Harry paced back and forth until the door to the Room of Requirements appeared and opened it, revealing the Room of Lost Things.
"What's this?" George said, appearing at his shoulder and making him jump.
"Project supplies," Harry replied as he entered the room with the Weasley twins close on his heels.
"Project supplies?" Fred repeated in wonder as he looked at the endless piles of damaged and forgotten items that had collected over the centuries.
"Project supplies," Harry repeated as he walked over to the nearest pile and started moving things aside to search for empty trunks.
"What is all of this?" Fred asked. "Project supplies, doesn't really tell us much."
"And it's not on the map," George said absently.
"This is where all the lost, discarded, and damaged school equipment ends up," Harry explained, "and the Marauders never found it, so it's not on the map."
"You know about the Marauder's map?" the two chorused.
"Yes, and Dumbledore has his own copy, just so you know," Harry said as he opened a trunk and found it filled with the school supplies of a Morticia Frump, who looked to have been a student in her late teens some decades past.
"Do you know who the Marauders are?" George asked while Fred was distracted by a collection of dragon hide boots.
"A half dozen student pranksters a dozen years ago, mostly based out of Gryffindor," Harry replied as he dumped the trunk contents into a battered trunk that was mostly empty and pulled out another one to examine. "I believe McGonagall knows who they were."
"Think anyone will complain if we take some things?" Fred asked while he tried on some boots to see how they fit.
"As long as you don't get greedy no one will mind," Harry replied, stacking a couple of empty trunks to the side.
"George, try these on," Fred said, passing him a pair of boots to upgrade his heavily worn ones.
"Money isn't exactly tight, but every bit helps," George said as he tried on the boots and smiled.
"What project are you working on?" Fred asked curiously.
"The sauna one," Harry told him as he cast a diagnostic charm on the trunks and found a couple of hidden drawers.
"You were serious about that?" George asked, poking through a pile and almost burying himself in old cloaks as they cascaded off the top of a pile of old chairs.
"Of course," Harry replied. "Magic is awesome and it's a fun project." He opened a hidden drawer and found a load of women's underwear and a journal filled with pictures of naked girls, which he collected and dumped in a nearby box.
"How do you know so much about Hogwarts?" Fred asked. "We've been tailing you for a few days and you know loads of secrets we're still discovering."
"Quizzed my parents," Harry replied as he disabled the ward on the other hidden drawer and cautiously opened it, finding it empty.
"We should have asked Bill," George said, "I bet he knows loads of things he'd be willing to share."
"Yeah, but it's probably about empty broom closets and how to avoid Filch," Fred replied, "which is actually a really good reason to, now that I think of it."
Harry laughed. "I don't know why no one seems to ask their relatives, it's probably a bit of spill over from the spell keeping people from talking about the sorting."
"Crap, that's a lot of socks," George said as he moved aside a wardrobe and saw a mountain of wool socks.
"Accio, basic construction charms," Harry cast, having to dodge as over a dozen books flew at him from various nooks, causing small avalanches. He sorted through the books, choosing a half dozen in good repair with little writing in them.
"I wonder if they have any brooms?" George said thoughtfully.
"Almost certainly," Harry said. "If you find any extras, sneak them to Madame Hooch, the school brooms are practically falling apart."
"Sounds fair," Fred said, "we've already got decent brooms and I was thinking of finding one to give to Ron for his birthday."
"Think he might make a decent seeker?" George asked. "We could use one next year, and this year for that matter."
"I think he'd make a better keeper, but you could always train him up," Harry suggested. He was still split on whether to join the team himself, as it took a bit of time, but would make his family proud…
Harry nodded to himself, the thought of his family in the stands cheering him on deciding it for him. Of course, being the only first year allowed on the team was unfair, but maybe he could work with Snape to get Malfoy on as well, which would make it seem less like favoritism, which it was.
"I'm a rather good seeker," Harry said modestly, "but getting a first-year permission to play is going to be tricky, I'll see if I can swing it."
"Good luck with that," Fred said, "McGonagall is a stickler for the rules."
"Very true, brother mine," George added.
"Yeah, but she also doesn't like to let Slytherin steal a march on her," Harry pointed out, "so all I have to do is train Malfoy up into a brilliant seeker and get Snape to put him on the Slytherin team and she'll do the same with me."
The twins laughed.
"You don't plan small, do you?" George asked.
"Nah, where's the fun in that?" Harry asked rhetorically. "If I go down in flames, I at least want a decent fireworks show to go with it."
The twins grinned at one another, heartily agreeing with his attitude.
Harry shrank down and pocketed a dozen trunks. "Well, I'm off, remember to close the door behind you and don't let anyone see you leave."
"Will do," the pair chorused as they tried to match pairs of socks from the small mountain of them.
0o0o0o0o0o
Harry and Hermione went over the stack of notes both had gathered in their research into how to turn a chest into a sauna. They'd both taken such disparate paths that there was quite a bit to go over. They'd barely gotten the notes into some semblance of order before the first-year house leaders arrived.
"You called a meeting?" Padma asked as she entered the unused classroom with her sister Parvati.
"We've got the basic research done for our first-year project," Harry replied, passing a copy of the research to her.
"First-year project?" She asked curiously as she paged through their notes curiously, and Parvati started explaining what they had planned.
"Hi, Harry," Susan greeted him, nodding to Hermione as she arrived with Hannah.
"Hi Susan," Harry replied with a smile, passing her a stack of parchment.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Our first project," Hermione said excitedly, quickly joining into explaining what they had in mind while Harry went to greet Draco as he arrived with Crabbe and Goyle in tow.
"Potter," Draco greeted Harry formally, curious as to why he'd called for them all to meet after supper.
