Chapter 6: First day-First mistake

Harry bolted awake at an ungodly hour do to the burning sensation he felt in his pocket. He heard Draco hiss in discomfort somewhere nearby and he knew it was Hermione who had activated the blaster burning coins.

They had agreed before leaving for Hogwarts that if they ever needed to call a secret meeting the safest way to do so was by using the fake Galleons from their fifth year. Lucky for Hermione they hadn't had time to change last night.

Harry pulled the curtains to his bed open and saw Draco getting up. They shared a quick glance and Harry slowly creep-ed out of bed and headed for his trunk. He pulled out his invisibility clock and scanned the dorm. The other boys seemed sound asleep; even Riddle's bed curtains were closed. Draco came to stand beside him and Harry pulled the invisibility cloak around them. They snuck out of the dorm and only when they were safely outside the dungeons did Draco dare to speak.

"It's 3 in the bloody morning! Couldn't that girl pick a better time for this?" He scoffed indignantly.

"Don't know. But there are a lot of things we need to talk about." Harry stated. "And that's only what? Five hours since we got here?" He grimaced.

Draco silently agreed with Harry. In the past five hours they had met a dead friend, nearly had a heart attack because of the dang Marauders and last but not least, Riddle's outburst last night. "He broke Hyperion's arm. With wandless magic!" As the shock sank in Draco started to panic, big time. "He can do wandless magic at such a young age!" He nearly screamed the last sentence and Harry tried to shush him up.

"Don't talk so loud Draco! The caretaker could hear us!" Harry said looking around.

"Sorry, it's just that, I wasn't expecting that." Draco said a little more composed.

"I was." Harry said quietly.

"WHAT?" Draco screamed at him.

"Shush!" Harry warned him with a glare. "Dumbledore told me in my 6th year that Riddle could perform magic before coming to Hogwarts." When he saw the incredulous look on Draco's face he quickly added. "But I certainly didn't think he could break someone's arm just by glaring at it!"

Draco rolled his eyes at him. "So innocent." Harry scowled and sent him a nasty glare. "Are we gonna sit here all night, or are we leaving? Cause frankly, I don't wanna get caught; not by the caretaker and definitely not in one of Hermione's rants about being late." He shuddered and Harry agreed with him.

They made their way to the 7th floor, where the door to the room of Requirement was already visible. They quickly rushed inside and saw that the whole gang plus the dead friend were already there. The room had taken the shape of the Gryffindor common room, again, much to Draco's dislike.

The kids were spread out on the couches and arm chairs. Hannah and Edward were snuggled together on a couch with Tonks on the other side. Sirius was glaring daggers at the two from across the table where Hermione was writing something (definitely school work Draco thought. And she wanted to be a Slytherin? He shuck his head.). George was snoring next to Sirius and Luna sat by Hermione's side. She lifted her head and smiled when she saw them.

"Come on! We've been waiting for you." She beckoned them to her.

"So what's this meeting about?" Draco asked as he took a seat next to Luna. Harry sat himself between Sirius and George and nudged him in the ribs to wake him up.

"What?" George asked bolting awake.

"Now that I have your attention." Hermione began. "I'd like to inform you of the reason this meeting is held." She said and handed the peace of paper she was writing on earlier to Edward. "While you two were trying your very best, I'm sure, to get here on time," she said with a sharp edge to her voice. "We were, questioning Edward about his memories of his time as Cedric Diggory. And we found out the most interesting thing!" She said excitement clear on her face.

"Well what did you find out?" Draco asked curiously.

Hermione turned to look at Edward expectantly.

"Well," Edward began a little uncertain. "Am, how do you say this. I don't…no rather, I can remember more then my time as Cedric, I can remember living as many other people throughout time," he finished lamely.

Draco and Harry both look confusedly at him. "What do you mean?" Harry asked uncertain.

"What I mean is," Edward tried again. "I can remember living as other people, not just Cedric Diggory." Seeing the confused expression on Draco and Harry's faces he added. "I can remember living in 1976, as Andrew Greenwood. I was an inventor, a scientist in the Muggle world and an alchemist in the wizarding world. Or in 1729 I was Daren Hart, I got sick with pneumonia and I was dying and a girl turned me into a vampire...I think her name was Isabella, I'm not sure. I was killed 200 years later," he sigh rubbing his temple. "I don't remember much detail of my other lives. I couldn't even remember how I died as Cedric Diggory, just a few aspects." He finished uncertainly. "Dose that make any sense to you?" Draco's jaw had dropped and Harry's eyes were so wide it looked like they would pop out of his head.

