A Different Start: American Harry Prequel

by DarkeStar

Harry's godmother gains custody of a young HP and escapes to America where he learns a new way of magic and carves a new path for himself. Powerful/Independent Harry, eventual slash, OCs, pre-Hogwarts. Reg. updates.

38. Chapter 38

Disclaimer: I own magical America and the theories, ideas, etc. that are not infringing on JKR's world.

Info: Warnings and story info found in previous chapters. Link to previous chapter review responses found in profile. Ygroup has detailed and past responses, house layouts, may have additional scenes. New scene division: (0)0(0)0(0)0(0)0(0)

Reviews: Pure Happiness

Betas: Hugs to them all. Hugs! And strawberries!

AN: Perhaps a larger time between this post and the next chapter since I am riding the inspiration train for further into the story and I don't want to derail the happiness that is progress and motivation. And I will be answering some questions asked, like the Legilimency rating thing, just as soon as my brain isn't wrapped around Goblet of Fire story beginning.

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A Different Start: American Harry Prequel 38

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Harry stopped in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"That's exactly what I'd like to know," Suntree muttered, fixing Hollen with a hard stare.

Hollen shrugged. "Do I look like I want to be here? Seriously? Surrounded by children?" His eyes moved over the group with Harry, lingering on Green as his lips curled up in faint sneer. "You brought the Southern."

With a frown, Harry reached out to rest his hand on Green's wand arm. "His name-"

"I don't care, kid," Green interrupted, shrugging off Harry's hand. "And I'm not going to pull my wand." He sent a humorless smile Hollen's way. "No skin off my back."

Hollen drew in a much-put-upon breath and lifted a hand to study his nails. "And that just proves my point, princess." He looked around the grounds with displeasure. "As if I would ever choose to be surrounded by children and ignorance when I ought to be having a very much deserved day off…"

"So what are you doing here?" Suntree repeated, his hard stare unwavering.

Languorously, giving Suntree a winning smile, Hollen reached into his jacket and pulled out an official looking envelope with a USAS seal on the front and handed it over.

Suntree took the envelope. As he flipped it open there was a flicker of light and a tingle that raced across Harry's magic, a security spell recognizing its recipient. Suntree pulled the single sheet of paper from the envelope and read it, mouth thinning a little. "Did he really?" Suntree asked flatly once he'd read it, spearing Hollen with a knowing look.

Hollen smiled innocently. "It's all right there." He waved to the letter. "It's not my place to argue with higher powers, Sunshine."

"But you're so good at it." Suntree slipped the paper back into the envelope and spirited the envelope away to a pocket of his own. "In fact, I think you might be incapable of being in the presence of the Director without starting an argument."

"Oh, I don't always argue with him," Hollen protested.

"Argue or in general be insolent, disagreeable and of bad disposition, then."

Hollen tutted. "Are you spying on the Director, Sunshine? I daresay the Internal Review Department would find that most curious."

"The Director sent you here?" Harry asked quickly before Suntree could retort. "Why did he send you?"

"Actually, the Director sent me to do a security overview of the school in general, given how so many important students are attending this year. There's Carol Kingston's daughter, for one thing, and-"

Harry frowned thoughtfully, resettling the heavy bag slung over his shoulder. "Isn't that-?"

"The daughter of the investigative reporter who keeps making all of these terribly unhappy waves in many an important person's universe, yes," Hollen answered. "My, that woman knows how to make enemies-"

"You two would be perfect together then," Green muttered.

Hollen stopped, glancing around quizzically before he looked at Green with mock realization. "Oh, I should have realized it was the Southern. Southern-"

"His name's Green," Harry put in firmly.

Hollen hesitated a moment before smiling brightly. "One named after an additive primary color – yes, I'm actually speaking to you. I'm gay. I like men. A lot. That's the definition of gay when one's male as I am. And Carol is a woman's name. But it's okay, I understand that inbreeding can make-"

"Not amused," Harry interrupted shortly.

"Sorry, princess."

"And not sincere."

"I don't mean to upset you, princess."

"That's the only thing I believe thus far."

"Anyway," Hollen gestured around the campus with an expansive arm wave. "Her daughter is here and the President's son, of course, and then there's the oh-so-annoying little teenage movie star, Athena Knell. A word of advice, Jamie, don't get mixed up with her. She is a complete bi-"

"Jamie is the only student who's actually starting new this year," Suntree interrupted. "So a security overview because of the presence of so many important people-"

"I only do what I'm told, Sunshine. And I was told to come here. Clearly. But since I'm here, I'd thought I'd say hi!"

"Wonderful." Suntree gave him a smile that didn't even try to be sincere. "Hi. But we have to go. Have fun with your security overview."

"Oh, but I've just finished. I did most of it yesterday, anyway. So I'm free."

Suntree nodded. "Of course. How very fortunate."

"Incredibly. But fortune favors the fabulous!"

"Someone took an extra gay pill this morning," Green snorted.

Hollen fixed him with a pitying look. "I see the education in the South is only continuing its downward spiral-"

"Oh, don't even start-"

"But you can't be gay from a pill. And since you believe that-"

"I don't believe that, it was a-"

"Being gay is also not a choice, no matter what-"

"It's called sarcasm-"

"If you don't stop right this second I'm going to knock both of you out, lock you in a closet together and not let you out until you're making out," Harry interrupted loudly.

Green and Hollen both took a step back, varying degrees of horror on their faces.

"Good." Harry shifted the bag again. "Can we move on now? I'm not even all that excited by this walk-through tour of the campus thing considering I spent hours here over the summer, but the sooner we finish, the sooner I can find my room and the sooner I can stop carrying this heavy, magically sensitive bag that can't be levitated that I somehow ended up with despite there being big, strong PDs all around." Harry fixed Suntree and Green with completely unimpressed looks and was given the same in return. "So let's keep moving."

"Quite." Suntree speared Hollen with another look, unimpressed, but with an odd, thoughtful furrow to his brow. After a moment he turned to continue his trek across the grounds.

Hollen fell in step beside Harry with a bright smile. "Hello, Jamie. By the way, I completely approve and love, love, love those jeans."

Harry paused for a moment to glance down at his jeans. They were dark blue, almost black, with a gold dragon curling up one leg and breathing fire down the other. "They are pretty awesome." He gave Hollen an up and down look. "You look… normal."

"Yes, I know." Hollen sighed heavily, running a hand down his tan khakis, and then straightening his black, button down shirt. "Looking professional and all. Though, I have finished my security review…" He glanced up; a moment later his short dark brown hair turned black with blue highlights and grew down to his shoulders.

"Nice."

"I thought so, too, princess."

Harry snickered and continued walking. "And hello yourself." He glanced over. "I notice you didn't offer to carry my bag."

"You're a big, strapping young man. It would be an insult to your strength to even think about offering."

"So you're being lazy," Harry interpreted.

"Yes."

Harry rolled his eyes. "At least you're being honest. So, why are you really here?"

"The security overview! We did just talk about this."

"And there goes the honesty."

"So where's your mother?" Hollen asked, glancing around curiously like she'd suddenly materialize. "Really, princess, you brought the South but not your mom? That's not very sound thinking."

"Don't call- you know what, I'm not going to waste my breath. And Mom's here; she's just off on a parent tour of the campus with Al, learning the secrets of the universe or something. And Tony is… around here somewhere, doing Tony things."

"Oh sweet Oz, please tell me your mother isn't dating Al or something."

Harry stopped walking to stare at Hollen.

"What? He's on the parent tour with her."

"In a bodyguard and someone knowledgeable with the magical world capacity only," Harry said, resettling the bag as he started walking again. "And only that. And you are no longer allowed to insult Green's intelligence after that shining example of retarded."

"Seriously," Tony said, appearing beside Hollen.

Hollen's wand was in his hand and he'd stepped in front of Harry before Tony had gotten the word entirely out of his mouth.

Harry plucked the wand from Hollen's hand. "I'll take that, thank you."

"Hey, that's my-"

"And you'll get it back when you start behaving."

"But I just-"

"Yes, you did." Harry shifted to give Hollen a one armed hug. "And it was very sweet."

"Oh." Hollen dropped a hand to pat Harry's back even as his magic surged forward to prickle and poke and nudge Harry's with a feeling that was almost like puppyish delight. "Well, it's a trained response, you know," he said offhandedly.

Harry hummed agreement and stepped back, re-shouldered the bag, grinned at Tony's look of mouth twitching amusement and set off across the grounds to catch up with Suntree. Suntree was a fair distance ahead of them, but he'd stopped and was talking to a school official that Harry didn't recognize.

"Say, where's the princess?" Hollen asked, falling in step with Harry once again, exchanging a nod of greeting with Tony as Tony dropped back to walk next to Green.

"I thought I was the princess?" Harry asked with a laugh.

"Quite right and I'm terribly sorry. Where's the Barbie? The female who takes cruises when she should be at your birthday party."

"Cam isn't here today. And neither is Kathy-"

"Small miracles," Tony murmured.

Harry glanced back. "Dude, did you and Kathy have some sort of fight or something? You seem more reproachful of her than I ever remember."

"No. Normal reproach. But since you don't seem all that thrilled with her these days yourself, I'm not going to spend the energy on smiling and nodding."

"I'm not thrilled with her because she thinks she's my mother a little bit more than I like and isn't used to me not listening to everything she says. What's your excuse?"

"She thinks she's my mother a little more than I like," Tony said with a grin.

Harry rolled his eyes.

"Seriously, 'cat. She was my mentor when the USAS claimed me as their own when I was sixteen. Sometimes she forgets that it was quite a while ago."

"So, you didn't bring the females, but you brought the Southern?" Hollen put in, drawing Harry's attention back to him.

"At the very least could you call me a Georgian or something?" Green put in.

Hollen looked back, expression unreadable. "You're from Georgia?"

"Yes, I am."

"Where?"

"Fannin County," Green answered, brows raised.

"On the border of Tennessee?"

"Yes, actually," Green said with some surprise.

"Hm." Hollen shrugged dismissively and turned back to Harry. "Why aren't the females here?"

"Well, we hardly have to have everyone here just to get me settled in," Harry said, glancing over at Hollen with an odd look.

"And don't you have a secret service person, too?"

"You already seem to have all of the answers," Harry said dryly.

"Well, where is he?"

"He's off doing secret service stuff."

"Ah."

"Someone from the security office is free to give me that last security rundown," Suntree told them as soon as they were close enough. He raised a brow at Hollen. "Given that you're here for security, perhaps you'd like to come?"

"Oh, I think I'm okay for now," Hollen answered breezily. "I did my security thing. I'll just go with Jamie here."

"I thought as much." Suntree held out the bag he was carrying. Hollen accepted it slowly. "You behave," Suntree told Harry.

"As if I'm the one you need to worry about."

"And keep them in line."

"You might as well ask me to fly to the moon on a broom," Harry muttered.

"Try."

"Aye, aye, captain." Harry tossed off a salute.

Suntree smiled. "Finish your campus walk-through." He passed a folder of paperwork to Tony. "I'll meet up with you soon."

"Aye, aye, captain," Tony said with a grin.

Suntree rolled his eyes and followed the school official back to the main building.

"So…" Harry shifted his bag to his other shoulder, watching Suntree's progress. "Tony?"

"Yeah?"

"I put forth the motion we ditch this walk-through idea of Suntree's. Frankly, I don't care how traditional it is to see the grounds before checking out your dorm, not when Suntree won't let us leave the luggage behind. I mean, seriously, I was here how many times over the summer?"

"I'm all for hitting the dorms." Tony set off in that direction.

"Excellent." Harry glanced back at Green. "You want to-"

"I'm good. I'll be of more use helping you settle in."

Hollen snorted derisively.

"All right." Harry shot Hollen a warning look, then set out after Tony. Hollen quickly fell in step with him.

There were students wandering the garden courtyard outside of the dorm building, most of them just idle, and almost no parents to be seen anywhere.

"You really cut it close," Tony said with a snort. "Class starts tomorrow."

"Hey, Mom's the one that didn't want to let me go until the last possible moment." Harry rolled his eyes and skirted around a group of older students; they didn't spare him a second glance.

Tony veered onto the path that led to the east wing of the dorm building. "Come on, kid, we need your ID card. Sunny took the temporary with him."

"I'm a dozen steps behind you," Harry pointed out, digging into his pocket as he came to a stop in front of the wide door. His fingers closed around the ID card and he pulled it free to swipe across the sensor beside the door, then took a moment to study his manically grinning picture as Tony opened the door and held it for them.

"Real cute," Hollen remarked, pulling the ID card from Harry's hand as he passed. "You look a little insane."

"Hey, it's only fair to give people a little warning."

Tony paused in front of the two elevators, opening the folder Suntree had handed him and pulling out the dorm map. "So you're on the third floor… and the rest of the map is blank."

"You got a room number?" Green asked curiously.

"Three twenty-eight."

"I'll take the stairs," Green told them. "They're just around the corner, off of the lounge."

"Why the-?"

"It's just an elevator," Hollen interrupted Harry. "Elevators are mechanical devices that go up and down and-"

"Do you realize how stupid you sound?" Green cut in. "In this effort to insult me-"

"Oh, you insult yourself well enough without my help-"

"You take it to extremes that are ridiculous instead of cutting-"

"One!"

Hollen and Green started and turned to look at Harry.

"Are you done?" Harry asked them, crossing his arms.

Hollen sneered slightly. "Only if this Southern-"

"Two!"

Green's brows went up. "Are you counting to three on us?"

"Yes, I am."

"And what happens on three?" Hollen asked, his own brows raised.

"I don't know, but I can promise that you won't like it. So be nice, Holly." Harry fixed him with a severe look.

"What? I thought he might be scared of the new technology!"

"Don't." Harry stabbed the elevator button.

"If Jamie curses you, I'm going to laugh," Tony told Hollen. "Rolling on the floor. And then I'll be sending you my dry cleaning bills."

Hollen gave Tony an up and down. "I don't think you know what a dry cleaners is. You probably wash all of your clothes together, colors be damned."

"I'll see you guys upstairs." Green turned the corner into the lounge.

Hollen looked back to Harry with a bright smile. "I guess he didn't want to be on the big moving box with me."

Tony nudged Harry into the elevator. "Imagine that."

"But on the bright side," Hollen continued, following Harry, "he'll get terribly lost without the map and that's a little less time he'll be breathing my air."

"Here's hoping we don't get lost," Tony muttered, studying the blank piece of paper in his hands.

"Here, let me see that." Harry grabbed the map from Tony. It tingled with magic in Harry's hands and he almost imagined he could see very faint lines, though there was nothing discernible on the paper when he held it closer to the light. It wasn't until the elevator doors had opened on the third floor and Harry had stepped into the hallway that the map revealed itself, rooms as boxes, hallways as rectangles, and an X marking the spot. Harry ran his finger over the map until he found the X marking his room, the only box with a label on the map, and he traced it back to the elevator.

"I could have done that," Tony pointed out. "It doesn't require your magic touch."

"Whatever. And down this way, to the right. There won't be any getting lost today." Harry set out, turning down the left side of the hallway.

"We know the room number," Hollen said dryly. "We'd just follow the numbers. No getting lost at all."

"No deal," Harry said with a grin, glancing at the doors they passed. "That's room one thirteen and across from it is room ninety-eight and the next room is two eleven. No following room numbers for us."

"This school…" Tony grabbed the map back. "Right, left, right, right, left… Remind me why I shouldn't be complaining about these maze-like hallways." He looked down at the sloping up and down floors and shook his head.

"Because it's enough security to make even Holly happy?" Harry suggested with a grin.

"I'm never happy."

Harry looked over his shoulder, studying Hollen closely. Hollen winked and grinned. Harry rolled his eyes. "Whatever. You spend time with me, so you're at least occasionally happy."

"Never happy." Hollen suddenly grinned. "Actually, I'm very damned happy. With how fucked up these rooms are, the Southern will never find your room!"

Harry snorted.

"And that's what he gets for being frightened of elevators."

