Hello everyone! Sorry this chapter was a bit later than I wanted it to be. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy this chapter. Make sure to let me know what you think in the review section. Thanks once again for all of the amazing support the story has been recieving. Anyways, on with Chapter 8! Hope you enjoy! :)

Chapter 8: Life at Hogwarts, Part 1

Before I knew it, the end of October finally arrived here at Hogwarts. I couldn't believe it had already been so long since I was thrust into this world. Part of me was sad knowing there was a very high chance that I would never get to see my own world again. I don't think I'll ever get over that; certainly not as long as I'm here.

I didn't get the chance to keep dwelling on those thoughts though, mostly because a few other first years came whizzing by, almost knocking me over in the process. They were all clearly excited, probably because of the Halloween feast that was starting in less than ten minutes.

Thankfully, Hermione wasn't in the girl's bathroom this time around. I attributed this to the fact that Hermione in the original story had virtually no friends at this point. This time though, she had me, Harry, and Neville, so when Ron made his nasty comments towards her after Charms, she knew it was because of petty jealousy and ignored him.

I was also happy that there were no rules for sitting at your own tables during the Halloween feast. It was only mandatory on the opening and leaving feast. So, when I walked into the Great Hall, I immediately made a beeline to the Gryffindor table to sit next to my friends.

I noticed Hermione and Neville already seated, with Harry strangely absent. I frowned internally, wondering where he could be. I was cut out of my thoughts by Professor Dumbledore announcing the beginning of the feast. With a wave of his hands, tons and tons of theme appropriate food began appearing on the serving plates. Everyone in the hall then proceeded to grab as much food as possible and began eating.

Ten minutes in, Harry still hadn't showed up. I turned towards Hermione and asked her where he was. Her mouth was filled with food, so she wasn't able to answer. Neville, seeing his friend's slight predicament, decided to answer for her.

"Last I saw him, he was in the guy's bathroom, crying." Neville replied back, reaching for a carmelized apple.

I face-palmed a bit. I should have known someone would have been trapped in the bathroom when the troll came. Sure enough, the doors to the Great Hall opened, revealing a very fake-out-of-breath Quirrellmort running towards the Head Table.

"Troll in the dungeon!" he shrieked. "Troll in the dungeon! Thought you ought to know." With that sentence, he immediately pretended to faint. 'Damn, he's a really good actor.' I thought, a bit amused at the man's theatrics.

Everyone else in the hall, though, was not. At the sound of his body dropping and hitting the ground, most of the students began screaming loudly. They began scrambling towards the doors, intending to get out. Suddenly, Dumbledore's voice was heard. "SILENCE!" he yelled with the help of the Sonorus spell.

The students stopped moving. Not a single sound was heard as everyone waited with bated breath on his instructions. He then proceeded to tell the prefects to get the students to their dormitories. He excluded the Slytherins, telling us to stay here in the Great Hall while he and most of the teachers went to the dungeons to stop the troll. I knew better, however.

I ran up to Hermione and Neville and told them that Harry probably wouldn't know about the troll. Shock began to form on their faces before they nodded at me and followed me to the men's bathrooms.

It took a couple of minutes to make it to the bathrooms. Before we proceeded down the long corridor to the entrance, we all heard a loud *BOOM* sound that echoed around us. I dragged the two of them behind a pillar and looked around it. Sure enough, the troll was making it's way into the room. Once it closed the door, we immediately sprinted to the door, hoping we would be able to take the troll on and save Harry.


Walking in, we all saw the troll looking down menacingly at Harry, who was red-faced, probably from crying. He looked up and saw the troll's angered face and slowly stepped away from it. The troll saw this and angrily roared as it slammed it's huge club at him. Harry dodged it pretty well and ran in our direction. He finally saw us and gave a slight sigh in relief. He made it over to us and we all took battle stances getting ready to fight.

Harry and Neville began throwing bits of debris from the stalls that were smashed at the troll as Hermione and I began looking around, trying to devise a plan for how to effectively take the troll out of the fight. After a couple of minutes of debris throwing and club smash dodging, I finally came up with an idea.

"Harry, Neville!" I told them, "You guys keep distracting it. Hermione, keep on the lookout for any teachers. I have an idea."

They all looked warily at me, but ended up listening to me as they went to their assigned positions. I was planning on using Ron's move from the original story and using Wingardium Leviosa to drop the club on top of the troll's head.

