A/N: Mine but not mine, On to the fic.

"There, look."

"Where?"

"Next to the tall kids, the one with the eyepatch, and the siblings"

"Wearing the glasses?"

"Did you see his face?

"Did you see his scar?"

Whispers followed Harry from the moment he left his dormitory the next day People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at him, or doubled back to pass him in the corridors again, staring.
Harry wished they wouldn't, because he was trying to concentrate on finding his way to classes.

There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.

Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.

The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.
The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.

The Bloody Baron was willing to point young Slytherins in the right direction, but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class. He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CORK!"

Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry and Alexis managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning. Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor. He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to give them in the dungeons when Professor Quirrell, who was passing, rescued them. Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later. Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone (except perhaps the Sennen twins) and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.

And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as Harry quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words. They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets.

Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for.

Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost. Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.

Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk. At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry's name he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.

Professor McGonagall was again different. Harry had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross. Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class. "Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned." Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.

After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Lillian Kattalan and Ciel Phantomhive had made any difference to their matches; Professor McGonagall showed the class how they had gone all silver and pointy and gave Lillian and Ciel a rare smile.

The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke. His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed the story.

For one thing, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban, and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.

Harry was very relieved to find out that he wasn't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like him, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Blaise Zabini didn't have much of a head start.

Friday was an important day for Harry and Alexis; they finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.

"What have we got today?" Harry asked Alexis as he poured sugar on his porridge.

"Double Potions with the Ravenclaws" Said Alexis "Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours us — we'll be able to see if it's true." Just then, the mail arrived. The Seven of them had gotten used to this by now, but it had given them a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.

Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the Owlery with the other school owls. This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Harry's plate. Harry tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:

Dear Harry,

I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?

I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.

Hagrid

Harry borrowed Alexis's quill, scribbled Yes, please, see you later on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.

It was lucky that Harry had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to him so far. At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong.

Snape didn't dislike, Harry he hated him.

Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.

Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at Harry's name.

"Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry Potter. Our new —celebrity."

Sorry, didn't know we had an old one Ciel said to Sebastian through their contract bond making the latter snicker softly as Snape glanced in their direction.

Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. "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 — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort. "As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't 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, even stopper death — if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."

More silence followed this little speech. Harry and Alexis exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Lillian Kattalan was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead. "Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood and what is it?"

"Draught of Living Death. Powerful sleeping draught." Said Harry after a moment thought as Lillian's hand shot into the air.

"Phantomhive, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar and what does it do?" Snape asked the exchange student ignoring Lillian's hand in the air as she stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat.

"The stomach of a goat, cure most poisons, General knowledge, will not cure any poison containing aconite in a server quantity" Ciel said in a monotone voice.

"What is the difference, Kattalan, between Monkshood and Wolfsbane?" calling on the Ravenclaw who was standing up her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.

"None, Monkshood and Wolfsbane are the same plant, which also goes by the name of aconite." Lillian said soft but loudly

"Zabini what is Felix Felicis most commonly know as and what it does?" Asked Snape

"Felix Felicis or more commonly known as liquid luck makes the drinker lucky for a period of time, depending on how much is taken, during which everything they attempt will be successful. It is meant to be used sparingly, however, as it causes giddiness, recklessness, and dangerous overconfidence if taken in excess." Said Blaise.

"Ten points each for Slytherin and Ravenclaw" Said Snape.

Things improved slightly for Harry when Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Phantomhive had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon.

Grell had somehow managed to melt Wills' cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Grell, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.

"Idiot boy!" Snarled Snape, clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?" Grell whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose. "Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Will. Then he rounded on Harry and Alexis, who had been working next to Grell and Will.

"You — Potter — Sennen — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills? Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you?"

"Sir, they were watching their own potion." Said Sebastian, Alex, and Ciel as one, glaring at their professor and head of house. "You can't fault them for watching their own potion" the three said standing up for the friends and sibling (in Alex's case)
As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing, why did Snape seem to hate him, but at least he Alexis, and Ciel and earned Slytherin 30 points and Blaise Zabini and Lillian Kattalan 20 points.

"Look on the bright side Harry" Said Alexis "At least things got slightly better towards the end of class. Can we go meet Hagrid with you?"

At five to three Harry, Alexis, Alex, Sebastian, Lillian, Blaise, and Ciel left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "Back, Fang - back." Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open. "Hang on," he said. "Back, Fang."

He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound. There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling; a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it. "Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Sebastian and started (to his horror) to lick his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.

"These are Alexis and Alex Sennen, Ciel Phantomhive and Sebastian Michaelis, Lillian Kattalan, and Blaise Zabini" Harry told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.
The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry, Alexis, Alex, Sebastian, Lillian, Blaise, and Ciel pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.
Fang rested his head on Sebastian's knee and drooled all over his robes (to his horror).

Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Alexis, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students. "But he seemed to really hate me." Said Harry "Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?" Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.

"How's Grell," Hagrid asked Alexis. "I like him a lot - great sense of humor." Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose.

While Alexis told Hagrid about what happened in class, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the Daily Prophet:

GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST

Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.

Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.

"But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.

Harry remembered Alexis telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Alexis hadn't mentioned the date.

"Hagrid." Said Harry. "May I barrow this, I need to write a letter to someone, as they might have been there on my birthday when this happened?"

"Sure 'arry, go ahead" Said Hagrid. Harry read the story again. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. Undertaker had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?

As Harry, Alexis, Alex, Sebastian, Lillian, Blaise, and Ciel walked back to the castle for dinner, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Who had taken the package? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell Harry?

