Taking one last deep breath of the lingering steam, Dudley twisted the knob over to cold and off. There were alternative reasons to enjoy being up before the rest of the boys. Hot water was one of them. Quiet was another, but one he only preferred because it meant he had the whole bathroom to himself. Although, it was nice on how the shower area was set up. And the beds too. He slide the shower curtain open, gripping at the slight protrusion as he hopped up to the small cubicle changing portion. Three walled off showers in a row with changing areas for privacy.

It was the privacy part he liked. Dudley rubbed his left leg dry and gave a swipe for moisture before putting his weight down on it, slipping on the sock and liner as he did so. After testing his leg, he adjusted the liner and then patted the rest of him dry, dressing quickly.

It wasn't so much a big deal to him anymore, but he very acutely remembered what happened as a little kid. His old friends Piers, Dennis, Gordon, and Malcolm hadn't taken well to his reluctance on picking on the other kids like before. Many were so happy to see him when he returned to school. After summer and leaving early and the car accident. Those old friends took to wrestling him down when the teachers weren't looking and playing their own version of hide and seek with what they stole from him.

At switching primary schools after the aftermath of what happened to Dudley and Harry's burst of accidental magic following, he'd been paranoid to something of the same happening. It was more habit at some point. However, the new school and housing arrangements brought back that paranoia. A hot shower at the end of week one felt excellent to him. As each day went by, routine settling in, the fears weren't as strong.

The rest of the boys in his house were all right. There were all the usual getting to know you questions, mostly aimed toward Dudley, his cousin, and Blaise Zabini. Draco Malfoy, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, and Theodore Nott apparently all knew each other pretty well already. Harry cheerfully fired questions back and joked around with Draco for asking. It was only when Harry bounded in front of the rest chattering on about quidditch for a couple minutes that Draco looked truly annoyed. Probably because he didn't realize Harry had taken lead of the group right away.

"Get back Potter, you're likely to get hexed by even the most incompetent Hufflepuff duffer up there away from the group."

Glancing around to see where he was, Harry grinned. "Heh. Whoops." He'd skipped back over to Dudley and nudged him to whisper. "Someone likes Follow the Leader." Most of the first year faces from their house turned amused behind the Malfoy at the comment.

Draco was like that, swaggering around at the front while the rest of them allowed him. It kept the peace. And despite stepping on toes, his cousin was slowly charming Draco, the other Slytherin boy turning more amused at Harry's frivolous attitude and bubbly spirit. He'd begun prodding Harry with more questions, grey eyes expectant. As if Draco just wanted to see what Dudley's cousin would come up that time.

They'd not really started too much magic for most the classes. Transfiguration and Charms had them working on basics for their magic. Shooting sparks of color and practicing wand movement mostly, relieving Dudley at being able to produce those from his wand on purpose during Charms. Transfiguration with making a match a needle hadn't happened for him, but it hadn't for half of his housemates either. Still, he'd taken to practicing it in a corner of the library that a small bookcase blocked the table from the librarian's sight when she made rounds. Hermione had found him while perusing the shelves yesterday.

"Dudley," she'd said in surprise. And unlike the librarian who kept walking past after seeing him back there, hurried around the shoulder high bookshelf, spotting the match as he'd only had enough time to hide his wand under the table. "Oh! You're working on your transfiguration, aren't you? I earned our house five points for being the first to manage turning the match into the needle. It's really not that difficult once you… Magic isn't allowed in the library."

Her two front teeth nibbled on her bottom lip, then she set her stack of books on the table and sat in the chair beside him, ducking her head down low and whispering tips so quickly it sounded like a steady hiss. It was kind of nice. Better than Harry's assurances that Dudley was a wizard and would get it sometime, just like Harry would at some point. A little frustrating seeing Hermione demonstrate it so well, but blue eyes were riveted, studying her do so to be able to catch every detail of how.

