Just before bed, Marianne writes into her journal for the first time. At first she only intended to write the facts of what she did that evening. However, as she wrote, tears fell onto the page as the memories came forward. Facts turned into feelings, and before she knew it, she's filled 3 pages with her feelings since Harry went to one school, and she went to the local school. How what her father and, by not objecting, her mother. Slowly she becomes aware of someone wiping away the tears on one side of her face. As she turns to look there's a sylph fluttering there wringing out a tiny towel off to one side. As it turns back it starts slightly before starting to glow.
"Hi, you can call me Sunny. You played hide and seek with me when I was visiting Harry."
Marianne nods, "I guess you can call me Mari, I don't really have a private name so I'm doing the best I can."
"Of course you have a private name, everyone does. If you're lucky your parents give it to you, otherwise you have to look in here to find it." Sunny pokes her chest, eliciting a giggle from Marianne.
"While I'm glad to see you, I do wonder why you're here."
"The scary crow god sent a message to everyone that you've played with. She wanted us to know that you needed a friend and companion. I got there first, so I get to be your friend. Unless it doesn't work out that is."
Sunny seems to droop in the air at that thought.
Marianne scoops her hand up underneath Sunny, "I'm sure that we'll be great friends." Marianne yawns, "Sorry, it's past my bedtime. Now I know that Evie is a girl, what about you?"
"Oh, that's easy, I'm a girl-boy. That's not right, I think I haven't decided yet."
"Do fae decide their own sex then?"
"Uh huh, it's not like we have children. Well not until we're a lot bigger anyway. Fairies spawn on their own in highly magical areas. Though I think our queen has had some children thinking about it."
Marianne yawns again, "Sorry I really must sleep."
"What about your book?"
"Murgh, I'll put it in the special compartment of my bag tomorrow."
Sunny watches their new friend as they fall asleep. Then they pick up the journal and stand on the pages as they read the entries. The Morrigan was right, she does need a friend. Finding the special bag, they inspect it for a moment before touching the plate and dropping the book and feather inside the magical compartment. Then they steal one of her socks and makes themselves a nest under the bed with it.
The next morning, Sunny wakes up with Marianne and goes through the day with her, a comforting presence as she endures the 'training' that her parents are putting her through, and then the teasing and name calling at school. Sunny even tries to help with her homework during lunch time, though they're more successful at making her giggle than useful for homework when they say things like, 'That's not a zero, it's an 8 without it's belt on.'
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Daphne wakes up and staggers out of her partition. Her eyes are a little bloodshot, and she can't help yawning occasionally.
"Are you ok Daphne?" Harry asks from his chair by his partition.
"What do you think?" she snaps back at him.
Harry looks at her critically, "I think you're on edge because you don't have your shields up."
"Yeah, well it's your fault. Do you have any idea how long it's going to take to get them back up again."
Susan steps backwards when Daphne growls at her while she stalks to the toilet. Once the door closes, she approaches Harry, "What did you do?"
Harry shakes his head, "I didn't know that she couldn't navigate the Other with her Occlumency shields raised. That's all I'm going to say on that."
Susan spins round and marches into that bathroom, unofficially known as the girls bathroom.
By the time they get to breakfast, Daphne isn't perfectly groomed, but she is composed again. Smelling bait in the water, Malfoy makes his way over.
"Soo, Greengrass, I see that slumming with the puffs is starting to take its toll already."
Daphne turns around slowly and pins him with a stare, "Malfoy, is that envy that I hear in your voice? After all, here I am sitting with people that are fast becoming friends. While here you are followed by your lickspittles, having had all the time in the world to perfect your personal grooming, on your own in front of the mirror. How's your campaign to be the lord of the Slytherin house going? Did you know that the Jones family has extensive international trade relations? Or how about the Longbottom's with their extensive holdings and a permanent seat on the Wizengamot. We have McMillian another proud family with a long history, though I'm not familiar with their dealings.
"Do you know the really best thing? It doesn't matter. Can you say the same thing about your own house? So what if I'm having a bad hair day, I had people to help me deal with it. Who do you have when the upper years spit on your laughable attempts at dominating your house?"
