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Bold = Parseltongue
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September 7, 1991
Saturday Morning
Hogwarts was absolutely amazing, wicked, wonderful, awesome… there weren't enough words that Harry could use to describe how great this place was. The Castle, it was a like a dream come true just like the whole magical world was. He was famous, everybody — mostly — liked him, he could have as many friends as he wanted and talk to whoever he felt like talking to without the risk of Dudley ruining that for him.
Food too.
Harry could eat whatever he'd like and however much he wanted. He didn't have to pick from the scraps or leftovers, he could pick food at the dinner tables just like everybody else could. Drinks were much the same too in the sense that he could drink whatever he wanted and however much of it he liked.
Still, most of all, the people and the fact that he had magic were his favourite things. It wouldn't stop feeling weird for some time, he reckoned. Gryffindor was a better home to him than the Dursleys place was, and Quidditch, well, Quidditch was dead wicked. He couldn't believe he was on the team after only just barely learning how to fly on a broom. It was even cooler when he found out it meant he was following after his fathers footsteps.
"Is the spot beside you taken?" Came a girl's voice from in front of him and to the left.
Harry blinked, rubbed the remaining specks of sleep from his eyes and looked towards the source of the voice. It was a girl with long, dark-brown hair and eyes that matched, she had glasses too, just like him.
"No," Harry said, shaking his head emphatically as he patted the spot beside him. "You can join me if you want to!"
"You're Harry Potter, aren't you?" The as of yet unnamed girl asked as she graciously sat herself down on the empty couch cushion next to him. "Thank you, by the way."
"I am. It's still crazy that everybody knows me," Harry said with laughter as he smiled at the older girl. "I'm in first year, what about you?"
"Third. My name's Loma, Harry… by the way. Sorry, I'm not great at holding conversations — I should've been sorted into Ravenclaw, it's usually my frien—" Loma didn't finish speaking before two more people joined them, both sitting together on the loveseat across from them.
"Hi Loma, Hi Harry Potter," The boy said as he slung an arm around the girl who had come with him.
Loma dipped her head once, her book still clutched against her chest. "Hello Stuart, Hello Nina," Loma motioned to Harry next. "I was just sitting with Harry here while I waited for the pair of you to come down. I assume we're still headed to breakfast together."
"We are," Stuart said, smiling a lazy half-smile at Loma before his attention once more went over to Harry. "You can come with us too, if you'd like. We hear you're always looking for new friends and we haven't had the chance to make said friendship."
"I'll join you. Definitely," Harry picked up his satchel and got to his feet excitedly, smiling as he looked between the three older students. "Thanks for inviting me!"
The other girl — Nina her name was — stood up a second or so after he did and went over to him, wrapping her arms around Harry and pulling him into a tight, warm hug. "He's so cute. He's like a baby brother," Nina kissed the top of his head, hitting nothing but messy hair. "Stuart, sweeety. We're keeping him."
"You can't just take him," Loma said.
"It's not like we're kidnapping him, Loma. Nina's probably just meaning that she's taking him with us as long as he still wants to go, assuming she's not scared him off. You know how she is with younger people, She loves them all, I blame her parents for not giving her more siblings," Stuart shook his head, scoffing when Nina nodded at his remark; Harry could feel it against his head. "Three isn't enough for you, huh? I bet you'll be one of those witches that ends up having like ten or fifteen kids. You'll make the Weasleys proud, well, envious prolly is more like it."
"Ew," Nina said as she finally released him.
"Ew?" Stuart asked, winking at Harry and motioning for him to go behind the couch and out of the older girl's reach.
Nina nodded, her attention still on Stuart instead of her captive 'little brother' figure. "Ew is right! I don't want any kids, why would I want them when I can just find the cute ones like our new friend Harry?"
Loma spoke up again then. "I don't think that sounds as appropriate as you think it does Nina. Additionally, he isn't actually that much younger than us."
"He's in first year, we're in third. That's far enough that he's young and we're not," Nina said, her words spoken so slowly and deliberately that you could think she was saying the most obvious thing in the world. She wasn't, he knew that, but he still thought that maybe she didn't.
