Disclaimer: If you know it, it is likely from Philosopher's Stone by JKR and I don't own it.
4 June 2013 - edited and reloaded. Also, I had a note on this chapter about a super long author's note in my profile. It's still there and you are more than welcome to read it. It might explain a few things and clear a few things up, as at this point, you might have questions. Or not.
Lessons
The whispers were annoying. They followed Harry around the corridors like the plague. Draco did not remember Harry getting this much attention the first time around. It might have been due to the fact he wasn't hidden behind ugly glasses and was with Draco instead of the gangly Weasel. Especially after his own father's shouts could be heard coming from the headmaster's office on the first day of classes.
Draco about died of mortification. He waited for his father to swoop into one of his classes that first day and drag him bodily from school, but it never happened.
Harry attempted to make himself as small as possible and hid his scar behind his fringe, but everyone simply knew where Harry was, when he was coming and decided to stare, point and whisper. It even happened when Draco wasn't with Harry, as Harry tended to get lost.
Draco thought Harry would manage to stick with him, but every now and then, Draco would turn around and Harry would be missing. Harry would later turn up, scowling and looking bad tempered, followed by a flock of people who were standing on tiptoes and pushing each other over to get a glimpse of the famous Harry Potter.
"When will it end?" Harry moaned the first morning, trailing Draco in an attempt to hide behind the taller Draco while Draco had his eyes peeled for his father's head.
"Once they get over themselves," Draco said, waiting as the moving staircase was shifting around.
Harry was torn between his need to fade away and his awe of Hogwarts itself. To distract the boys the first morning, Hermione had rattled off factoids in a constant stream. Draco had never known the number of staircases (there were a hundred and forty two), but had been able to add a few things that Hogwarts: A History chose to leave out, like the stairs that lead somewhere different on Fridays. Harry found out about the staircase with the vanishing stair the hard way, as he fell through it on the way to breakfast on the second morning.
Peeves also took much joy in the appearance of Harry, singing horrid songs and dropping things on Harry's head. Draco hated Peeves. He was pointless, as far as Draco could tell. For the life of him, he failed to see why Hogwarts allowed the poltergeist to remain. Another Hogwarts resident Draco had not missed all that much was Argus Filch and his cat Mrs. Norris. Harry ran into the pair on his first morning during one of his Lost periods. Harry decided to try to get through a door on the third floor, the same one Dumbledore had warned the school about. Filch thought Harry was trying to break in and get whatever was hidden in there. He refused to believe that Harry was lost till Professor Flitwick showed up and took Harry off to Charms, where he was supposed to be at the moment.
"You are hopeless," Draco muttered to Harry after class was over. "I can't leave you alone. Come along, Potter."
Hermione was horrified the Ravenclaws hardly had any classes with the Gryffindors.
"We only have Charms together!" she cried, horrified as they left their first Charm class. She whirled around and got lost in the crowd.
"Am I ever going to know my way around?" Harry moaned as Draco and Harry left Charms to head to Transfiguration.
"Yes. Someday you'll know more about the castle then most seventh years," Draco offered.
Harry snorted.
While Professor Flitwick was a good humor, laid back individual, McGonagall was serious. She announced on the first day her subject matter was hard and was not to be taken lightly. Diving right into the material, Harry paled and blanched as he stared at the complicated notes appearing on the board. He took furious notes, eyeing Draco, who wasn't taking detailed notes. He had done this before. Draco knew he needed to be careful to keep the guise of an eleven-year-old, but his head wasn't on the subject matter in the least. His mind kept drifting to the strange letter he'd gotten. By the point in the day Draco reached Transfiguration, he knew his father wasn't going to pull him out of school, so he was relaxing a little. He hoped his mother would write in the morning and tell him what had happened. He was dead curious to know what the Headmaster had said to his father.
Draco's concentration was so off, he failed to make much of a difference in his match that he was supposed to be turning it into a needle. By the end of his first Transfiguration lesson his match was silver, but had no pointy ends.
He should be able to turn a match into a needle.
It wasn't till his third day at Hogwarts, Draco really got to work decoding The Letter. That morning, he'd received a letter from his mother. His mother had explained the Headmaster stubbornly refused to resort Draco, reminding his father he ought to be proud of the son he had, not the one he thought he ought to have.
Sounded like Dumbledore.
History of Magic was two full hours of nothingness. Perfect time to decode The Letter. Taking advantage of the half sleeping class, Draco pulled The Letter out from his bag. He went straight to the bullet points.
Having no idea what exactly Potter had been looking for in the Room of Requirement, Draco was glad Atlanta the First found it. While Draco knew the Dark Lord wanted whatever it was and that is was VERY important to the Dark Lord, Draco had been too scared for his own life to pay any attention to what Potter was risking his life for. The fire and flying through the air kind of distracted Draco.
And now, he didn't need to worry.
Point two he didn't care too much about. He'd find out about the spells when they came up in class, or when he needed them.