"Harry had never believed he would meet a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Ron Weasley.

Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Herbology with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Weasley much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Slytherin common room that made them all groan.

Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday - and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together. "Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Weasley." He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else. "You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Alexis as her and Alex played poker with Ciel, Sebastian, and Blaise. "Royal Flush, I win" Said Ciel, a short time later laughing at the look on his cousins' faces "Come on we'd best go now, so we're all together,"

At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Alexis, Alex, Sebastian, and Ciel plus Lillian Kattalan, and Blaise Zabini and the other Slytherins hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.

The Gryffindors were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard other students from Slytherin complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left and they all stepped up to a broom so they were all together with Ciel next to Sebastian and Alexis and Harry on either side of Alex. Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.

"Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles. "Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"

"UP" everyone shouted. Harry's broom jumped into his hand at once, but it was one of the few that did. Lillian Kattalan's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Grell's hadn't moved at all. Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Grell's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground. Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips.

Harry, Alexis, Alex, Sebastian, Ciel, Lillian and Blaise were delighted when she told Weasley he'd been doing it wrong for years. "Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle - three - two-" But Grell, frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.

"Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Grell was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle - twelve feet - twenty feet. Harry saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and – was caught, only to be kicked to the ground by Sebastian and – WHAM - a thud and a nasty crack and Grell lay facedown on the grass in a heap. His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. Madam Hooch was bending over Grell, her face as white as his.

"Broken wrist," Harry heard her mutter. "Come on, boy - it's all right, up you get."

She turned to the rest of the class. "None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear." Grell, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him. No sooner were they out of earshot than Weasley burst into laughter. "Did you see his face with Michaelis caught him and then kicked him? Big cry baby!"

"Look!" said Weasley, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Sutcliff wears all the time."

The charm bracelet glittered in the sun as he held it up.

"Give that here, Weasley," Said Ciel quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch. Weasley smiled nastily.

"What are you going to do Phantomhive, make me?"

"I'm not, but I think William, Alex, and Sebastian might." Said Ciel then spoke to Sebastian through the bond: As painful as this for me to say, this is an order, get the bracelet back from Weasley however you want, so long as he can still walk and breathe afterward. And saw Sebastian nod.

"I think I'll leave it somewhere for Sutcliff to find - how about - up a tree?" Said Weasley.

"Give it here!" Sebastian, Alex, and William yelled, but Weasley had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. Weasley hadn't been lying he could fly well.

Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it Sennen, Spears, and Michaelis!"

They grabbed their brooms. "No!" shouted Lillian Kattalan. "Madam Hooch told us not to move – you'll get us all into trouble."

Sebastian, Alex, and William ignored her. Blood was pounding in their ears. They mounted their brooms and kicked hard against the ground and up, up they soared; air rushed through their hair, and their robes whipped out behind them. They pulled their broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps from Alexis and Lillian back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Blaise Zabini. They turned their brooms sharply to face Weasley in midair so they surrounded him like a triangle. Weasley looked stunned.

"Give it here," Sebastian called, "or we'll knock you off that broom!"

"Oh, yeah?" said Weasley, trying to sneer, but looking worried.

Alex knew what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Weasley like a demon. Weasley only just got out of the way in time; William made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.

"Catch it if you can, then!" Weasley shouted, and he threw the bracelet high into the air and streaked back toward the ground.

"Sebastian, Alex, return to the ground, I got it." Shouted William and saw out of the corner of his eye as they obeyed.

William saw, as though in slow motion, the bracelet rise up in the air and then start to fall. He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down - next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the bracelet - wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching - he stretched out his hand – three feet from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he toppled gently onto the grass with the bracelet clutched safely in his fist, slipping it in his pocket and got back in line just as Madam Hooch came back and continued the lesson.

"You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends with you," said Ciel coolly as Weasley, Finnegan and Thomas turned up while Harry, Alex, Alexis, Sebastian, Ciel, Lillian, Blaise, William, Grell, and the rest of the Slytherins were eating dinner. There was nothing that Finnegan and Thomas could do, as the High Table was full of teachers, but crack their knuckles and scowl.

"I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Weasley. "Tonight, if you want."

"Are you as stupid as you look, Weasley?" Said Ciel, "or do you really want to take on all nine of us?"

"All nine of you, Ok, I'll play along, what's the challenge?" Weasley said thinking it would be one he could win easily.

"Pool, eight ball version first one to get the eight ball in wins" Said Ciel standing up, along with Sebastian, Alex, Alexis, Lillian, Blaise, William, and Grell.
Weasley smirked, "I'll play, if you win, I won't bother any of you for the next seven years of school"

"And if you win," Harry said, "If you win, I'll ask to be resorted in to Gryffindor," As Harry walked over to join the group.
"Deal" Said Weasley holding out his hand to seal the deal, which Harry and Ciel both took "Deal" they said simultaneously.

Sebastian, set the game up, then let me know when you have finished Ciel told Sebastian through the Contract
"Well I must go, I told my parents I would send them weekly letters before I came here and I don't want a howler again." Said Sebastian heading towards the Owlery.

"You've passed your turn twice, and now you're going after them all in one go?" Said Weasley shocked, "Careful this could be your undoing", as Ciel lined his cue stick up with the ball and took the shot landing all three balls plus the eight ball in the pocket. "Am I undone?" Ciel said as the eight ball tipped over the edge dropping into the pocket.

A/N: SORRY... but due to the Olympics being on Kare 11 NBC, I won't be updating until after Sunday.