Albus watches the exchange with interest, not only because it involves someone who by rights should never have gone to Hufflepuff along with Malfoy's get. It's also got Harry facing him. His eyes glance up to the scar that is only visible if you look for it. Absently, he picks up a grape and nearly breaks a tooth on one of those blasted keys. Once he's sorted himself out he looks back to the table to see Malfoy storm off having lost that particular social duel. Why he's picking on Hufflepuff is an absolute mystery, as they're never as socially oblivious as you expect. His own house, Gryffindor, he remembers being baited by Slytherin's and losing because he didn't even know he was in a fight. As he juggles the keys in one hand, and eats grapes with the other, he idly wonder if he made a mistake in withdrawing the funds. Professor Quirrell walks into the great hall for breakfast, and the stink of garlic flavours everything at the top table. No, for 9 years of not Quirrell and a good education, it wasn't a mistake. After all, Harry is one orphan, and he has a wealthy parent. What's a little gold to him compared to the education of those 9 years worth of students. Even if he could have had another 9 years for the price it cost to hire one of Gringotts tomb raiding teams to find the curse on the DADA position back in 82.
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So far as Harry was concerned, DADA with Ravenclaw was an absolute bust for two reasons. The first, Professor Quirrell has a stress related stammer which seems to get far worse while he's teaching. The second happened during a demonstration using a thought experiment.
"I-I-I know I said that this class is about d-d-d-defending against the d-d-d-dark arts. In this y-y-y-year i-i-i-it c-c-c-covers m-m-m-more mundane threats as well. H-h-h-hands up everyone that h-h-has never seen an a-a-a-a-car before."
Only Harry, Hermione, and Justin didn't put their hands up. Professor Quirrell turns towards the Ravenclaw side of the room, "Boot! If you left the Leaky C-c-c-c-cauldron," it's at this point that the back of Quirrell's head is facing Harry and two things happen.
First there's a stabbing pain from his scar that makes Harry wince. Second, all the first year Ravenclaws stare at him as the magic concealing the scar fails momentarily. Not so long that Quirrell is able to see it when he whirls around, but long enough that it's no longer hidden from the ever-curious Ravenclaws.
Throughout the rest of the lesson, there's a flurry of note passing amongst the blue trimmed students. This extends to lunch time, where it seems every single Ravenclaw finds some reason to approach the Hufflepuff table and glance at his forehead. He even catches a few casting spells at him from a discrete distance away.
It's almost a relief to go to Herbology with Gryffindor. However, their first Potions class is with Ravenclaw afterward.
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Harry turns away from Ernie McMillian as he climbs the step into the Thestral drawn carriage, the otherworldly animals not even drawing a blink. "Yes Ernie, I'll help you with Charms if you help with Transfiguration. You know I'd help anyway."
As he sits down, Padma Patil and Terry Boot quickly climb in from the other side, leaving Ernie to join him in the carriage while Susan and Hannah have to wait for the next one. Once the Carriage pulls away, Terry asks, "Are you Harry Potter, only you have the scar, but you're not wearing glasses." He holds up a Harry Potter book to illustrate.
Ernie looks confused, "What scar?"
Harry sighs, "The one on my head. I hide it magically, but it's not a very strong illusion so even thinking about the scar apparently allows you to see it. And no, I'm not Harry Potter, I am Harry Danann by blood."
"So you were Harry Potter?"
Harry sighs, "Yes, the first name I was given was Harry Potter."
"What sort of fae do you have?"
"I don't have a fae, if you mean Evie, she's a friend and companion, and can answer for herself." Harry pokes the top of his head, "Evie, these Ravenclaws have questions for you."
Harry can't help smiling when he and Ernie dismount the carriage outside the new clinic in Hogsmeade. Following after them come Padma and Terry, who look like giant daisies after asking if Evie was Ephis' real name, and then asking her what her real name was. As they filed past the healer that was taking their class, the healer paused before casting a couple of diagnostic spells at them.
Once the register has been taken Healer Smalls, a large man easily topping 6 foot in height, turns to Padma and Terry, "What happened to you 2?"
Wordlessly they both point at Harry, who says, "It wasn't me, it was Evie."
"Who is Evie?"
"She's a Sylph, who is also a friend and companion. They asked her what her real name is."
"Ah, I see. Well, nothing to be done about it then. Anyway, this lesson is Potions. We are aware of the way that it has been taught so far, and we will not be subjecting you to that. Going forward, this lesson will normally be a demonstration lesson, and on Friday's you will be required to brew the potion or potions that were demonstrated today. All of the potions that you will be required to brew are already in your course books, so I expect all of you to be familiar with the recipe before todays lesson, and the preparation by Friday.
