The next morning Harry awoke in his sweat-stained bed to the sounds of loud snoring filling the room. Sparing a glance over at the sleeping Ron, he wondered how anyone could possibly make such noises in their sleep. Deciding he wasn't likely going to be able to get any more sleep he decided to get washed up, remake his bed, and head down to the common room, to maybe do some reading before breakfast.
When he finally did get down to the common room he was amused to see that it wasn't empty as he had expected, because Hermione was sprawled out on a large sofa in front of the fire, with numerous books lying all around her, and Crookshanks playing with a ball of yarn in front of her.
"Hey, Hermione. Let me guess, you couldn't figure out which book to focus on so you decided to read them all?" Harry said as he slouched down onto the couch beside her.
Hermione just smiled at the voice of her best friend, though her eyes never left the text in front of her. "Good morning to you too Harry. And how could I? There's so much to learn, I just can't decide which subject deserves the most of my attention."
"Yeah" responded Harry. "It's a good thing we had lessons before we came here, so we're prepared for just about anything. I'm just looking forward to being able to continue learning magic, especially how to do it the 'proper way' as the parents always say."
Hermione just grinned at her friend, who although could perform any spell effortlessly, struggled to grasp the notions of incantations and correct wand movements, choosing instead to perform the spell either wandlessly or silently.
"Yeah well, not all of us mere mortals can be like the great Harry Potter. Forgive us for our insistence in having to follow the rules of magic, not all of us are exempt from it."
Harry just snorted at his friend's sarcasm, causing Hermione to burst out in a fit of giggles.
"Hermione Granger, giggling! I'd never thought I'd see the day!" exclaimed a voice from behind the pair.
"Good morning to you too Susan, and may I say I'm as surprised as you are. Perhaps our resident bookworm here spent too many hours reading and not enough sleeping."
Hermione just stuck her tongue out at Harry, a gesture that only confirmed his observation.
"How about you make yourself useful and go wake Neville, then we can head down to breakfast early so we can call the family after we've eaten. I hope you don't mind but I sent a letter to my Aunt last night with Hedwig, letting them know that they should expect a call from us in the morning as I'm sure they're dying to know how the sorting went."
"Wait, when did you have time last night to visit Hedwig in the Owlery?" said Harry, looking at her confused.
Susan just grinned as she made a show of closing up a few of Hermione's books so she had a place to sit down on the couch, forcing a disgruntled Hermione to make room to accommodate her. It was nothing new really, almost a routine between the two, as Hermione was always leaving books all over their room back at the Manor.
"I didn't, I just started writing the letter and then next thing I knew Hedwig was standing on the ledge outside our window," said Susan proudly.
"Yea the only problem is that you left the window open for so long you turned our room into a freezer," said Hermione, still not looking up from her History of Magic textbook.
"Whatever, the point is Hedwig's a lot smarter than you think. It's almost like she can communicate with us," said Susan.
"I knew that," defended Harry. "I was just under the illusion that I was the only one who could speak with her."
"Wait you can speak with her," said Hermione, suddenly becoming more interested in this topic as she closed up her textbook, and pulled herself up to sit properly on the couch.
"Yeah! It's weird, sometimes I get little flashes of what she's feeling or where she is, but other than that I can ask her stuff and she'll answer me," supplied Harry with a casual shrug of his shoulders.
"Sounds like a familiar bond," said Susan, "though that wouldn't explain how she knew I was intending to deliver a letter."
"Wait what's a familiar bond?" questioned Hermione, eager to learn something she didn't know.
"It's a kind of bond between a wizard and their pet. They're pretty rare but they can be darn useful," said Susan. "I used to have one with this old Doberman that my family had, but it passed away when I was only six years old."
"I wonder if I could have one with Crookshanks?" speculated Hermione, looking down at the large ginger monster in front of her.
"Who knows, but I'd be willing to bet that it's more likely than Neville having one with Trevor," joked Harry.
Susan just rolled her eyes and shooed him off to go wake their other friend, while Hermione attempted to play with her cat.
"Aright, but I'm warning you," said Harry, pulling himself up off the couch as slowly as humanly possible. "With the snores coming from the first year dorm, opening that door will most likely wake everyone in the boy's quarters."
"Oh please," said Susan dramatically, "boys can sleep through explosions, I highly doubt a little snoring could wake you guys up."
"That was one time," said Harry in frustration, knowing that his friend was referring to the events of Halloween, 1981. "I was a baby for Merlin's sake, will you give that a rest or am I going to have to live with that for the rest of my life."