After seeing the match turn decidedly pointy with an eye on the end, improvement, she beamed brightly at him and began asking how his first week at Hogwarts was going. The classes, what he liked, looked forward to learning. For the first time he spoke aloud in his excitement of being there and all the magic he was learning. Being around Hermione's unbridled enthusiasm was catching. His worries felt manageable.

Defense Against the Dark Arts was more learning of what were considered dark creatures than defense maneuvers. The professor, Quirrell, was a nervous type, which left the blond wondering why and fine with this teaching method. Astronomy was fascinating in all the meanings of the stars and charting. If exhausting for the time it needed to take place. History of Magic, well, the book was fascinating and Dudley had always enjoyed history lessons in primary. It was a crashing disappointment at the ghost droning on with no infliction or excitement to his voice. He'd pointed to a couple books to Hermione then, books checked out on the famous people of the magic world. She'd brightened and asked if she could borrow them after him. Herbology was fascinating with all the plants, but it wasn't him but Neville who felt more at ease in a greenhouse. It would have been more enjoyable to share that class with Gryffindor than Ravenclaw.

"We share Potions," she pointed out. "Are you looking forward to that class? I know I am."

It'd been funny to see Hermione's eyes go wide when he said he was and why he was looking forward to the class. Dudley walked back to the dorm area, seeing two other doors open other than his. Blaise barely gave him a look, busy gathering up all his shower items. Draco gave another shout through the door which led to Vincent's room, telling him to get up, before saying morning to Dudley and heading off to use the loo. Chucking his own shower items back in his room, he went around to the door beside his and pounded on it.

There was a sudden scrambling noise from the other side. It didn't take long for the messy black hair to pop through the door and through the top of a shirt. "Hey Dud! I overslept, sorry. You good? I'll be ready in a minute." Tossing the covers back onto his bed and shoving on his trainers, Harry gave a couple swipes across his hair before grabbing his schoolbag. "Did I beat the minute?"

"Did you find it?"

Green eyes blinked. "Find what?"

"Filch's office," Dudley said in a lower voice. With all the other boys up and running around getting ready, they were mostly ignored. The blond rolled his eyes and poked his cousin. Harry shouldn't be looking so stunned at that. "Come on. You went on about how that thing was the first thing you wanted to get your hands on."

"I overslept," Harry repeated. Then he sighed when Dudley didn't seem to be buying it. "I was hoping to have it to surprise you with it. It wasn't there. He had all sorts of confiscated items. Think he chucked it?"

"Could be. Doubt you need it though," Dudley muttered. Harry grinned and waggled his eyebrows. "You do know your mother sent an owl to one of the professors before the school year started, right? The professor could be even more skilled than Aunt Lily catching you at sneaking around."

His cousin pouted. "She did?" He whined. Then brightened. "But Mum doesn't if she's distracted and look at all the other students to distract, which professor was it?"

Dudley shrugged, huffing in amusement at Harry's crestfallen face. They trooped down to the common room, finding Pansy Parkinson and Tracey Davis waiting on one of the couches. There was a moment Pansy perked up at them coming down. Dudley knew from the past week, Pansy would only jump up off the couch once Draco entered the room. Until then, the girl went back to gossiping with Tracey. Daphne Greengrass, smooth blonde hair pinned back on her right side as usual, glanced over for a moment from her book. He inched forward to see what she was reading today and she snapped it shut with a breathy huff.

Harry sniggered from beside him.

"Do you mind?" She didn't even turn her upturned nose toward him. "It is considered rude to be reading over one's shoulder and you have been blocking my light all week."

She spoke to him. He brightened as Daphne finally turned to face him too, irritated.

"Yeah, Dudley's not sneaky at all," Harry pipped in with a wide grin. "It's considered rude not to face a person when you're talking either. So it's not really all my cousin's fault. He doesn't say anyth—"

"Besides the revolt he was responsible for, do you think Elfric the Eager made a worthy difference in easing tensions of money interactions between the goblin race with the wizards in the long run? Or if what he did to reach that goal made it tensions worse, leading to the death of his daughter and the revolt?" Dudley hesitated a little at seeing one of her eyebrows raise up at him. Then defended himself. "I like reading biographies."

