A/N. I'm so sorry it's taken this long to update! I've just been super busy. I hope you like the new chapter and I'm not too rusty! Please leave feedback, it really inspires me to crack on with it!

Harry had spent most of his life being treated as though he was invisible. Even when at school or helping Aunt Petunia with the shopping, people just never seemed to notice him. Until now that was. The other students at Hogwarts could see Harry all too clearly. Everywhere he went people whispered and pointed, some pointed and whispered and others pointed and didn't bother to keep their voices to a whisper. 'There he is…' 'The Boy-Who-Lived.' 'Where?' 'The skinny one with glasses.'

Harry didn't suppose it was such a big deal that they stared, but he was already struggling to find his way about the castle and get to his classes on time, and this wasn't made any easier by people stopping and creating roadblocks, even if it was unintentional.

The castle was a maze of passages, staircases, dungeons and towers. He heard Dudley telling Hermione that Hogwarts has 142 staircases and they soon realised that learning how to navigate Hogwarts wasn't going to be an easy feat. The staircases were awkward, some leading somewhere different on a Friday, some with trick steps half way up which you had to be careful not to put your foot through, some simply decided to move when you were half-way up and lead you to a different location! The portraits kept wandering off from their paintings and visiting friends in other frames so you couldn't really judge your location from them and the suits of armour gave really bad directions, if you could understand them at all through the clanking of their arms as they pointed the way. If you were unlucky enough to run into Peeves when you were late, then he would make sure that you were really late by playing any number of tricks on you.

All that said though, as Harry neared the end of his first week at Hogwarts, he was beginning to find his way to his lessons a little easier. Of course, finding the lessons was simply step one. Actually managing them was another matter altogether.

The first lesson they had had to tackle was Charms. The Professor for this class was a tiny little dark haired professor named Professor Flitwick, who had to stand on his chair to be able to see the class. As he called the register and reached Harry's name, he gave an excited little squeak and toppled off his chair.

History of magic was fairly dull. There was no magic involved, just simply learning the history of the wizarding world. Harry actually found parts very interesting, but the teacher was their only ghost teacher, Professor Binns, and he was very monotonous. Harry saw Dudley excitedly taking notes, fast enough to rival Hermione Granger who was quickly gaining a name as the class brains, but couldn't keep himself listening for the entire lesson.

Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall was a lesson everyone had looked forward too and they weren't disappointed. After a stern talking to at the beginning of the lesson where she warned them of the consequences of any silly behaviour (the long and short of it being 'don't be silly or you're out') she turned her desk into a pig and back and got a round of applause from the class. They spent the first lesson trying to turn a match into a needle and soon discovered just how difficult Transfiguration is. By the end of the lesson Dudley had given his match an 'eye' although it was still wooden, and Hermione had managed to create a pointed tip on hers. They each earned 5 points for Gryffindor for their work and looked very pleased with themselves. Harry's match hadn't changed at all, but Ron had somehow managed to mysteriously light several of his matches which caused a great deal of giggling from the rest of class as Professor McGonagall had shot water from the end of her wand each time to extinguish the flames.

'Don't worry Mr Weasley, you're not the first and you certainly won't be the last.' she told a dripping Ron.

Their first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson, which everyone had been looking forward to, turned out to be a bit of a joke. The classroom Professor Quirrell inhabited stank of garlic, he tripped over his robes no less than three times, and kept twitching every so often. The unpleasant smell of garlic seemed to follow him around the room. The Weasley twins shared their theory that he stuffed his turban full of garlic, to keep away vampires he supposedly met whilst travelling.

On a Wednesday night they had their astronomy class at midnight, where they watched the night sky through their telescopes and learnt all the constellations. It was fascinating to watch the stars and planets through the bewitched telescopes which magnified things to a considerable size. Thankfully they had Thursday morning free so they were able to sleep in a little later though as this class didn't finish until one-thirty in the morning!

Dudley seemed to have resigned himself to the fact that he was sharing a room and on Friday morning before breakfast, he was to be found fully dressed, sitting cross-legged on his bed writing a letter to his parents. Still struggling a little with using a quill, the letter wasn't particularly neat, but he was happy to be writing it all the same. The first week had been such a blur that he hadn't had chance to sit and miss home too much, but perhaps because he was feeling tired after the busy week, or because the weekend was drawing near, he was beginning to miss his home comforts a little. His favourite TV shows were on on a Friday night and his parents would usually treat him to a takeaway over the weekend. Having said that, the food at Hogwarts was fantastic, but it didn't stop him from missing his mums cooking, or the special treats she would buy him. His favourite takeaway was pizza; pepperoni and mushroom to be precise. Just thinking about it made his stomach rumble.