I managed to see an opening, so I went underneath it's legs to stand behind it, so it wouldn't notice me until I was ready for it. I immediately cast the spell at the club, immobilizing it in midair. The troll looked up and saw it's club floating in the air. Once I manouvered the club to right over the top of it's head, I cancelled the spell and watched it drop fast towards it's target.

There was a *thud* sound as the club hit it's mark perfectly. The troll stumbled around for a bit before it finally dropped and hit the ground, clearly knocked out.

We all breath a sigh of relief as Hermione tells us that teachers are approaching. She's able to make it over to us before the doors open, revealing Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, Snape, and Quirrell.

They all look at us with a bit of shock as they go over to inspect the troll. "What is the meaning of this?" McGonagall asks. "Why weren't you listening to where we told you to go? Explain yourselves!"

We all had the decency to look abashed before Harry responds. "I was in here crying when I heard the troll come in. If it wasn't for Alex, Hermione, and Neville, I probably wouldn't be alive."

The teachers look over at the three of us, silently asking us if it was true or not. I told them it was indeed true. We were given fifteen points each to our respective houses as the teachers sent the three Gryffs to our common rooms while I went back to my house in the Great Hall.

Once we got out of sight from the teachers, I asked Harry why he was crying in the bathroom in the first place.

"Today is Halloween." he said. "It's the anniversary of my parent's d-de-deaths." he finished, stammering somberly.

I internally scolded myself. 'Dammit.' I thought. 'I should have known. Of course he wouldn't want to be celebrating. Jeez, I'm such a moron sometimes I swear.'

Once we reached the Great Hall, I said goodbye to my friends with a sad smile. Said smile was returned from all three of them as they walked away to their common room. Taking a breath, I opened the doors and made my way to the Slytherin table, trying in vain to ignore the stares my housemates were giving me.

I went over to the middle of the table where Daphne and Tracey were seated. Tracey instictively scooted over a bit and I sat down in the vacant spot. I reached for a slice of pumpkin pie, trying to act oblivious to what was happening. The girls saw right through it, however, and they immediately began pestering me constantly throughout my eating. I finally finished up and the couple of teachers still in the hall dismissed us back to the dungeons.

I was very tired when we all made it back to the common room. I stumbled into the first dorm room where the gift of sleep awaited me. I didn't run into Malfoy or his goons thankfully, so I dropped down onto my bed, turned on Goyle's alarm, and fell asleep.


Once again, time seemed to move by fast as the Christmas holidays were approaching at a rapid rate. I was doing well in all of my classes, with the exceptions of Herbology and History of Magic, which in the case of the latter, I didn't think anyone except for Hermione and the Ravenclaws could actually stay awake in, much less do well in.

I did notice that my wand was beginning to act weird. Sometimes it would perform a different spell than intended, even though I would clearly speak an incantation for another spell. There were even times where it wouldn't perform any spell at all. It almost seemed like the wand was fighting against me, not wanting to cooperate with me whatsoever. I decided to bring up this problem with the Headmaster.

I talked with Dumbledore for what seemed to be ages, trying to figure out what was wrong with the wand. All he was able to tell me was that the wand might indeed be fighting back for some reason, but he wouldn't elaborate. I didn't know if it was because he didn't know, or he did know but didn't want to tell me. I made my leave shortly after once I promised him I would update him if anything else came up.

Other than that, the school year was passing by at a rapid pace, mostly without incident. I was really happy that it was Christmas break, largely in part to the annoying amounts of schoolwork we were forced to do. Magic or not, I still hated school and nothing would ever change that.

Harry was staying here at Hogwarts for Christmas, just like in the normal timeline. I was also staying; this was because my mom had important business to take care of over the holidays. I was really sad I wouldn't be able to see my mother, but part of me was actually thankful because now Harry would have a good friend (me) staying here with him. Also, I didn't want him to become tainted by one Ron Weasley and stay away from me. I really want to befriend him, but if he continues acting like he has been towards me, I don't think it will be possible.

Harry and I said our goodbyes to Hermione and Neville as they boarded the train from Hogsmeade and went back to their respective families. Looking over, I saw Harry with a sad expression on his face. I sighed a bit, knowing how hard it must be for him to watch his friends go home to loving families. He heard my sigh and turned to look at me with a questioning look. I smiled at him and said "Don't worry about it Harry. You've got me." At that, he grinned at me and gave me a small hug. I was slightly caught off guard, but proceeded to hug him back.

Once we broke apart, we went back inside the castle and went to the kitchens. Apparantly sometime over the past couple of months Fred and George Weasley showed Harry where the kitchens were. I didn't remember them ever doing that in canon, and if they did, I was almost positive it wasn't this early on.