Harry didn't really care though. Nina seemed nice and he liked nice people, especially the ones like Katie Bell who loved hugging a lot. It felt nice, it was warm and it made a nice feeling rise up in his stomach. Katie was probably the best at hugging and making him feel generally happy, which was weird if he thought about it. Really, she was only a year older than him but acted like she was a lot older than that.
"I'm sure the fifth years say the same about us," Loma said, looking at Nina with an unimpressed look about her.
"Food. Let's go get food, we can talk about this stuff later," Stuart guided Harry out of the door with an arm around his shoulders. "Stick with me lad. I'll help you survive all the older witches, especially the barmy ones like Nina. They're a right and proper handful, but you'll get the hang of it, handsome, confident bloke that you are."
"No, bad Stuart," Nina said as she forced her way between them and pulled Harry against her front. "Don't corrupt him. He's so cute and innocent. I want to keep him that way!"
"You sure you don't need us to walk you back mate?" Stuart asked, looking at Harry with a good deal of concern in his eyes. "It's no trouble, really. We can be finished up our eating in a couple of seconds then follow right after you. Isn't that right girls?"
Loma nodded and looked in front of her; the plate she'd used for her meal had long since been empty, she didn't eat much and whatever was on her plate seemed infinitely healthier than everybody else nearby.
Nina, on the other hand, was still picking at her first serving of food. She loved to talk during meals instead of actually eating. Harry was the same as her, but he still managed to finish two plates while she hadn't even finished one. It was crazy too, not her lack of eating, but how many words she could spew out in under a minute.
Nobody could beat her, he was convinced. He'd seen plenty of his new friends try too.
"I'm good," Harry promised, smiling at Stuart and the two girls. "I'll walk with other friends, promise!"
Stuart still looked unconvinced, especially when a few more Slytherin students walked out of the Great Hall, but he shrugged after a few seconds and motioned to Harry. He didn't say anything, but Harry did take that to mean he had Stuart's leave to… well, leave.
Ron and Dean just left, I can catch up with them, Harry thought energetically as he bounded across the room in a near-skip thanks to how excited he was. Every person he passed he would say hi to, and every time he did that he was reminded of the fact that Dudley could do absolutely nothing to interfere with it.
He nearly broke into a fit of laughter knowing how mad Dudley would be, but he didn't. Harry was just happy that he could call so many people his friend and that they'd listen to whatever e said. It was like he was a person in one of those shows that his aunt watched, or better yet, like the kids in Muggle schools who everybody was always trying to get close to.
Ever since his first few friends had been run off by Dudley, Harry had been wondering what that would feel like. Wicked, wicked was the answer to his long thought about question. With everybody vying for your attention, everybody talking about you or to you… Harry felt like a mini version of Professoor Dumbledore, only without the long white beard.
"You look lost," Chirped a girl, her voice coming from right behind him.
"Cut him some slack, Clara. Harry's obviously never been in this portion of the castle, and if he were smart, he wouldn't be here alone. If we weren't who we are, that coukd mean bad things for him," Another girl's voice said as he turned around, she was the shorter of the two, but slightly heavier, and she continued speaking as he looked at her in her green robes. "You shouldn't be wandering around the castle without those friends of yours. Malfoy and those in his camp aren't entirely fond of you, not after the disrespect you gave him."
"Disrespect?" Harry asked, furrowing his brows and cocking his head at the two older Slytherin girls; he moved backwards too, and very subtlely reached for his wand in case they tried to curse him.
All the stories he'd heard about Slytherin witches and wizards meant that this moment would be happening any time now.
"Aww, look at him," Said the first girl, cooing to her friend as she pointed to his creeping right hand. "He's reaching for his wand — he's not very stealthy, is he?"
"I wasn't reaching for my wand," Harry said quickly, forcing his right arm back to his side.
The second girl raised one eyebrow at him. "No?"
Harry shook his head nervously, looking at the ground now. "No…"
"What were you doing then, Harry?" The second girl asked. "Tell us what you were doing so that we can move on from this. We came to speak with you for a reason, one that doesn't involve harming you, so I'd be happy if you could return that courtesy to us."
