A/N - Harry is still JKR's little boy, as much as we may wish that not to be the case. I still only do this for fun, and I still like to shoehorn in little snippets of real history when I can. A reminder that this is obviously very AU, Harry has grown up with his parents so will be a very different personality to the canon version, hopefully still likeable enough!

Chapter 3 - Friendships Old and New

Harry woke up the following morning in unfamiliar surroundings. Momentary panic flashed through him until the cobwebs of sleep cleared and he accepted that he was in a room in Hogwarts. Memories of the previous evening flooded to the front of his mind. As he stretched, he realised he didn't know his way around the castle, something which would be a huge disadvantage. Hoping his parents would be able to help on that ground he shook his head clear and tried to grouch the last of his sleepiness out.

Getting up he walked through the one of the doors in his room to find himself in a bathroom, complete with shower. Deciding that he might as well, he slipped of his sleepwear and stood under the shower. Not seeing any controls he wondered how to operate it so took a chance. "Erm… Shower on? Water Medium hot?" Nothing. "Acqus showerus?" Still nothing. ""Grrr. Wetio cleanio"? Again, nothing. "OH FOR FUCK SAKE, LET ME HAVE A BLOODY SHOWER". Unsurprisingly, nothing. Stomping back out of the shower he threw on a pair of boxers and a t-shirt and grumped his way through the other door which led to a common area. His father was already there.

"I heard that" muttered James. "It's a good job your mother is still asleep. Take your wand, you will see blue and red tiles just about waist height. If you want hot water touch the red tile with your wand and push some magic into it until the water is as warm as you want it. If you want to cool the water or have a cold shower do the same with the blue tile. When you are done, tap the grey tile in the middle. And, hypocritical as this is coming from me, STOP SWEARING!"

Suitably abashed, Harry returned to the bathroom and got the shower to work. Twenty minutes later, duly washed, dried and with freshly scourgified clothes, he returned to the common area to see his mother had joined his dad.

"What are we doing for breakfast" asked Lily.

Harry thought for a second. "I'd actually like to go to the great hall and take breakfast there. The whole castle knows that we are here now, word will soon get round that I'm going to be taking some classes, the last thing I want is to seem like I'm some kind of aloof prat who doesn't interact with the rest of the school. I know none of us really want to be here, but we need to make the best of the bad situation. Besides, it would be cool to get to know some kids my age again."

James and Lily looked at each other. They knew he was right, but were wary of letting loose through the castle. Harry continued. "Of course, I have no idea where anything is, I was too tired last night to pay much attention to the route, so I was hoping that you could tell me, or let me know if there's some kind of guide for students that I can get a hold of."

"The map!" James exclaimed. "We left that behind when we left. I wonder where it is now, chances are it will have been lost or destroyed" he said with a touch of sadness.

"What map?" Harry was intrigued. James rarely spoke about his school days, but when he did the stories were in turn fascinating, hilarious or cringeworthy.

"Sirius came up with the idea of the Marauders' Map, Moony and I worked on the charms. I'm telling you, it would have gotten us an O on our NEWTs had we been able to present it. It was a map of the school, the best part of it was that it was charmed to show you the location of everyone in the castle, as well as being a regular map. We used it to avoid prefects, teachers and Filch when we were out after curfew or out planning a prank."

"Well, that's the least of our worries. I'll take you down to the hall" Lily said. "I want to catch up with Minerva, I want to chat to her about a few things, maybe open her eyes a little."

James looked up. "He'll be there." The venom in his voice was reserved for one particular version of 'He'.

"I can deal with Severus if I need to. That's one of the things I want to speak to Minerva about, I am not sure I want Harry in his class for Potions."

Harry shrugged. "I don't know the guy beyond what you two have let slip over the years, I know he hates dad, probably with good reason…" James blanched at that but did not contradict his son. "... but even so, it's been what, 15, 16 years, if he's as petty as to hold on to a grudge for that long, then sucks to be him. I'd give the class a chance, I'm meant to be following the Gryffindor schedule after all. If he's an arse to me, then I'll let you know and I won't go back. What are they going to do, give me a detention?"

James snorted at that. "Fine. But if he gives you any particular grief, tell me and your mum. We will deal with it."