"Here are the notes for our first-year project," Harry said passing over the stack of parchment. "Each house is to create their own sauna, for their personal use."
"A sauna?" Draco asked curiously as he looked through the notes, frowning thoughtfully at the complexity of the spells involved, but liking the idea of having a sauna on hand for his personal use. He wasn't sure how he'd manage to learn all of it, as it looked quite complicated, but wasn't willing to back down in front of the others.
"There are a literal plethora of ways to create one, but these are what we've come up with so far," Harry explained. "No teacher has assigned this, it is strictly for bragging rights in your own house, to demonstrate to the upper years that while they may know more magic at the moment, we are clearly their superiors."
Draco began to smirk, taking a closer look at the notes and the various styles and suggestions for how to go about creating a sauna big enough for a dozen people from a school trunk. "This is going to take some planning. I'll have to write my father for another trunk."
"No need, I'm already taking care of it," Harry replied, pulling a number of shrunken trunks out of his pockets and stacking them on the table before taping each with his wand, canceling the shrinking charm. "Each house gets two trunks, one for the boys and one for the girls. I figure New Year's eve we'll all get together and compare projects."
"That gives us a decent amount of time," Draco said thoughtfully, relieved he'd have time to learn all the spells involved without exhausting himself doing so, as he wasn't sure what help the other first years would be yet. "It's an ambitious project, which suits me just fine," he bluffed, figuring if the other first years could do it, he could too.
"I knew it would," Harry agreed. "I'd suggest picking a second in command because I was planning on us becoming seekers in our first year.
"Pardon?" Draco asked, sure he'd heard wrong.
Harry grinned. "I have a plan to get us exemptions to become the youngest seekers in over a century, interested?"
"You can do that?" Draco asked in disbelief.
"We can do that," Harry told him, "we just have to set our heads of house against one another, which is as simple as making sure they are both present. The hard part is going to be seeker training, but I know a couple of tricks that will make it safe for us to fly like complete lunatics."
"I'm in," Draco said instantly.
"Can we have older years assist us?" Susan asked, after looking over the notes and seeing how complicated they were.
"No," Harry said shaking his head, "all the work must be done by first years, otherwise there's no point."
"Are we limited to the spell selection you've provided?" Padma asked.
"No, the only restriction is no using magical artifacts, you have to create everything from scratch," Harry replied.
"It'd probably be easier to make your own expansion staff than to master expansion charms to the degree needed," Padma pointed out.
"If you make it from scratch you can use it," Harry assured her.
"Expansion staff?" Hermione asked Harry.
"It's a common tool used by merchants to expand space," Harry replied, "it's basically a single function magical focus, much easier to make than a wand."
"Can you shrink the trunks back down, so we don't have to lug them through the school?" Padma asked, being the only person from Ravenclaw present and not wanting to have to carry two by herself.
"Sure," Harry agreed and made a show of carefully casting the shrinking spell on them one at a time. "A simple finite will restore them."
"Thank you," Padma said, pocketing a pair of trunks.
"I need to research expansion staffs," Hermione said, making some notes.
"The technical name is Siegfried's Staff of Nines," Padma told Hermione. "Expansion staff is just it's common name."
"Thank you, that'll be very helpful," Hermione said.
"Remember, no rush," Harry told everyone, "and style counts."
Everyone collected their trunks and Harry turned to Draco. "I'll meet you after class tomorrow so we can get started."
Draco nodded, looking forward to finding out what Potter had to teach him.
0o0o0o0o0o
Harry kicked off his shoes and changed into his pajamas, taking the time to write down the instructions on how to cast a silence spell and make a few copies that he placed on everyone's beds, before closing the curtains on his own bed and placing sticking and silence charms on them.
Dean came in and picked up the parchment off his pillow. "This looks simple enough, thanks."
"No problem," Harry replied. "If anyone asks, I'm in bed, alright?"
"Sure," Dean agreed, watching Harry vanish into his cabinet.
Harry stepped out into his room and climbed into bed, finding Ginny and Flora were there, the movement of the bed waking them up.
"Harry," Ginny murmured sleepily before she pulled him close, pressing her lips against his, and entrapping one of his legs between her own.
Harry wrapped his arms around her and relaxed into her embrace, deciding a little light snogging wasn't a bad idea as he stroked her back and his tongue sought entrance to her mouth.
Ginny pulled back after a minute, a bit overwhelmed, her pulse racing. Once she'd caught her breath, she licked her lips, squeezed his leg between her thighs and hungrily dove back in, wanting more.
Flora watched wide-eyed as her older siblings ground against one another, not sure if she should be watching, but too curious to turn away. She rocked back and forth from the waves the two created and wondered what it would be like to be in Ginny's place, something that was easy to picture as the only real difference between them was eye color and about half an inch in height. From the sounds Ginny was making, Flora thought she might enjoy it quite a bit as she unconsciously squeezed her legs together.
Ginny stiffened and made a high pitch squeak before collapsing against Harry and laying her head on his chest. "Love you," she panted out.
"Love you too," Harry replied softly as the bed gently rocked them.
Flora scooted closer, cuddling up into his side and Harry leaned over and gave her a kiss on the forehead. "Love you too," he told her, sliding an arm around her.
"Good," Flora said, putting an arm over the two and pulling the blankets up to cover them.
"I'm so glad you found a way to come home for nights," Ginny said.
"So am I," Harry agreed, reaching down to straighten himself. Snogging Ginny had wound him up a bit, but he didn't feel any real urge to take care of matters, just enjoying cuddling with the two, feeling warm and loved.
He idly wondered how he could speed up Neville's defeat of Voldemort so he could relax and figure out his life, but sleep quickly overtook him before he could come up with any plans.
Typing by: fyrewolf5