As he wrote to his mother, telling her all about the week so far, he heard Harry stir in the bed next to him.

'Morning Harry.' He whispered as Harry reached out to put his glasses on.

'Mornin'' Harry stifled a yawn.

'I'm writing Mum a letter; do you want to add anything?' Dudley asked, rather innocently.

Harry sat up a bit straighter at this. He hadn't really given much thought to his Aunt since he had arrived at Hogwarts. The hectic schedule, along with learning his way about the immense castle and its grounds hadn't really given him chance. She had made a big effort to be kinder recently though and he felt a little bit guilty as she had given him the writing set specifically to write with.

'I probably should write a letter myself – she bought me the writing set after all.'

Dudley shrugged and went back to his letter as Harry rummaged in his trunk for the writing set Aunt Petunia had bought for him in Diagon Alley.

Dear Aunt Petunia,

My first week at Hogwarts is nearly finished. We have had lots of interesting lessons and made new friends. I was sorted into Gryffindor, the same as Dudley. The castle is really big and we have gotten lost a few times, but are beginning to learn our way to the main places now.

Today we will have our first potions lesson and next week we get to learn to fly.

Harry paused for a moment, not sure on how to sign the letter off. He settled for;

From Harry

The letter was a little short perhaps, but he didn't know what else to include. He would likely only be repeating Dudley as it was.

He sealed the envelope then, putting it to one side, got up and got dressed.

'Do you want to go to the owlery?' Harry whispered to Dudley, trying not to disturb anyone else. Hedwig and Odie slept in the school owlery with the other owls. Food and water was magically put out for all the owls, but Harry and Dudley had visited a couple of times in the week as they missed their feathered friends.

Dudley nodded his assent and they slipped out of the dormitory, letters clutched in hands.

oooooo

As Harry and Dudley entered the Great Hall for breakfast, they spotted Ron sitting at the Gryffindor table and went to join him.

'Where've you two been?' he asked them, eyebrows raised.

'Just to send an owl home,' Dudley responded, reaching out for some scrambled eggs. They had used Odie to deliver the letters, seeing no point in sending two owls to the same place.

At that moment, about a hundred owls flew into the hall; the morning post, an event which has surprised the first years on their first morning, but was becoming the norm now. What was surprising though was that Hedwig was amongst them. Harry had seen her only fifteen minutes earlier.

She landed on the table in front of Harry, just missing the butter dish and dropped a letter from her beak. Ripping the letter open, Harry saw it was from Hagrid. Managing to decipher Hagrid's scrawly handwriting Harry read aloud;

Dear Harry and Dudley,

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

Dudley looked up from the toast he was slathering with marmalade. 'That sounds good – it will be nice to see Hagrid properly – we've not even spoken to him since our first day.'

So Harry took out his quill and responded with a 'Yes please!' on the back on the note. Once Hedwig had finished the piece of toast she had pinched off Harry's plate, she took the note in her beak and flew off.

'So we have potions with Professor Snape this morning. What's he like?' Dudley asked no-one in particular.

'My brothers say he's awful,' Ron responded. 'They say he favours the Slytherins all the time.'

'I guess we'll find out, they are in our class for potions. He can't be that bad can he?' Dudley said as they finished off breakfast, gathered their bags and left for Potions.

Potions was taught in the dungeons. It was cold, dark and damp down there. The classroom was lined with jars filled with questionable substances, and a cauldron bubbled behind Professor Snape's desk. They had to sit in pairs at the work tables and Harry took a seat with Ron, Dudley sat with Hermione.

Professor Snape was a tall man, with greasy black hair which hung in lank curtains about his face. He wore all black robes and seemed to 'swoop' about the room. On his face was etched a permanent frown. He began his lesson by taking the register. When he got to Harry's name he paused, not unlike other teachers had done, but, unlike them, he made a comment. 'Ah yes, Harry Potter. Our new – celebrity'.

Dudley frowned at this - Harry heard Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle, snort with laughter at the back of the room.

The Professor continued with the rest of the register and then looked up to face the class. Everyone was silent. There was an intimidating air about the Professor and nobody dared to speak.

'You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion-making,' he began to speak. '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,'

The class sat in an almost awed silence.

'Potter!' He barked, snapping his head over in Harry's direction. 'What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?'

Harry was alarmed. What?! How could he possibly be expected to know that?