The family spoke for a bit longer, making plans for James to leave the castle for a while to get things they would need for an extended stay and to make contact with those who would need to know where they were.

Only three other people had known about the Potter's survival, all three had made unbreakable vows to keep the secret, and two of them were currently not in the country. The third would, no doubt, make their appearance known very soon.

Plans made, Lily took Harry through the castle, showing him where the main routes to certain places were, and how to get to the great hall from the dorms they were staying in. By coincidence, they bumped into Minerva outside the hall, reluctantly Lily agreed to let Harry go in on his own - it would not do his reputation any good if he was to go in hanging on to the robes of his mother after all. Harry walked through the doors, leaving Minerva and Lily outside. A shared look saw them casting disillusionment charms on themselves and moving just inside the hall to keep a surreptitious eye on the young man, just until they were sure he had settled.

Harry stopped a few steps into the hall, he was sure that his mother would follow him, hidden but he wasn't too concerned. He was aware of the lull in volume as he walked in and people noticed him, before the rate and volume of chatter increased significantly. His eyes wandered over to the Gryffindor table. He was following their schedule and staying in a suite of their rooms, so it made sense to him to take his meals at the Lions table.

As his eyes wandered up and down, he spotted the students who looked most likely to be around his age. There was a group of students six or seven all clustered around, laughing. In the midst of them was a student with a shock of red hair, shovelling food into his mouth like it was going out fashion. A bit further up the table sitting on her own was another student, this one with a mass of bushy hair atop a face dominated by two things, her slightly overlarge front teeth and her expressive dark eyes which complimented her light-coffee skin. She was being ignored by the rest and seemed to be reading something as she ate. After Harry spotted her he found himself automatically walking in her direction,only vaguely aware that his movements were being tracked by the rest of the hall, the group at the Gryffindor table included.

He stopped at her side, for her part she was still engrossed in the book she was reading. Harry cleared his throat to get her attention. With a surprisingly melodic "eek" she looked up startled from her book, clearly not expecting any interruption. She found herself looking into the greenest eyes she had ever seen, eyes which were locked onto the chocolate brown of her own. Harry smiled at her.

"I'm sorry for startling you, I'm Harry. I was wondering if you would mind me sitting with you for breakfast?"

The girl looked at him, eyes wide."You… you want to sit with me?" The disbelief was clear in her voice. Harry nodded.

"If you don't mind that is. If you would rather be left alone, I'll respect that of course."

"No, no, it's… I wasn't expecting you to want to… erm… yes, please, I mean, yes, I don't mind at all… Ugh… I'm sorry, I just…"

Harry smiled again. "It's ok, thank you." He sat down beside her and a series of plates appeared on the table in front of him. "So how does this work, is there like a buffet table I got to or… "

The girl looked at him, head tilted to one side, eyes flickering across his face as if trying to work out if he was making fun of her. "No, just say what you want and it will appear."

Harry tried it. "Full breakfast please" he said and then grinned as his plate was filled with sausage, egg, beans, mushroom, haggis, black pudding and a couple of slices of toast. "That's awesome!"

The girl continued. "There's a standard breakfast range, you are told about it at the start of your time here, so the routine stuff is available, like your full breakfast, porridge, cereals, toast, tea, coffee. Anything exotic though and you are going to have problems."

"Makes sense. I'm sorry, I got straight into asking you questions, I never even got your name, that was rude of me."

The girl shook her head. "It's ok. I'm Hermione, Hermione Granger."

"It's a pleasure to meet you Hermione, thank you for letting me join you."

"Why did you want to join me" she asked. "I'd have thought you would have joined the group over there" she motioned at the group containing the red headed boy. "They are the 'in' crowd of the Gryffindor fourth years."

Harry shrugged. "I looked around, I did see them, they looked like a bit of a clique to me, not my style. I saw you engrossed in your book and thought that you looked like someone I could get along with. I spent a lot of my childhood reading, both to learn in conjunction with my lessons, and just for pleasure. Some of the places I grew up didn't have a lot going on, so getting a hold of a good book was a lifesaver!"

It was Hermione's turn to smile. "I've always loved to read. I…" she broke off and Harry saw a look of doubt in her eyes.

