Chapter 7
Waking up in his dormitory for the first time was a bazaar experience. At first Harry was alarmed wondering just where on Earth he was, and then the events of yesterday came back to him. He was at Hogwarts, and this was his first day of classes. Harry looked all over for a clock and cursed realizing there was none in this room. He reached for his wand, speaking softly, "Tempus."
The date then appeared in a small projection of letters that appeared in a smoke column along with the time that said 5:31am. Harry sighed and quietly got out of bed. He quickly opened up his wardrobe before casting a silencing charm on the whole room in hope of not waking anyone in the neighboring dormitories. He then changed clothes into jogging pants that belonged to a half-bloods company called Under Armour. Harry knew this company was making a new market in the magical world and with Lucius's help he invested a lot of the Potter money in bringing the company to England. They were rather generous to Harry's investment and supplied him with all sorts of clothes and even his broomstick that he had come to love.
Harry was out of the castle within minutes. He had a compression shirt stuck to his chest and his pants were a soft thick material which would keep him warm on the cool Scottish morning. A morning run would always start his daily training, he knew he had two hours until he needed to be in the common room where they would go down to the great hall at 8:00, giving him 30 minutes to get ready, which would be plenty of time.
His father had shown him a battle map of Hogwarts which allowed him to mark out an eight-mile run. It consisted of circling the school once, going around the quidditch pitch seven times, and jogging around the greenhouses and back up to the front of the castle. The run only took him an hour, and by that time he was clearly tired physically, but his magical stores were begging to be released.
His father taught him away to strain his magic and keep it under control. Harry stood in front of the lake flexing his muscles and aiming his wand forward. He decided to start small, "Stupefy!"
A jet of red light came out of his wand and he held it allowing it to stretch a maximum distance. The strain of the spell was increased tenfold with every passing meter. Finally, he released it after a long distance of maybe 30 meters. The spell collapsed straight into the water causing a small splash. Harry then upped the ante, "Reducto!"
Just like before a large invisible blast came shooting out of his wand, but this time when he released it the spell exploded into the water. Many spells later Harry was ready for the finale, "Momentum Expur!"
Harry felt the tug on his core, and the world before him began to shake through a powerful Earthquake. The muggles would never have understood it. It was as if a small area was being yanked out of the world as it seemed to crumble and rip itself apart as a tidal wave began to rise somewhere out in the middle of the Black Lake. At first it was just a small amount, but then more and more began to rise. He had seen his father once create a tidal wave that was over a hundred feet tall while Harry himself had yet to summon anything over fifty feet, in fact, he still wasn't quite sure his tallest was quite fifty feet. Right now, he took as much of the water in the black lake as he could control up to a maximum height. If enemies were before him they would be panicked and terrified as the wave would've washed away any threat as it reached terminal velocity. It was only when the wave began to approach the shoreline did Harry struggle to control it..
Finally, the young man took a deep breath and released his spell yet the water still came at him with incredible speed, anxious to refill the dry land. When the wave began to collapse Harry took a defensive step backwards and lashed out with a powerful blasting spell that created a small island with water surrounding him. He then waved his wand in an intricate pattern and the water immediately began shooting backwards towards the shore encasing him in a dry bubble. He then summoned sand up to create a barrier line and prevent any type of flooding.
When he finished the water was rocking the shore hard, but nothing was out of place or flooded. He let out a long breath and fell to the ground in near exhaustion. Harry then cast a small tempus spell in order to show him the time. He saw that it was seven and he was done for the day, so he jogged back to the castle to see only the earliest risers. They all eyed him curiously as he crossed the entrance hall and headed towards the dungeons. When he arrived the majority of the students were awake and moving, including all the first years. Blaise was amongst the first to see Harry as he was heading down to the dormitories, "When you said you were an early riser you weren't kidding huh? What time did you leave?
Harry shrugged, walking past a table of Slytherin girls who ogled at him, amongst them all were first years and a few second, third, and fourth years, "5:30am, same as every other morning."
Blaise whistled, "Geez, what did you do? That was nearly two hours ago?"
Harry grinned, "If you really want to know you will get up with me one morning. I will say this, I start with an eight to ten-mile run and go from there."
With the gawking looks he was getting from everyone except Draco and Theo Harry headed down into the showers to get ready for the day. In a matter of minutes Harry had his school robes on that had the Slytherin symbol already magically patched on and ready to go. When Harry surfaced it was close to eight and mostly everyone had already left for the great hall. The only people remaining were the other first years and the prefects, with of course a few stragglers remaining behind. Harry addressed his friends, "Everyone sleep alright? First day of classes, everyone got their stuff, does anyone need anything?"