"I see. I merely prefer being thorough and spending my time wisely," she responded primly.

Dudley got the feeling this wasn't really the reason why she spent the mornings reading. Maybe it was because she usually didn't speak up or gossip much with the other girls. He would call her not social except her words were observant, cool, and to the point. Poised. And calm in a way he was not. Or it could be she truly was annoyed with the interruption in her moment of extra background reading from the History of Magic class.

"But to answer you," Daphne continued on unexpectedly. "I believe, yes, yes he did make a worthy difference. Despite the hostile response and the death, it opened up passageways and thoughts of improvement which had not been there before with all the truly bloodthirsty rebellions piling up between us and them. One still can't trust them with any certainty after all."

With that, the girl went back to her book. It didn't last long as the rest of the boys stampeded down a couple minutes later, followed shortly with Pansy jumping up to greet Draco. Not long after, Millicent Bulstrode and Sally Smith made their way down, the whole group of first years leaving for breakfast in the Great Hall. And then off to the class that ranked up there in looking forward to, Potions. Dudley knew it was their head of house who was the professor of that class. The same man who had such a visual reaction to Harry's sorting. Very probably, the Slytherin friend Aunt Lily had and Uncle James so disliked. It was sure to go badly in some way that.

Dudley waved at Neville anyway outside the Potions classroom, whose round face lit up as he hurried over to them. "How's your week been Neville? Gryffindor house going all right for you? Bet your gran likes that." Harry snorted, but Neville nodded and looked shy about it. "Hey, being wrong about Hufflepuff is a good thing. We wouldn't have shared classes then."

"How," Neville began uncertainly. "How is Slytherin?"

"They're in Slytherin," Ron accused suddenly.

"Shut up Weasley."

"Don't be ridiculous, there's nothing wrong with—"

"But Slytherins can't be trusted—"

"That's funny." Hermione crossed her arms, scowling. "You were all best mates on the train here."

"Yes and we see just how great a Gryffindor is after, don't we," sneered Draco.

"He is a Weasley." Pansy stepped up beside Draco.

"And he's a Malfoy!"

"I'm a Potter," Harry chimed in loudly and then whooped when the corridor went silent at his proclamation. Dudley patted his cousin on the shoulder, approving. Harry spun about. "Well, I will say Ron's not that great at playing Bullshit, but he's an all right bloke."

Draco goggled, the girls looked shocked, and a few boys giggled. "Playing Bullshit Potter?"

"A card game. Just don't play it near adults because they get all weird when they hear kids swearing even though they do it themselves. Want to play sometime?" Harry gave a disarming grin. "It's fun. Let's do a big group playing it sometime. Everyone invited. It gets old with Dudley and Neville."

Neville shook his head.

"I think Neville and I will sit off to the side to watch." The blond gave Neville a smile, who ducked his head down in amusement. Decidedly not as amused, Harry shot them both a look and spoke up again before they could give away how good he was at the card game.

"How's Saturday night sound for everyone?"

Before there were any takers, a professor clad in black made his way around the corner, longs robes snapping with purpose. It was their head of house for Slytherin. Dark eyes flickered across the group scattering aside for him as he passed, opened the door, and strode inside. Mute, all the students hurried inside.

Hermione hurried to take up the work station beside Dudley, Harry glancing over in confusion at how she leaned toward them. The bushy haired girl motioned for a nervous Neville to set up his cauldron beside her and Dudley sent as reassuring nod as possible over to the boy. What followed was the most rousing, motivating, and terrifying speech over the subject of Potions Dudley had heard in his life. It as though the man took everything his aunt said about the art of potion making, packed it all down into one neat package, and lobbed it at them. It was impressive.

Even Harry was enthralled, quickly taking out his quill to scratch a few notes.

"Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

"Asphodel?" Startled as he was, Dudley could tell Harry was thinking over the question. He ought to get it once he remembered the connection to his mum. Aunt Lily liked to say how something related to the flower she was named after could help grant sleep to the long term patients at St. Mungo's Hospital. Hermione's hand waved wildly in the air, looking both eager and delighted at knowing the answer. "Oh! It's a sleeping potion professor. A powerful one called Draught of the Living Death."

The professor's lip turned up. "Correct. Point to Slytherin. Weasley! Where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"

Startled, strange noises gurgled up from Ron's throat. Hermione's arm flew up into the air again. Professor Snape's dark eyes noticed, twitching at the sight. Dudley got her attention and made a motion to his parchment, miming writing it down. Which she did with the hand she didn't have up in the air.

"Er, I don't know." Baffled, the red headed boy stared up at the man in front of him, then quickly tacked on, "Sir."

"Thought you didn't have to open your book before you came to class? Point from Gryffindor. Longbottom!" Man and black cloak swooped upon the trembling boy sitting next to Hermione. Dudley went stiff, alert. "What is the difference between wolfsbane and monkshood?"

"N-none. It's the same plant," Neville said softly. "Aconite."

Professor Snape gazed down over his hooked nose at Neville before returning to the front of the classroom. "Correct." Dudley shot Neville a thumbs up from where he sat. Harry leaned over him, jabbing his own thumb out. Neville ducked his head, face red, mumbling something about it only being plants. "Well, why aren't you all copying that down?"

The whole classroom rushed for their parchments and quills, the lesson continuing and leading up to being asked to work on a simple cure for boils. Dudley glanced up to double check the steps before he began. Crushing the snakefangs, he turned to his horned slug, rolling them briskly back and forth across the work station table before tossing them in.

Professor Snape paused in stalking among the work stations next to Dudley.

"Why exactly did you roll your horned slugs? I do not believe it is written in the directions Dursley."

The blond peered back across the room and squinted at the board's directions again. Sure enough, there wasn't anything written about rolling the slugs. "Sorry Professor Snape. My aunt is a potioneer and she says rolling them softens them up, helping with the consistency."

"Really?"

"That's a point from Gryffindor for speaking out of turn Granger." The professor's dark eyes didn't move from where Dudley was and Harry shuffled closer beside him. Then Professor Snape glanced to the side, lip curling at Harry's glare, before snapping back to Dudley. Through the curtain of black hair, the man's eyes trailed down him, lingering on his legs. The blond took a step back into his cousin. "I see. This is...unexpected. Continue on."

Professor Snape's robes billowed as he continued around the work stations. Dudley breathed a sigh of relief, going back to his cauldron. Harry suddenly nudged him, fighting a snicker as he pointed. From the work station beside them, Hermione was rolling her own horned slugs. Dudley's eyes went back to their head of house though.

He didn't actually know the man. Here he had been expecting the professor who hated his uncle from back when they were kids. That Harry, who looked more like his dad, would be the one under scrutiny. Aunt Lily had never introduced them to this Slytherin friend from childhood and Dudley had assumed the friendship unraveled due to her being together with James. The man wasn't what he'd expected in class toward Harry and Dudley couldn't say for sure how Potions class in general would go under the man. So he felt unnerved by the attention. All sense of privacy from this morning's shower was gone and the blond moved closer behind the work station, feeling very much exposed.


Author's Note: I figured eleven is an important age for wizards and witches. Why not the chapter? In my own sense with highlighting the left leg that keeps cropping up. Dudley's biggest worry in the background of his mind. At least classes aren't much focused on getting spells correct and everyone seems to be getting along at this point. When did my 'What If' story become something more real? Huh. Ah well. It continues on anyway I suppose. And an update at a super busy time of getting ready for that convention I help staff. It's next weekend. I should have been working on that today, but Hermione breaking rules for magic and friendship just called to me. Thank you to the favorites and follows and to the reviewers Alicia Olivia Mirza, fanHPTH, and lupo6.