"It's ok, you don't have to try and explain yourself. I saw you sitting on your own, trust me I know what that feels like. Growing up, I had my parents and some others, along with tutors but kids my age were few and far between. Also we moved around a lot, so it was hard to make connections with people. To be honest, I'm not really sure how I'm going to fit in with the rest of my classmates."

"You are taking classes?"

"Yeah, that was one of the things that was decided last night. I'm going to follow the Gryffindor schedule. Mum said that she trusted Min.. erm… Professor McGonagall and Professor Flitwick, so would be happy for me to follow the Gryffindor or Ravenclaw schedule. Actually, I'll need to ask her what the Hufflepuff head did to piss her off."

The two teens chatted away to each other between bites of breakfast and it took a while for them to notice that they had been joined by some of the clique Harry had noticed earlier, including the red head.

"Hey Potter, you don't want to hang around with know-it-all Granger here, you'll never have any fun that way."

Harry looked up and stared at the gangly red haired boy. He just shrugged and turned back to Hermione. "Anyway, you were saying?"

For her part, Hermione bristled both at the interruption and the insult. "A bit rich coming from you is it not, given that last night you couldn't wait to tell everyone exactly what you thought of the Potters." Harry looked over at her after that statement, merely raising an eye to indicate the question which didn't need words.

"Oh, Ronald here was quick to say how untrustworthy the Potters were as a result of some perceived slight against his family by yours 14 years ago when your father refused an offer from his to…"

"Shut the fuck up Granger, no one was asking you" interrupted Ron. "Still, I might have guessed that a Potter would gravitate to the likes of you."

Harry kept chewing his breakfast, not saying a word until he had swallowed his last bite. Only then did he switch his focus to the loudmouth in front of him. "Hmmm… Ronald… Contract… 14 years, so when I was a kid. That must mean you are a Weasley. Oh yes, I know all about the contract. Your dad wanted to set up a contract to bind me and your sister, claiming that it would rejoin the Prewett and Peverell lines back together after centuries apart. Dad told me all about it a couple of years ago. Seems though that someone didn't do their homework. You see, neither the Peverell or Potter families have ever gone in for that sort of thing, it's actually part of the family magic, Potters now and Peverells before them can only marry for love. Should any Potter attempt to force another into an arranged marriage, the family magic would punish them. I'm not sure how, never thought to find out. Given that your dad was told all of this, either he never told you, or you didn't bother to find out before making your mouth go, either way, not my problem."

Ron looked furious at being spoken back to but before he could say anything else, Harry continued. "As for Hermione here being a 'know-it-all', I would rather be a know it all a hundred times over than a know-fuck-all like you seem to be. So far in the space of one or two sentences you have managed to insult me, insult my friend here and insult my family. Keep that shit up and you and I will have a problem." Hermione's eyes widened upon realising that Harry had just referred to her as his friend, they had only been speaking for ten or fifteen minutes. Not that she was complaining, in those few minutes she had found that she was able to talk to this stranger more comfortably than she ever had with any other peers.

"The only problem you are going to have Potter is when you get embarrassed by the tournament. What are you doing at our table anyway?"

By now, Professor McGonagall had dropped the disillusionment charm and was marching toward the confrontation. She hadn't heard all of it, but got the tail end. "He is at the Gryffindor table, Mr Weasley because he and his family are guests of Gryffindor house and he will be following the fourth year timetable. I will give you the benefit of the doubt and presume you have finished welcoming Mr Potter to Hogwarts. Now, either return to your seats or continue on to where you are going." There was no movement. "NOW!" Even Weasley knew better than to push McGonagall so he and his group sidled away.

"Everything all right here Mr Potter?" asked Mcgonagall.

"Five by five professor. I was just getting to know Hermione here, Weasley came to express an opinion, I suggested a counterpoint, then you turned up, all good as far as I'm concerned."

"I am glad to hear it. I will have your schedule later today Mr Potter, perhaps Miss Granger here can spend some time today giving you a tour of the castle, if you both would be willing?"

"If Hermione is happy to do it, I'd love to have a look around, mum says the library here is awesome, and the grounds on a good day are spectacular." He turned to Hermione. "I mean, you are under no obligation, if you've got better things to do…"

"I'd love to, Harry" she smiled. "We can continue our conversation as well, it's nice to meet someone else who likes to read almost as much as I do."

