Harry spends the majority of his free time in the library, surrounded by decaying leather bindings and the quiet rustling of pages being flipped. It's a peaceful, if lonely, existence. One which is not necessarily boring, the thrill of learning more about the indomitable power at his fingertips certainly negates that, it's just...lonely. He keeps up well enough with his classes. Doing rather well even, certainly better than whenever he had to hide any measure of intelligence from his relatives.

None of the teachers seem to have it out for him. There is the matter of the Slytherin head of house, Professor Snape, who seems to make an art out of ignoring Harry's existence. However, he marks his work the way he does that of any other slytherin and doesn't antagonise him like he does the Gryffindors, so he can't really say he's that badly off. Professor Quirrell is a disappointment, with his honestly impressive stutter and the constant smell of garlic surrounding him, it's no wonder Harry walks out of each Defense against the dark arts class with a pounding headache. Professor McGonagall is strict, but fair, even if she does sometimes get a wistful look on her face when she looks at him. Harry thinks she might have liked to have him in her house, though he can't really tell why, she doesn't seem much like the type to be swayed by fame.

Professors Sinastra, Flitwick and Sprout are all as expected, competent, with nothing more standing out particularly to Harry. Binns however, is a complete disaster. One would think a ghost would be able to provide incredibly in-depth recounting if historical accounts, to pass in information lost to everything but word of mouth, to tell history with the vivid detail of someone who was able to witness it...unfortunately, none of this is the case. Professor Binns is easily the most boring lecturer Harry has ever had to suffer through and is teacher to the currently most useless class at Hogwarts. Thus, Harry instead chooses to use the class time to self-study, seeing as he certainly won't be learning Wizarding culture from Binns.

Harry thinks he's succeeded in making himself out to be relatively unassuming, a generally helpful, peacemaking guy. It's hard, but not worse than anything else he's had to live through. When Draco Malfoy insults Hermione Granger, or any other muggleborn that happens to be doing any better than what Draco considers the natural order, the way things should be, Harry breathes in and returns to studying, it wouldn't do to loose his value to his classmates. If an upperclassman slips and calls Voldemort the Dark Lord, Harry does the same, he looks away, he's hardly capable of facing off against an almost adult wizard.

Harry, as he has for the rest of his existence, learns to swallow his pride. It is not all bad however, in a way, it's liberating to know he is constrained by his beliefs and convictions instead of the unfortunate circumstances that preceded him. It is his own moral compass that causes his internal struggle, not some grand judgement outside of his control.

No one is particularly attached to him in Slytherin House and nor is he to them, but he gets along well with all his classmates. Even the girls come to him when stuck on an assignment, earning him the occasional jealous looks from the boys in his dorm. Out of the boys in question, Harry thinks he's closest to Theodore Nott. Who, despite perhaps being even more academically inclined than Harry is, is not half as willing to offer help, remaining closed off and secluded, sequestered away in some corner reading. However, despite this bristly and unapproachable nature, Harry finds there is a certain comfort in the quiet company of Theodore Nott, when he's in the library, or in an armchair in the common room, Theodore's presence is a comfortable constant.

From what he knows of Theodore, his mother is dead, he lives with his father and he is sole heir to his family name and yet, Theodore is not a prideful individual, unlike another sole heir to the family.. Theodore, in all his interactions, has never referred to, or needed to refer to his family. Unlike Draco Malfoy.

Malfoy is..confusing to Harry. He is both intelligent and very much not as such. Perhaps intelligent academically, like a Ravenclaw, but his easy upbringing seems to have discouraged any sort of interpersonal intelligence.

He seems to have lost interest in Harry after the first few days, perhaps realising Harry wasn't the incredible prodigy the Wizarding world seems to have made him out to be. Well, not lost interest, just stopped constantly sticking to his side like a parasitic animal. He still seems to be trying to make friends with Harry, he generally seems to restrain his commentary regarding blood-purity, whenever he knows Harry is within earshot, and makes a point of not insulting Hagrid around him, after Harry showed discomfort at the topic. Is it some sort of courtesy? Or is Draco seeking something from him? Generally Harry maintains a neutral if more distant relationship with the Malfoy heir, confused by the boy's actions.

Crabbe and Goyle are as negligible as Dudley's friends were in primary. Braindead husks who follow Malfoy's orders like puppets on strings. They are not worth much and Harry would be surprised if his judgement of them turned out to be false in any which way.

He has not paid much attention to his last dorm-mate, Blaise Zabini. The boy will undeniably be attractive in the future, like his mother if what he's heard is to be believed, although teenage rumours are hardly the most trustworthy source of information. The boy, quite generally, has not made an impression on Harry, in a way, he's a little like himself, amicable with everyone but not outlying in any way. Though wether this is intentional on his part is yet unknown.

Harry also makes the effort to be kind to all his other year mates, although the stigma surrounding slytherin makes his life hard and Draco Malfoy doesn't have the self control necessary to stop propagating these same negative connotations, through his unfortunate habit of insulting everything not as pure-blood, rich and whatever other factors he's decided upon on a given day.

Harry finds most success with the Ravenclaws, being able to reason with them and relatively easily convince them he's not planning mass genocide, although the fact this is necessary in the first place is telling of the divisions permeating wizarding society. The Hufflepuffs also, are not an incredible challenge, most warming up to him quite easily the moment he doesn't burst out laughing simply because they drop their books or make a simple mistake, unlike, once again, a different classmate of his...

It is the Gryffindors Harry maintains a comfortable distance from, seeing as associating with them is clearly the fastest way to paint a target on his back among the few Slytherins convinced he was sorted into slytherin with the sole purpose of destroying everything the house stands for and locking up their entire families in Azkaban while he's at it. A pity, as Granger quickly proved herself to be an impressive well of information who could certainly aid him in halving the time he spends researching certain topics. She also does not seem to have any attachment to the other Gryffindors so Harry would hardly be interfering with anything by using her services.

If he treats the Gryffindors with cautious avoidance, many of them on the other hand, seem unfortunately hostile, making a point of throwing around poorly thought out insults. They should have taken some cues from the boys back in Surrey, at least those didn't have any inhibitions, insult the orphan boy's parents, kick him while he's down will you? Point is, "Slimy snake" hardly had much of an impact, but then, back in the muggle world, "freak" lost the initial punch too.

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Just wanted to reply to one anonymous review since I guess it's sorta pertinent: way to point out the obvious, I'm not covering up a lack of commitment, I'm blatant about it, this story will in extreme likelihood, never be finished, I'll write it sporadically, whenever I'm interested, I don't expect this to be a masterwork or to be successful, in posting this so I can look back on it in ten years and feel like wiping my memory, not because I have some dedication to the plot. I have no idea where I'm going and I'm certainly not going to try to plan this out elaborately, this is essentially, a fun writing exercise.