Either way, we made it there in only a couple of minutes and proceeded to ask the house elves to make us some sandwiches and snacks. They dissapeared, then came back a few seconds later with our food, contained within a picnic basket. We thanked them and went out to the courtyard of the school. We ate our food and made small talk while staring at the beautiful skyline over top of Hogwarts. It honestly was the most amazing sight I had seen since the first boat ride to the school.

We ended up staying outside for another hour. We walked back in feeling completely frozen from being out in the snowy weather. Harry showed me the way to the Gryffindor common room, as all common rooms were opened to all other houses as long as they knew the passwords. This was only during the holidays, thankfully. I really didn't need Ron Weasley figuring out the Slytherin password and murduring us all in our sleep the first day of school.

Harry said the password and the portrait of the Fat Lady opened up. Not before said lady was able to send a small glare towards me. I shook my head, a bit saddened at even the portrait's prejudice against Slytherin house. We walked in and only saw Ron setting up a wizard's chess board, probably waiting for Harry to arrive so he could accost him about playing a game. He looked up from the chessboard and smiled at Harry, then immediately saw me and gave me a glare worthy of a Malfoy.

"What is this slimy snake doing in our common room?" Ron accuses, glare still firmly in place. I decided to chime in. "Because I can, Weasley." Somehow, his glare seemed to get even bigger. I didn't think it was possible if I'm being honest. "Get out of here, snake! We don't want you killing us all with your Dark powers!" Ron said heatedly. Harry then decided to step in, saying "Shut up Ron! Alex is my friend and I won't have you or anyone else badmouthing him just because of what house he's in."

I was a bit impressed with him. I knew for a fact that canon Harry would have never even thought of bringing a Slytherin to his common room, much less sticking up for one against his best friend Ron Weasley. I was really happy that the friendships he made with me, Hermione, and Neville were starting to have a good influence on him.

Ron said nothing. Instead, he sent one final glare at us and stormed out of the common room, leaving the chess game behind. "Sorry about him." Harry apologized. "He's just being a bit hard headed. I'm sure he'll come around eventually."

I waved him off. "Don't worry about it Harry." I said nonchalantly. "If he really wants to be your friend, he's just gonna have to accept the fact that one of your friends is a 'filthy, slimy snake' as he lovingly puts it. Just ignore him. He'll get bored of it soon enough."

Harry sends me a small smile and then challenges me to a game of wizard's chess. I readily agreed and the match began.


Two hours later, Ron still hadn't returned and our heated game of chess was finally starting to come to an end. When you had two players who had never played, and only slightly understood the basics, it was significantly harder to really do anything. I finally saw an opening, and quickly moved my piece in front of the king. Said king bowed and dropped its sword, signalling check mate. I had won.

"No fair!" Harry whined good-naturedly. "You definitely cheated!"

I chuckled and played along. "Did not!"

"Did to!" Harry yelled back.

This continued for a couple more minutes before we both couldn't take it and burst out into laughter. As we laughed, we didn't notice that Ron was standing ten feet away. We also didn't know that he had been watching us for the past several minutes, and our actions inadverdently caused him to take the first steps into overcoming his Slytherin prejudice.


The couple of weeks before Christmas were some of the most fun days I had ever had, both in this world and my home world. Hanging out with Harry and occasionally the Weasley Twins was a hell of a lot of fun. I did notice that the snowball fight that resulted in Fred pelting Quirrellmort in the back of his turban (Voldemort's face) still happened. It was very hard to not burst into laughter seeing Quirrell shake in fear, probably because he was about to get a stern talking-to from his Master.

Finally, Christmas Day had arrived. I managed to get Fred and George to get me some gifts for all of my friends from Hogsmeade. They were mostly candy, but it was the thought that counts, surely.

I woke up out of my bed. Thankfully, I was the only first year Slytherin staying here, so I wouldn't have Malfoy to ruin my first Christmas here at Hogwarts. I ran out of the dorm room and made my way to the medium sized Christmas tree standing near the fireplace. I saw a decent amount of gifts under there, so I made my way over to them to see what I had recieved.

The first gift I saw was from my mom. I quickly opened it up and saw a book. Curious, I turned the book over to see what it was. The title of the book was Occlumency for Beginners. Excited, I set the book down gently next to me, already prepared to read the hell out of it once the day was over.

Next up was a gift from Daphne. I warily opened it up and saw another book, this one reading Tips and Tricks for Mastering the Art of Potion-Making. I chuckled a bit, pleased that she remembered how much I like Potions.