"I'm seriously beginning to know how a rat in a maze feels," Tony put in. "This would drive me crazy, going to school here. I'm well aware that the design of the dorms is haphazard and strange for security reasons and all of the rooms are set up the way they are so they can shift and turn and lock together, creating impenetrable sealed cubes, yada, yada-"

"This is my safety we're talking about," Harry interrupted mildly.

Hollen smirked. "With you around, it's everyone else's safety I'd be worried about."

Harry raised a brow at him. "Funny, that's what they say about you."

"But couldn't they do that without making a maze?" Tony continued, ignoring them. "The rooms look like someone shook a huge red cup-"

"The red cup is important," Harry put in with a wise nod.

"-filled with dice and just let them rest wherever they happened to fall and then built a building around them and called it a dorm. And don't even get me started on the building design-"

"Yada, yada, chop in half, yada, yada."

"-like someone just said 'hey, let's chop a perfectly good building in half and yank it apart, and never mind those insane rooms jutting out every which way-'"

"Hey, Tony, can I have a penguin?"

"'And we'll just cover'- What?"

"Penguin? You know? Aquatic flightless birds? Southern hemisphere? Feed on-"

"I know what penguins are, you brat."

"Well? Have one? Adorable little blue fairy one?"

"No, you may not," Tony told him with amusement. "Because you know damn well no matter how accepting your mom might be about your pets, she would draw the line at a penguin."

Harry frowned, then pouted, then perked up and opened his mouth to speak.

Tony interrupted before he could even make a sound. "No. You can't have a komodo dragon, either. Or a monkey. Or a lemur. Or a runespoor. Or a basilisk. Or a-"

"Hug?" Harry asked with a cheeky grin.

He snorted. "That I can do."

Harry skipped ahead a few steps to press against Tony's side, giving him a half hug. Tony settled an arm around him warmly, giving a little squeeze and shake. "I think we're almost to your room," he said after a bit, turning the map one way and then another. "Despite the insanity of this building."

Harry pulled away and peered at the map, then stole one of Tony's hands. "I think I agree that the insanity of the building does help foster creativity. No straight lines or well defined floors and the rolling, sloping hallways-"

"Don't get me started on that, 'cat."

Harry grinned. "I think it's awesome."

"You would think it's awesome.

"Holly agrees with me," Harry said brightly. "Don't you, Holly?"

"Hollen would agree with you."

"That's because Holly loves me."

"I love you, too, you crazy 'cat," Tony said with a laugh, glancing back at Hollen with a slightly arched brow as Hollen stared at Harry in surprise. "What I don't love are crazy hallways. It's unnatural."

"You're a silly wolf."

"That is entirely possible," Tony agreed, freeing his hand and dropping his arm around Harry's shoulders again.

"You're a silly wolf who will put my school ID back in my pocket where it belongs. And my money, too. And then you will stop picking my pockets."

"How can you say that? I haven't done any such thing."

"Put it back."

"Oh, look, I think this is your hallway."

"Back. There, see? That wasn't so hard."

Tony snorted. "How'd you know?"

"Because you're freaking Tony." They rounded a corner. "And- Green!" Harry grinned.

Green looked up with a grin of his own and gave them a lazy wave, not moving from his lounging position next to door. The number over the door was three twenty-eight.

"Dude, how'd you find the room so quickly?"

"The stairs come up over there." He nodded in the other direction. "Three hallways over. So here I am."

"Yeah, but the numbers are totally messed up. How did you…?"

Green tapped the side of his nose with a wink.

"That doesn't really- Tony!" Harry fixed Tony with a look and grabbed his ID card from Tony's hand. "That was just blatantly-"

"I was going to open the door!"

"It's my dorm, thank you." Harry wiped his ID card on his shirt and stepped forward, lifting the card toward the door. He stopped just short, though, and sent a warning look over his shoulder. "You two had better behave, you understand me? Mom and The Spoon could show up at any minute and she's twitchy enough about me going off to school. So consider that your warning and I wash my hands of your fate."

"I… don't start it," Green pointed out.

"Be the bigger man."

"I think I feel…insulted?" Hollen muttered.

"You ought to feel thoroughly chastised."

Hollen held up his hands. "Done."

Tony snorted.

"Good." Harry fixed a look at Tony. "And there is nothing wrong with Spoon fear. Don't think I didn't see your look. I fear The Spoon. There's nothing wrong with fearing The Spoon."

"You're twelve." Tony went to snag the ID from Harry's hand but Harry hid it behind his back. "And she's your mom. Your fear is reasonable. The fear of hardened, seasoned and slightly insane Aurors, no, that's not reasonable."

"But it's The Spoon. And are you sure I can't have a penguin? Cute penguin? You know you like the penguins."

"No penguins."

"Ice cream instead?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Before dinner? You'd have better luck getting a penguin."

"Damn. I thought the penguin lead up would make ice cream seem more reasonable."

"You failed."

"Can we go into the dorm already?" Hollen asked. "I'm actually standing next to the Southern waiting. Not insulting."

Harry laughed and swiped the card in front of the door. A door handle slowly appeared.

"You know, I could still pick that," Tony said smugly.

"And you'll be teaching me sometime this year," Harry informed him, turning the handle. The door opened into a short, dark hallway; at the end of the hallway, the opening into the actual dorm was just as dark. "Looks like the roommate isn't here," Harry remarked, tapping a light pad on the wall as he moved into the hallway.

"Why is there a hallway?" Hollen asked, following Tony into the room. "Why do you need a short little hallway?"

"Something to do with the security turning into cube thing of the room, I think," Harry said.

"My suggestion is to expand the hallway and put in a table or something like a counter," Green put in.

"Hey, that's a thought." Harry stepped into the dorm itself, reaching out to tap the light pad near the door. Sections of the ceiling began to glow, lighting the room softly. "Apparently the roommate is in," Harry added as a boy half reclined on one of the beds sat up, glaring heatedly. "And I seem to have just woken him up from a nap…" Harry lowered the bag he was carrying, lifting a hand in greeting. "Sorry about that. I didn't know you were in. I'm-"

"I have no desire to know who you are," the boy interrupted shortly. "And I was not napping. I was reading."

Harry turned his attention from studying the room to give the boy a closer look. "You were reading in the dark?"

"Yes."

Harry stepped further into the room, giving the area another sweeping look before he busied himself with moving his bag out of the entranceway, considering the boy from under his lashes. He looked a few years older than Harry. His hair and eyes were dark, though any hint of color was lost to the shadows of his curtained bed; his skin was pale enough to stand out even in the darkness.

Harry didn't think twice about dropping his shields a little to consider the boy's magic; he found it tightly compressed and threaded with things Harry hadn't the faintest hope of understanding. Harry sensed the others moving into the room and around, though Tony had stopped by his side and there was an out of place wariness riding on the edges of his aura.

The boy turned his head to the side slightly and his eyes caught the light, shining like a cat's eyes in the dark. "Cease staring at me immediately."

With a slight frown, Harry pulled his shields back into place and openly studied the other. "There's something odd about you…"

The boy made a scoffing noise. His eyes flashed and shone as he turned his head, picking up a book lying at his side.

"Your eyes… and you were reading in the dark… Are you a vampire?"

The boy looked up again, eyes narrowed.

"You are a vampire. Well, probably more of a half vampire, but still…"

He made a haughty noise. "It is only your own foolishness if you refused to believe them when they told you."

"Yeah, well, no one told me."

The boy leveled a highly doubtful look on him, but after a moment he simply looked back to his book, saying nothing.

"Hey, sorry about the light thing. I guess you're probably a little sensitive. Though, you know, I can't see in the dark, so we're going to have to compromise-"

"I am fully aware."

"Right. Well, I'm Harry-"

"And I still have no desire to know you."

"You're going to be a bucket of fun and sunshine to room with. Suit yourself." Harry turned to find Hollen giving him a smirking sort of look. "And you can just shut the hell up."

"I didn't say a thing," Hollen murmured.

"You were thinking it. I can tell. I know you."

Hollen looked around the space, making an airy sort of gesture with one of his arms. "Two beds, two dressers, two bookcases, two desks… my, but this place is dull." He moved over to the full size bed and touched the dark blue curtains with a look of distaste, then dropped a hand to the mattress. "I suppose that's comfortable enough, though it's certainly nothing I'd sleep on."

"As if you'll be having sleepovers with Jamie," Green snorted, moving past Harry and through the door leading to the bathroom.

"I came prepared for the bed," Harry put in quickly, gesturing to one of the bags Green had dropped.

"There's that, at least." Hollen moved to open the dresser. Tony joined him in his examination. "But such dull colors…"

"Not very homey," Green remarked, emerging from the bathroom. "This place needs some fixin' up."

"Oz have mercy," Hollen muttered. "You're going add some sort of country shit, aren't you?" Hollen sneered. "Flannel sheets and cows and roosters and cowboy hats-"

"You're seriously fucking ignorant," Green cut in coldly. "Not that there's anything wrong with flannel as a-"

"It's fucking flannel. Don't put any country filth-"

"One!"

Hollen huffed. "I was just-"

"Two!"

Hollen turned his attention back to the bed with a sniff.

"Seriously, guys, grow up. There won't be any cows in this room unless they're limited edition designer cows. And you'd be the one to get me that, Holly; you know you would. And believe it or not, Holly, Green actually has good taste when he's not being unforgivably-"

"Country?"

"Male," Harry said firmly. "And on that note, I refuse to listen to you two bicker all day. Don't think I won't curse you and stuff you two in a closet."

Hollen made a surrendering motion and went back to examining the bed.

Harry shook his head as he made his way over to the dresser. He ran his fingers over the wood as he studied it, considering the grain as he let the magic tickle against his senses. "The wood will respond really well to restructuring and space-layering," Harry decided.

"You knew that," Tony said with amusement. "It's supposed to respond well to student efforts to change it."

"Well, yeah, but I mean… it'll really respond well. It's, like, super magical."

Tony tapped the side of the dresser with the toe of his shoe. "I expect it's probably pretty magical in itself by now, from years of being changed."

Harry took a moment to feel out the magic properly instead of just a little brush. He shrugged. "Not so much, actually. Magical, yes, but whoever strips these down each year does a pretty good job of it. It's mainly just a lingering residue."

"I am not putting any chickens up!" Green snapped.

Harry spun around in surprise. Green was glaring at Hollen and Hollen was sneering back. "What's going on now?"

"Every time I try to make a change, this idiot-"

"That's rich, calling me an idiot," Hollen muttered. "Glass houses, Southern, not that I expect you to understand that-"

"More of your ignorant insults." Green crossed his arms. "I'd like to point out that you weren't invited today, you just invited yourself-"

"I was assigned, if you'll recall-"

"To an overall security review of Hathorne as a school, not here, not tagging along with your stupid, half-assed, prejudiced notions about the South-"

"Spaghetti evergreen marmalade kinkajou rainbow serenading frogs banana!"

Everyone turned to stare at Harry in surprise.

"Do I have everyone's attention?"

"More than," Hollen assured.

"Good. I'm pulling rank-"

"He has rank?" Hollen muttered to Tony.

"Jamie rank," Tony muttered back.

"-and ordering everyone to play nice because today is all about me. We clear?"

"Yes sir," Tony said with a grin.

"Doing my best," Green assured.

Hollen nodded slowly. "For you, princess."

"Then you," Harry pointed at Hollen, "can change the bed. My sheets are dark green so I think I want the wood to be a much darker brown than it is right now with some undertones of red. And once you get the color I like, then we'll talk about changing the size and style of the bed."

Hollen raised a brow. "Anything else, your majesty?"

"Stop being a dick, maybe?" Harry turned to Green. "And you can release the compression charms on the luggage and figure out which suitcase holds the bedding. And by the way, Green, total win on your side, finding those suitcases that hold multiple suitcases."

"Sure makes things easier," Green grinned.

Hollen turned to look at the luggage; they were black with not-quite-black curling, looping patterns that caught the light just enough to be subtly noticeable. He glanced over at Green with an unreadable look. "You picked those out?"

"Yes," Green told him a little shortly.

Hollen grunted and turned to the bed.

Green raised his brows at Harry and mouthed, "Is that almost a compliment?"

Harry shrugged and grinned.

Green shrugged back and turned to the luggage. He set about unzipping the bags and peering inside to find the right one.

"You got any decrees for me?" Tony asked, leaning against the desk.

"Give me a minute." Harry glanced around the room. When his eyes fell on his still glaring roommate, he half opened his mouth, but the glare only intensified and the boy bared his teeth, revealing fangs that were just noticeable. Harry turned away with a shrug. "I have the feeling I'm going at this backwards somehow…"

"Yeah, I've got that feelin', too," Green added, moving over to the bed with his arms full of compressed sheets, blankets, pillows and bedding in sealed plastic bags. He skirted wide of Hollen to dump everything on the bed. "I'm thinkin' we're goin' about this all wrong-"

"Freaking Oz!" Hollen rounded on Green. "The letter 'G' is a part of the alphabet! You're allowed to use it! Feeling! Thinking! Going! Ing! It's a noise and you are capable of making it!"

"I'm perfectly well acquainted with the letter 'G', thank you."

"Then use it."

"Because that outburst was entirely unexpected." Harry rolled his eyes. "You two want to just skip all of the bickering and make out and be done with it?"

The matching looks of horror returned.

"That's it," Harry told them. "Every time you guys start to get on my nerves, I'm going to start talking about how you ought to be making out. Now I trust we'll be behaving in the future?"

"You better fucking believe it," Hollen muttered.

"Haell yeah."

"Good." Harry smiled. "Green, why don't you go take a look at the desk. It'll definitely need to be bigger."

"That I can do."

"And you should be working on the bed, Holly."

"Yes, sir," Hollen said dryly. "Anything for you, sir. Oh so commanding, sir."

"Watch it, buster. I'll give you bunny ears and you'll be stuck with them until you see me again."

Tony grinned. "And if you've got bunny ears, Laney just might introduce you to The Spoon for irritating Jamie enough that he gave you bunny ears."

Harry grinned. "Fear the ears, fear The Spoon. We are a wild and dangerous family."

"No arguments from me." Hollen poked the mattress with a look of distaste.

"It's a perfectly acceptable mattress," Tony told him, moving over to the bags to search through them. "Just because it's not a pillow top with extra cushioning and the works doesn't make it a bad mattress. Ah, here's the extra bedding I thought I saw Laney packing at the last minute." He pulled out several more compressed plastic bags and took them over to the bed. "Have fun with this," he told Hollen with a grin.

"I am not your maid," Hollen huffed.

"Hey, you've been assigned the bed."

"And you brought the bedding over. I realize you may not be used to beds, but sheets and pillows will not harm you."

Tony snorted. "Nice try, but you're the one on bed duty."

"And you-"

"Holy hell." Harry looked between Tony and Hollen, torn between amusement and irritation, but definitely exasperated. "You seriously can't do anything without making it into an argument, can you, Holly?"

"What? Me?"

"Yes, you. And you and Tony are friends!"

Hollen gave Tony a sidelong look. "Friends? When did that happen?"

"Davish doesn't make friends," Tony said with a twitching smile. "He makes beneficial acquaintances that can tolerate him being Davish."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Hollen agreed. "Pretty good definition of friendship."

"Minus all of the feel-good, fuzzy feelings," Tony added dryly.

"That's just a waste of perfectly good time and energy, really."

Harry decided on amused exasperation and threw his hands up in the air. "Adults! Can't live with them, can't feed them to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal."

Hollen turned his attention back to Harry, looking thoroughly puzzled. "The what?"

"The- the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal!" Harry gave him a strange look. "You've never read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?"

"Obviously not."

Harry tsked. "I'm going to give you a reading assignment just as soon as I get home to get the books and then – oh wait! Even better! Tony! I command you to drop off Hitchhiker to Holly. Pretty please with sugar on top?"

"Sure thing, kid. But only because there's sugar on top. You know how I like my pleases with lots of sugar."

Suddenly, the wall behind Hollen and Tony shimmered and jerked back, making everyone start. Hollen and Tony both made abortive movements to grab their wands, but Harry put his hands on his hips, fixing Green with a mock stern look as Green looked around wearing a startled, sheepish expression.

"And what have I told you about that, Green?"

"Er… I was really just testing to see how easily it responds to space-layering magic. Believe me, I had no intention of actually trying it."