"You... you remember…living, as someone else, other than Cedric?" Harry asked uncertain.

"Yeah." Edward answered. "Actually I remember living as a lot of other people. I'd say bout 20 or something." He finished shrugging.

"Well you'd better remember each and every one of them and complete that list by next week!" Said Hermione.

Draco peeked at the peace of paper and saw it was a sort of inventory. It said Name, Year, Nationality, Ethnicity, Occupation and Acquaintance. "Why would we need a list of his past lives?" Draco asked uncertain.

"Because," Hermione looked truly excited. "He can remember what he learned during those past live!" She said practically glowing with joy. "He can remember what he did when he was an Alchemist, the researches he did as a Muggle scientist and all sorts of other things! Don't you see? He can teach us! Everything he's learned throughout the ages, and if I'm not mistaken, he did live 200 years as a vampire." She said beaming.

"Actually," Edward said a bit weekly. "You don't really want to know anything about my time as a vampire. I assure you."

"Why?" Hermione asked. "I mean, Edward, that's 200 years we're talking about! 200 years in which-"

"I was a murdering bastard and did many terrible things I'd rather not remember." He said a hard tone to his voice.

"Oh," Hermione stirred in her seat. "Well, we'll leave the vampire out then." She finished a bit lamely.

Edward sighed. "Look I didn't mean to snap, it's just that…it's complicated and it's not a life I'm proud of."

"No, it's fine, it wasn't right of me to pressure you." Hermione said in a business like tone.

"You know Riddle broke My Grandfather's brother's arm last night." Draco said in an attempt to lighten the mood.

"Your what?" Sirius asked uncertainly.

"He did?" Hermione asked incredulous.

"Yeah, Hyperion rounded on him for being so forward about his discomfort of getting sorted into Slytherin and Riddle just cracked his hand by glaring at it." Draco said a bit uncertain.

The occupants in the room went deadly silent. Hermione's brain was still trying to process the thought that a 1st year could perform wandless magic of that level. Sirius still didn't understand who had had his arm broken by Riddle last night. George was already snoring.

"Guys," Luna interrupted their trail of thought. "Sorry to tell you but that was kind of obvious." She said looking strangely at them. "What I mean is, Dumbledore was about 150 years old and he was proficient at wandless magic, and Voldemort could fight on par with him, with only 50 years of experience. It was kind of obvious that he learned to use it from a tender age. It's not surprising that he can already do some serious damage without a wand." She stated a bit surprised that the others hadn't figured that out.

"No," Draco said shaking his head. "Luna, it's not obvious! Yeah, we saw what he could do, but…that was the old one! I mean he could have, I don't know, used some ritual to make himself more powerful and stuff." He said a bit uncertain. "There's no reason for us to believe that he was so powerful because, because…that's how he was." He said in a whisper. "Merlin's beard! Do you mean to tell me he is that powerful?" Draco asked near a panic attack. "And they want us to kill him?" He asked incredulously. "Dumbledore's mad!"

"Good job figuring that out after he sent you on a suicide mission, genius!" George said mockingly while cracking and eye open. "Everybody knew the old man was a bit on the off side. He had his ideas and stuff, but they were never the best."

"George! Professor Dumbledore was the greatest wizard of all times! He knew what he was doing!" Hermione snapped. "And if you thought he was crazy why did you come here?"

"I didn't say he was crazy, I said he was a bit on the off side, wankers, not completely crazy. I mean you have to admit that all geniuses get a bit crazy after a while." George stated. "And I came here cause I believe I'd be able to do something. I'm not here to follow Dumbledore's orders!" He finished folding his arms over his chest.

Hermione looked like she was about to protest but Luna snapped. "Ok, stop it! The both of you. What do you think you're doing? Going mad after just the first day? How do you think you'll make it through the year if you can't last 5 hours?"

"But he said-" Hermione began but was cut off by Luna.