After that was Tracey's gift. Opening it, I saw an assortment of candies. They ranged from Chocolate Frogs to Bertie Bott's Every-Flavor Beans, to Licorice Wands. I set those aside as well, thinking of the insane stomachache I would most likely have before the day was over.

I saw that Hagrid sent me a gift as well. I was a bit confused, as I couldn't even remember saying a single word to the groundskeeper. I assumed Harry told him about me. I opened it up and saw that it was a bunch of rock cakes and a letter. The letter was basically an invitation to come over to his hut and chat for a bit. I smiled a bit. Hagrid really was too nice for this world to handle.

Susan also sent me a gift. I smiled a bit thinking of the shy Hufflepuff girl and opened it up. Just like Tracey's gift, inside was an array of candies.

Neville's present ended up being the same, except he also included a wand holster. I placed the holster onto my wrist and slid my wand inside of it. It was a bit too small for my arms, but quickly fitted itself. Smiling, I moved onto my last three gifts.

Next up was Harry's. Inside was Quidditch Through the Ages and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. I wasn't able to pick up those books on my intial trip to Flourish and Blotts, so I was very happy with his gift.

Second to last was surprisingly from Dumbledore. Inside was a note asking me to meet him sometime in the afternoon tomorrow to talk about the state of my wand. The gift itself was a very old book about wand making. I mentioned to the Headmaster that I was very interested in creating things, like wands and broomsticks, so I was very happy to see he had remembered.

Finally I seemed to have saved the best for last (in my mind at least), which was Hermione's gift. Opening it up I was happy to see there was a note, where she asked me if I would be able to stay at her house Easter break. I saw that she had gifted me a copy of Hogwarts, A History. I grinned, remembering all of the times I poked fun at her for having read the damned book more than anyone else had in the history of ever.

All in all, it was absolutely amazing how many friends I had aquired over the past few months here. I was already planning on making more, and my ultimate plan of house unity was still firmly in place. With those happy thoughts in my mind, I moved my gifts to my bed and ran to the Great Hall to meet up with Harry.

It didn't take me too long to run there. By the time I opened the doors, I was extremely out of breath. I mentally made a note to myself to start doing a lot more physical excersise. Maybe even bring my friends into it too. They would definitely need it when they would inevitably face off against Death Eaters.

Breaking myself out of that train of thought, I looked over at the Gryffindor table and saw Harry sitting there, already eating. I went over to where he was and plopped down next to him, giving him a bit of a startle in the process.

"Blimey Alex!" he said. "You scared the hell out of me."

I just gave him a slightly condensending smile and patted his shoulder. He mock-glared at me and went back to his food. Chuckling, I began putting food onto my plate. Soon, we began a conversation talking about all the things we got for Christmas. Somewhere in the middle of it I finally noticed the Weasley sweater he was wearing. It was maroon with a golden "H" carefully knitted into the middle. Even though I wasn't a huge fan of Ron, the Weasley matriarch was someone I had virtually no problems with. She seemed really awesome to me.

He suddenly mentioned that he got something insane that he wanted to show me, but it had to be in private. I knew almost immediately that he was going to show me the Invisibility Cloak, one of the Deathly Hallows gifted to him today by Dumbledore himself. Suffice to say, I was super excited to see it in person with my own eyes.

Once we finished breakfast, we both sprinted out of the Great Hall with huge smiles on our faces. What we didn't see, however, was the Head table. Dumbledore, McGonagall, Flitwick, and Sprout all had smiles on their faces, while Snape's face was unreadable as usual. They all had the same thought inside their heads:

'What amazing children!'


Hello once again! Thank you so much for reading Chapter 8. I originally had this chapter being a lot longer, but I didn't want it to be too long, so I decided to split it into two seperate chapters. Once Chapter 9 comes out and finishes the Christmas stuff up, I will be pausing updates for a little bit on this story. This is because I want to plan out the rest of this story and write a few more chapters to post for you guys. My question for you this time is: Do you want to see Alex date some other people before he goes out with Hermione? Him and Hermione will be the final pairing at the end of the story, but I wanted to know if you think he should date others beforehand. If so, who would you like to see? I'm always open to suggestions, so make sure to let me know in a review if possible. Thank you so very much for reading, and all of the amazing support. It recently reached 50 favorites and 90 followers! That is absolutely insane! I can't thank you guys enough. Make sure to leave some constructive critisism in reviews. It really helps me get better at writing. Thanks so much for your time, and I'll see you in Chapter 9! :)