He nodded a couple of times but decided he'd still stay on his best guard. Harry knew he couldn't beat them, especially since he hadn't learned any spells to use in a fight — his friends could team him — but really, he hadn't expected to get into one for a very long time. When he learned of Slytherins reputation though… maybe that should've been the reason to learn a few things.
Not everybody could be his friend no matter how much he wanted them to be.
"Good," The second girl said. "We're going to be watching out for you this year. My father, he says we should, and so we will."
The first girl smiled widely at him, taking a half-step towards him which made him do the same in reverse. She frowned at that, pouting as she spoke. "Yup. Like Cora said, we're going to be your Guardian Snakes. Anything you need help with regardless of what it is, you can come to us. Oh, you should definitely come to us if somebody from our house causes anything."
Cora, the second girl as he called her previously, looked at her friend with an unapproving look on her face. "You're far less serious than you should be, don't you remember what my father had said?"
The first girl shrugged. "It's fine, Harry's a cutie, we both know that," she turned her attention back to him. "I'm Clara Carrow, by the way. My friend, cousin really, is Cora Avery. We're gonna be best friends, I hear you want a few more of those too!"
Harry nodded hesitantly, his distrust of anybody Slytherin still overriding his want for friends. That was all Ron and the rest of his houses fault too… and Draco's… and Hagrid's. Really, a lot of people said that anybody from Slytherin was likely not the nicest. If Harry remembered correctly too, all the dark wizards and witches came from Slytherin too.
He didn't need those kinds of friends.
"Just a nod?" Cora asked with a raised eyebrow and a small smile. "Come on, Harry. Where's that energetic enthusiam that you use when speaking with everybody else? Aren't we your newest friends?"
"You told me not to tease him," Clara hissed, barely loud enough for Harry to hear.
"I did," Cora agreed in her plain, normal tone.
Clara narrowed her eyes and stomped her foot. "Why are you teasing him then if I can't? That's not fair, not fair at all."
"I'm playing with him so that he knows we're friends and doesn't think we're evil or stupid like the majority of our house. If you think he's so cute, why don't you do it? It's not like this is my task alone, it's not even just ours," Cora turned her attention back to Harry, finally. "We have a few friends, just a few, that I think you'd like. Yes, they're in Slytherin and no, they're not like Malfoy. They're the good ones, like us."
Harry stepped closer to them, just one step. He still didn't completely trust them, but he was starting to. "Who are they and why are you the good ones? What are the good ones?"
Cora laughed and it sounded very nice. Harry liked the sound of people laughing, it made him think of all the new friends he'd made and the few Muggle ones that he lost.
"It's nothing serious, not like you probably think it is. We're just the Slytherin's that don't put much thought towards blood purity or that sort of thing. Most of our house, almost all of them really, they care too much about that," Cora took one more step, that putting her close enough to reach out and touch him, which is what she did; one hand gently rested on his shoulder while the other girl moved to his other side.
"Good ones is just what Cora likes to call us," Clara said. "We're not special or anything, we're just like you and the rest of the school. No stupid ideals or anything like that, especially for me," Clara surpassed Cora's hand on the shoulder maneuver and gave Harry a half-hug. "We have to leave soon, the rest of our friends are waiting for us. You should meet them too, they'll like you, promise."
Harry trusted Clara bit more off the bat than he did Cora. She was energetic like him, friendly, outgoing, always making funny faces or just plain smiling at anything. It was hard to be on guard around her, she just seemed so… personable. He liked her, he decided.
"If you friends are like you, I'll meet them," Harry said with only vestiges of his earlier apprehension detectable in his tone. "You promise they're nice, right? Not like Draco or the people he spends time with?"
Cora shook her head firmly, answering for Clara. "None of our friends would hurt you, speak down to you, act rude or otherwise be Draco-like. We only have four friends in our entire house but there could be a few others who think like us — the point is, they'll like you. They'll make sure you stay safe too, like us."
Harry smiled and thanked the girls softly, looking away when Clara pulled him into another hug. They were nice and warm like Katie's but they had more force behind them, enough to make him think of the few times he'd been hit back at the Dursleys.
He nearly winced at the memory, but pushed it to the back of his mind. They wouldn't ruin anything more for him, not while he was at Hogwarts. This was his home now, all these people — most of them, rather — were his friends and if they wanted to hug him, he'd let them. It was nice, and nothing would ruin that for him.