"Enough! Hermione your acting like a child! A small little kid who believes everything she is told. Or what do you honestly believe Dumbledore's perfect then I'm sorry to inform you he's not! And you better get used to it! And you," She rounded on George. "I don't give a damn why you're here! All I want to know is if we're on the same team, or if you want to abandon us!"

George shifted uncomfortably under Luna's hard gaze. He definitely liked the insane her better then this one, he decided. "I'm on your team." He said quietly and lowered his eyes to the floor.

"Alright then," Luna said nodding her head. "Now that that's over with, let's start planing our next move, because Merlin knows how well the first one went." The kids nodded.

"And we'd better get this over with fast if we want to get to class on time tomorrow." Said Hermione.

"Spoken like a true Ravenclaw." Said Draco. Unfortunately that reminded Hermione of something.

She turned to glare at Harry. "Harry, why did you let that stupid hat place you in Slytherin?" She asked in a sweet voice with a fake smile on her face.

"Hmm... I," Harry started nervously chewing his lips. He was in trouble now, he knew it.

"Oh, will you stop it!" Luna hissed in a voice that had Hermione jump one foot in the air. "We're talking about more important things now, such trivial things can wait!" She finished in a tone that left no room for discussion and Hermione just nodded.

"Now the question is whether we continue with faze two of our plans or make a new one based on the situation at hand?" Luna asked.

"I don't see why we can't continue." Sirius stated. "Just cause Riddle can use wandless magic doesn't have to mean anything. After all, it's not like we're out to get him, yet."

"Actually I have a suggestion." Said Tonks. "I think we can improve our plan a bit. I'd like to be a part of the main plan too, I mean, I want to try and gain Tom's trust. You know, be his friend and stuff."

"You can't be serious." Said Hermione. "Tonks, he wouldn't want friends from another house!"

"Actually Hermione, I think he douse." Said Harry.

"I agree with Harry and Tonks.!" Stated Luna. "I mean think about it! Our Marauders were the first wizards he encountered, he seemed content to be in their presence. Unlike the time when he was sorted into Slytherin. He did look pretty distressed about it. And lets not forget the fight he had with Hyperion, that could be pretty bad for his relationship with his house mates."

"Actually sweetheart, that's were you're wrong." Draco said grimacing. "He took down the leader by just glaring at him. They're gonna love him now, you'll see, tomorrow." He looked at his watch and said. "Well, today." He showed the watch to the others. "It's 4 and I hate to break it to you guys, but we're out of time, around 4:30 the head of Slytherin house comes in for a patrol. It's like an unwritten rule, you always have to be in the dorms by 4:30 or you're in trouble." He said as he stood up and headed for the door. "I don't know bout you guys but I don't wanna get caught sneaking out in the first day. Riddle'll definitely get suspicious."

"Yeah, he's right." Harry said as he moved towards the door. "See you guys in the morning!" He said and waved his good-byes.

"Ok we'll be on our way after a few minutes." Sirius said. "Who's first?"

"We'll go." Said Luna. "And you guy's wait at least 5 minutes!"

"Yes, mum" George said giving her a mock bow. Luna rolled her eyes at him and she and Hermione exited the Room of Requirement.

All the kids got back to their dorms, though fairly late.

-OOOOOO-

"Sirius!" George dumped a cold bucked of water on top of his head. Sirius bolted out of bed and reached for his wand.

"What? Where?" He looked confused around the common room and spotted George hiding behind the bed on his right. "GEORGE! Did you have to do that?" Sirius asked while spelling his robes dry.

"Yeah! It's 9:30! We'll miss breakfast!" George said and handed Sirius his school uniform. "The others are already there. They said they tried waking you up, but gees man, you sleep like a log."

"Be right there." Sirius rushed in the bathroom to change.

When the two Marauders walked into the great hall the other kids were already half way through breakfast. Sirius jumped in the seat next to Ignatius and reached for the chicken, but unfortunately for him it disappeared and desert appeared on the table. "Dang!" He cursed.

"If you snooze you lose." Adrian Wood teased him.

"Well thanks for waking me up!" Sirius snapped.

"Hey man we tried." Wood said in his defense. "But you just wouldn't budge."

"Oh never mind." Sirius said and he turned to look sadly at his pudding.

"Did you guys get the schedule?" George asked digging into his pudding.