"However, for the first two weeks we will be going over the most basic techniques and how to perform them. Be aware that you will be eating the results of your practice on Friday, so do take care to learn it correctly."
Harry takes notes carefully trying to pay attention to what's been said as well.
"First of all, we will go over the equipment that you'll be using. This is a pestle and mortar, you'll be using it whenever a recipe calls for ground, powdered, or crushed ingredients. It needs to be cleaned thoroughly by hand after every use. This is an important habit to get into with all of your tools, as some of the ingredients you will be using in later years react badly to magic and mixing. If you don't already have some, I suggest that you buy some cleaning rags, or ask the house elves for some when you get back to Hogwarts.
"The second item is your knife. This is an alchemical silver instrument, so it combines both the properties of good steel with the properties of silver. In some cases you may choose to use the side of the blade for crushing, but for the most part this is only used for chopping, slicing, dicing, and Frenching. As with the Pestle and Mortar, it should be cleaned after every ingredient you use it with.
"The third item is your scales. You'll note that they may have a small side rather than two even sides. If it does, then this is where your weights will be placed. If not, then by convention your reference always goes on the right hand side. You'll note that the scales don't have any weight markers, just a scale showing how much of an ounce your weight is to either side of your desired weight. For most potions you'll be brewing up to NEWT level, you will only need the lower marker to be within the stem of the weights. However, you should practice being as accurate as you can within the time constraints.
"Finally, we have the cauldron and stirrer, if you followed the list, your cauldron will be made of Pewter. This is purely a financial decision, and we highly recommend that you do not consume any potions made in these cauldrons. Pewter cauldrons can leak lead into your potions and cause long term sickness that is very difficult to treat. For occasional use, or practice at home, I would recommend buying a brass cauldron. For more regular usage the minimum you should use is a gold-plated cauldron. In St Mungo's we use alchemical gold cauldrons that combine the properties of good steel with the inert nature of gold. Your stirrer should be made from glass and have a bulb on the end.
"For serving up your potions you will have been required to purchase a ladle and a variety of glass vials. Moving onto things that should have been on the list but were not.
Smalls pulls out a chopping board with a variety of things on top, "First up is a glass chopping board. We switched over to glass in the late 80's when the first Muggleborn qualified for an apprenticeship with us. Probably the only thing we'll ever thank Professor Snape for. This one was bought from John Lewis on Oxford Street in London, but you can apparently buy them all over the country. We recommend smooth, not textured, glass because it doesn't scratch and won't soak up any of the oils from the ingredients. This means that you won't need to sand down the surface after every potion. If you do use a wooden chopping board, you will need to sand down the surface after every potion, otherwise you can get some quite nasty interactions.
"The second thing is a simple pair of glasses, these ones have been charmed impermeable and with a tiny bubble headed charm under each lens. But a set with just plain glass will do as well. If you work perfectly, you will never need these. However, if you're not perfect you will probably be thankful for them sooner or later when they save you a trip to the hospital because you got partially completed potion in your eyes.
"The same thing is true for the fabric face mask, it won't protect you from fumes, that's what a bubble headed charm is for, which you'll typically learn in your OWL year. Prior to that none of the potions you should be brewing will have harmful fumes. Instead, it prevents droplets from entering your mouth and nose if you make a mistake.
"Does anyone have any questions before we continue?"
Harry raises his hand, as does Hermione, "Miss Granger."
"Can the equipment go through a dishwasher?" Harry puts his hand down.
"I don't know what one of those is, so I will need to ask Journeyman Francis and tell you after I've seen her. No other questions? Then I'll start with the knife, as the cause of the most potions related injuries. First of all is how you hold the knife, at all points you must keep one finger on the blade if you are using the belly of the knife, that's this part. If you are using the point, you must keep your index finger on the spine of the knife pointing to the point of the knife. This is so that you always know where the blade is. The knife hand is only one half of the technique, your other hand is used to hold the ingredients in place while you use the knife, so knowing how to avoid cutting your fingers off is of vital importance."
The lesson continues as the Healer goes through the various cuts and slices before making a soup to demonstrate stirring techniques as well as dash, pinch, and sprinkle.
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With astronomy later that night covering the basics of plotting the location of stars and the various methods of recording them. The tone of the lessons over the coming year is set, or at least it should be.