At this all three friends burst into laughter at their antics, before Harry clambered up the stairs to wake up Neville, leaving behind Hermione and Susan to busy themselves tossing the ball of yarn for Crookshanks to jump and claw at.
After a quick breakfast of sausages, toast, and eggs, the four friends hurried back to their dormitories to grab the magic mirrors the Marauders had given each of them, before racing off to find an empty classroom to call their family in private.
Attaching the four mirrors together as the Marauders had shown them, they were able to make one large mirror where all four of them could look through easily. Hermione then proceeded to place a temporary sticking charm on the back of the mirror so that she could attach it to the wall, while the other three pulled up chairs so they could sit down for what was sure to be a long conversation.
The faces of the Potters, Longbottoms, Grangers, Amelia, Sirius, and Remus jumped up on the screen almost immediately as if they were already crowding around their mirrors just waiting for the call.
"So how did it go?" asked an anxious Emma Granger.
"You didn't have too much trouble on the train, I hope" asked Lily.
"Who cares about the train, how did the sorting go? Are we looking at Gryffindor's finest, or did one of the other houses steal the pride of this year's draft class," joked James.
"Now kids you know we'd be proud of you wherever you ended up, we're just glad that you're still together," responded Alice.
"Enough about that, how many rules have you broken yet?" asked Sirius.
"Yes, I do hope none of you have earned a detention with McGonagall yet," chastised Lily., as Sirius made a show of putting his hands together and praying behind her back.
Harry just hung his head at this last comment as Susan tried her best to hide her giggles at her friend's situation.
"Um... I might have got a detention from McGonagall for turning Draco Malfoy into an Ostrich on the train."
There was a brief silence on the other end of the mirror before James and Sirius burst out laughing and exchanged a high-five and a loud whoop of pride, with Remus failing to conceal a small smile of approval.
"He broke the record old Jamesie boy! Detention before he even got sorted! I'm so proud," exclaimed Sirius.
James, Clarissa, and Remus just laughed at this, while Lily tried to reign in control of the situation.
"Harry we told you that you have to control yourself."
"I know mum, but everyone kept coming into our compartment uninvited, and all they cared about was making friends with the famous boy-who-lived. Malfoy even expected me to shake his hand after he insulted my friends. I had to put a stop to it somehow, and they weren't taking any hints when we asked them to leave."
"Well, I hope you should understand that you can't just go around transfiguring kids into animals, even if I do agree that it was right for you to stand up for yourself and your friends."
"It won't happen again mum, I promise," said Harry, who had his fingers crossed behind his back. It seemed to work on his mother as she looked appeased, but from the grins on the Marauders faces, they knew that wasn't a promise Harry would be keeping.
"Okay now can you tell us which house you guys got sorted in, we're dying to know over here," said Alice.
Neville just grinned at this before answering, "You're looking at the 4 newest members of the house of lions."
There were loud whoops of joy, congratulations and several "we're so proud of you", coming from each of the adults as the kids just laughed before describing what the hat had said to them when they were on the stool.
It didn't really surprise anyone when Susan described that for her, it was between Hufflepuff and Gryffindor, as they had assumed as much given her attitude and family lineage. In the end, her unwavering devotion to her friends proved that her loyalty was only reserved for those who earned it and that she had what it takes to stand tall in the line of fire. Thereby allowing Gryffindor to win out over Hufflepuff.
Neville explained his shock when the hat had said that it was prepared to place him in Gryffindor almost as soon as it came in contact with him and that he actually had a conversation with it asking why that was, as he was apparently expecting Hufflepuff.
To no one's surprise, Hermione admitted that the hat deliberated between sorting her into Ravenclaw or Gryffindor, as her love of knowledge was only too well known throughout the family. Apparently, her courage and determination to stand up for what was right, outmatched her intelligence and drive to learn, earning her a spot in the house of lions.
What did come as quite a shocker for the family was when Harry said that the hat had tried to convince him that Slytherin was the house best suited for him. He described the hat's claim that 'Slytherin would help him on the way to greatness', but also said that once he took into account that he had no desire to stand above everyone else, the hat had no choice but to put him in Gryffindor. This was something that greatly pleased the family, as Harry had chosen his friends over the promise of power. It was just another reminder that even though Harry might have suffered a side effect of Voldemort's killing curse that Halloween, he was still the Harry Potter they knew and loved.
After the parents had explained a little about what had happened back at home, Harry took the opportunity to talk about the pain he had felt in his scar that he got from when he locked eyes with Professor Snape.