"Yeah, one moment. Angy!" William Weasley (who surprisingly didn't look much like a Weasley with his brown hair, blue eyes and freckle-less face) screamed at a girl with blond hair and brown eyes (Angelica Heart) who turned to glare at him.

"What part of 'only my friends can call me that' didn't you get Weasley?"

"Are you still mad? Come one Angy that was a joke!" William said smiling sweetly at her.

"Don't mind him Angy," George intervened. "Could you please pass me the schedule."

"Sure," Angelica smiled and handed him the schedule. "Just don't give it to the weasel."

"Sure will." George said and looked at the paper. The whole occupants of the great hall heard the cry of joy that escaped George's throat at seeing the schedule.

"Ah, my ear! George! What's gotten into you?" Sirius snapped.

George wasn't listening to him, he had risen from his seat and started dancing the weirdest of dances. Sirius regarded him strangely before taking a peek at their schedule. It read:

Monday:

10:00 Transfiguration (Professor Albus Dumbledore) – with Ravenclaw

11:00 Charms (Professor Claire Littleton) – with Ravenclaw

Sirius glared at the schedule unable to believe what he was seeing. "Two classes? Just two classes and the rest of the day off?" He said in a small voice.

"Well duh, what else did you expect? We're first years, remember!" William Weasley said across from him.

That was all the confirmation Sirius needed. A cry of joy escaped his throat and he started dancing with George while singing the chorus from 'Hard rock Halleluja by Lordi', to everyone's dismay, since the song hadn't been invented yet.

Tonks jumped out of her seat and rushed to them. "Sirius! George! What's gotten you guys in such a good mood." She said and tried to grab a hold of the two who were now the center of attention of the great hall. But the two wouldn't budge. They grabbed Tonks and started spinning her around and around until she lost her balance and fell in George's arms who kissed her on the lips. That seemed to get the two back to earth. Sirius stopped to glare at the two and George freaked out and pulled away from her.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to." He tried apologizing to her.

"Forget it." Tonks said a little dizzy.

"Yeah, right." George said relieved but then a perplexed expression passed over his face.

After the shock passed the girls from ALL the houses started giggling and whispering about Tonks and George's unintentional kiss. Sirius, George and Tonks sat down at the Gryffindor table.

"Ok what has you so happy?" Tonks asked the two now embarrassed kids.

"Did you see our schedule?" Sirius asked excitement clear in his voice.

"Yes, and I hope you do realize you'll be spending the next 2 hours with Hermione and Luna." Tonks said smiling broadly at them.

That was all it took for the two Marauders to drop from the highest cliffs of heavens to the lowest pits of hell. Both cautiously turned to scan the Ravenclaw table and soon wished they hadn't. The glares the two girls were sending them were monstrous, and the two knew if looks could kill, there'd be nothing left of them to bury. They swallowed and turned to look miserably at their pudding, their appetite long forgotten.

Breakfast passed too soon in Sirius's opinion and before he knew it he was off to his first class of the day with George walking stiffly behind him.

The moment they entered the classroom a person bumped hard into George's shoulder making him land on a seat by the wall and someone dumped his things roughly beside him. George turned to look at the person, a rather nasty reply on the tip of his tong, but froze when he met the blazing glare of Luna Lovegood (now commonly known as Bouquet). He turned to glance in the other direction only to come face to face with the wall. It seemed like he was stuck between a rock and a hard place so to speak.

Sirius pulled his bag down on the side next to the wall and nearly jumped out of his skin when Hermione took the seat next to him rather then George. He turned to scan the room for George and found him and Luna sitting right behind him. He slowly turned around to look at the front of the class, and prayed that for the first time in his life Dumbledore would show up on time.

"So, mind telling me what was the stunt you pulled at breakfast about?" Hermione said casually, though the sharpness in her tone didn't escape Sirius. She was turned towards him, her predatory eyes moving between the two Marauder who had gone positively still.

"Why so silent?" Luna asked, a mock tone to her voice. "Last thing I remember, you were quite eager to talk," she stepped hard on George's foot and it took all his will to keep from screaming. "About your little discovery of the day, in fact," she stepped again on the same foot and this time George couldn't help a whimper escaping his throat. "You. Were. Quite. A good. Entertainer." She amplified each word while stepping on George's foot each time more vicious then the last. "EVERYONE was impressed with your song!" She finished hissing in a whispered voice that sent chills down George's spine.