"Good." Harry considered the wall. It'd been pushed back several feet under the power of several space layering spells woven together, but Harry could sense they were sloppily laid over each other.

"I'd like to point out, however, that a lot of adults can't manage space layering to any real degree," Green put in, rubbing his cheek with his wand.

"Green, don't do that unless you want to lose your nose or something."

"I'm just saying."

"In any case, you know the rule. No space-layering for Green. No offense, but it's like nails on a chalkboard when I watch you do that. So take it down. I can say that, at least; you can strip space-layering down faster than anyone I've ever seen."

Green winked.

A burst of annoyed French erupted from the other side of the room and Harry turned with a start. The boy was sitting at the side of the bed properly, leaning forward, fangs bared as he glared.

Harry forgot for a moment why he was confused as he got his first real look at his roommate and saw how attractive he was, glare included. His pale skin didn't look so marked in the light and the dark hair was revealed to be a rich blend of reds. "Wow, you're…"

The boy glared even more, fangs showing more prominently. "What?"

"Er, nothing." Harry cleared his throat. "Is there something wrong? I don't speak French…"

"He was complaining about how completely ridiculous this entire situation is and how you're even more completely annoying. Loosely translated."

"Thanks, Holly." Harry raised his brows at the boy. "So why am I ridiculous and why is this even more ridiculous?"

"As if you have a single care for the rules," the boy told him harshly. "You have done nothing but order people about, directing them to change your side of the room to your whims. The rules have been quite thoroughly trampled to nothing, so why should it matter if you break more?"

"I don't think I follow…"

"Students are not allowed to have others modify or be-spell their dorm room in any way," he snarled. "You clearly do not care for the rules, so there is no reason for him to stop. Have him continue."

"Ah." Harry glanced back. Hollen looked both thoroughly amused and like he was ready to pull his wand at any moment. Tony and Green just looked amused. "Right." Harry looked back to his roommate and was distracted again by the boy's confident, expectant expression, as if he knew the universe was about to be laid at his feet.

"Well?" the boy demanded. "Desist staring at me and return to your blatant disregard for the rules."

"You know, I should probably be pretty irritated by this attitude," Harry mused. "But it's actually pretty damn amusing." The boy's eyes narrowed, but Harry cut him off as he opened his mouth. "And, by the way, I haven't trampled or blatantly disregarded a single rule thus far. The staff knows my family will be helping me with my room and they're totally cool with it."

"And why is that?" the boy asked suspiciously. "Not even I was given special allowance."

Harry tried not to grin. "Wow, you must be pretty important. I sure hope I'm worthy of breathing the same air as you."

"You do not amuse me."

"That's okay; I amuse myself enough for two."

The boy pressed his fingertips to his temple, eyes closing as he muttered in French.

Harry looked expectantly at Hollen.

"He doesn't like you very much," Hollen told him with a smirk.

"Thanks a heap." Harry rolled his eyes and looked back to the boy. "Are you freaking out because you think I'm not going to expand the room some? Believe me, I am. I'm just not going to let Green do it."

The boy peered at him from beneath his lashes, then made a dismissive noise and picked up his book, acting for all the world like they no longer existed.

Harry turned back to his side of the room. "He'll come around."

"I assure you," the boy muttered, "I will not."

Harry nodded confidently before turning his attention back to Green. "I trust you'll remember from now on that there's no space-layering allowed from you."

Green grinned. "Sure thing. Speaking of, are you going to come out and redo my cabin? Since my space-layering is so horrifying."

"It is horrifying!"

"No one else complains about my space layering."

"No one else can tell that you're butchering it all to hell and back again with gleeful delight in a job done so badly it just can't be wrong."

Green considered that. "I think I've just been smacked by a fish."

"I think you have," Harry agreed.

"I think I'll take down the layering now, as per the rules."

"I think you will," Harry agreed.

"I'll get on that."

"You do that."

"I will just as soon as you stop giving me that intimidating ruler of the universe look of yours."

Harry laughed. "You're such a dork."

"He's such an idiot," Hollen muttered. "Who the hell says they've just been smacked by a fish? That is thoroughly-"

"How about someone who's actually been smacked by a fish?" Green retorted.

"Technically, you were smacked with a fish," Harry corrected. "But I suppose that 'by' works, too."

Hollen frowned, glancing between them. "What?"

"Well, I was fishing with Green-"

"Fishing. Of course."

"Are you going to let me explain this or not?"

Hollen waved a hand. "Go on."

"Right. I was fishing with Green and he said something worthy of getting a smack upside the head, all in teasing fun of course, but I sort of… forgot that I was holding a fish. So I smacked him with a fish. And Green says that there's nothing that puts you in your place quite like being smacked over the head with a fish."

"That's for sure," Green mumbled.

"I think I approve of this story," Hollen remarked.

"Yes, you would." Harry rolled his eyes and glanced around the room. "And that is where we should have started. That's why it felt like we were going at this all wrong. We totally were. I don't know why it didn't occur to me."

"It's the Sou…" Hollen coughed. "It happens. A lot on your mind."

Harry gave Hollen a small smile. "Definitely a lot on my mind."

"So," Hollen said a little loudly, "who's doing the space-layering?"

"I am," Harry grinned. "You can help by moving the furniture against the walls. Well, moving the desk chair against the wall, I guess, since the other stuff is already …" Harry glanced around, eyes lingering on the other side of the room. "Actually… I'll be right back." He pulled his wand and swept it over the luggage, some of it half unpacked, and directed it to follow him as he made his way over to the bathroom; he grabbed the potions bag and slung it carefully over his shoulder as he went.

Their bathroom looked the same as the bathroom Harry had seen on his first orientation tour of Hathorne when they'd looked at one of the unoccupied dorm rooms. The door led to a narrow room like a hallway that ended in a sink with two doors to the left, one leading to the toilet and the other leading to a large bathtub and shower combo, and two doors to the right, set at angles to each other, that led to small walk-in closets.

The first closet door Harry touched sparked with a ward and Harry didn't even try to turn the handle. He opened the second door and directed his luggage into a space that held nothing but a long dresser at the back of the closet, then stood considering the size of the closet. He returned to the main room of the bathroom and considered the space of the other rooms.

"Hey! Dictator boy!" Hollen called out.

"Is my mom out there?"

"Uh… no."

"Good. What the hell do you want now?"

"Jamie, watch your language," Green called out.

"But I'm talking to Holly! And you so haven't cared before now!"

"Don't let him reinforce bad habits. Watch your language."

Harry rolled his eyes as he came out of the bathroom. "What did you want, Holly?"

"I was wondering if it'd make it easier for you if we piled some of the furniture on top of the other furniture."

"Actually, I want to move everything we can into the bathroom, closet and hallway." Harry looked to the boy; he was settled back in the darkness of his bed again, head bent over his book, but the cat gleam of his eyes gave away his watchfulness. "So, why don't you guys start that. I think we can likely get everything out of the room except the bed."

"Can do," Tony told him, pulling out his wand. The other two nodded and did the same.

Harry sent his roommate a smile. "Hey, kid, can-?"

"I have a name," he interrupted coolly.

"Yeah, so do I, but you don't seem to give a shit about it so I don't know why I should give a shit what your name is." Out of the corner of his eye, Harry saw Green start to open his mouth, then close it and return to sealing the dresser drawers shut to make moving it easier.

The boy drew in a breath, looking up properly to fix Harry with a look of great distaste, like he'd found something thoroughly unpleasant on the bottom of his shoe, and what was more, he'd have to remove it without magic. The distaste faded away as the boy pressed his lips together and tilted his head to the side, regarding Harry with superior haughtiness. "I am the Prince of Vampires."

Hollen made a strange noise that drew Harry's attention and he saw a flash of a look on Hollen's face, a moment of narrow-eyed reevaluation, before Hollen simply raised a brow and went back to collecting everything that'd been piled onto the bed. Harry returned his attention to his roommate, coming a few more steps into the dorm room again, sliding his hands into his pockets. "Yeah?"

"Yes."

"I've studied vampires a little and I don't think I recall their government or society involving any sort of royalty, at least… oh, wait… Oh. I know who you are." Harry studied the figure thoughtfully. "You're the, uh, De- no, the Du'Mau… Du'Maurier heir. Right? Geoffrey?"

He smirked. "I see you've heard of me."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I bet you've heard of me, too. I'm-"

"Why do you think I suddenly care?"

Harry rocked on his feet. "I've seen your parents. It was just a meeting in passing one day, just a nod to each other from across a room. I haven't actually had a chance to meet them. But, you know, I probably should have realized who you were before now; you look a fair bit like your parents."

Geoffrey frowned. "I cannot imagine where they might have been that you would also be, but-"

"You look a lot like your mom, though, so I guess it's more forgivable. I haven't seen images of her nearly as often as I've seen images of your father in some of the papers I read and the recent history books and all of that. Though, you have absolutely gorgeous violet gray eyes and I have no idea where you got those."

Geoffrey opened his mouth but looked too startled to say anything.

"Anyway, Geoffrey, now that I know your name, even if you don't care in the least about mine –by the way, fair warning, I'm going to be very amused about that soon enough. But, Geoffrey, I'm thinking I'd kind of like to move just about everything we can move out of the room, and since, you know, it's mostly your stuff in the room right now, it'd be totally cool if you'll let us move everything around."

Geoffrey frowned. "One can expand a space without removing everything. I have seen it done."

"Sure, it's possible, but it's not exactly the most efficient or effective way to go about things. You see, when you put space-layering on a room, you build a sort of sticky web of magic on the walls and then you start stringing space magic along the web, kinda, sorta, and then you have to connect the walls and pull everything tight, working more and more magic into it until you've pressed as much magic into it as you can and then you let go and the magic slams into place. But if there're things in the room, the magic has to snake around it and that makes it less powerful, thus a smaller space. See?"

Geoffrey stared at him for so long with an odd bemused expression that Harry began to wonder if he'd started to speak in some alien language halfway through, or even lapsed into Parseltongue.

"So… it'd make it bigger if we move as much stuff as we can." Harry glanced around at Geoffrey's side of the room. There were some books on the bookshelf, a backpack over the desk chair, a few things lined up neatly on the dresser and a chest pressed up against the side of the bed, closer to the foot of the bed than the head. "Though it doesn't look like you've really unpacked, so it'd definitely make it easier to move your stuff…"

"It is only a matter of time before they see sense and let me have a private room."

Harry looked away to keep from sniggering and rolling his eyes, lest it make Geoffrey even more disagreeable to moving everything. "So, what do you say? Can we move everything? Make the room much bigger? You know you want more space."

Geoffrey sniffed and looked away, adopting an unconcerned and disinterested look. "If you wish."

"It really doesn't look good when you can't make decisions for yourself, being a self-titled prince and all."

Geoffrey stiffened slightly, turning a glare in Harry's direction. "I am not self-titled. That is what they call me."

"I'm well aware. So is that a yes or a no? It'll be all sorts of crazy, but I can expand only my half of the room and leave yours untouched if it's not something you actually want. I'm totally cool with crazy."

Geoffrey sniffed. "I suppose I can allow you that favor."

"All right then, if you don't want me to-"

"I said yes!"

"Well, just right now you said yes, but you weren't really saying yes before; you were trying to say yes without actually committing yourself to being agreeable."

Geoffrey glowered.

"Yeah, Jamie only puts up with that from people he likes," Tony said with a grin, slanting a look at Hollen. Hollen gave him the finger.

"It is only logical that I am agreeable," Geoffrey muttered. "Do I look daft enough to turn away the opportunity to have more space separating us?"

Harry gave Geoffrey a slow look up and down. "I don't know. I'm still working on the fact that you look pretty darn good, glares, fangs and all."

Geoffrey gave a start. "What?"

"Don't mind me." Harry waved a dismissive hand. "Rainbows are leaking from my pores. It happens occasionally. I'm housetrained, though, no worries." Harry gave him a thumbs-up before turning to the others. "Hey, listen, Mom'll probably be around any time soon so I'm going to go wait outside and let her know what's going on, okay? And I also sort of need to get a bit centered before I make miracles happen."

Tony rolled his eyes. "We can handle this." He glanced over at Geoffrey's bed. Geoffrey slid further back into the shadows. "Go on."

"Don't worry; I'll keep the Southern from playing around with the advanced magic."

"Fuck you, Davish," Green said, putting down the desk chair he'd just picked up.

"As if I would ever even think-"

"You're being an asshole again and-"

Harry backed towards the hallway. "Good luck with the toddlers, Tony," he said brightly, pointing at Green and Hollen. "I'll be in the hall. Later!" Harry quickly sidled down the hallway to the door, pulling it open just enough to slip out.

"Oh come on, Jamie, don't-"

The door closed on Tony's protest. Once the door had clicked shut, the handle disappeared. Harry could still hear the faintest murmuring sounds from beyond the door, a simple hum of unidentifiable noise; he made a note to himself to work sound muffling and dampening charms into the space layering.

Leaning back against the wall, Harry considered the smooth wood of his door, then glanced down the hall to another door where the handle was clearly visible. "Huh…" He looked the other way and saw one door without a handle and another with the handle visible.

"You must be an L1," a light voice observed from not far away. "You look puzzled by something."

Harry turned with a laugh. There was an older girl coming down the hall holding an armful of books. "So if you look puzzled, you're automatically an L1?"

"Generally. And I don't recognize you, either, so that does kind of give it away. In a school of this size, we don't always know everyone's names, but we do remember the faces."

"Fair enough. And yeah, I'm an L1. And I know, I'm getting in really late, the afternoon before classes start, blah, blah."

"I didn't say anything." She stopped a few feet away and shifted the stack of books in her arms.

"No, but I'm sure you're thinking it. Everyone I've talked to has been pretty surprised that I'm getting in so late and tutting over how long it'll take me to get settled in and telling me I should have gotten here at least three days before classes start to get my room set up before I'm too busy to spare the time, blah, blah, blah."

"You said it, not me. Good luck with that."

"I don't need luck," Harry told her cheerfully. "I've got my family. I've got permission to let them help me get everything arranged to my liking since I've already proven and then some that I could do it quite well on my own."

"So you're letting them do all the work?" she asked with a snicker.

"I'm saving a little bit for myself. Oh, I'm Harry." Harry rolled his eyes. "Harry Potter, actually. And you-"

"Seriously?" she asked, giving him a searching look. "Really?"

Harry grinned. "Nice to meet you, Seriously Really."

She blushed a little, laughing as she looked away. "No, that's- I mean- I'm Amy. I meant, well, I'm sure you know what I meant. You're seriously Harry Potter?"

"Well, I was when I woke up. I think I probably still am."

"Wow. Cool."

"Yeah. That pretty much sums it all up. I'm really thinking I'm going to start introducing myself as 'Potter, Harry Potter' just because it feels a little bit awesome, though."

She laughed again. "I think you could probably pull it off."

"Thank you. And your books…" As if on the cue the books in her arms began to slide and fall. Harry waved a hand at the falling stack, stilling the books for a split second before they piled back up into a stack in her arms. "I spoke a second too late there. But you should be careful."

"How did you do that?"

"What?"

"I mean, that wasn't levitation, I don't think, you actually stacked them all back up at once, not one at a time…"

"Oh, that; it's called a catchall." He tried not to laugh at her doubtful look. "No, really, it is. It's a form of spell casting, not a spell. What Level are you in?"

"I'm starting L4."

"You might be learning it this year then or maybe next year. It's also called a catchel or cetchel, depending on where you learn it. Why it has different pronunciations, I have no idea, and no one can answer that question to my satisfaction."

"So it's just some sort of large levitation… no, you said it wasn't a spell… Okay, what is that exactly?"

"It's a way of doing a spell. I actually did do a levitation spell there to catch everything, but I used a catchall variation on the spell. A catchall is a way of breaking up a single spell so it acts as multiple versions of that spell all at once. It's… kind of advanced, a little bit, and it's actually a theory born from the abilities of people with air leanings in magic, so it's kind of a newer idea. But the way it works, you break up a spell into segments and you put equal intent into each segment and… you know, it might be better if a teacher explains it. The way I do it might be way different than how someone else would."