This had the instantaneous result of turning James, Amelia, Remus and Sirius's faces of joy into one's of sheer anger, whereas Lily, and the Longbottoms now wore looks of concern and worry. They quickly explained to the confused Grangers that Snape had attempted to invade Harry's mind, an act that was illegal to use on a student without permission.
When Amelia offered that she could present a case against Severus, if the kids could gather more evidence against the man, Harry was quick to put an end to the ugly conversation choosing instead to give the man the benefit of the doubt given the history between him and Harry's family. He didn't tell them that he also wasn't fully convinced it had been Snape given Professor Quirrell's reaction from being evicted out of his mind. Besides, if anything he wanted the pleasure in confronting the man himself.
This seemed to please Lily, but it was easy to tell from the looks of disgust on James and Sirius's faces that they didn't agree with the decision.
After that, the conversation quickly turned to a more pleasant one, with the kids describing what they were supposed to learn in their lessons, their course schedule and what living in the castle was like.
When they explained they were having difficulty finding their way through the castle, the parents just grinned at the children and told them, "that's part of the fun of Hogwarts", exploring its secrets. They did however tell the children the way to get to both the Great Hall and the Library from the Gryffindor Common Room, but remained firm that if they wanted to know about the numerous secret passages of the school they would either have to recover the Marauder's Map or explore the castle themselves, because they weren't about to disclose such information and ruin any of the kids fun.
The conversation carried on for another 30 minutes or so with the parents telling them stories of each of the Professors during their time at Hogwarts before the kids had to get ready for a meeting with the Headmaster.
After saying goodbye and promising to call again after their first day of classes the group of four headed off to find their way to the gargoyle that marked the entrance of Dumbledore's office.
After discovering that they were completely lost 20 minutes later, the group had the good fortune to bump into Professor Flitwick who agreed to lead them to the Headmaster's office, saying that it was quite easy to get lost in the castle if you didn't know your way. This of course just furthered Harry's resolve to find the map, and maybe take a few strolls in his father's invisibility cloak to better familiarize himself with his new home.
After a rather short meeting where the Headmaster asked them a few questions about their family and how they found living at the castle so far, the group of 4 headed down to the Great Hall for lunch, but not before Harry told the Headmaster about the pain he felt in his scar at the opening feast. He didn't seem to be bothered by it, only promising to have a word with Severus on the matter, but when Harry confided that him raising his Occlumency shields had gotten a reaction out of Quirrell too, that quickly changed. The old man's eyes seemed to stop twinkling at this revelation, and a momentary flash of fear crossed his face before the color quickly returned and he resumed his rather jovial look. However, if the kids had paid more attention they would have noticed neither the Headmaster nor the Head of Slytherin chose to attend lunch that day. Instead, the two fretted over the security regarding the artifact that was currently hidden away on the third floor and the mystery behind Quirrell's strange behavior.
The next day at dinner was the first day where the owl post would be delivered to the students during the year. None of the four were expecting to receive a delivery, as they had just spoken to the family the day before, but that didn't stop Hedwig from making an appearance.
"Hey girl, what you got there?" said Harry, as he moved to untie the letter from his familiars' outstretched leg, while Susan and Hermione busied themselves feeding the snowy owl bits of their breakfast.
"What does the letter say Harry?" asked Neville, leaning over so that he could read it too.
Harry opened the note to reveal a scratchy written letter written by Hagrid asking them to come to tea the following afternoon.
Smiling at the chance to make acquaintance with the man his parents spoke so highly of, he scribbled down a quick affirmative reply, before attaching the letter to the owl's legs, and informing his friends of their plans for the next day.
"Harry! It's great to see you again!" boomed the giant man as he took in the sight of the 4 kids at his door. "Couldn't believe my eyes when I saw you at the sorting. You've certainly grown since the last time I saw ya! You look more and more like your father every day. Well, except for your eyes. You've got your mother's eyes. Your parents are great people Harry, two of the very few friends I had at Hogwarts when I first started working here, it shook me up something awful when Dumbledore informed me of the attack in Godric's Hollow that Halloween."
The kids just exchanged uncomfortable glances. They were hoping to talk about more cheerful things during their visit, maybe even try some of the gamekeepers cooking that Frank and Alice had raved about.
"Uh, Hagrid… I don't mean to be rude, but can we talk about something else. I'm still not really comfortable on that topic," said Harry, eyeing the big black dog that was drooling over a steak in the corner of the room.
"Of course, of course. Are you going to introduce me to your friends? I recognise Neville over here, looks just like his parents, he does. But who are these fine young ladies you have with you?"