All the guys shrugged haphazardly while Tracy asked, "It's you everyone should be asking about, Blaise said you weren't even asleep until close to midnight and you were the first one up, anything you want to tell us?"
Harry grinned, "No, nothing at all, that's just my usual training regimen."
Daphne looked at Harry skeptically, "Your training regimen consists of waking up in the middle of the night, depriving yourself of precious sleep, and by the looks of it exhausting yourself physically along with magically before classes even start?"
Harry laughed, "Oh don't worry I am not even close to magically exhausted, and yes all that consists of my training schedule, if you could understand how powerful my father is you could see the size of the shoes I have to fill. I train my hardest every day in hope to one day stand beside him as an equal."
At that moment their head of house stepped out of his disillusionment charm, "An admirable goal Mr. Riddle. You do indeed have large shoes to fill."
Daphne inquired, "You know his father professor?"
Snape gave her a nod of acknowledgment, "Indeed I do. He was my mentor while I went through Hogwarts. His father is the most powerful wizard I have ever had the pleasure of being in the presence of, perhaps even more powerful than the headmaster. Now I do believe it is time to head to breakfast. Flint, Rodgers, don't let me regret putting the two of you in charge."
Marcus and Alexa immediately spurred forward and began ushering the first years out the doors and towards the great hall. Harry assumed that his honorary uncle had already eaten and was likely to only return for handing out time schedules.
Breakfast went by in a breeze and Harry was proven correct as the potions professor returned to the great hall in order to hand out time schedules to his remaining students. Harry studied his schedule intently for a moment in hope of memorizing it at once:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday:
1st: Potions with Gryffindor
2nd: Transfiguration with Ravenclaw
Lunch
3rd: Charms with Hufflepuff
Dinner
Tuesday, Thursday:
1st. Herbology Hufflepuff
2nd: Defense against the Dark Arts Gryffindor
Lunch
3rd. History of Magic Ravenclaw
Dinner
4th Astronomy Ravenclaw (Thursday only)
Harry whistled in appreciation. 4 classes a day, each class was one hour and a half, first class started at nine and last class ended at five. Except for Thursday class would end at three with Astronomy being at 10:00 ending at 11:30. Harry knew his first year would be fairly easy, hell even his second and third year would be fairly easy, but fourth year and forward things could become difficult with the workload even if he was miles ahead.
Looking across at his friends most took looks of indifference, while some looked confused (Crabbe and Goyle). Flint then came over checking out his schedule, "Alright listen up you lot, go back towards the common rooms, but instead of going through the portrait go straight for like thirty seconds and the potions class and your defense against the dark arts class is down there, we will pick you up after potions and take you to transfiguration and charms, we will walk you to all your classes except Defense against the dark arts and potions, since they are in our dungeons. Good luck, and I would follow Harry. He seems to already know the layout."
Harry shrugged and stood up, he knew that it would be best if he was early to his father's lieutenant's class instead of late. All the first-year students followed his lead and began their trek back down to the dungeons. The Slytherins all stood huddled by the door, anxiously awaiting their head of house to let them enter their first classroom in Hogwarts when the Gryffindor first years rolled up with their prefects. Amongst them Harry only recognized or knew one, and that was Ron Weasley. Also, amongst them was a light brown-haired girl that Harry was pretty sure named Lavender, along with an Indian girl who stood huddled next to her, probably named Parvati. Harry's memory was fairly decent, but he was so busy not paying attention to anyone who wasn't sorted into Slytherin he was having a hard time summoning his recall. The small black boy was definitely Dean Thomas, and the kid with the annoying Irish accent had to have been something Finnegan. That only left a bushy haired girl named Hermione, who was a muggleborn for sure, and a fairly well developed young man, Harry was sure that was Neville Longbottom. Bellatrix spoke very highly of her rival's skills in combat, her rivals were of course Neville's parents.
After a few moments, Neville, who must have caught Harry's eyes approached the large groups of snakes, "Harry Riddle right? Do you mind if we have a word in private? We have about ten minutes, five before Snape opens the door."
Harry nodded his head, "Sure, nice to meet you..."
Harry of course knew his name, but he knew it would be polite to clarify, "Neville, Neville Longbottom." As the two walked away he reached into his back pocket, causing Harry to stick his hand out preparing to summon his wand if need be, Neville seem to notice the reflex and slowed so Harry could see exactly what he was doing. When he pulled a small white envelope out of his back-pocket Harry shot a spell at it quickly, "Homenum Revalio"
The package then turned into an x-ray like object allowing Harry to see the sole contents was a letter in a small parcel. Harry eyed Neville curiously, "Who is the letter from?"
Neville blushed, "Paranoid much? The letter is from my mother she..."