"You don't have to teach it to me," she said, rolling her eyes. "But explain how you did that with my books. I don't quite get it."

Harry rocked on his feet as he considered that. "I think… Okay, what I did was I took the focus and intent of a levitation spell, I broke the spell apart into multiple sections still connected by a thread of magic, put the focus and intent of the entire spell into each section, and then I wrapped that segmented spell up in a single trigger, pulling the spell back together before I cast it on your books. And you see, since the spell is actually in segments, each segment connected to a book individually, instead of treating them as a whole. So there was your moment of everything stopping as each segment acted as the entirety of the spell. But since everything was just one spell and still connected, even though it was acting like multiple spells, I was able to hold all of the books and direct them back into place."

"Wow. Okay. I don't quite…"

"The point is that it gives you the control of maintaining one spell with the freedom of putting a spell on each object. Better control over multiple objects without having to control multiple spells. See?"

"I get it, sort of, but I can't even begin to imagine how you managed to do that in barely a second…"

"Oh, well… I have to resist the urge to tell you that I'm Harry Potter and I'm mysterious and can do amazing things," Harry said, wriggling his fingers, "ooh, mysterious. But it's not really all that amazing. It's just a matter of learning how to think about magic. I mean, to actually learn a catchall takes a little work since you have to sit down with a spell, break it apart with Arithmancy, balance it out so you know where you can separate it, practice breaking it apart but holding it together and then practice casting it like that-"

"That doesn't sound like a little work," she said dryly.

"Okay, it takes some work. But once you get that, once you've actually broken a spell down and cast it a few times, it's just a matter of knowing how to think about magic and believing that since you know how to do it, you can do it just like any other spell. It takes practice, but once you actually manage to convince yourself you can perform a catchall variation in a second because you already know the magic and the theory, then you can pretty much do it in a second. It's one of those forms of magic that actually requires real belief that it'll work."

"Wow…" She gave him an odd look. "How'd you know it?"

"Now here's when I can say: ooh, Harry Potter, ooh."

She laughed. "Right. Sorry. But man, that's pretty cool. I have got to learn that."

"You will. I know they teach it here since I was asked about it on one of the placement tests I took this summer."

"Oh man, I took some of those when I started. Aren't they just frustrating? I mean, you know what you know, obviously, but seeing all those questions you don't know makes you feel kind of like 'yikes, what am I doing here!' in a way."

"Yeah, I know!" Harry nodded. "I mean, you think you know a lot and then you just keep seeing questions you can't even begin to answer and you start to feel stupid. You know, of course, that they're including questions all the way up to college level stuff, but you still feel kind of, well, stupid."

"Yeah."

"So, where are you going with all those books?" Harry asked curiously as he reached out to straighten the pile in her arms. He settled a light netting charm on them to keep them from toppling. She didn't seem to notice.

"Library. I've been here about five days now, I think it is. Time sort of gets weird without classes. But anyway, I've been reading up on stuff, getting ready for the year, that sort of thing."

"Always a good idea. Amy, you said?"

"Yeah. Amy Applewhite."

"Really? Applewhite? Related at all to Flora Applewhite, maybe?"

Amy gave him a startled look. "You know my Aunt Flora?"

"Yep." Harry put his hands in his pockets. "Of her, I mean. I've never met her. But my mom's a photographer." Harry looked down at black sneakers for a moment. "Man, that sounds weird… I don't think I've ever actually thought about it like that."

"How can you not when she's a photographer?"

"I'm weird? It feels more like a hobby with my mom, though, since she doesn't need the money so she doesn't worry about having to get work. She does it because she loves it. So I've never really thought of her as a photographer before… But, anyway, she takes photos. My mom doesn't like the moving pictures and all of that, she's trace-magical, but she really loves Flora Applewhite's work, so of course I noticed and remembered that, her approving of moving images as real photography."

"Wow, really?"

"Yeah. My mom says something, like, an Applewhite photo will always get to the heart of the subject, always show you exactly what you need to see, even with all of the nonsense of moving about going on. Something like that."

"My Aunt will think that is totally amazing. Can I tell her?"

"Yeah, sure."

"She'll be really thrilled."

Harry grinned. "Small world, huh? Especially the magical world."

"Tell me about it. I think it's even smaller at Hathorne." She gave him a look up and down. "Those jeans are completely amazing. Where did you get them? They have to be from a magical shopping center somewhere; I've never seen jeans like that for a guy anywhere in the non-magical world."

Harry ran his hand down the silky feeling gold dragon down his leg. "They are completely amazing," he agreed. "You know, they could be girl jeans," he couldn't help but tease.

"As if you'd be wearing girl jeans. Yeah, right, don't think so."

"Hey, don't be so quick to judge. I would totally wear anything if I thought I looked good in it. I actually own girl jeans that I've altered to, ahem, make fit where the fitting needs to be my friend." He grinned. "Though in this case you'd be right, I did buy them in a magical shopping center, and no, they aren't girl jeans this time."

"You are very interesting," she said after a moment.

"Thank you!"

"So where'd you get them?"

"Smashin' Fashion on Golden Street."

"You're from California? I'm sort of from that area."

"Nope." He shook his head with a laugh. "I just shop there."

"That's right. There's always some sighting somewhere, isn't there?"

"Yeah. It's always amusing to read about my visiting a place I've never been. And some of those places are really cool! I wish I had been there."

She laughed and shifted the books in her arm, turning her wrist enough to glance at her watch. "Damn. Well, it was nice to meet you, but I've got to get to the library. I'll probably have someone dropping by my room soon and I should probably be there."

"All right. See you around. Maybe we'll have a class together."

"Maybe," she agreed, continuing down the hall. "We just might."

"Oh, hey, my L1 confusion, maybe you can help me out."

She turned. "What's up?"

"Why do some of the doors have handles and some don't? I'm probably more confused by this than I should be."

"Oh! You didn't get someone to help you find your room? They usually tell you."

"Nope, my family figured we'd be able to do it on our own."

"Well, when the door's locked, there's no knob, but when it's unlocked, say if you're expecting someone to come visit, then there's a knob. You have to magically unlock it from the inside with your ID card, so by default it's always locked."

"Cool, thanks."

"Yeah, sure." She continued down the hall.

Harry studied the doors again with a laugh, leaning back against the wall. After a few moments he let himself un-focus a little, dropping his shields just enough to get a feel for the atmosphere magic around him. He'd just fallen into the flow of magic when voices pulled his focus back into the hall and he looked down the hallway in the direction they'd come. After a minute, Mrs. Cashaw, his Hathorne Advisor, rounded the corner with Laney. Al trailed after them with a stupid look on his face that Harry knew from experience meant Al was contemplating asking someone out.

"Hey, Mrs. Cashaw," Harry greeted, pushing away from the wall.

She looked over in surprise. "Mr. Potter. Jamie. I thought you were taking the traditional walk-through. You ought to be getting done with it just about now and heading this way, not already here…"

"We decided to skip it. I mean, really, I had the first orientation and then a second one and then I was here half a dozen times over the summer doing assessments and getting things worked out. And besides that, Suntree's pretty much made me memorize the campus map and the map of the town and yeah, I think I'm pretty good with knowing where things are."

"Ah…" She glanced at the door, around the otherwise empty hallway and then to him. "I see. Have you been inside yet?"

Harry snorted. "Yep. Been inside. Got my family moving things around. Met the roommate."

"Ah, yes. We were expecting to meet you here so we could talk to you about that before you actually went inside."

Harry laughed. "I just bet you did want to talk to me first. He's, um, interesting, to put it politely." Harry raised his brows. "Though what I find the most interesting is how none of us were prepared for just how interesting the roommate would be. I'm pretty sure that Suntree-"

"We met Suntree on the grounds," Mrs. Cashaw interrupted. "And we've spoken with him about it. Honestly, this was an entirely last minute change. We moved him early this afternoon after he met the L2 roommate he was supposed to have been sharing a room with. They didn't…"

"Geoffrey was himself and his roommate wanted nothing to do with that?" Harry put in with amusement.

"To put it one way, yes." She smiled wryly. "We looked to see if there was anyone else coming in new in L2 who might be a good match and then we even looked at the L3 students, but there wasn't anyone. Then it occurred to us that maybe you would have a better chance with him and we transferred him to your room. We didn't really want to give him a room to himself for various reasons-"

"Like he's a snob and a jerk and completely full of himself and you didn't want to reward that kind of behavior since he seems to expect he'll end up getting a private room anyway?"

"Once again, Mr. Potter, you see to the heart of the matter. And in any case, if we had put him in a private room, both you and he would have been in private rooms and we do try not to do that."

"Yeah, makes sense."

"Though…" Mrs. Cashaw trailed off with a slightly uncertain look.

"What?"

"Well, he's a few years older than you. I don't know if that make any difference. And this is his first year, but he's coming in as an L3 because he was privately tutored up to that Level-"

"Even more than me?" Harry asked with a laugh. "No wonder he's grumpy."

Mrs. Cashaw shook her head with a smile. "You had extensive tutoring in a variety of subjects, yes, but he was actually being homeschooled with an eye toward not attending a traditional school. He's covered most of the subjects we offer in the first few Levels, not just the magic heavy ones."

"Ah."

"So you might find him to be…"

"Extra annoying?" Harry supplied with a small grin. "Because we're both starting at the same time, but he's in L3 and I'm only in L1?"

"That's one way of putting it, yes."

"Don't worry, Jamie has plenty of experience in putting people older than him in their place," Al snorted.

Harry smiled brightly. "You're so sweet, Al."

"Ah, good then. So if you don't mind, we did speak to Sunny and he said there wouldn't be any security problems with it," Mrs. Cashaw assured.

Harry looked to Laney. Laney shrugged. "I know nothing about half vampires or vampires or anything, but Sunny tells me that the kid is just a kid."

Harry refrained from pointing out that a half vampire being just a kid was like saying he was just a kid. "Yeah, just a kid. A snob and brat and full of himself and-"

"Yes, Mr. Potter, we're aware of his charms," Mrs. Cashaw put in dryly. "Understand that if at any time you really don't want to share a room with him any more, we will find a solution, even if it means you both get private rooms."

"That's cool. He's a snobbish jerk, sure, and thinks he's all that because he's a half vampire, but it's cool. I don't mind. I think once he gets over the 'Prince of Darkness' thing he's got going that he'll be pretty tolerable. Don't worry. And for now, it's probably best to stick him with someone who won't freak out if he flashes those fangs and tries to be intimidating just as long as you realize that if he does act threatening, I will curse him."

"Yes, I imagine you would. But if he truly threatens or tries to harm anyone, he'll lose his place. I don't think that will be a problem."

"Then we are beyond cool."

She smiled with relief. "I'm glad to hear that. It seems you figured everything out on your own anyway. Perhaps you should just skip attending school and go straight to teaching."

Harry snorted. "At least let me get a few Levels under my belt."

"I suppose we can do that for you." She shifted the binder she held so it rested against her side. "So, your mother has some more information about Hathorne now. The tour went very well." She smiled. "I assume that you're going to be expanding your room today and changing everything around?"

"I didn't practice space-layering for months on end only to put it off and not actually do it on my first day." Harry grinned. "I've already demonstrated my ability to a member of the staff, after all."

"We have it on record, yes. If anyone gives you any trouble about it, just send them to one of the administrators. You might have a little trouble, I'll give you fair warning. Most students aren't able to achieve any significant form of space-layering for several years."

"That's cool. Thanks."

"And we-" She stopped and pulled a pager off her belt. "Hm. Mr. Potter, do you have any questions for me?"

"Um… No, ma'am, I don't think I do."

"Then I need to be somewhere else. Everything's always interesting the day before classes start up again. You know where to find me if you need anything."

"Yes, ma'am."

She shifted the binder again and extended a hand. "Welcome to Hathorne, Mr. Potter."

He grinned and shook her hand. "Thanks."

She nodded and turned back down the hall.

"Are your PDs in there menacing the irksome fanged menace?" Laney asked with amusement. "Cindy- Mrs. Cashaw told me that he's a brat, but he should be fairly harmless for all of his growling. I figure, if you can put up with Hollen, you should be okay."

Harry snickered. "It's hard to say, actually, on the menacing. And by the way, Mom, irksome fanged menace, that is so stolen. I am so using that. But anyway! You won't believe who we ran into. Appropriately enough."

"Don't make me guess, Jamie."

"Holly! He says he was assigned here to do a security overview thing, but I get the feeling that he kind of wanted to be here to make sure I got all settled in and he somehow got the Director to make up that assignment."

"He does seem quite fond of you."

"What? Davish is in there?" Al asked, suddenly paying attention.

Harry rolled his eyes and gave Al a thumb's up. "You're doing a bang up job of body guarding, Al. Keep it up."

Al gave Harry the finger behind Laney's back.

"Is Al misbehaving?" Laney asked.

"No, I'm not!"

"Uh, I think he might be, Mom."

"Nope! Not me!"

Harry snorted. "But anyway, I really couldn't say what's going on in there. Because Holly's in there. And so is Green. And when I left, they were bickering back and forth about the Southern thing. Don't even get me started on that. And as much as I love Tony, he doesn't seem the type to stop them from bickering, just from being violent."

Laney sighed.

"But maybe Holly and Green have actually joined forces! The dark prince of irked fanginess was being a brat when I left. If they both got irritated enough, they might have ganged up on him."

Laney laughed and settled an arm round his shoulder, dropping a kiss to his hair. "You're a special kid, you know that?"

"I love you, too, Mom." He gave her a tug forward and pulled out his card to unlock the door again. "And the room is just as tiny as I remember it. So I've got them clearing out furniture so I can get as much expansion as possible. I've got a really good feeling about this. The wood is very responsive and the magic here seems like it'll be quite helpful."

"Ooh, Jamie's doing magic?"

"Shut up, Al." Harry waved them into the dorm hallway, giving Al a little smile as he passed.

Al grinned, edging around the dressers and desks taking up most of the room in the hallway. "It's always a treat watching you make things go boom. Wait, that's Green. You make-"

"I make nothing. Nothing, I tell you. Not a thing. I didn't do it and you can't prove it. I wasn't there. I was out of the country. Washing my hair. On another planet. And this is the dorm room… Wow, I'm very impressed. Well done, PDs. And Holly."

Green grinned from where he was lounging on the bed sans everything but mattress. "Only things we couldn't fit in the bathroom and closets were the beds, just like you said."

Harry gave the nearly empty room a once over. Geoffrey glared at him from his own mattress only bed, looking like he'd been thoroughly ill used. Harry ignored him and nodded to the others in the room. "Very good. Excellent. I approve."

Hollen looked up from where he was lounging against the wall furthest from Green. Harry only then realized that Tony was standing in the middle of the room between them and he decided he didn't want to know. "So, what now?" Hollen asked, sounding bored.

"Now… everyone gets out." He grinned. "I need some space to work. And that means you, too, prince of darkness. Oh, glare at me all you want. I've been glared at by the best of them. Yours is impressive, but not impressive enough."

"And once we clear out of the room?" Hollen asked, strolling over.

"You don't have to actually leave entirely. You all can just hover adoringly in that small hallway there, watching me sit on the floor with my eyes closed for forty minutes, being awed and amazed at my ability to sit." Harry gave everyone a bright smile as he moved to do just that, settling cross-legged in the middle of the room. "Or you could go somewhere more exciting. Your choice. All except Tony. Tony gets to sit next to me and move the furniture around when I tell him. Ooh, exciting. I know you all must be aflutter with excitement, but please, try and control yourselves."

"Looks like his delusions of grandeur are starting to flare up again," Al put in from beside the hallway.

"You know what they say." Tony grinned as he settled cross legged across from Harry. "Delusions of grandeur are like bad bones and arthritis, they always flare up unpleasantly when the weather's about to change. I, for one, am quite grateful. I know if he ever tries to take over a country, we should be preparing for some pretty bad weather."

"That's me, your delusional barometer. Love the barometer, he's the only one you have."

Tony laughed. "So you keep telling us."

"You know why that is?" Hollen asked, poking Harry's leg with his foot as he passed. "Because you're the broken one from the store. Someone was obviously not paying attention when they bought you."

"It takes one to know one."