Hermione tried to put her head down to hide her blush, but Harry was not about to pass up such a glorious opportunity to tease his friends.
Bowing to each of the girls, Harry made a big show of introducing them to Hagrid, knowing that Neville would play along.
"That would be the lovely Ms Susan Bones and Ms Hermione Granger. Neville and I have been ever so fortunate as to have not scared them off yet."
Never one to miss a beat, Neville piped in with his own two cents on the matter. "Personally I think they'll come to their senses eventually and leave us in the dust, but for the time being they seem content with our company."
Susan just smacked Harry on the arm, as Hermione rolled her eyes at the boys and apologised to Hagrid about their immature behaviour, with the half-giant smiling and standing back to welcome them into his home.
Inside they had a pleasant conversation that lasted for over an hour, even complimenting the man on his less-then-edible rock cakes. They should've known the parents had been pulling their legs about Hagrid's cooking skills, but they had foolishly made the mistake that because it was Frank, and Alice describing them, and not someone like Sirius, that they had been telling the truth.
As Hagrid was busy assuring Neville that Professor Snape meant no harm, Harry took the opportunity to let his eyes wander around his new friends home.
If he was being honest with himself, there really wasn't much of it, but what he could see was both well used, and well-taken care for. In fact, just about everything in the hut looked like Hagrid had taken the time to make it himself.
The bed was custom made out of tree branches for the frame, and layers of animal pelt for blankets, while the table, chairs, desk, and drawers were all carved out of wood that had most likely come from the Forbidden forest.
There were a few pictures hanging around the hut, most of them of Hagrid with some crazy animal or former student at the school. What amazed him was the fact that there didn't seem to be a single book in the place, but then again, Hagrid didn't strike him as much of a scholar. It seemed that the only written thing in the whole hut was a small little newspaper cut out that lay on top of the desk on the far wall.
Seeing that his friends were still discussing animatedly with Hagrid about their new Professors, Harry walked over to look at the article. He didn't expect it to be much, but his eyebrows practically disappeared into his hairline when he first laid eyes on it.
It was a newspaper cut out from the Daily Prophet, dated August 8th and it read,
GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST
Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on July 31st, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown.
Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.
'But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you,' said a Gringotts' spokes goblin this afternoon.
"Guys it says here there was a break-in at Gringotts the day we were at Diagon Alley!" exclaimed Harry, missing the look of alarm that crossed Hagrid's face.
"Really?" asked Hermione, "What did they take?"
"Nothing, apparently the vault was emptied earlier that day," said Harry.
"Aye, good thing Dumbledore sent me when he did, could have been a lot worse," whispered Hagrid under his breath, before he even realised what he had said.
Four heads whipped around to question the friendly giant, but Hagrid refused to answer any of the questions the kids directed at him as to the contents of the vault, only saying that it didn't concern them, and was something for the grown-ups to worry about.
"But how could someone break into Gringotts? It's the safest place on earth," asked Neville.
Hagrid just grumbled at this, but because of his size and the loudness of his voice it was easy to make out his response of, "Hogwarts is safer."
After another ten minutes or so of pestering the gamekeeper for information, it didn't seem that Hagrid was up to asking any more questions the group had for him, and so after saying goodbye and thank-you for the tea and rock cakes, the four friends headed back up to the castle.
"So what do you guys think that was all about?" asked Susan.
"I don't know, but I'm betting whatever was in that vault is now in Hogwarts. If Hagrid was the one to move it, and he says the only place safer then Gringotts is Hogwarts, then it only makes sense that he brought it here. Especially if you factor in that he only did it on Dumbledore's orders," said Harry.
"I bet that's why the 3rd-floor corridor is forbidden this year!" exclaimed Hermione.
"Yeah, but who could these Dark Wizards or Witches unknown be?" asked Neville. "We haven't heard anything about escaped death eaters or anything. They'd have to be pretty strong to be able to break into Gringotts and not get caught."
"You don't think it was Voldemort do you?" said Hermione nervously.
Harry shook his head. "No, if he was in the Alley that day, I'm sure he would've tried to attack me or something. It was probably someone like Malfoy Sr. that got never got chucked in jail after the last war."
No one in the group seemed to have an answer for this so they simply headed off to the Great Hall to get some food, before going back to the common room to enjoy their last day of no classes.
The next few days were extremely draining on the young students, as they had to cope with the beginning of classes and the unwanted attention surrounding them.
While they had been looking forward to the start of term tremendously, they were once again disappointed to have their hopes dashed.