He skipped point three as he couldn't think of anyone who had been dead before that was alive now. Everyone Draco knew to be dead was still dead. Everyone Draco knew to be alive still, was still kicking.
Draco hated point four. He was a bit perturbed he'd have to stick to the timeline. He didn't understand. The whole point in traveling back through time was to change things. And her advice to not try to change fixed points, yet not telling him how to know something was fixed? Useless. Grumbling, he quickly moved onto figuring out who the hell Padfoot was.
While Professor Binn, resident ghost professor, waxed on in a stale tone about something dusty and musty, Draco stared blankly into space. He wanted his guess to be right. Fifteen minutes of thinking, Draco wrote down,
Padfoot = Sirius Black.
It made sense. Black turned into a great, big shaggy black dog. Sirius Black was also in jail. Padfoot struck him as a name you'd give a huge dog, so he felt he was safe in his guess. Draco was also sure Padfoot was the word Potter had shouted at Snape fifth year before running off the Ministry. It'd make sense that Potter would be hell bent on saving Black if he was where it was hidden, whatever it exactly was to Potter.
Draco knew it was a prophecy, as he'd heard the Dark Lord bring it up a few times after his Father had "lost" this prophecy to Potter.
Figure out what the prophecy is between P and V.
Draco needed better nicknames for Potter and the Dark Lord.
Scratching out the letters he'd written, he tried again. All his nicknames for Potter were easy to figure out and horrible. Biting on the end of his quill he gave up after a moment and decided to pick out a name of whatever Binns was waffling about.
It was tragic that Binns was droning on about Uric the Oddball.
Figure out the prophecy between Moldy and Oddball.
Going back to the letter, he stared at point five. He had no clue who (or what) Tom was. The only Tom Draco knew of was the barkeeper at the Leaky Cauldron. It was highly unlikely that was whom Atlanta the First was talking about.
If Draco was honest with himself, he didn't five a flying hippogriff about Tom. The only thing in point five that interested him was the fact whoever Moony happened to be knew where her flat was located. Only, he wasn't sure who Moony was.
Research where ATF lived and where The Flat is located.
As he wrote that he realized who Moony was. Remus Lupin was a werewolf. He added a point to write to Lupin. Though, what would he said?
Dear Lupin,
I'm a time traveler and I knew the version of Atlanta Black you knew when you were seventeen. Could you please tell me where her flat is so I can figure out why she felt the need to tell me about the Tom thing?
Regretfully still looking like an eleven-year-old,
Draco.
Draco held in a snort. Sure, that was going to work. No, he'd figure it out himself and not ask Lupin. Like Lupin would tell him. Draco knew Lupin disliked him, even more so this time around as he'd put up with Draco more often. He had actually taught child Draco for the past three years. And Draco had been a spoiled brat the entire time.
He didn't put much thought into points six and seven. Luna Lovegood was a year younger than him and not at school yet. Even without mentioning his time traveler status, he was sure if he did need help, Hermione was his best bet. Lovegood was two knuts short of a sickle.
Draco would honor her request and let Atlanta figure out who her birth parents were on her own. He wasn't aware how she had found out last time around. By the time she'd found out, they weren't close. Draco knew she'd found out only because he happened to run into her in Diagon alley before he started his fifth year and she'd casually dropped the bomb she'd met her real father. He was busy being the biggest ares alive and didn't give a damn. Then, later when the news went public, he doubly didn't care because she was the spawn of two werewolves.
Point eight. Batman.
Who is Batman?
He had no idea. Snape kind of resembled a bat, or people claimed he was like an overgrown bat. Draco didn't see it. Could ATF be referring to Snape?
How did she get wrapped up with everyone? From how his mother talked, Atlanta the First was always around Regulus, a Slytherin. She evidently knew Snape too, but she also seemed to be on very good terms with Sirius Black and Lupin. Draco assumed that neither Black or Lupin liked Snape, if Darco's assumptions about Snape and James Potter were right.
Draco put his head in his hands. He was assuming way too much. Raking this fingers through his hair he rolled his head on his neck a moment before tacking the last point.
It made him sick, but he really wanted to know how she'd met her end. She'd clearly planned it out if she'd given the letter to Dumbledore. And why give it to Dumbledore? Why not leave it with Lupin if they were so close he knew where she lived? Batman didn't know where she lived, nor did Padfoot. And she never once mentioned Regulus.
Unless Regulus' nickname was Tom. Regulus was dead, so he could be a ghost. Or whatever Tom was.
No. That made no sense. Tom was from a potion accident and a sketchbook.
"What were you doing all period?" Harry asked as they headed to lunch.
"Plotting," Draco answered.
"Plotting what? World domination?" Harry asked, mirth in his tone.
Draco snorted. "Yes. I plan to take over the world with a ghost like being named Tom as my brains and Moony, Padfoot and Batman as my minions."
"Batman? The Cape Crusader?"
"You know Batman?"
Harry blinked at Draco as if Draco was the slow one.
"He's a comic book hero," Harry said. "What's my role?"