"Jamie?"

Harry tipped his head back. "Mom?"

"I'm going to explore the floor we're on, see what's here. I should be back by the time you're done. I'm not really interested in staring at you sit on the floor for however long, kiddo." She came over, leaning down to give the top of his head a fond kiss.

"Aw, Mom, was that really necessary?"

"An affectionate imp like you asking if it's necessary?" She felt his forehead. "No fever. Hm."

Harry pushed her hand away with an eye roll. "Point taken. Oh, hey." He looked to Al. "You get to stand outside the door and make sure no one comes in and interrupts."

"What? Me? Why?"

"Um… because you do." Harry grinned.

Al rolled his eyes but followed Laney out of the room without complaint.

Harry waited until he heard the door close, then eyed the glaring Geoffrey who was hovering just near the doorway. "Get moving, sexy boots."

He spluttered.

"Yeah, that's right, I said it, I called you sexy boots."

"Why?"

"Because you're sexy in your boots," Harry teased. "And your boots are sexy."

Geoffrey spluttered again.

"Yeah, that's what they all say. Now get moving."

Geoffrey glared.

"I can be even more obnoxious," Harry warned. "I'm tuned into the magic just right, I'm ready, I've got the room cleared, I want to get to work. The more stubborn you get, the more obnoxious I promise I can be."

"Yeah, he makes obnoxious curl up in a corner and cry for its lost innocence," Tony put in with a snigger.

"The things that come out of your mouth," Green said with a head shake, sitting on one of the desks.

"Ain't they just the sweetest ever?" Harry asked with a grin.

Geoffrey drew himself up stiffly and stalked out of the room, edging past Hollen as he slipped into the hallway, muttering to himself in French. Harry didn't hear the door open or close, but the French muttering stopped. Harry waited to see if there was anything for a few moments, then turned his sternest look on Hollen.

"Sheesh, what'd I do to deserve that?"

"If you start bickering with Green and I get distracted, or even worse, I have to stop what I'm doing, the world will never recover from the great sadness that will result. Are we clear?"

"Great sadness, huh?" Hollen asked.

"Very great. Great the likes of which you can't fathom."

"I think I can tolerate its presence for a little while for your sake."

"I'm not an 'it'," Green told him shortly.

Hollen glanced around. "Did anyone hear something? It sounded like-"

"Holly!"

"You know, it sounded rather like insignificance."

Harry stared at Hollen.

"What?"

Harry continued to stare. Tony sniggered.

"What? There's no need to stare at me like that."

Harry intensified his stare, eyes narrowing. Tony sniggered again.

"Okay, fine, I'll behave!"

"I think you should watch from the bathroom if you insist on staying in the room," Harry informed him. "Just so we're sure. I don't think you can help but be an ass."

"The bathroom?"

"Yes, the bathroom."

"You're sending me to the bathroom?"

"I absolutely am."

Hollen narrowed his eyes back, then sniffed and sauntered through the room into the bathroom, grabbing one of the desk chairs and sprawling out in it right in front of the doorway. "I like this better anyway."

"Glad to hear it." Harry took several centering, grounding breaths. "Now everyone be quiet and stay quiet," he muttered, closing his eyes. He cracked open an eye to look at Tony; Tony bit back another snigger. "Quiet."

"Yes, sir!"

"Seriously, people," Harry mumbled, closing his eyes again. He took several deep breaths and pulled down his outer Occlumency shields and rebuilt them, focusing on infusing them and himself with calm and focus. Once they were done and he was relaxed, he let go of his magic and aura dampening shields, slowly dropping each layer until the magic in the room was like wind against his skin, flowing and moving around him.

Harry let go of his sense of self and focused on being his magic, moving with the flow of his own aura as he waited for the magic in the room to notice him. It felt like it took some time and yet no time at all before the flows of magic in the room began to focus on him, moving closer, surrounding him, drifting over his own magic. There was no communication, no signal, just a sense of curiosity and reaching that could have been nothing and could have been Harry's own emotions, but he'd made sure to lock his Occlumency shields down tightly for just that reason.

Slowly the atmospheric magic around Harry began to flow with the movement of his magical aura, tuning into his magic, and it responded quickly to Harry's light touch as he drew it close, right against his aura. Harry called up the complex space-layering spell and began to cast it without focus, letting it diffuse over his magic as a whole.

The spell transferred easily to the magic touching his and from there it drifted into the room and into place with only the smallest of directing nudges, sprawling and stretching across part of a wall. Harry waited until that spell had anchored firmly before casting again, letting the spell be carried away by the magic filling the room, falling into place snugly beside the first. It took barely a dozen castings before the magic around Harry began to finish the spell once Harry had it half complete, and only a dozen more before the magic around Harry recognized a familiar pattern and began copying and anchoring the spell without any guidance.

It was a slow process, letting the spell copy and spread along the walls, each locking into place without a whisper of overlap, then beginning to build a new layer securely atop the first. Harry waited patiently, following the flows of magic and moving behind to add a touch of his own magic to every completed layer, holding the threads of his magic with great concentration. Harry's patience with the slow pace magic set for itself was rewarded as the magic stretched and molded and filled gaps in places Harry couldn't even sense, let alone hope to fill. And Harry didn't have to struggle with powering the spells; as the atmospheric magic wrapped itself in the spell and pressed into the walls, more magic flowed in from outside of the room, like water filling a freshly dug hole at the edge of the beach.

Gradually, with care, Harry began casting new spells, sound mufflers, personal wards and emotion feeders that would draw on the power of strong emotions to continue to strengthen and cement the spells so they would hold fast and secure. He began to link the threads of magic he held, making each separate part a link in the chain of the whole, chains that connected into webs that became sheets overlaying each other, each fitting snugly into the next.

As the magic grew, stretched and filled the room, Harry murmured vague directions, not even hearing his own voice, but knowing Tony heard him because the obstacles in the way of the chains and threads of the trailing spells disappeared. Harry kept his attention on the twisting, linking, webbing magic, holding tightly to the threads of his own magic as the complex space-layering structure built itself, the magic around Harry pulling tighter with each new layer added, wrapping around Harry in a cocoon that grew ever more constricting.

It wasn't until Harry felt like he could hardly breathe from the pressure that he realized how tightly stretched his own magic was, holding the links of every chain in every thread. He had greatly underestimated just how malleable the room's materials were and how amiable the ambient magic would be; he felt stretched, with no concept of where his body began and the magic ended. There was still potential left, more room for layering and building, but he quickly began to tie the threads together before he lost his grip on the magic he held and the entire structure collapsed.

Harry wrapped and braided and wound the threads together as he tied them, pulling each thread taut into the center of the room, until the bundle of threads were a tightly coiled, humming mass, stretched to the edge of breaking.

And then he let go.

For a single moment everything around Harry was pure magic as the stretched threads flew in every direction, and then the room was awash with flashes of green light that were bright even behind Harry's closed lids. The flashes radiated from the center of the room and flared out, spreading across the walls in rapid bursts, crashing together in sparks, and then the entire room glowed green for a moment before going dark.

Harry took a deep breath and gathered his magic into a gentle warding probe, then cast it around the room. The probe teased along the walls, searching for chinks, gaps, holes, frays, loose threads, bubbles and rough patches, but the whole was seamless and smooth.

"All present and accounted for?" Harry murmured without opening his eyes. The words felt strange in his mouth and he flexed his fingers slowly, getting used to the feel of being contained again in a body.

"Holy… Fuck…" Hollen muttered.

"I second that," Green added fervently.

Tony made a sniggering-giggling kind of noise.

Harry opened his eyes just enough to peer through his lashes, rolling his shoulders slowly. All he could see was the glow of the milky white shield that had formed around him and Tony to protect them from the true pressure of the magic. He closed his eyes again. "Someone hit us with a Stupefy?"

A moment later there was a flare of magic and Harry breathed evenly to keep himself from tensing and reinforcing the shield. When the spell hit, the shield cracked like a dropped egg and collapsed with little sparks of white light. Harry breathed in deeply, letting his awareness of magic expand beyond the confines of the shield before he began to pull his aura shields properly into place.

"Wait, when did you form a shield…?" Hollen asked.

"I didn't. Magic did. Part of the spell, forms itself. Quiet, I'm concentrating."

"Right…"

The last shield settled where it belonged, returning Harry to a more comfortable state of awareness. He opened his eyes slowly to find Tony giving him a completely goofy, not entirely there smile.

"You look like… you've had a very nice time or something," Harry muttered, trying to hold back a smart remark that would be sure to get back to The Spoon. "Along the lines of quite a bit more nocturnal fun than anyone should ever have."

Tony sniggered again. "Oh wow, yeah, wow…"

Harry freed one of his legs from its cross-legged position a little stiffly and nudged Tony's shoe with his own, prompting another snigger from Tony. "I think I broke him… I'm so not paying for him."

"It's like so much wow…" Tony murmured, swaying a little as he continued to grin goofily.

"What the hell is wrong with him?" Hollen asked.

Harry looked over to the small hallway; it looked considerably further away and Harry worried for a moment that he'd offset the center point and skewed the expansion. Geoffrey was watching, however, eyes wide as he peered around the edge of the hallway, and Harry adopted the most casual look he could muster. "That's just magical backwash. It ought to fade in a few minutes."

"Yeah, do you believe in magic…"

Harry turned his attention back to Tony, eyebrows raised.

"Oh yeah, believe in the magic of a young girl's soul, believe in the magic of rock and roll, believe in the magic that can set you freeeee-"

"Tony," Harry interrupted. "Dude. Creepy. Seriously. Stop right now."

Tony sniggered and laughed to himself, continuing to sway as he hummed.

"Okay." Harry glanced towards the window and managed not to give a start with only the greatest of effort; as it was, he was glad he was looking away from the watchers as he gaped to see the window side of the room just as far away as the hallway side. He craned his head around to look behind him and then turned to look beyond Tony, only just managing to rearrange his expression into mild pleasure. "Not bad…"

"Not bad? Hah!" Green came into the room slowly, looking around with clear awe. "Damn, kid, there are just no words… This is freaking amazing is what this is. It's like tripled in size!"

"I hate to agree with the Southern…" Hollen muttered, strolling into the room as well.

"Quadrupled in size!"

"But this is pretty damned impressive," Hollen finished, giving Green a half-hearted look of distaste.

"It's not bad," Harry repeated, watching Geoffrey's continued wide-eyed and now full out flabbergasted staring from out of the corner of his eye as he shifted to get up. He put some care into the movements and was glad he did when he found he couldn't quite muster the strength to move yet; he sprawled casually on the carpet instead and folded his hands behind his head, hiding the faint shakiness of overexertion. It worried him for a second until he turned his head to watch the others moving in the room and the sheer size of the expansion drove home how strained his magic had been at the end of the casting. "It's not so bad at all."

"Believe in magic," Tony crooned to himself, still sitting and swaying in the same place.

"Are you sure he's okay?" Green asked.

"Yeah. It's just magical backwash. It happens. But with the way Tony seems to be enjoying the feeling, it might take more than a few minutes to fade." Harry looked to the continuing-to-gape Geoffrey. He didn't bother to stop his smirk. "Yeah, I have that effect on people. It's all in a day's work. No, don't bother thanking me. Oh, if you insist. Go right ahead and thank me. Go on. Really, go ahead."

The boy gaped, glared, then settled into a strangely affronted, uncertain, gaping glare that made Harry want to snigger himself.

Hollen came over to nudge Harry's side with his foot. "Are you okay?"

"Peachy dandy," Harry told him with a grin. "Just stretching out. I must have been sitting in that one place for nearly an hour."

"Forty-five minutes. And for someone stretching out, you're rather stationary."

"Stretching out and basking in accomplishment."

Hollen gave him a look that clearly conveyed how doubtful he was of Harry's story; in the next moment he'd kneeled and gathered Harry up into his arms. "Whoa, dude, what are you doing?" Harry asked, gripping Hollen's shoulders.

Hollen 'hmph'ed and glanced down at one of Harry's hands, then raised a brow, fixing him with a 'you can't fool me into believing you're all right' look. Harry gave Hollen a pointed, wide-eyed stern look, eyes flicking towards Geoffrey and then back. Hollen rolled his eyes.

"Do you believe in magic, do you believe in magic…"

"Kindly put me down, Holly."

Hollen slowly lowered Harry to his feet but kept a firm arm around him. The poking, prodding, prickles of his magic against Harry's was comforting, Harry found, but far more intrusive than usual with Harry's magic drawn in close, stable but quietly recovering from the strain of the casting.

"I'm going to marry this feeling," Tony declared loudly, making Harry jump slightly. "I have decided this. No more girls for me. I'm going to marry magic. That was the most mind-blowing-"

Harry wriggled his foot out of one of his sneakers and kicked it at Tony, making Tony start. "Oi! We don't need that sort of talk in here. Keep your generally amusingly inappropriate comments to yourself right now."

Tony picked up the shoe with a snigger that half turned into a giggle. "I have your shoe."

"That you do," Harry agreed. "I don't suppose someone would conjure me a chair so I can- thanks…?" Harry eyed the armchair that would have been completely normal looking if it hadn't been covered in a rubber ducky pattern. "I'm not sure you should be doing magic in your condition…" he muttered to Tony as he pulled away from Hollen. He found himself steady on his feet as he put his hands on his hips and gave the room a once over, but he didn't want to push his luck and moved to sit in the chair. It quacked when he sat down.

"I'm not sure he should be doing anything in his condition," Hollen opined, studying Tony with fascination as Tony grinned at his wand. "Damn. I wish I had a camera."

"Laney does," Green remarked mildly.

"I don't suppose someone would get me a drink of water…" Harry trailed off as Tony practically fell over from the force of his enthusiastic wand movements. A stone goblet appeared on the arm of the chair and Harry grabbed it before it fell over, and then studied it, wondering how someone managed to conjure stone with a rubber ducky theme. "Thanks again…" He took a sip. "Well, the water's nice and cold. I wish I had some juice, though."

"There're drink and snack machines in the lounges," Green said, pushing away from the wall he was leaning against. "I'll get you some juice. And your mom's probably waiting outside, too, so I'll let her know she can come in."

Harry sent Green a salute as he stifled a yawn.

As Green turned the corner into the hallway, Geoffrey slunk past him and properly into the room, skirting the wall next to the bathroom, studying the room almost as if he expected it to be a trick.

"How the hell do you know that?" Hollen called after Green. "You came up the stairs!"

"Lounges have snack machines," Green called back. "Basic logic." There was a sound and then some murmuring.

"Do we even know where the lounges are?" Hollen muttered.

Harry shrugged.

"Well, I hope everything went well," Laney called out from the hallway. "That took longer than- Oh." Laney stopped just inside the room, staring in shocked astonishment. "No… Jamie couldn't have done this…"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Mom."

She looked over at him with shining eyes. "You did this?"

"Yeah. I've been practicing all summer for it, you know…"

Laney pressed a hand to her mouth for a moment, then practically ran into the room to throw her arms around Harry in a hug. "Oh, my baby!" She pulled him closer, knocking the goblet from his hand and sending cold water down his leg.

"Mom," Harry muttered, trying to hug back and push her away at the same time, "come on, you've seen me do magic before."

"I know, but- Oh! I'm so proud of you!"

"Mom…"

"You're growing up so fast!"

"Mom…"

Tony let out another half snigger, half giggle of delight. Laney pulled away in surprise to give Tony a very odd look. "What…?"

Harry dropped a hand to rub his soaked pant leg, wishing he felt energized enough to dry his pants with magic. "Magical backwash."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he wasn't the originator of the spell, so when the magic washed over the room he was in the way of it and he's basically been flooded with too much raw magic at once." Harry sat back and crossed his legs, knee over knee, and mournfully considered his empty goblet. The chair quacked again.

"But what does- your butt just quacked, child."

"It just sort of overloaded his magic." Harry shifted and the chair quacked again. "So it just flooded him with powerful, raw magic, and it sort of fills you with pure energy and… er, makes you feel really good…"

Laney turned a searching look on Harry that made him uncomfortable. He was glad when Tony sniggered again with a, "Like an amazing… long…"

Harry shifted to pull his other shoe off and throw it at Tony to shut him up. The chair quacked again.