"Meet with us next week in this same hallway," Clara said as she made her leave with Cora.
"We'll bring our friends, you could bring one too, if you'd want to," Cora cocked her head and ammended her final remark. "Make sure the person you bring, if you do end up bringing somebody, isn't too anti-Green. I think there'd be a bit too much of that colour for most of your housemates."
Harry laughed for the first time in their presence and nodded a couple of times.
"I'll bring a friend who doesn't hate Slytherins. It was nice meeting you two… too," Harry wondered if there was another word he could've used so it didn't sound like he said the same word twice, but he shook his head when he saw Clara's grin growing. "See you later, thanks for being my newest friends!"
He tore off to the sound of Clara's giggles, his face beet red.
Go— Merlin, he sounded stupid and young. It wasn't at all like the more mature personality or way with words he was trying to use. People liked that better than a super excited kid, he overheard an older couple talking about first years and that came up, so he knew.
September 14, 1991
Saturday Evening
"This is a hallway I don't remember ever being in," Katie said as she walked next to him, her hand in his and swinging between them. "What made you come out here in the first place, when you met those two Slytherin girls?"
"I was just walking around and exploring, like… like having an adventure," Harry said, his smile almost heard in the way that he spoke. "I wanted to meet more people and see more of the Castle, it still doesn't feel real. There's so much wicked stuff, magic, ghosts, all of it is awesome. It reminds me of the books I used to read, it's just… wicked."
Katie laughed and messed with his hair. "You've said wicked twice, but I get what you mean. The first time I was here, I explored a bit with a couple of friends — I wasn't making friends with everybody like you are though. My mum says I'm too overbearing and affectionate for most people, especially ones our age."
Harry shook his head emphatically, his messy hair bouncing around on the top of his head.
"No way! Your hugs are great, they're awesome," He said, earning a small half-one from her as they continued walking to the destination that'd be filled with snakes.
"I know, hugs are the best. Giving them is nice, getting them is nice, cuddling is nice," Katie smiled and tapped his nose. "Spending time with your friends in general is nice."
He nodded. "Time with friends is definitely the best. Thanks for coming with me too, I didn't want to bring anybody else but you," Harry smiled at Katie and turned his head to look at her. "You've been the nicest and most helpful person. I know we haven't had our first Quidditch practise yet, but the extra flying lessons you're give me are really nice and fun too."
"I have to teach you. You're already good, but I want you to be safe too," Katie said before she turned to look at one of the upcoming doors where a person's head was sticking out from. "I think that's one of the two Slytherin girls, isn't it?"
Harry turned and recognised Clara's goofy look almost immediately. "Yeah, that's Clara… I think her last name was Careoh?"
Katie smiled, her dimples coming out as she lightly shook her head. "Carrow," she corrected. "It's not like putting Care and Oh together, it's some old, weird Pureblood name. You've probably heard of Bell or Johnson in the Muggle world, I know I have, but what about the other ones like Carrow, Malfoy, Rowle, Lovegood?"
I don't think I've heard any of those.
He shook his head hesitantly; he hated being wrong or asking questions, the other kids used to make fun of it back when he was in school. It didn't matter that the Professors encouraged it when Dudley and his friends didn't like it.
"Harry, you don't have to be nervous around me. We're friends, actually, I'm more like your big sister. I'll be kicking away all the witches that go after you, helping you with your papers if you need me to, anything you need," Katie smiled and kissed his forehead, finishing her statement as the two came up to the room where Clara was. "Anyways, a lot of the old blood have these weirder, unique sounding last names. Most of them have weird first names too, but yours isn't weird, I've met plenty of Potters in the Muggle world."
His eyes were wide at that finishing remark, but before he could ask anything, Clara pulled the two of them into a big hug. Katie tensed at first and Harry, he nearly jumped at the surprise contact. Both of them relaxed when Clara started talking in an almost too-fast manner, even then some of the words sounded like they bled into each other.
