it one bit. It reminded him of his aunts friends from the other streets.
"And there's also detentions that Professors give out if you act up. Those are annoying, and if they keep you too late, Filch might catch you while he prowls around!" She waved her hands vaguely and sipped the hot beverage. "Ahhh that's the ticket!"
"Sup," A voice came from behind Harry. While his mentor stared off into space, he turned and saw the tall seventh year from last night, Darryl with Susan. "Good Morning Harry!" She greeted excitedly and took the seat next to him. Her mentor went around the table and snapped his fingers in front of Morgana's face.
"Morgana? Morgana! Mo!" His attempts proved fruitless. Darryl sat down with a huff, grabbed a bagel, and prepared to make an egg and bacon sandwich. "Morning' all."
Harry greeted him back bashfully. "Umm, what's up with her?" He asked hesitantly. The dark-skinned teen just grabbed the goblet out of Morgana's hand. "Hey! I was drinking that!"
He raised his eyebrow and sniffed the mug. "This is what's wrong with her! You were actually drinking this? You do know that there is nothing but artificial flavoring in it, right?"
"So?" She bantered, eyes never leaving the drink. "You know I need it! I cant live until I've had some!!"
"The name alone is ridiculous! Milk Chocolate and Vanilla Coffee?!"
"I like Vanilla!!"
"He's an activist for natural foods and Animal Rights," Susan muttered to Harry. "I have the panflets and everything. Even a scrapbook with pictures of him at several marches and protests all over the world."
"Wow," Harry replied, slightly impressed as Morgana whipped out her wand and hit the deadlocked teen with a painful looking orange hex. Then was berated by Professor Sprout.
"Sorry! My bad!"
When Morgana finally got her drink back there was more than half the school eating breakfast. To Harry's distaste, most of them were staring at him. And whispering. When Cedric had also come from the dorm rooms and taken the empty seat next to Harry, he was more than grateful. "Well look at the old faces," Cedric looked around. "Hey Rodgers!"
A tall brunette from the Ravenclaw table came over and grinned at the faces. "'Lo all," But stopped at Harry. "Are you gonna put him on the team?"
Morgana turned and glared at the poor boy. "Really? Is that all you can say? A whole summer apart, and you don't even say hi or give me a hug?" Morgana asked in distaste as Harry waved to a smiling Hermione at the blue and bronze table. She was sitting with other students of all years, and looked happy and if he could guess, extremely popular.
"I'll take that hug," Cedric offered weakly as the two glared at each other. She jumped on the opportunity and practically glomped the poor brunette. "There!! What do you say to that?"
He huffed. "Fine! I know when I'm not wanted! I'll leave."
"What an ass!" She muttered as he stalked back to his table and to Harry relief, away from his brilliant friend.
"Wh-what does he mean by the team?" Harry asked hesitantly.
"The Quidditch Team, right?" Susan said.
"Yep." Morgana nodded. "Darryl here is the co-captain and beater. One of the best in Britain!" She stated proudly. The teen snorted.
"You act as if you had a personal hand in making that happen."
"I might as well have, widdle-Darryl," She cooed grabbing his cheek and pinching it.
He slapped her hand off as Cedric continued. "First-years aren't allowed to be on the team, I think its so they can get used to the school before committing to something. For him to ask that . . . " He shook his head. "That was so dumb of him to ask!"
"I hate to ask again but, why?"
"Each house has a Quidditch Team who have matches every few weeks and when you get into your second year you two can try out! But he probably has some sort of notion that you have your fathers talent on a broom." He shook his head slightly. "According to the people around here, your gonna have a lot to live up to in the next seven years from your scar," He shivered slightly. "And your parents."
"Good morning children!" Sprout cheerfully interrupted as the schedules were passed around. "I'll see my new First years in a little bit for Herbology!"
"Well we only have a few minutes until we should head down to the greenhouses. Wanna get going?" She asked as Darryl made another sandwich and Susan mirrored his movements.
"But don't you have Charms now?" Harry asked glancing at her table. After that class was History of Magic, and then Ancient Runes.
"Yeah, but I'm gonna walk you to every class!" She grinned and hugged his head, leaving him without air. He blushed from the constant touching that she was doing. Hugging him and paying attention to him like he was something important. It was . . . nice. Very nice, and he wanted more of it. More attention, more . . . love.
"Now, let's go!"
TBC
Wow, I may not have gotten a lot of reviews, but I got a shit-load of alerts and favorites! Go me!! And I'm really liken the way this story is going! And I actually have a plot and outline this time! But people, is the story alright? Do you guys like it? I hope so!
emperor-soul – Thanks for the review and yeah, I've only seen two other Harry in Hufflepuff story, and in that one he only wanted to be there to throw everyone off and the other one had him as an extremely manipulative kid with a lot of friends doing his bidding! And I've got a beta, so no worries. :D
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Mimaindi – :D Thanks for the love!
Bobboky – No prob, glad you reviewed!
Holen-Snape – Of corse the Puff's will! And no, thank you!
BURNZY116 – Thanks, and I love the use of caps!
Alorkin – As I said before, thanks, and I hope that you keep reading!
thyrokio – Well, thanks, I'm glad it was interesting for you!