"And you," Hermione said smirking down on Sirius. She dug her nails into his arm. "Weren't exactly the virtuous one of the gang now were you?" Sirius bit his tong to keep from screaming as Hermione's nails dug a path up to his palm. "Lucky for you Riddle decided to skip breakfast or," she leaned in close to whisper in Sirius's ear, her breathing caressing his cheek, "you two would have had a hole lot more to worry about then a few scratches and a sore foot." She finished and rouse from her seat. Luna gave George a nasty glare and followed Hermione to the front seat in the middle of the class.

Sirius slipped in the seat next to George and started healing his bloodied arm. "Man those two are monsters." He said to George, his throat dry.

"Yeah." George agreed and started healing his injured leg.

That moment Dumbledore decided to finally make his appearance, a little late in Sirius's not so humble opinion, and began the lesson.

"Good morning, and welcome, my dears to your first class of Transfiguration." Dumbledore began raising his hands symbolically as if trying to embrace the students. "Now, let me give you a short introduction on what you will be learning this year." He began talking about the wonders and many uses of Transfiguration and Sirius instantly understood why it was James's favorite subject.

Hermione was mesmerized, all her early worries forgotten. Sure McGonagall was good, but Dumbledore was magnificent. He could make even the most little and insignificant of things interesting, and the admiration and emotion he used to describe his subject captivated all the students in the class.

-OOOOOO-

"I can't believe those bastards let us sleep in!" Harry said while rushing at top speed towards his first class. Slughorn had come to wake them up this morning and given them their schedule (which was quite nice of him considering that if Snape had been their head of house they would be serving detention with him for a month).

"Yeah, they tend to do that," Draco said a little breathless. "But man, did you see our schedule? I bet George and Sirius made a show of themselves at breakfast."

"Yeah," Harry agreed. They only had two classes today: Charms and Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, and the rest of the period off. He didn't even know what he'd do with all the free time on his hands.

When they finally arrived to Charms, they were already 10 minutes late and professor Claire Littleton, (who proved to be just as understanding as Filch would be if he caught you out of bed after curfew), held them a long, 10 extra minutes lecture about student's responsibility and behavior. After the enchanting and life scarring speech Claire ordered the two students (Hannah and Edward), who were sitting in the center bench of the first row to move to the back of the class and let Draco and Harry up front so she could keep an eye on the nasty little buggers. Harry instantly disliked her, as for Draco, she was definitely on his hit list.

She kept nagging them throughout the class to pay attention and scolded them if they as much as dared to blink, luckily for them they had mastered the Wingardium Leviosa charm and were quite glad to rub it in her face when she dared them to try it out first. By the half of the class (10 minutes into the lecture), she started popping up more questions then Hermione herself could handle, but it seemed that Tom and Edward had taken it upon themselves to answer. By the end of the class the two were glaring daggers at each other and Miss Littleton was practical in love with them and kept nagging on and on about how all students should be as diligent and smart as they were.

Harry had never in his life hated a teacher as much as he hated Miss Littleton (no not even Snape), by the end of the class he was in such a hurry to leave he forgot his bag pack and school books on the table, which of course earned him another long and mind scarring lecture from the bloody pest.

"You just had to pull a stunt like that now didn't you Rowling?" Draco scowled. "The bloody class ended and you just had to rush out without your stuff and make her open that big fat mouth of hers. And get me caught with ya!" He glared hatefully at him. "That's the last time I'm ever sticking by you do you hear me!"

"Would you mind shutting up for once? Or what do you think I enjoy torturing you on my behalf?" Harry snapped. Draco was about to snap right back at him but Abraxas Malfoy and Leonisius Lestrange caught up with them.

"Trouble in paradise?" Abraxas teased. "I thought you were like brothers or something?"

"Yeah, well even brothers fight once in a while." Harry scoffed. He didn't like the fact that there were three Malfoy in this time, like one wasn't bad enough.

"I haven't fought with mine." Abraxas said proud of himself. "Not even once." He stopped walking and said. "You know we didn't have time to introduce ourselves last night, I'm Abraxas Malfoy, and this is Leonisius Lestrange" He pointed at the black haired, brown eyed kid next to him. "And you are?"