"Hi Harry, Hi Katie — I think your name's Katie, Bell I think too, like the pepper. It's nice to meet you in person, we've never met but I've seen you around since you're only a year behind us. It's great that you came with Harry too, I saw the hug you gave him so I figured I'd give you one too, that wasn't bad, right? I'm sorry if i—" Clara's rambling was cut off when Cora yanked her by her collar back, releasing the two Gryffindors.
"Sorry," Cora said, a small smile on her face as she kept a hold of her cousin. "Clara really likes to let loose when we're not in public. She really wasn't meant to be in Slytherin, as you can see," Cora then stepped aside after ushering Clara into the room at large. "Come in, we have snacks and drinks from the kitchen."
Katie smiled at Cora and sent Harry ahead of her as she stopped to speak with the other girl. Harry didn't mind, the two seemed friendly enough with one another.
"There's a ton of cake over here," Clara said, calling out to him as he entered the empty, modified classroom.
Harry took a few steps towards her before he stopped, seeing the unfamiliar faces of four other Slytherin-robed people. All of them seemed around Cora and Clara's age, two of them in particular seemed large, larger than some fourth or fifth years. Harry felt nervous again, the same feeling he had when he first met the two older Slytherin girls.
They're scary. Especially the big ones.
It hadn't sunk in to Harry yet that smaller people could be just as dangerous as larger ones thanks to Magic. He was still in the Muggle mindset of the larger the person the stronger and more dangerous they could be. It'd be a hard thing to break his first year into magic, but that'd changed eventually.
"Oh, I'm stupid, the—" Clara was cut off again, this time by a brown-haired girl who was seated atop a desk and watching him without trying to conceal it.
"Yeah you are," She said before speaking to Harry directly. "Harry Potter. You're definitely a little cutie like Clara described, aren't you? Here I thought you'd be taller, more filled out and mature enough that all the witches here would already be going after you on account of your status and wealth."
"Leave the bloke alone," The big man-like boy said. "He's a kid. He's not going to be thinking about witches for another few years and if they go after him, you know Cora or Clara would handle it."
"Cool," The girl said, shrugging and going back to watching him silently.
The larger of the two boys didn't sit in silence, he huffed his way over to Harry and stuck out his hand. "Reinhard Rosier," he said in a vaguely accented, deep voice. "Good to meet you, Harry. Cora's talked about you since we got on the train."
"I didn't know her on the train," Harry said, looking at the taller boy witha bit of confusion on his face.
"Oh, I know. Everybody was talking about this year being the one that you'd be at Hogwarts though, and our friend group wasn't really any different. Cora's father, he knew your father, so he told Cora and she told the rest of us that we should watch out for you like we would for each other," Reinhard then chuckled. "You might not have known it until now either, but almost everybody was marking it on their calendar when you'd be at Hogwarts. It's why Malfoy was searching every compartment for you until the train took off — still pretty wicked how mad you made him, but I'd be careful. He pays a few older students for some sway and other type of work."
Clara finally came over, a piece of cake in each hand and took him away from Reinhard. "Come on, meet the others too. We can't have you get stuck in a conversation before the rest of my friends meet you," Clara blinked a few times before she shoved the cake into one of his hands and grabbed one of her two spoons to force it down into the very front of said piece of cake. "That's yours, by the way. We're gonna have some cake while you meet Alisa, Aster and Mira."
Harry took the cake without any hesitation and started off with a first bite. It was chocolate frosting with chocolate chips in the chocolate cake, it even had chocolate sprinkles on it. Whoever had made it in the kitchen, the person who they'd done it for was definitely a chocolate addict.
"I love chocolate," Clara said as she watched him chew his first bite, her face awkwardly close to his as she examined his cleared spoon. "Don't you love it too? I just wish we had some ice cream…"
"Bring him over already," said the other girl, the one that hadn't spoken earlier as Katie and Cora walked the rest of the way into the room. "I want to meet the legendary Harry Potter, especially if three of you have already called him a cutie."
Clara shrugged. "We'll start with Mira, but be careful not to get too close."
He looked up into Clara's eyes. "Why?" He asked, concerned and apprehensive as they got closer to the big girl, the one that looked like she matched Reinhard in being years ahead of where they actually were.