Laney's searching look turned puzzled. "Why is your butt quacking?"

"I don't know; Tony's the one that conjured the chair." Harry looked over at Tony. "Hey, can you make the chair stop that? I'm starting to feel like I'm squishing ducks, which is, you know, not cool."

Tony jabbed his wand at the chair with a narrow-eyed look that made Harry nervous for a moment, shifting away instinctively. Harry relaxed when nothing happened, not even a quack, and he sat up a little straighter as he fought back another yawn. "Hey…" He looked around the room. "Where's Al?"

"Holding the door open," Al called out from the hallway. "Since it locks when it closes. Waiting for- and here's Green."

"Thanks for the commentary," Harry called out.

"Yeah, well, we all know you're nosy. Ooh, multiple juices…" Al came into the room, head bent over a bottle of juice as he tried to pull off the protective plastic wrapping.

"He stole one of your juice bottles," Green informed Harry as he sidled around Al and over to the chair, opening the bottle of juice he held as he went. He handed it over after twisting the top loose.

"Jamie doesn't mind sharing," Al muttered. "Ah ha."

"If I want it, I'll steal it back." Harry accepted the juice and took a long drink.

"See?" Al looked up. "He can steal it ba… Holy fuck!"

Laney turned on her heel and smacked Al's arm twice before he even realized she'd pulled The Spoon from her purse.

"Woman-"

"Don't call me woman," Laney interrupted sternly, jabbing him with The Spoon.

"But the room! It's fucking hu- OW!" Al rubbed his arm with a frown, opening his mouth again.

"Hey, Al, why don't you help Green start bringing everything back in the room," Harry suggested before Al could bring down the wrath of The Spoon again. "Shoo, shoo, go on." He took another long drink.

"But I-"

"Great idea," Green said, grabbing Al's arm and dragging him into the bathroom.

Hollen peered over the back of Harry's chair, making Harry start. "You look like the king of rubber ducks," he informed Harry with a grin. "Oh!" He looked up to give Laney a charming smile. "As I understand it, you have a camera on your person?"

"Oh!" Laney pulled her purse around to pull out one of her cameras. "Great idea!" She snapped a picture of Harry.

Harry fixed Hollen with a completely unimpressed look.

Hollen's mouth twitched. "Actually, I was hoping to get some pictures of loopy over there." He nodded to Tony. Tony continued to examine Harry's shoes with an intense expression, not seeming to notice them at all.

Laney laughed and took a picture of Tony. Tony looked up with a start at the flash, then grinned and gave the camera a peace sign, sticking out his tongue.

"That's amazing," Harry murmured. "We are so getting copies of that."

"I am so putting copies of that on every bulletin board I can find at the USAS," Hollen murmured back.

"As amusing as he is like this," Laney said, turning her camera back on Harry and Hollen and taking another picture, "isn't there something you can do for him?"

"Ooh, pictures." Hollen came around the side of the chair to throw his arms around Harry in a hug and grin at the camera. Harry burst out laughing as Laney took another picture.

"You are something else," Harry snorted.

"Ah, but it's a wonderful something," Hollen preened, sitting on the arm of the chair.

"Jamie." Laney nodded to Tony. "Can you do something for him?"

"It has been more than the several minutes you predicted it'd take for it to wear off," Green pointed out, directing one of the bookshelves into the corner of the room with his wand.

Harry looked over at Tony. Tony was staring at the wall, looking blissfully out of it. Harry flexed his fingers, pooling wandless magic in his palm; the magic was still slowly strengthening and recovering from the strain. "It won't hurt him; it'll just make him act weird. I was the originator, so I was protected from the excess magic in the room, but he was in the room and in the way of the loose magic that had nothing to attach to after I locked the space-layering in place. But the excess ought to fade back into the room slowly. There's a chance it won't, if it's gotten too attached to Tony's magic, but it's always faded in practices." Harry shrugged. "I'll see about doing something in a bit if it hasn't gotten better."

"Well, I guess you probably know best," Laney murmured, glancing around the expanded room with a momentary odd look.

Harry smiled slightly and took a small sip, then glanced around the room. Geoffrey was standing stiffly in a corner of the room, glaring at the room as a whole as if it had deeply insulted him, but in a very nice way, and he wasn't entirely sure how to take it.

"Hey, prince of darkness-"

"Geoffrey," he cut in coolly.

"Fine. Hey, sexy boots-"

"What exactly does that mean?" Geoffrey demanded.

"You're a complete sexy package topped off with a pair of sexy boots," Harry teased, then glanced over at Laney. "Love you, Mom!" he said quickly, seeing her hand reach for her purse, eyes narrowing. "I mean, I love your boots. Great boots. Best boots ever. So, roommate, Geoffrey, prince of glares, do you like the room?"

Geoffrey glared.

"I can change it if you don't," Harry teased.

The boy managed to glare even more.

"Se- Boots?" Harry prompted. "I can keep asking all day and all night and all day and all night and-"

"I find it acceptable," Geoffrey cut in with a little growl.

"Fabulous! All you had to do was say so. And now I'll stop bothering you and leave you to set up your side of the room as you wish. See, I can be magnanimous. But, hey, boots, prince, adorable glaring one, how about you put the glare away for a little while, okay? If you wear it out right now, I won't have the pleasure of being glared at for the rest of the year. And it's such a cute glare."

Geoffrey immediately stopped glaring and stormed over to his bed.

"He loves me," Harry said with a wise nod and grin. "He only thinks he doesn't because of psychobabble, psychobabble, really big word, psychobabble, sprinkle of bullshi-uger, er, more psychobabble."

"Bullshi-uger?" Hollen asked with a laugh, getting up to stroll around the room. Green had to stop short as he guided a bookcase into the room before he knocked Hollen over with it, looking mightily tempted to do just that.

"Yes," Harry answered with a sniff. "Bullshiuger. It's like bullsugar, but with more shiu. Fancy you not knowing that. Everyone knows that."

"Nice save," Laney said with a look. "Not fooled. But I suppose bullsugar isn't yet Spoonworthy."

"I love you, Mommy."

"Uh huh."

Harry ruined his sweet look with a snicker and grin.

"Come," Hollen commanded, moving to pull Harry to his feet. "I wish to survey your wardrobe."

Harry snorted as Hollen tugged him persistently toward the bathroom. "Hold on." He turned back to the room. "While Holly's being weird over my clothes, how about getting the room set up a little?" he said, glancing between Al and Green.

"What'd'ya want?" Green asked.

"Well." Harry gave his side of the room an onceover. "I definitely want the bed in the corner, facing towards the door. And I definitely want the bed to be enlarged, at least a Queen size bed, if not a King, if the materials are malleable enough. Lower to the floor, too, and like my bed at home with the shelves in the headboard and no real footboard, but of course keeping the posts for the curtains."

"I'm going to focus on enlarging the drawers of your dresser and desk," Al put in.

"You're good at furniture expansion; you do that."

"Shall I just sit back and watch then?" Laney asked dryly.

"Oh come on, Mom, you've got a really important job." Harry gestured to Tony. Tony continued to lie on the carpet, studying the ceiling with intent. "Make sure he doesn't do anything too weird."

"I thought you were going to make him better."

"Give it time to wear off. Sometimes it's like a scab, Mom, and you just have to wait for it to come off all on its own. You tell me that all the time."

"Where do you want the bookcase, kid?" Green asked, leaning against it.

"Oh! Yeah. Wow, big room, not much in it… How about you put the desk in the corner opposite the bed and then we'll put the bookshelf next to it… and just put the dresser next to the wall… And I need more furniture in here."

"I think…" Green rapped on the side of the bookcase, listening closely. "Sturdy, thick wood, I think I can break this into two bookcases, but they won't be much longer than they are now. And we'll get you another dresser. But you definitely have to have a filing cabinet; you'll need to be able to organize all of your schoolwork somewhere you can refer back to it easily."

"Sounds like a shopping trip to me," Hollen said with a grin.

"I'll have to go next weekend."

"But we're looking at your wardrobe right now!" Hollen began to pull him along again. "And if there's shopping to be done this weekend, I am so going and we may just have to get you some clothes."

"My clothes are fine."

"We'll see." Hollen nudged Harry into the closet, and then quicker than Harry could follow, Hollen drew his wand, locked the door and summoned an overstuffed armchair. "Why is it always black paisley?" he grumbled under his breath, jabbing his wand at it to no effect.

"Because it's you?"

"Sit," Hollen ordered, pushing him into the chair.

"Er… what? You dragged me into the closet to sit even though I was sitting out there? That's a little weird."

"Precisely."

"And now I'm completely lost. Congratulations."

Hollen was silent, smiling slightly.

"And you're not answering."

"Quiet. I'm glorifying in being the one to confuse you for once instead of the other way around."

Harry rolled his eyes.

"And that's precisely my point; you were out there sitting. You, sitting. The Jamie I know isn't one to just sit back when there are exciting things to be done, and you can't even begin to tell me you aren't excited by the thought of setting up your side of the dorm. And no matter how well you were pulling off this image of his royal majesty, the princess of the kingdom of rubber ducky-"

"That totally contradicts itself."

"As well anything said about you should." Hollen waved his wand again and a black paisley footrest appeared. Another wave of his wand levitated Harry's feet onto it.

"So what's your point, Holly?"

"My point is – nice socks."

Harry gave him a thoroughly puzzled look as he glanced down at his socks, then gave a start at seeing that they were covered in yellow ducks. "Holy shit, when'd Tony do that?"

"When he made the chair stop quacking. And you didn't even notice. You're not as focused as you think you are."

"I… must not be." Harry wriggled his toes then slumped back in the chair. "Okay, maybe I need to sit a little longer."

"Maybe you should take a quick nap?"

"Oh come on."

"I mean it. I think you ought to take a nap." Hollen turned to open one of the suitcases, pulling out one of the others inside it and opening that curiously. "It'll help you perk up." He pulled out a pile of folded shirts and started to shake them out, studying them.

"And where's the logic there?"

Hollen held a shirt up against his chest, peering down at the manically grinning sun. "You mean to tell me there's magical theory you don't know?"

"We are seriously not the same size." Harry slouched further in the chair, crossing his legs at the ankle. "You can't be thinking you'll be borrowing my clothes."

Hollen held up another shirt. "I'm a morpher, princess; I can be any size I want to be." He considered Harry. "Though, perhaps I'll wait a few years. You are still a bit on the short and skinny side."

Harry gave him the finger.

"You know, I think Sunshine might be right…" He shook out a long sleeve shirt covered in the Milky Way Galaxy and held it up. "I am a bad influence on you."

"Tony's not much better," Harry said with a laugh.

"No, I imagine he wouldn't be."

"You were explaining theory."

"Ah, yes. When you're awake, your magic is in a higher state of readiness and awareness. A ten or fifteen minute nap can amount to an hour of just sitting back and relaxing." Hollen shrugged, frowning slightly at a Spinach Eaters Anonymous sweatshirt. "What is this?"

"Magic rock band."

"Any good?" He turned the sweatshirt over.

"It's pretty cool. Kind of geeky, though."

"Though with you, like with a lot of Aurors, your magic is likely hyperaware and relaxing isn't very relaxing for your magic." Hollen dug into another suitcase. "So a nap would probably amount to well more than an hour of relaxing." He pulled out a pair of jeans covered in patches of various styles and languages, everything from kanji to a screaming skull to a butterfly. "Wow."

"Oh, yeah, hey, if you ever go traveling anywhere cool, you could bring back a patch for my jeans." Harry leaned forward with a grin. "The Snitch, Marion Brady gave me over the summer and-"

"Marion Brady?"

"Dude, Marion Brady? Seriously? He works for the USAS now, but he was on the Sweetwater All-Stars for like seventeen years or something. They totally dominated the league in the seventies and early eighties before the Fitchburg Finches knocked them out of the number one spot, after Maximus Brankovitch moved from the reserve team onto the actual team. You know, Maximus Brankovitch, the hottest Seeker in the US leagues right now, right?"

"Yeah, I do follow Quidditch," Hollen said dryly.

"He's so freaking awesome. I think I would probably freak out if I were to ever meet him, he's that damn cool. He's the reason why I love the Finches. But yeah, Marion Brady, he works at the USAS as a flying trainer."

"Ah."

"You have no idea who I'm talking about, do you?"

"Not a clue."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, that patch," he pointed to a roaring dragon, "is from Healer Hopguard. He went over to… Hong Kong, maybe, or Taiwan, I can't remember exactly, but he was there for a healer conference thing and he found that one in the non-magical world and he picked it up for me. He kind of started the people bringing me patches thing because I put his patch on a pair of jeans and someone asked me where I got it and I told them and they picked up a patch somewhere and I added it to my jeans and pretty soon the word spread I was collecting awesome patches and here's the result."

"I like this one." Hollen turned the jeans around to show Harry a roaring panther patch against a purple background on one of the back pockets.

"Ooh, yeah, that one is from Australia, actually. I don't know where. But Meryl Camai, she's a USAS Potions Master, she picked it up while she was there on vacation. But I really like the white tiger on the front pocket, the snarling face, that one. It's from a magical shopping market in India. Healer Aarons gave it to me; he works in the LES, the law enforcement section of Merisma Center. He's an expert in Magical Bindings, like cult tattoos and scars, well, you know, I don't have to explain it to you-"

"I actually have no idea who most of these people are," Hollen put in wryly.

"No, of course you don't." Harry rolled his eyes. "Anyway, he got it from India while he was there on some sort of specialist call or something. And I have to tell you, I almost didn't want to put that one on my jeans. It smelled so good, like some sort of earthy, sweet, spices kind of smell. It was… wow is the only way I can describe it. But I liked the patch too much not to put it on my jeans, which worked out because I kept the box he had it in and the box smells like that and everything I put in the box comes out smelling like that, so I still win."

"Where'd you get the Care Bear?"

"Oh, Cheer Bear, that was Suntree."

"Ah, Sunshine." Hollen turned the jeans over to study a patch on the side of the thigh. "Is that the Eye of Horus? Where did you get that?"

"Oh!" Harry snickered. "Actually, amusingly, weirdly, I got it from someone I've never met-"

"Somehow I'm just not at all surprised," Hollen muttered.

"You see, Melissa Cruise is one of the nurses at Merisma, but she transferred last year from the Eryisdel Institute of Magical Medicine and she still has friends there. Well, one day she went shopping with one of her friends and bought that lobster patch that I put under the knee, and of course she explained to her-"

"So her friend bought you a patch?"

"I'm totally not done with this story. It's not nearly weird and cool enough."

"Very well. Continue."

"Anyway, her friend mentioned it offhand to a friend who mentioned it offhand to a colleague at the Museum of Magical History who mentioned it to another colleague who was going to Egypt for several months. So the patch is from Egypt. But the friend of the friend of the colleague, whatever, he saw it one day and I guess remembered that I was collecting patches and for some amazingly awesome and yet entirely bizarre reason he decided to buy it for me and he sent it through the friend of the friend of the colleague connection thing once he came back. I really need to meet this guy; he sounds way cool."

"Impressive." Hollen folded the jeans. "Take a nap."

Harry considered his socks for a moment and then rubbed his feet together to see if the ducks would quack; they didn't. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Will you take a nap if I let you?"

"Why is it so important that I take a nap? And no, that's not my question."

"Then I don't feel the need to answer it."

"Then I don't feel the need to take a nap."

Hollen pursed his lips, rooting through the shirts again. "It's rather odd to see you unbalanced, not quite yourself." He held a shirt up to his chest, peering down at the subtle color-changing fall trees that dominated the front. "You need to be ready to yell at me when I'm an ass to the Southern."

"You can't behave without my snapping at you?"

Hollen tossed the shirt aside. "Maybe I don't want to."

Harry pulled a knee up to his chest to smooth his fingers over the twisting body of the dragon. "Why didn't you just ask if you could come today?"

Hollen looked over, brows raised. "I haven't the faintest idea what you're talking about. I had to work today. I don't just babysit you; I have a real job." He smiled in satisfaction. "And now you have to take a nap."

"Fine. You win. I'll take a nap."

"Good. I always win."