Harry froze when he heard the name Lestrange. He hadn't really paid attention to Minerva when she had told them about the student's which would be attending Hogwarts at the time and therefore would be paying dearly for his outburst.

"I'm Draco Ivanov-" The words hadn't even left Draco's mouth when Harry punched Leonisius in the face effectively breaking his jaw. The boy hit the ground unconscious. Time seemed to slow down for the three boys. They were all stuck gaping at Leonisius who was spread up on the floor, his jaw bleeding furiously.

Harry's brain was slowly beginning to process what just happened. He had heard the name Lestrange(which he naturally associated with Bellatrix and Rudolf, Neville's murderers) and had acted without thinking for a second of the consequences.

"Why did you do that for?" Abraxas asked after he had composed himself.

"I..." Harry began a little uncertainly, but there was nothing he could think of to justify his outburst.

"He's sorry," Draco intervened. He glared pointedly at Harry and the other boy knew Draco would invent some lame, but plausible excuse to save his ass and he would have to agree with it. "You see," Draco pulled Abraxas aside. He adopted a sad and troubled voice and said "he had an uncle Leonisius who was a pedophile and a filthy mud-blood, and, well, when you said his name he naturally mistook Lestrange for him, and he acted on instinct," Draco faked regret and reluctance at telling him this and continued "He's very sensitive about the subject, this isn't his first outburst, actually I think he's lucky to walk away with only that." He finished.

By the end of Draco's speech Abraxas was green in the face "Oh, I...I understand, I'll just get Leo-Lestrange to the hospital wing, tell the teacher I'll be late will ya." With that said Abraxas turned towards Lestrange.

Draco grabbed a hold of Harry's sleeve and dragged him towards their next class. "You don't want to know!" Draco said when he felt the other boy was about to ask him something.

-OOOOOO-

Dumbledore's class was the best class Harry had been to in all his years as a student, even Draco reluctantly admitted Dumbledore was a good teacher. Leonisius and Abraxas hadn't shown up, not for the class and not for lunch but no one missed them, certainly not Harry. Riddle hadn't shown up for lunch either, but unlike what Minerva had said it seemed Dumbledore was quite fond of him, and apparently the rivalry between him and Edward was ever growing.

At the Hufflepuff table Edward was in a fowl mood.

"What's wrong Ed?" Hannah asked concern written on her face.

"Oh, nothing." He began sarcasm clear in his voice. "Just the fact that I'm being topped in class by the bastard who apparently killed me!" He hissed and stabbed his food viciously.

"Shush!" Hannah said sending him a glare that promised lots of pain. "I never knew you cared so much for grades." She said huffing.

"Of course I do!" Edward said incredulous. "I was the perfect student, the roll model for all my juniors in Hufflepuff! How can I not care if some guy tries to take my place? It's competition, and I have to win, to regain my dignity." Edward said his mind made up.

Hannah rolled her eyes at him. "Men, I'll never understand them." She said and turned to talk to Tonks.

"A ha! I knew it wouldn't last!" Sirius said.

"What wouldn't last?" George asked him while stuffing a large amount of food in his mouth.

"Hannah and that dead guy." Sirius said pointing at the Hufflepuff table.

George glared at him. "Are you stalking her now? You know it would be easier to just tell her you like her." He pointed out and resumed eating.

"What? I don't like her!" Sirius huffed indignantly. "I'm just looking out for her, you know like a concerned older brother."

"Overly-protective and highly-jealous older brother." George corrected him.

"I'm not jealous!" Sirius hissed.

"Keep telling yourself that. Maybe you'll believe it some day and start looking at all the other girls from around here who have their eyes on you." George said and turned to talk with Ignasius and William who were discussing the upcoming Quidditch match between Switzerland and Ireland. Sirius just glared at him and resumed his spy-brotherly concerned surveillance of Hannah.

-OOOOOO-

Riddle didn't show up at dinner either but Leonisius did and he was very careful to sit as far away from Harry as the Slytherin table allowed and refused to look in his direction or even talk about why he skipped Dumbledore's class. Riddle didn't even show up for curfew and the kids were long asleep when he finally decided to enter the common room.