"She's just teasing you," Cora called out to him as she made a plate of food. "Mira's actually less dangerous than Clara. One of them isn't a hugaholic with a cuddling addiction that rivals her chocolate one."
Katie snickered and then stopped. He heard her say something about cuddling that made Cora blink at her before she smiled in such a way that showed she was trying not to laugh; it must be something about Katie's like for cuddling.
Cuddling was nice.
"I don't actually like a ton of cuddling, but it's pretty nice, just like chocolate," Clara then whispered to him as they made it over to Mira. "Cora's the one that loves to cuddle."
Mira must have heard too, because she nodded before speaking. "Don't I get a hug like the other girls got earlier?"
Harry looked up all the way until he saw her face — she must have been a foot taller than him, maybe short of six feet by a couple of inches. It was crazy, but Reinhard looked just a bit taller than her.
"Yeah," Harry said, hugging her when she opened her arms and bouncing backwards the moment she let go of him.
"Bit skittish, aren't you?" Mira asked with a grin on her face as she sat back down. "Anyways, it's nice to actually meet you, Harry. We've all heard about you growing up, it's nice to see you aren't some arrogant ponce like Malfoy or a fully grown man capable of taking down groups of dragons like some people tell their kids."
Harry furrowed his brows and looked up at Mira with all of his earlier nervousness gone. "Who said I could take down dragons… and who said I was like Malfoy?"
Mira shook her head. "I meant it's nice to see you aren't like Malfoy. Some people imagined you would be, depending on how you were raised and if people spoiled you because you survived the dark lord — defeated him too, a lot of people claim. I didn't really know what to expect, Cora claims to, but she probably didn't know either," Mira then looked at him curiously, leaning forward as she did so. "Where exactly were you? Nobody could find out where you were, it was like you were hidden away from the world."
"That's a secret," Harry said, smiling up at the girl, his sense of nervousness around her already gone thanks to Clara at his side and the Katie-like attitude that Mira had.
"I'll forward to getting the secret out of you then," Mira said, leaning back and smiling at him as she crossed her arms. "We'll have four more years in Hogwarts together. It'll be fun getting to know you, I think."
Clara agreed based on the dozens of times that she nodded. "It'll be awesome, we have another friend, maybe two if Katie gets to know us too."
"If you have snacks from the kitchen every time, I'll definitely be spending more time with you all," Katie called across the room like Cora had earlier, the loudness of Clara's voice easily perceivable in the mostly empty classroom.
Clara snickered and pulled Harry with her until the two were at the girl he'd spoken with earlier — not Mira — and the other, skinnier boy. "Meet Aster and Alisa, Harry. Alisa will probably tease you when she isn't being completely boring, and Aster's like those Weasley twins. He loves pranking people, he does it annoyingly often and he usually gets in trouble, so be careful when you're with him."
"Oh please," Aster said, huffing and disregarding Clara's statement with a wave of his hand. "I barely ever get caught, and you should introduce Alisa and I as boyfriend and girlfriend too. We've been dating since the train, when she said yes."
Clara cocked her head at him, one of her arms coming around Harry's shoulders and tapping on the front of his chest as she spoke. "Have you two kissed yet?"
Aster shook his head. "No, we ju—"
"What about hugged alot? How many times have you two hugged or held hands?" Clara's grin grew when Aster started to get flustered.
"Relax," Alisa said, patting Aster on the back. "She's just doing what I usually do. Clara's gotten pretty good at it, apparently."
"I have, I have. I had to get prepared before you started trying to take away my new lil'cutie here, didn't I?" Clara patted Harry's shoulder then, her tapping finished as she pulled him into her side; it felt nice, especially since she was about the same size as Katie and just as warm as her.
This is probably what it would feel like if my mum was around.
Harry wasn't sure if he'd ever know if that was true, but he liked thinking about it. At least everything felt easier and more relaxing when he made the comparison.
"Cora said he'll be a little brother to us all, so I'll only occasionally tease him since that's how we're looking at him," Alisa said, shrugging before her eyes sought out Clara's. "Since I know that you'll be watching over him a lot though, I'll probably do it more just to annoy you."
Aster caught Harry's attention as the two girls started to bicker. He mouthed one word to Harry after he motioned between the two girls too, and that one word sent Harry into a fit of giggles; barmy.