"Don't make me change my mind just to spite you."

"I'm the self destructive one here, princess."

"Yeah." Harry shook his head slightly as he slouched further into the surprisingly comfortable chair, resettling both feet on the footrest. "I don't know how well I'll be able to just fall asleep, though. And what are you going to do? Stare at me?"

"I shall survey your wardrobe while you nap." Hollen smirked. "I might even hang something up."

Harry rolled his eyes and wriggled into the chair a little more. "Whatever, Holly. Don't let me sleep more than ten minutes if I do manage it," he muttered, closing his eyes and centering himself. He heard Hollen shifting about a little, the rustle of cloth against cloth, but Harry focused beyond it, falling into meditation and to his surprise he felt himself drifting off without any more effort.

"Up with you, princess." Hollen gave the chair a nudge. "Up, up, up. Don't make me shoot sprays of cold water at you."

"Don't make me shoot ink all over your clothes," Harry muttered back, cracking open an eye.

Hollen gave him a smile that seemed to be attempting to look innocent; it just looked smirky instead.

Harry sat up with a stretch and yawn, looking around. "Wow, was that ten minutes?"

"More about twelve. I was feeling generous."

"And you managed to hang up a grand total of two shirts and a pair of slacks?"

Hollen sniffed. "I was busy expanding the dresser drawers at the back of the closet, thank you very much. It'll hardly be the Grand Canyon of storage furniture, but I figured you wouldn't want that anyway."

Harry yawned again and pushed himself out of the chair to stretch out a little, shaking off the nap. "Good on you."

"Naturally. How do you feel?"

Harry stopped moving to consider that, then let wandless magic pool in his fingertips; the magic gathered readily and smoothly. "I'm feeling great."

"And once again I'm right. No need to tell me, I know it. Oh, go on, say it."

"I think you are a bad influence on me," Harry said with a grin.

"And it's time for you to make your grand reappearance." Hollen flicked his wand over Harry, straightening Harry's shirt and smoothing it out. He flicked his wand again and smoothed Harry's hair back. "You have an earring? And you didn't tell me!"

Harry reached up to touch the simple silver stud. "I just got it this weekend. It feels kind of weird, to be honest, but everyone tells me that I'll get used to having something in my ear soon enough."

Hollen reached out to turn Harry's head this way and that, fingers gripping Harry's chin with gentle firmness. "I think you'd look good with an emerald. Or onyx. But you definitely look better in silver rather than gold; good choice there."

"It's not really a fashion statement," Harry said with a laugh. "It has one of those picture blurring charms on it so people can't take my picture."

"Oh. Oh…" Hollen pouted. "Does that mean our pictures earlier are going to be blurred?"

"No. I have the charm off right now. Though believe me, with how often Mom's pulled out that camera, I have definitely wanted to 'accidently' turn it on."

"Little princess Jamie, camera shy! Say it isn't so!"

"It isn't so," Harry said dryly, opening the closet door and pausing to take a look at himself in the mirror. "But when it's your mother pulling out her camera to take a picture of you under every tree and building sign and when you meet every teacher…"

"Fun."

"Definitely." Harry ran his fingers back through his hair then turned and headed back into the dorm room, pausing in the doorway to give the room a once over.

"Ah, there you are!" Green pushed aside the box of books he was going through to cross the room and snag Harry's hand, pulling him into an impromptu waltz around the room.

Harry laughed. "What's this about?"

Green leaned in to mutter, "Honestly, I just thought it'd annoy Davish."

"Green, don't start things when he's behaving," Harry hissed.

"And I thought we could break in your room with a bit of dancing. No? No dancing? Did you see the bookshelves?" He turned them to face one corner of the room.

"Whoa. How'd you manage to expand them that much? I'm impressed."

Green whirled them around the rubber ducky chair. "They were exceptionally responsive is all I know. And your desk?" He turned them to face the corner again.

"I guess everything at Hathorne just responds amazingly to magic," Harry said, giving the longer desk a quick study. "Good job. I really like the little cubby holes you added along the back."

"I took a cue from your bed. And speaking of…" Green whirled them over to the bed before pushing Harry onto it. "Al and I worked out the mattress, too."

Harry pushed himself up with a laugh and gave a little bounce on the bed. "Ooh, nice. What did you do?"

"We took all of the extra bed padding you brought and Transfigured it into a pillow top layer for the mattress."

"Though I'll tell you, expanding the mattress to fit your new bed frame wasn't easy," Al put in from where he was setting up Harry's stereo on top of the dresser.

"You guys are the best." Harry gave another bounce on the mattress, giving the room another onceover. Geoffrey had put up the curtains on his bed and was hidden in the shadows, nothing but a dark shape and watchful, faintly shining eyes. Tony was still sprawled on the floor, wand lying across his stomach, grinning away to himself. "Hey, where's Mom?"

"She went to find the drink machine," Green said, pulling Harry off of the bed. "She should be back in a couple of minutes."

"What the hell were you guys doing in the closet?" Al asked, sending an uncertain glance Hollen's way.

Hollen sprawled in the ducky chair, following Tony's gaze to a spot on the ceiling. "Talking fashion, Marsen, fashion and manicures and spa days- Oh!" Hollen turned an expectant look at Harry. "My birthday gift; you did spa, didn't you?"

"No, actually, I didn't. I decided to save it for something like exams or something, when I'd need to relax."

"Ah. Acceptable choice."

"Glad you think so." Harry looked up to see what had captured Tony's attention so completely. "Way awesome…" He moved to sprawl on the floor next to Tony. "Did you do that?"

"Yep."

Harry studied the wildly colorful solar system that stretched across the half of the ceiling that was his. "That completely kicks a-"

"Your mother," Al coughed. "Just walked in."

"-apples," Harry finished. "That completely kicks apples."

Laney smacked Al with The Spoon as she passed.

"Ow!" He rubbed his arm. "What'd I do?"

"That's for being a part of the bad language problem," she told him sternly.

"But I stopped him!"

"You stopped him only because I'd just walked into the room."

Harry caught Al's eye and mouthed, "You're my hero." Al grinned back, looking pleased.

"Yeah, seriously," Tony grinned, "it implies that you're being an accessory to bad behavior on a regular basis."

"See, Mom? Tony's acting a little more normal!"

"And I will next fill the bathtub with rubber duckies," Tony declared.

"…It seems I spoke too soon." Harry climbed to his feet. "Time to get this room in order," he announced, clapping his hands.

"Ah, the Jamie I know and love," Hollen said, grinning around the chair.

"And you can get up and help me get the bed worked out. I want reds, deep reds, like dark oak with a hint of red underneath. And, Green, I've had a moment of genius. I don't want the bookshelves against the wall; I want one of them with its side against the wall and the other adjacent to it, in the corner of the room there."

Green looked to the corner of the room and back to Harry. "I don't follow."

"I want the ends of the bookshelves to touch, like the bottom of a V, and have one of the ends against the wall so it creates a little blocked off area behind it where I can have the desk and eventual filing cabinet and all of that. It'll be like a little private room."

"Ah." Green considered the bookshelves. "Should I make the top of them touch the ceiling?"

"Hm… Yes, I like that, go ahead and do that."

"Is there any unpacking left to do in the closet?" Laney asked.

Harry snorted. "Holly's idea of surveying my wardrobe does not include actually putting anything away."

She glanced between Harry and Hollen. "You were in there a good twenty minutes. What on earth were you doing?"

"He was busy expanding dressers while I was busy lounging fabulously and seeing if there was anything I could possibly consider borrowing," Hollen put in, giving Laney a charming smile. "Alas, he's short and skinny and I am not."

Laney rolled her eyes. "Of course. I guess I'll start unpacking your clothes."

"The closet!" Harry exclaimed.

Everyone turned to stare at Harry, even Tony.

Harry smiled brightly. "I wanted to expand the closet a little. Al! You're halfway decent at space-layering from all of your ward work-"

"Yes, yes, I'll go expand the closet for you."

"You will not touch my stuff," Geoffrey put in sharply from the shadows of his bed.

"I hadn't planned on it," Al told him, putting down the stereo remote and picking up his wand. "Unless you're taking up space in both closets, and in that case-"

"You'd call boots to get his stuff," Harry informed him.

"My name is not-!"

"But don't get too excited, Al," Harry continued, ignoring Geoffrey. "I've already been in my closet, after all, and there's nothing but my stuff in there. But it doesn't need to be a massive expansion, so you can probably expand without taking everything out of the room."

"Got it." Al headed for the bathroom. Tony scrambled to his feet to follow. When Al turned in the doorway, he jumped back with noise that sounded surprisingly like a small shriek at coming face to face with Tony.

Harry grinned slowly. "Did you just-"

"No!"

"You did. You just-"

"No! I didn't!"

"Shrieked like a little girl."

"No! And you can't prove it!" He hurried into the bathroom.

"That was so adorable!" Tony called after him.

"Being around you is better than a comedy special," Hollen informed Harry.

"That was great." Harry motioned for Hollen to follow him over to the bed and set him to changing the color of the wood while Harry stripped the bed of the curtains and piled them onto the mattress thoughtfully. "You know, I don't actually know a spell that'll separate the curtains into multiple layers."

"Why do you want multiple layers?" Hollen asked, wand movements pausing in mid-motion.

"See, the curtains are rather thick so they'll block out all of the light, which is definitely a win when it comes to taking a nap with the lights on in the rest of the room or whatever-"

"And the thicker material will hold silencing spells and privacy spells better," Laney added.

Harry turned to look at her with a slowly growing grin. "Yeah…"

"What? You think I don't pay attention just because I can't do magic?"

"I love you, Mom."

She rolled her eyes with a laugh. "I'm going to finish putting your books on the shelves, now that Green has them in place."

"Here, I'll split the material. You change the color of the bed." Hollen took the curtains from him. "I assume you want something kind of thin to balance out the thick?"

"Yeah. I want something that'll give me privacy but still let some light in."

"That I can do…" Hollen began to flick and swish and slide his wand over the curtains. Harry watched in fascination as the curtains rose in the air and shook themselves out before a gauze-thin layer of material began to peel itself free.

"So when are you coming to dinner, Hollen?" Laney asked from behind the bookshelves.

Hollen glanced over at Harry for a moment before turning his attention back to splitting the material. "We'll have to see."

"Jamie intends to visit home at least every other weekend, though I'm sure he'll be home far more."

"That's what she thinks," Harry mouthed to Hollen.

"He's only required to spend three nights a week at school, after all," Laney continued after a moment.

"I'm sure Jamie'll be home more than enough after he gets settled in," Green said, coming around the bookshelves to grab a box of books and take them behind the shelves again. "But the first few months he'll probably be here more often. He does want to be more social."

"That's right, Mom. I want to be more social."

Hollen raised his brows at Harry. "Is it even possible for you to be more social?"

"We'll find out, won't we?"

Hollen rolled his eyes. "And you're going about changing the color in the wrong way." He reached out to pluck Harry's wand from his hand. "You want to start with a dark, rich red and then slowly add brown until the red is showing through just enough to give you the effect you want."

"Crap. I'm not sure how to do that either. It's not really painting color on, it's changing the actual properties of the wood, so I don't know how to layer color like that…"

"My, this is quite the humbling night for Jamie, isn't it?" Hollen smirked.

Harry raised his brows and gestured around the enlarged room with both arms, then crossed his arms. "Shall we talk about humble pie?"

Hollen smiled slowly.

"There are rubber duckies."

Harry turned toward the bathroom. Tony was standing in the doorway, holding a purple rubber duck up to the light with a thoughtful look. "Thanks. I think. You know, you seem to have a very odd, unexpected obsession with rubber ducks."

Tony smiled brilliantly. "I had a rubber ducky," he confided, coming into the room. "I found one once in a trash can. It had some sort of dark stain on the side, like ink or paint or something, but there was nothing wrong with it."

"Ah."

"Got it! Hah! This closet is mine!"

"Actually, Al, technically, it's mine," Harry called back, reaching out to grab his wand back from Hollen.

"Feh." Al appeared in the doorway. "I'm still triumphant."

"Good." Laney came around the bookshelves. "You won't mind helping me put Jamie's things away."

"Er. I'm not that triumphant. It's just a little bit triumphant. It's like a pinto bean of triumphant. I wouldn't say it's quite-"

"Get moving." Laney put her hands on her hips.

"So that's where you get that look," Hollen mused. "Hands on hips, look of 'the universe shall rearrange itself to my liking now, thank you', the-"

"The look is all his," Laney interrupted.

"Yeah, Mom's look is of the 'I'm the mother and I'm always right' variety," Harry pointed out.

"And right now that look is saying 'get your butt in the closet and help me unpack', so get going," Laney told Al.

"Aww, I can't keep Marsen out here with me?" Hollen asked with a pout, blowing Al a noisy kiss when Al looked over in surprise. Al's eyes widened and he practically fell over his own feet to stumble back into the bathroom and out of sight.

"That was evil," Harry remarked. "Amusing, but evil."

"I second that. But since it got him into the closet, I'm not going to tell you to be nice," Laney said, shaking her head.

"I almost feel the need to make some sort of smart ass comment about all of this going in and coming out of the closet," Hollen remarked, mouth twitching.

"Spare us." Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh, Mom, can you find the rest of the bedding stuff and unpack it? And open the bags with the sheets and pillows and stuff we already pulled out? I'll be making the bed soon."

She nodded as she disappeared into the bathroom.

"Why does your mother seem to think I'll listen to anyone but you?" Hollen asked, turning to Harry. "And why do you seem to think that you're getting out of doing your share of fixing this bed up?"

Harry raised his brows. "Does it ever seem strange to you that you're more willing to listen to a twelve-year-old boy than anything else? Even when you're surrounded by-"

"Does it ever seem strange to you that you're one of the few people who approach a conversation with me as something to be enjoyed rather than an undesired venture into hostile territory?" Hollen interrupted coolly.

"You're the one who lays out the land mines and puts up the barbed wire and has snipers in every tree of your conversations."

Hollen glanced away for a moment. "The chicken or the egg, child. And you still seem to be under the impression that I will be doing both the curtains and the color modification on the wood."

"Because you are. And once you do it, I'll know how it's done and I'll be able to do it myself from now on."

"Whatever." Hollen went back to flicking his wand this way and that over the curtains before turning his attention to the color of the wood. Harry watched thoughtfully for a minute, and then reached out to cover Hollen's wand hand in mid-cast to stop him. "Actually, a little lighter than…" Harry trailed off as he felt the spell coming from Hollen's wand change, the magic giving a ripple as Harry's unconscious intention altered the spell. The wood changed to just the color Harry wanted.

Hollen turned his head slowly to look at Harry, brows raised. "Did you…?"

Harry jerked his hand from Hollen's. "No."

"You… really did."

"No. That's not…"

"But you did."

Green peered around the bookcases. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Harry told him firmly.

Hollen turned to look at Green. "Jamie is performing more miracles."

"I am not."

"You are a very trying child," Hollen informed him.

Green moved to lean against the side of the bookshelf, crossing his arms as he considered them. "So what just happened?"

Harry glanced around the room. Geoffrey had moved to sit at the edge of his bed, expression sullen but intent as he watched them avidly. "Memo to all involved: we'll talk later." Green opened his mouth. "And I've changed my mind; I want a roll top desk. You can do that, can't you?"

"Sure thing." Green considered him for another moment before turning and disappearing behind the bookshelves.

Harry turned back to the bed as Hollen directed the two sets of curtains to hang. "Do you remember what my sheets looked like? That deep green?"

"Not remotely."

"Hold on." Harry crossed the room to the bathroom; just outside of his closet his sheets and pillows had been piled up and Harry grabbed the sheets and blankets and made his way back to the bed. "Ta dah, deep, dark green." He dropped the pile of tangled bedding onto the bed.

"You're making the bed," Hollen informed him. "Don't think I'm doing that, too."

Harry waved his wand and the bed made itself. "I can handle that."

"You're a brat."

"Yeah, but you love me." Harry glanced to the bathroom and waved his wand vaguely in that direction. "Hey pillows, get your pillowy butts out here and on my bed where you belong."

"Child!"

"Mom?"

"Warn a person the next time you decide to make your pillows go marching by on parade!"