"Gate keeper," Draco said without thinking. He'd ask later what a comic book was. Batman, Cape Crusader didn't sound much like a funny character's name.
"Gate keeper?" Harry asked, sounding incredulous.
"Yes. You will keep the gate nice and shiny," Draco offered as they entered the Great Hall.
Harry gave Draco a look as Draco laughed, throwing his head back. Harry took this moment to snatch the bit of parchment Draco had been writing on. Draco stopped laughing, trying to get it back from Harry, but Harry darted around Draco, actually managing to use his diminutive height to his advantage to get away. By the time Draco caught up, Harry had read it.
"Why would you make up nicknames for Sirius Black and Remus Lupin? Isn't that the name of Atlanta's tutor?" Harry asked as Draco slumped into his seat next to Harry.
"Yes. I like codes and stuff," Draco offered lamely. "I was bored. So, I made up names."
"Oh? So who would Moldy and Oddball refer to?"
Draco felt his cheeks flush a bit and hurried to put food onto his plate. Harry waited for a moment before sighing and handing the parchment back to Draco. He didn't mention the parchment again and began to talk about how he thought having a ghost as a professor would have been much cool than it was in reality.
Draco searched high and low for the book Atlanta the First had mentioned in her letter on time travel, but failed to find it. He decided it must be in the Restricted Section. No professor was going to let an eleven-year-old first year into the Restricted section. He'd wait till next year. Gilderoy Lockhart would sign anything.
By the time Friday rolled around, the only progress Draco had made was that finding out an AD Black owned properties in Glasgow and somewhere near a Loch Monaghan in Pitlochry, Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Both properties made his head swim and try as he might, he was never able to locate either location on a map. While Draco knew he knew where Glasgow was located, every time he looked at a map to see where AD Black might have lived (even if he had no idea where to begin) he suddenly found himself needing to do something else. Or he simply forgot why he was looking at a map of Scotland.
It happened at least seventeen times before Draco gave up.
"You look frustrated," Harry offered on Friday morning. It was the first morning Harry had managed to arrive in the Great Hall on time. Draco got up too early for Harry, hence why Harry had spent most mornings either starving and lost, or starving because he'd shown up too late to eat.
"I am. Remember that odd parchment?" Harry nodded slowly before Draco went on, "Well, I've made progress with some of things. But, I need to know where this— this flat is. I can't figure out because every time I try, I forget what I'm doing or I remember something else pressing. I think it's charmed to be forgettable."
Harry's face lit up. "Magic can do that?"
Draco gave Harry an incredulousness look. "I keep forgetting you're new here. Of course it can. It's magic. Hermione will happily explain the charm if I ever figure out what it is. It seems to work how Muggle repellent charms work on Muggles. I don't know of one that acts that way on wizards."
"If I find what? What charm are you talking about?" Hermione asked, sitting down in the open spot across from the boys, arriving for her morning social time with the pair. From her expression as she glanced at Harry, she was pleased he had actually arrived in a timely manner for the first time.
"A charm that keeps things hidden. Like houses," Harry offered. "Draco's trying to find a mysterious flat."
"Oh! I've heard of those!" Hermione exclaimed, her brown eyes lighting up. "I read a book recently where a spell like that was listed. I can't remember— oh! The Fidelius Charm! You need a Secret Keeper for that. A Secret Keeper is a person who the secret is hidden inside of. They are very complicated. But they'd hide whatever you wanted hidden. No one could find it."
"This is different. I have a rough idea, as I know for a fact I read it, but when I go to look at a map, I suddenly forgot what I'm doing, or suddenly I'm doing something else. It's weird and not, well, normal. I've never heard of a charm like that other than the Muggle Repellent charm. And that doesn't work on wizards."
Hermione, eyes still overly bright, jumped up and without another word, hurried out of the Great Hall.
Harry looked baffled, turning to Draco to explain their friend's bizarre behavior. Draco rolled his eyes, pulling out his parchment.
"She usually leaves without saying goodbye," Draco said. "She's more than likely going to research applications of Muggle Repellent charms before her first class. To see if they can be applied to wizards."
Harry cringed. Draco, meanwhile, wrote:
Moony Secret Keeper?
It made sense. She said Moony knew where the flat was located. What still did not make sense was his reaction when he looked at Glasgow on a map.
Draco shoved the parchment into his book and began to eat. As he was busy shoving porridge into his mouth, the morning post showed up. The first day this had happened, Harry had jolted so bad, he slopped his breakfast down his front. Draco assumed the barrage of a hundred or so owls was a sight to see. This morning, for the first time, Draco spotted Hedwig, Harry's snowy white owl. The owl sat down in front of Harry, sticking her leg out and looking somewhat smug about her first school delivery. Harry took the note and tore it open. As he read, a small smile painted his face.
"Hagrid wants me to visit. Wanna come with me?" Harry asked, pulling a quill out of his bag. He jotted down an answer.
Draco didn't really want to go, but agreed. He knew he'd have to deal with the half giant, as it didn't look as if Harry was going to give up on the man who'd told him he was a wizard.