Harry blinked, "Your mother? Why would your mother care to write me a letter?"
Neville stared at Harry strangely, "Because she's your Godmother..."
Harry quickly snatched the letter out of his hands reading it quickly:
Dear Harry James
I suspect you may go by a different name these days, I don't know whether that may be Dursley or something else of an unknown origin. First allow me to introduce myself, my name is Alice Longbottom, your mother and I were best friends growing up at Hogwarts, which allowed me the unmatched privilege of being your Godmother upon your birth. In a way I am your soul surviving relation to your parents.
Let me apologize sincerely for allowing Dumbledore to take control of your life the way he did. I screamed, shouted and cursed the man when I discovered that he had sent you to Petunia Dursley, the woman that not only despised magic, but her sister as well. I knew that you would be mistreated and Frank and I for many years attempted to track you down, but we suspect that Dumbledore put some type of magical charms on the place to prevent us from locating you. Whatever the reason may be, I hope I am wrong and that you lived a happy childhood. If so, then I imagine you will wish to return to the Dursleys for the Christmas and Summer Holidays...But if I am wrong and you suffered at the hands of the Dursleys then I offer you my home and my family to host you. I have failed your parents greatly in not being in your life after they died, it is my only wish to make it up to you, and possibly teach you a lot about your parents. I hope to hear from you or Neville soon about your experiences at Hogwarts or perhaps even your experiences at home. Regardless I hope to hear back from you soon...And Harry, I am truly sorry.
With all my love,
Your Godmother,
Alice Longbottom
Harry stared at the letter for several moments before putting it in his back pocket, "You have given me a lot to think about...Thank you Neville."
Neville gave him a small smile, "I guess I am sorry too, if not for the headmaster's interference we would've grown up brothers."
Harry patted him on the shoulder, "Well we can start with being friends, regardless of the house system we are practically family."
At that moment the door to the potions class opened and Snape immediately made eye contact with Harry who now had a stone look on his face. Severus sighed knowing that something had either really pissed off or upset his surrogate nephew. As the students piled in Harry walked by professor Snape, when he grabbed his arm, Harry immediately whirled around on his honorary uncle causing a short magical backlash that literally shocked him. Harry then whispered in a very snake like fashion, "Do not touch me at the moment. My mother and father has been keeping something from me for quite some time now, along with Bellatrix and I imagine you knew as well. We will all be having a word about this tonight, floo call my father as soon as this class lets out and tell him I know about my Godmother."
Before Harry could take off Snape casted a body binding curse silently at Harry's back. The whole class had turned around and watched as Snape did so, he spoke aggressively, "This is a family matter, we will just be a moment."
With that Snape pulled Harry around the corner before he asked, "If I immobilize you are you going to try and kill me? Please Harry, you need to know something before you request having a meeting with the Dark Lord. Trust me, when has he ever lied to you, when have we ever kept something from you?"
Harry knew he had a point, his father had always been honest with him. Never once did he know of had his father blatantly lied. Even his mentor had been honest about being in love with his mother and having accidently sold them out to Voldemort in his youth. Harry nodded his head when Snape spoke the counter curse. Harry flexed his muscles tightly, sighing in relief to be released, "By your reaction I assume none of you actually know who my Godmother was?"
Snape nodded, "Your father tried to get your mother to confess the identity of the woman for many years. She has alternated from saying that they never got around to choosing one, and just flat out refusing to identify who it could be."
Harry looked at the man with a look of confusion, "Why would she do that?"
"Likely to protect her long time friend Alice Longbottom. They were friends in school, and became close when they were in hiding when you were a toddler. We suspected the woman, but never had anything concrete to confirm it. Besides they had a countless number of friends that were possibilities. I believe your mother feared what would happen to the woman if he found out."
Harry sighed, "My father is all I need for family, and you, and Bella, and the Malfoys. I would've been happy to have a godmother in my life, but I didn't need it." Taking a calming breath the young man continued, "Now, you can inform my father after class that I still wish to speak with him, and that my Godmother is in fact Alice Longbottom. She wrote me a rather personal letter wishing to meet with me at convenience. We can discuss anything else later, your class will now be starting rumors about us, so we really need to get back in there."
Snape nodded quickly and both men stepped quickly back towards the classroom arriving quickly, Snape spoke rapidly, "Apologies, Mr. Riddle and I had a short disagreement that is now resolved. It seems Ms. Granger still has a seat available Mr. Riddle, you may sit and partner with her today."
Steeling his resolve and reinforcing his occlumency shields Harry strided over to the seat where the muggleborn girl sat, and forced a small smile on his face.
(A/N) Next update will be December 30th! See you all then. Merry Christmas my friends.
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