The head of Gryffindor smiled. "Excellent. Now, Miss Granger has classes today, including transfiguration with me, however, today is merely a refresher, something I know you are not in need of. I will allow you to miss my class today in order to spend the time showing Mr Potter around."

Harry glanced over at Hermione and saw that she seemed conflicted. "It's ok Professor, I wouldn't ask Hermione to miss a class for she has time after her classes are done, that's fine, it's not like I'm going anywhere."

"I assure you, Miss Granger will not be missing anything. She won't mind my saying that she's by far the top of the class in her year, and I will give her the notes I will be using. It is merely a recap to assure me that the class has remembered last year's lessons - I have no worries that Miss Granger here will need that!"

Hermione blushed at the praise and looked over to Harry who was smiling once again. "It's ok. If you put it like that, maybe this would be a more productive use of my time."

"Thank you Miss Granger. I believe you have Runes first thing. Mr Potter, if you are so interested in the library, it is on the way, Miss Granger can drop you off there and if you are content to spend the morning there, can collect you after Runes and start to show you around."

Harry indicated that would be fine, and after a final gulp of coffee the two left, happily chattering away. Minerva went to her office, followed by a still disillusioned Lily. Making sure there was no one watching, Lily dropped the charm and walked beside her former teacher and mentor.

"It does this old heart good to see that Harry has made an effort to befriend Miss Granger"

"Why?" Lily was curious.

"Miss Granger is exceptionally bright, she is top of her class for almost everything apart from defence and potions, the latter I believe… Well, maybe I shouldn't say."

"Because Severus is being an ass?"

"I would possibly phrase things differently, but…"

"Don't forget I grew up with him Minerva. I am well aware of his failings, just as he knows mine."

"Anyway, as I said, she is exceptional. She is, however, how can I put this delicately. She is socially awkward. As far as I know, she has formed casual acquaintanceships with a few of her fellow students, but no close friends. It appears she has a hard time relating to people who are not ather level, and given that no-one in her year is close to her level in most of the subjects, she finds herself not quite a social pariah, but certainly on the periphery. Harry seemed to hit it off with her however, hopefully she doesn't alienate him the way she seems to achieve with others. Not deliberately, I truly believe that she wants to be liked, but others just can't seem to warm to her."

As they entered the deputy head's office Lily answered. "Harry hasn't had a lot of interaction with kids growing up. He's already been alienated as a result of the lifestyle we have had to live. He won't 'get' any social awkwardness because he doesn't really have a lot to gauge it against. Harry is a bright kid too, he's got the best and the worst of James and I, he's driven, he loves to read, he picks things up quickly. He's better at the practical side of things than the theory, but he seems to be one of natures 'doers'. He will pass his OWLs easy enough, but he will score higher on the practical parts than the written. His handwriting is awful too."

"He takes that from his father!" laughed Minerva before scowling at the sight of the floo connection in her fireplace glowing green, indicating that someone was trying to communicate. "Disillusion yourself Lily, I am not expecting anyone".

"I've got one better" said Lily, reaching into a pocket inside her robes and pulling out a shimmering sheet of fabric. "James' invisibility cloak, I'll put that on." Without further ado, she stood and swished the cloak around herself as Minerva waved her wand at the fireplace to answer the floo.

"Minerva, let me though." The voice of Amelia Bones, the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was sharp and demanding.

"Is there a reason for your visit, Amelia, now is really not a good time."

"Is there a reason? A reason she asks. Every man and his crup is saying that The Potters have turned up from the dead after 13 years, and she asks if there is a reason!"

Minerva sighed and nodded to where she thought Lily still was, covered by the cloak, trying to non verbally indicate that she should escape whilst she could. She was interrupted by Amerlia's voice. "Either let me through or I'll use a DMLE override and we both know that will set alarms off everywhere, the attention in the ministry alone will be overwhelming."

With another sigh, Minerva waved her wand again and opened the floo fully, waiting for the flare which indicated that Amelia was on her way through. She didn't have long to wait before the stern looking woman was dusting herself down after stepping out of the fireplace.

"Well? I presume it's true given the furor in the Ministry this morning. I thought Fudge was going to soil his pantaloons."