"Yes, Mom!" Harry bit back a snicker. "Sorry, Mom!"

Green moved around the bookshelves to grab another box of books, stopping to study Tony; Tony continued to conjure a line of rubber ducks along the top of the dresser, looking well pleased with himself. "Are you sure you can't do anything about his being high on magic?" Green asked.

Harry looked over, and then snorted a laugh. "Yeah, I can do something. Amusing, but you're right; it's time to drain off that excess magic since he seems to be clinging to it."

"It shouldn't be surprising." Green opened the box of books at his feet to pull out the list of box contents. "Considering his ability with wandless magic."

"Yeah. I'll do something in a minute."

"Are you doing anything with these curtains?" Hollen asked from the window. "Or are you going to wait until…" He nodded to Geoffrey.

Harry studied the curtains. "I think leave them for now."

"Well, your call. And you know, I have no idea where we are in the building; I wonder what your view is…" He pulled the curtains back, letting the weak afternoon sunlight spill into the room.

Geoffrey made a hissing, spitting sound and jerked away, rolling back into the shadows of his bed. Everyone turned to stare in his direction.

"There is no way he's that sensitive to sunlight…" Green muttered. "They'd never let him attend school."

Harry shrugged and waved a hand at the curtains, pulling them closed, then strode over to Geoffrey's bed to lean over him with concern. Geoffrey was covering part of his face with his hand. Harry reached out to push the hand away, then gave a start as Geoffrey seized his wrist too fast for Harry to react, jerking Harry's wrist down next to his bared fangs. Harry stared at him in surprise as Geoffrey hissed warningly.

Harry licked his lips once he recovered from his surprise. "Lower your wands," he said calmly after a moment. "That means you, too, Holly."

Geoffrey's fierce expression flickered for a moment, eyes darting from Harry's face to the room and then back.

"I know you're not going to bite me," Harry told Geoffrey quietly. "You would immediately lose your place at the school if you did."

Geoffrey's eyes narrowed and he twisted Harry's wrist away from his mouth slightly, grip tightening; it didn't hurt, but it was firm enough to suggest it easily could.

"Just so you know," Harry told him, voice dropping a little, "every person in this room is an Auror. Bodyguards. And you happen to be manhandling what they're trying to guard."

Geoffrey's expression flickered again, to the room and then back to Harry; he slowly released Harry's wrist.

"I was just making sure you were all right, okay? I didn't mean to invade your personal space or whatever." Harry slowly lifted his hand to brush Geoffrey's hair from the side of his face. "And you are. Not even light sunburn." Harry gave him a cheerful smile. "I take it it's just some sort of instinctual reaction or something?"

His roommate glared and shifted away from his hand.

Harry couldn't resist tapping his nose lightly. "You could try to be nice, you know," he said conversationally. "But fine, I'll leave you to grumpville if that's what you want."

Geoffrey hissed silently.

Harry grinned. "You know, I had a friend who had kittens once and they did that all the time. It's just as adorable now as it was then."

Geoffrey returned to glaring.

"Suit yourself." Harry moved to pull away but was stopped short as Geoffrey gripped a handful of his shirt and jerked him back down. "What…?" he trailed off as Geoffrey slowly lifted a cool hand to cover Harry's forehead, then push the hair back.

Geoffrey pushed him away with a gasp. "You- Harry Potter!"

"Yes," Harry agreed, straightening up and running his hand down his shirt, concentrating on repairing the threads that had been strained and broken. "And you would have known that if you'd let me finish introducing myself earlier. See what you miss by being a jerk?"

"Harry Potter!"

"Yeah, Harry Potter. With, in supporting roles," he gestured behind him, "the PDs-"

"I'm not a PD," Hollen cut in.

"You are now. You've pulled your wand in my defense more than once today, you qualify."

"Wonderful."

"Besides, I'm tired of thinking 'the PDs, and oh yeah, Hollen, too'."

Hollen snorted.

"So," Harry said brightly, "hello, Prince of Vampires, meet the Boy Who Lived, Harry Potter, vanquisher of evil and things that end in 'oom'. It's quite lovely to meet you. You're quite welcome for the massive expansion of the room, no need to mention it. That's right, you didn't mention it. But go ahead and feel free to settle yourself in instead of sitting on your bed, if it pleases you; if it doesn't, feel equally free to glare and sulk on your bed. You do it very well, I must say."

Geoffrey scowled.

"Hey, it's a new expression!"

Geoffrey glared.

"Ah well, it was nice while it lasted." Harry gave Geoffrey's hand a friendly pat, too quickly for Geoffrey to jerk his hand away. "I'll be on my side of the room. I'd add 'if you need something', but I doubt you would ask me even if you did. So, try not to implode or something over here, okay?"

"Implode or something?" Hollen asked as Harry returned to his side of the room.

Harry shrugged. "It seems more his thing." He looked to where Tony was lounging back against the dresser, a line of rubber ducks behind him. "Tony… I think it's time to do something about your magical high."

Tony held out a rubber duck. "Here you go."

Harry stopped in front of Tony to take the duck; it was black with green snakes all over it and sporting a pair of fangs. "Nice. Cute." Harry put the duck down between a purple camouflage duck and a white duck covered in small rainbows and rested his hand on Tony's arm, lowering his shields as he half closed his eyes. Tony's aura was infused with magic that was half unfocused and raw and half spell backwash, still lingering because Tony's own magic had wound around it. "Well, no wonder you're randomly making ducks," Harry snorted.

"For your information, I am not randomly making ducks," Tony declared. "I am quite purposefully making ducks."

Harry gave his arm a pat. "But I can't just snap my fingers; the magic needs to go somewhere now that you've put your sticky magical fingers all over it."

"You have a lot of space in the middle of the room," Green remarked, coming around the bookshelves and leaning against the bedpost, studying the empty space. "Chairs? A table?"

"Yeah, but that'd be conjuring and no matter how strong the conjuration is, it's still not going to last forever." Harry moved to sprawl on the bed. "Anyway, I'd want… well, there's grumpy…" Harry sat up. "Hey, Geoff, how-?"

"Geoffrey," he cut in coldly. "My name is Geoffrey."

"Geoffy, then-"

"Geoffrey."

"Boots. That's your new name. Boots. How do you feel about getting a table and some chairs, maybe a loveseat, an armchair, coffee table, for the big empty area in the middle of the room?"

Geoffrey's lips thinned and his eyes moved over the middle of the room, looking like he wanted to dislike the idea, but he liked it too much to even look like he disliked it. "I suppose," he said at last, voice disinterested.

"Great. So we'll get some. Maybe I can even convince Mom to let me buy a leather loveseat and armchair…"

Hollen smirked. "I'll buy them for you."

"Ordinarily I'd probably protest just a little bit on a purchase like that, but it's leather. I never protest when it comes to leather, lest someone take me seriously. So I win."

"You're going to need a small table or somethin' to put Serish's terrarium on," Green added. "Where do you plan on putting it?"

"I think I'll put it next to the desk, but I will have to, you know," he nodded towards Geoffrey, "so it might be…" Harry trailed off, studying Tony as Tony began to place the ducks around the room. He glanced at Geoffrey's bare, untouched side of the room, then back to Tony. "Or maybe…"

"Maybe?" Green prompted.

Harry grinned and got off of the bed to saunter into the middle of the room, studying Geoffrey's side of the room. "So, Geoffrey, your side of the room is looking pretty sad in comparison to mine."

Geoffrey gave him a frosty look. "I was not given a special allowance for others to come in and set up my room for me. If you were given special allowance at all."

"No worries, I was," Harry assured him cheerfully. "Actually, since my mom was all weird about me being away from home we talked to the school and this summer I demonstrated that I was more than capable of making the dorm room awesome beyond measure, so the administration here said I could come the day before classes and get some help setting up." Harry put his hands in his pockets and rocked on his heels. "I guess that means you can't do most of this stuff on your own, huh? That kind of sucks."

The frosty look turned frigid.

"But… I'm feeling supremely magnanimous, so, roomie-"

"Geoffrey."

"You are totally going to lose this name game," Harry told him. "Really. You can just ask Holly. I win. So, roomie, seeing as how we're going to be spending a lot of time together in the future and-"

"If you spew some manner of empty sentiment at me, I will bite you."

"Yeah, whatever. I'm trying to be nice over here. Shut up and let me be nice. As I was saying, I don't suppose you'd like any help getting set up, changing anything, expanding anything, you know, whatever you might want done? I've got a lot of help and all and you don't have anyone and if I do it, it's not against the rules. Roommates are allowed to help each other."

"Do I look like I need help from a twelve-year-old?"

"How old are you?"

"Fourteen."

"Ooh, big difference. But I was just saying…" Harry turned to his side of the room again. He winked at Green as he waved his hand at the last box of books and it floated past Green and around the bookshelves. Another wave of his hand plumped all of his pillows and settled them just so on the bed. He flicked his fingers at the rubber ducks Tony was setting up, straightening them, then pointed at the bookshelves, humming under his breath as he focused on summoning some of his personal books he'd seen Green unpack earlier. The books floated lazily around the shelves and settled themselves neatly into one of the cubby holes in Harry's headboard.

"I transfigured part of the bottom shelf of one of the bookcases into a cabinet with doors," Green mentioned, watching as more books floated past him to settle on the bed.

"Great. I'll layer that with charms in a minute and I'll store my Potions things there. And then I'll-"

"Fine."

Harry turned to face Geoffrey with a politely curious look. "Did you say something?"

Geoffrey crossed his arms tightly, scowl returning. "If you desire to throw your magic around this greatly, very well, I will allow you to turn your attention to my things. And then when you die from magic overuse, the room will be mine and well set up and the day will be much more overcast and pleasant."

Harry bit back a grin. "My, aren't you just a cheery little moonbeam. So what do you want?"

Geoffrey scowled all the more fiercely but slowly turned to consider his half of the room.

Harry glanced back and motioned Tony over as he summoned the desk chair with a casual hand movement. "Hey, Tony, have a seat." Tony sat down, looking intrigued as he glanced between Harry and Geoffrey.

Geoffrey turned with a smirk. "My bed should be much bigger. What they provide is hardly adequate. The size of yours, but I like the style as it is, and turned so the foot faces your side of the room, placed in the corner. I want the bed lower, only about a foot from the floor, with double curtains like your own, both curtains thick, heavy material, dark red. I require two bookshelves, one placed at the foot of the bed that reaches the ceiling, the other the same, but longer, and placed opposite yours to create a private space for my desk. The desk will be larger with smaller drawers than it presently has, against the wall, the wood several shades darker than it is now. The desk requires a wing chair of a small, more comfortable size for this room, thick material covering it with appropriately placed cushioning charms. You do know what a wing chair is, correct?"

"I'm familiar with it," Harry snorted, leaning forward to lean on Tony's shoulders as he began to slowly unwind the magic that wasn't Tony's and bring it within easy reach. The process was slow, but since he couldn't actually seize onto Tony's magic and pull it free, it was just a matter of untangling the knot.

"I desire a display cabinet here, glass front. I also desire a chair much like the monstrosity covered in ducks, but most certainly not covered in ducks. The chair will be black material. And no, there is no need to concern yourself with making it permanent, I have a chair I will be sending for from home. Lastly, I require the dresser be larger and taller with darker wood to match the desk."

"Is that all?" Harry asked once Geoffrey had fallen silent and seemed done. "Nothing more to add, your royal majesty?"

"I hardly anticipate you being able to accomplish half of what I require as it is," he said with a sniff, getting up from his bed to stroll over to the window. He leaned against the wall, mouth turning up in a small, smug smirk. "I am well versed enough in magic to know just how much energy you have expended in expanding this room."

"Yeah…" Harry looked Geoffrey's side of the room over slowly, making a show of looking uncertain as he began to silently set up spells with the magic he was siphoning off of Tony, magic that leapt eagerly to do his bidding once he'd freed it from where it didn't belong or want to be, magic that was so eager to be focused on something after being contained idle that it was going to make this far easier than any other complex spell casting Harry could remember doing. He had to fight back a smile. "You know… well… since I'm doing this, favor sort of thing, being nice, maybe you could agree to letting me keep my pet snake."

"I see. You wish to help me so that you may get something in return."

"Um… yeah, pretty much. Though, honestly, you're totally right, I completely expended massive amounts of magic earlier. I might have to do some of this tomorrow or later in the week or something. But it'll totally get done. I promise. And then you'll be totally grateful and let me have my snake, I'm sure."

"I am not a nice person," Geoffrey told him coolly.

"Kid's just signed his death by kindness sentence," Hollen muttered.

"Aw, come on," Harry whined, ignoring Hollen. "You'll have an awesome side of the room. You know you want to."

"No, I do not."

"Okay, how about this… if I manage to get most of the changes done tonight, can I have my snake? I mean, look at this way, I'll be so damned tired afterwards, I probably won't be bugging you for a while."

"With that much changing," Green muttered, "you'll be lucky if you can keep up in class for a while."

Harry glanced back to give Green a mock frown and winked when his back was to Geoffrey. He turned back slowly, sliding his hands down from Tony's shoulders and hugging him from behind.

"Is this a stall tactic?" Geoffrey asked him. "It seems as though you find yourself unable-"

"No, no, no, I'm just gathering my strength, man, formulating a plan of attack, you know."

"I strongly doubt this."

"Doubt away. I'm totally scheming over here, that's all. I am full of schemes. I'll start doing magic soon. And then you will be bedazzled."

"You're going to cover him in rhinestones and other sparkly things?" Hollen asked with a snigger.

"Shut up, Holly." Harry put the last individual spell in place and began to weave a series of trigger spells into the framework. He had to focus more on those so everything wouldn't fall apart, thankful that the Magurist connection to magic meant that he didn't actually have to hold half of the magic he had set up or it'd never have worked. Harry was vaguely aware of Geoffrey muttering to himself, something smug and all knowing with the occasional little jab about Harry being a child who attempted too much.

"So…" Harry stood up again, folding his arms atop Tony's head. "I've schemed my schemes and I have to tell you, Geoffrey, this is some complicated magic."

"I am aware. And you appear to have been straining, and yet not even so much as a color has altered or a piece of furniture moved."

"You really don't think I can do this, do you?"

"I am quite certain you will fail."

"Man, you're just mean."

Geoffrey smirked a little more.

"Dude, I guess I'm just lucky that my snake coming to stay isn't contingent on me getting this done tonight. I really like that snake."

"You should think before you start making deals you can't live up to," Green added. "You're just lucky you didn't get him to agree to the snake coming based on this. You'd be out of luck and then you'd be depressed and pouting for a month and we'd have to deal with it."

Harry held back a grin through sheer force of will and some strengthening of his Occlumency shields as he made a note to do something amazingly nice for Green to thank him for playing along. Instead he shot a huffy look over his shoulder. "Dude, Green, don't-"

"I like snakes," Geoffrey interrupted. "But I do not like you. Therefore I will allow you to have your snake if you live up to your promised actions tonight."

"Man, you're totally being mean to me," Harry frowned at Geoffrey, even as he gathered up the last of the triggers and wound them together into one.

Geoffrey crossed his arms, looking well pleased with himself. "Yes."

Harry sighed. "And that's the only way I'm going to get my snake?"

"Yes."

"I guess that means I've got to really try…" Harry pulled out his wand. "Here goes nothing…" He flicked his wand at the bed, making it with a simple spell that triggered all of the others. Harry felt the excess magic rush from Tony, through him and out in an instant that left Harry breathless and Tony slumping dazedly.

For a long moment nothing happened, and then that half of the room was a flurry of activity, things changing, stretching, moving, turning, and some things appearing from thin air. As the last curtain fluttered into place and the shade on the lamp that magic had added all on its own stopped spinning, Harry casually summoned one of the plain yellow ducks from his dresser and directed it onto Geoffrey's newly created display cabinet. "Have a duck."

Geoffrey gaped.

Harry smiled sweetly before turning his attention to Tony. Tony was looking less dazed, though he was staring at the duck with dawning realization.

"Did I…?"

"You really do have a most fascinating fascination with rubber ducks," Harry grinned. "You'll have to tell me all about it some time."

Tony blushed.