Dudley was watching Harry as he was questioned. He was wearing the same face he wore for the sorting. He responded to Professor Snape that he did not know the answer to his question. The Professor fired another question at him. Dudley did not know the answer to these questions either, although Hermione had a wild-eyed, anxious look in her eyes which indicated that she, in fact, did know the answers. But as much as she wanted to help Harry out, she could see this teacher was not to be crossed and so she kept quiet.

After a third, impossibly difficult question was asked of Harry, Professor Snape did not even await a response, but he merely sneered in Harry's direction as he moved towards the cauldron behind his desk.

"Today we will be making a basic potion to cure boils. The instructions are there,' he waved his wand at the blackboard and instructions appeared there in a thin, slanted hand, 'and you are to work in pairs. Proceed.'

With that, a quiet muttering began in the classroom, as the students began to prepare to make the potion. Ron spoke to Harry "Can you believe that? How were you supposed to know the answer to any of those questions? I didn't know them and I grew up in a magical household! Fred and George were right: he is awful." Harry felt a little better given Ron's indignation.

Harry couldn't understand why Professor Snape had singled him out like that. What had he done that made him be chosen and not one of the other students?

As the class progressed, Harry and Ron's potion was looking the right shade of green that the recipe stated and was simmering nicely. Harry found he actually enjoyed making the potion. It was similar to cooking, which he used to do a lot of for the Dursleys. Generally, as long as you followed the instructions, it should be fine. He was beginning to relax a little when suddenly there was a yell from across the room and small fountain of bright pink liquid shot into the air. Everyone looked over and Professor Snape was there before they knew it. It appeared that Draco Malfoy and Vincent Crabbe's potion had taken a wrong turn. Everyone stopped what they were doing and waited, with bated breath, to see how Professor Snape would react.

"Are you okay Draco?" He asked, briskly. Although Malfoy nodded his head in assent, his face was beginning to sprout little green spots, which proceeded to burst with little "pop"s, then refill.

"Take him to the hospital wing Crabbe." Instructed Snape, as he cleared up the mess with a flick of his wand. "What are you all staring at?" He barked, as he turned to see the rest of the class watching, "get on with your work!"

As the class came to an end and each duo had placed a vial with a sample of their potion on Snape's desk, Ron and Harry were discussing the lesson.

"I really expected Snape to go mad at Malfoy when this potion exploded like that."

"I told you, they say he favours the Slytherins."

"But still, after all of the bother he gave me at the start of the class..."

"Yes that was strange – he seemed to really hate you. Just keep your head down mate. It's only one morning a week."

As 3 o'clock approached Harry and Dudley set off down to see Hagrid. Hagrid lived in a wooden Cabin on the edge of the Forbidden Forest. As Dudley rapped on the door, a great booming bark came from inside. Harry and Dudley stepped back a few paces from the door in alarm as Hagrid swung the door open and the biggest dog they had ever laid eyes on flew out at them.

"Down Fang! Down!" bellowed Hagrid's voice from somewhere behind the titanic dog.

Fang the dog, however was far too excited to meet new people and was too busy slobbering all over Harry and Dudley to listen to his master.

"Down Fang!" Hagrid yelled again, this time reaching out one of his massive hands and grabbing hold of the dog by the collar to pull him back into the hut.

Harry and Dudley followed them into the hut: a small one roomed affair, with a massive bed in the corner over which was draped a patchwork quilt of many different colours and patterns. A large table with 4 equally large chairs around it, had a daisy patterned teapot and cups and saucers laid out on it.

"So, how was yer first week?" Hagrid gestured for them to sit down whilst he poured the tea and offered around some interesting looking cakes which he informed them he had baked himself.

Harry and Dudley regaled him with the events of their first week at Hogwarts whilst Fang slobbered over Dudley's knee. When Harry told Hagrid about Professor Snape's lesson that morning he thought Hagrid was a little evasive about it.

"He just seemed to really single me out Hagrid."

"Happen be you were the first one who's name he spotted, that'll be all Harry. Dunner let it bother yeh."

Hagrid then proceeded to change the subject and ask about the friends they'd made since arriving. Hagrid seemed to know of both Neville and Ron's families and told a few stories about Ron's older brothers which had Harry and Dudley in stitches of laughter.

Before long Harry and Dudley were bidding Hagrid farewell, along with promises to bring their friends to meet him soon. As they got half way back up to the castle, Dudley dropped something, which made a thud on the grass.

"What's that?" asked Harry, bending down to pick it up.

"Oh, it's just…" Dudley trailed off, red faced.

Harry laughed when he saw what it was, and shook his sleeve. Out fell a matching, too hard to eat, rock cake.