"What have you heard?" The tactic of answering with a question works on most people, Amelia Bones however was not most people. A career auror, senior auror, head auror and now head of the DMLE she was well versed in any number of interrogation tactics, both magical and muggle. An edge was an edge, regardless of which culture it had come from.

"Come on Minerva. That might work with the odd quivering first or second year, probably a few older students too, but this is me. I'm going to take your attempts to deflect to mean that it is true. Where are they?"

"Young Harry should currently be in the library, I quite honestly don't know where James currently is, he left the castle to conduct some sort of business I presume."

"And Lily, where is she?"

An almost silent rustle of fabric was the answer, causing the monocled woman to spin around, instinct sending her arm in the direction of her wand, before it was frozen in place at the sight of the woman standing before her.

"Hello Amelia."

"Hello. That's all you have to say for yourself after this.. This… I can't even call it a stunt, it's way beyond that."

"What else do you want me to say?"

"Well, how about, Hello Amelia, I'm very sorry I wasn't able to give you some advance fucking warning about this so you can stop to get some coffee for everyone when you have to cancel all your meetings for the day!"

Lily laughed. "Well, in my defence, until about 20 minutes before we turned up last night, we had no intentions of ever setting foot in the castle again, as you well know, Madam! However, things changed rapidly, so we had to react. Given what was at stake we didn't have time to stop and plan, we certainly didn't have time to let you know."

Minerva watched the interplay between the two women, her jaw slack and her eyes wide. As happened last night, she slipped into her broad brogue. "Will someone no tell me jist whit in the name o' aw that is holy is gaun on here!"

Lily and Amelia both looked at Minerva before looking at each other and laughing. It was Lily who answered. "Oh, Minerva, I'm sorry. There were only three people in the world before last night who knew for sure that we were alive, and each of them had made an unbreakable vow not to reveal that."

"Dare I ask who the other two are?" Minerva had recovered some of her composure.

"If you need to ask, then I'd be disappointed in you!"

Minerva nodded in understanding. "So may I presume that Amelia is your hitherto unnamed contact in the MInistry who has been keeping you informed.

"Yes, and I make no apologies for it. There is a bigger picture here Minerva, one which I will need to fill you in on, with Lily and James permission. Things have been kept from you, from all of us, things which we could have done with knowing. I fear that knowing even a fraction of it will see you having to make some hard decisions."

Minerva looked shocked. "I know Albus always keeps too much close to his chest, but…"

"I never mentioned the headmaster by name, so it is telling that you assumed it was him."

"It isn't?"

Amelia had the good grace to look abashed. "Well, yes, it is, but not just him. You know there are dark factions in the Ministry, the Wizengamot, even in the Board of Governors. I'm not going to give away any of James and Lily's secrets from their exile, but I know they, we, have been looking into things that we know the headmaster has also been investigating, I believe we have reached many of the same conclusions, but before we share them, and we will, with the right people, we need to know who we can trust. That I'm telling you this much, Minerva, is a sign that we trust you more than almost anyone else, but there has to be a limit until we know it's safe to continue."

Minerva nodded. "Amelia, you and I have long known each other, I inducted you into the Coven of Culross and we both oversaw the initiation of Lily here. I would have no hesitation in making an unbreakable vow to keep your secrets."

"Thank you Minerva. There will be no vows taken today, but I'm afraid that it will come to that before long. There are just too many people here I don't trust."

Minerva nodded. "So what can you tell me just now, what's the plan."

"Well, the first plan is to try and determine how Harry's name got into the goblet of fire. If either of you have any suggestions, I'd love to hear them, because I'm ashamed to say, I've got nothing. I can only imagine that the goblet had been confounded, but I can't for the life of me work out how, where, when or by who. It must have been some very powerful charm to subvert the ancient magic of the goblet itself which suggests a very powerful individual. I'm not going to lie, my first thought was Dumbledore. He knew Harry was still alive, I assume he suspected at least that we were."

Minerva was about to ask more about that when she was interrupted by a knock at the door. She shouted for whoever was out there to enter. A very flustered looking Katie Bell, newly minted fifth year prefect entered and paled when she saw who was sitting in the room.

"What is it Katie, this better be important."

"I'm very sorry Professor, but I really thought you should know, Harry Potter is in the hospital wing."