It wasn't that the teachers were bad or anything, it was just a little frustrating to have to learn something that they already knew. On top of that, they were assigned homework in just about all their classes. The worst part, however, was that classes only presented the perfect opportunity for Harry Potter fanfare to manifest.
As the first year Gryffindor schedule became public knowledge to the rest of the school, students began to follow them along the castle, desperate to get the latest scoop on Harry Potter and his three best friends.
It got to the point where it was so bad that Hermione could only study peacefully in the deepest corners of the library, because anywhere else she was bothered by girls who would either berate her with questions about Harry Potter or would make snide remarks about how she wasn't good enough to be around him all the time. It wasn't much better with the boys of the school either as they frequently made fun of her looks or her intelligence.
Although they didn't have it as bad as Hermione, it was no walk in the park for the other three kids either. Harry couldn't seem to go anywhere without having a posy of unwanted students following him around pretending to be his best friends. It got so frustrating that he tended to spend any spare time he had in his trunk or dawning his invisibility cloak whenever he had to wander the castle.
Susan seemed to get off the easiest out of the group, but whether people were leaving her alone because of her aunt or because they just didn't care for her, she wouldn't know, and quite frankly she didn't care, she was just annoyed at the waves of students who frolicked around Harry, and were the cause of the growing distance between the 4 kids.
It seemed there was no escaping it, even in classes they were berated by their fellow students, as everyone seemed to be in some sort of competition to be Harry Potter's best friend. More than once she had felt the urge to hex Ron Weasley, who seemed the most determined to become Harry's best friend. The idiot would rant to anyone who would listen about some ridiculous made up tale about how close the two were. Just the thought of these types of people wanting to make friends only to steal a part of Harry's fame irked her sense of loyalty to no end. She really didn't care for the youngest Weasley and promised herself that she wouldn't let him or anyone else ruin her friendship with the others.
There were literally races in the mornings to get the extra seat beside Harry in the Great Hall. It was bloody ridiculous.
In class Harry tried his best to draw limited attention to himself, choosing not to speak up to answer questions unless directly asked, and to never be the first to perform any spell, choosing instead to help his friends if they had any problems. This of course only gave students like Ron Weasley the impression that people like Neville Longbottom were holding Harry back, and only earned Neville the reputation of being a squib.
They tried their best not to let it bother them, but it was obvious it was driving a wedge between the tightly knitted group.
The parents themselves were starting to get really worried, as they listened to their children describe the treatment they were receiving from their fellow students, but no amount of pressure from McGonagall seemed to be able to sway the student body from their treatment towards Harry Potter and his friends.
Sadly, with little they could do to help the kids, the parents were left to watch them retreat into themselves, as old insecurities that had previously been quashed, reared their ugly heads.
Susan went from the fun easy-going girl who loved to laugh and play, into the quiet nervous girl who refrained from speaking out.
Neville was the same. He transformed from a confident, well-mannered and polite boy into a shy little boy who completely lacked confidence, and let people walk all over him, instead of standing up for himself like he used to.
Harry, of course, blamed himself for all of this. Where he was once the reserved but unquestioned leader of the group, now it seemed as if he was distancing himself away from the other three as an attempt to spare them the attention that they received whenever they were with him. He never realised that this attention just turned hurtful whenever he wasn't around.
Perhaps the biggest change, however, was in Hermione. Where she once was the calm, relaxed girl who was comfortable with who she was, now she was a very insecure girl who was scared of her peers. She had completely reversed the transformation she had undergone when she first made friends with Harry and Neville and was now back to the little shy insecure girl who was bullied in school for speaking out. In an attempt to prove herself Hermione chose to speak out more and answer as many questions as possible in class, but this didn't help her social standing at all as it only made her come off as a bossy know-it-all.
It seemed that no matter what the group tried the treatment towards them only got worse, as the 4 friends actually distanced themselves away from each other, to spare themselves of further ridicule.
They even started hanging out with different people, as Hermione started spending more of her time with the other muggleborns in the school (particularly a pair of Hufflepuffs named Justin Finch-Fletchy and Sally-Anne Perks), Susan spent most of her time with Lavender and Parvati (the other two Gryffindor first year girls) and Neville spent a lot of his time with Dean Thomas, another shy but nice first year.
It seemed as if it was the ending of a very close friendship, and it broke the parents' hearts to watch their children do so. It really did look as if it was going to take something drastic to change things around for the mini-Marauders, as years of sheltering and nourishing care seemed to evaporate leaving behind 4 deeply disturbed children.
They could only hope that this behaviour reversed quickly before these insecurities were allowed to further develop.