Harry was happy that everything he'd been told about the Slytherins were wrong. They all seemed really nice. Well, these ones did. At the very least, they weren't all horrible potentially dark wizards and witches, these ones seemed even wickeder than a lot of the other friends he'd made.
Maybe… maybe they could make this little party or gathering a weekly thing. That'd be fun and cool.
October 31, 1991
Thursday Evening
"Come on, Harry," Katie said, ushering him from the bathroom as soon as he'd stepped out from it.
He looked up at her weirdly, especially when she practically picked him up as the two began moving towards nowhere in particular. Well, that was what it felt like, at least.
"Where are we going? Why were you waiting out here for me?" He asked, starting to get nervous with how often she was checking around corners or looking over their shoulders.
"There's a tr—" Katie stopped and nearly screamed when they turned a corner and bumped into a wall.
"Found them," The wall said as an arm came out to stabilise Harry and Katie each; the wall was Reinhard, Harry finally identified.
Harry looked around the large boy and saw the rest of the Slytherin group from the classroom they usually spent time in. They all seemed just as nervous as Katie was, and that only amplified his own feeling of nervousness.
"What's wrong?" Harry asked, pulling on Katie's robe sleeve as they all started moving towards the staircases.
"There's a Mountain Troll in Hogwarts, the Professors are looking for it but they haven't found it yet — everyone was sent back to their common rooms, but you were in the bathroom and didn't hear that," Katie pulled him closer to her, essentially keeping him pressed flush against her as they neared the moving stairs portion of the castle; that spot should mean safety too, especially with how dumb and large he read trolls were.
They all heard a scream then, and it echoed through the halls with a horrible edge to it. Harry looked at Katie then, and Katie looked over to the Slytherin students to see what they would do. It sounded close, closer than any of them would have liked it to be… at least the Professors searching for it should have heard it too.
"Classroom," Cora said simply, motioning towards the nearest closed door.
Reinhard being the closest to it of the group said a spell that Harry hadn't heard before and like all things that used magic, Harry was stunned to see the locked door whip open for them. He would have to ask if he could learn the spell later, but there were definitely more important things right now. Not getting caught by the troll that sounded like it'd gotten somebody was on the top of that list.
After a few seconds and all of them were in the room, Cora shut the door and whispered another spell. He saw a faint glow go across the trim of the door before Cora started used magic with a few of her friends to put objects in front of the door. They didn't even stop when the door was completely hidden from view, they just kept adding stuff to it.
"Too bad you used the dungeon bathroom, huh?" Aster asked, the boy being one of the two Slytherins who wasn't helping to barricade everything while Mira walked about the room looking for any passages — the walls and Hogwarts as a whole had a lot, apparently.
Harry hadn't seen one, but it wouldn't be crazy to think they existed. He just had to have his friends show them to him… the Weasley twins were probably the ones who'd know the most. Everybody said that, so he believed it. Those two could be questionable and weird though, so it was definitely a little bit of a problem if he didn't want to get pranked.
Maybe because we're Quidditch teammates they wouldn't prank me.
Before Harry could ask about the dungeons and explain why he used the dungeon bathroom — the reason being he wanted a bit of time since this was when his parents died — they heard loud, booming, footsteps that echoed just as horribly as the girl's scream from earlier had. They got closer and closer, Harry swore he even heard something sniffing at the door before it moved on too.
After another five or ten minutes of anxiously waiting with his friends, he heard a huge commotion and then the echoing of regular footsteps. People were talking too, but he couldn't hear what they were saying, not until they knocked on the door that led to the very room he and the rest of the group was in.
"The Troll is dealt with!" Came a high-pitched voice, one that sounded like the Professor Flitwick. "Come out, come out please. Very good job on barricading yourselves too, very good job!"
Harry stayed silent and switched his attention over to Katie, Cora and Clara. The middle of the three looked about ready to respond, but Clara beat her to it.
"We're coming Professor Flitwick!" She yelled back, already dismantling the defenses and earning a huff from Cora before she joined her along with the rest of the students — Aster and Mira included.
Five minutes later and with the Professor in the hall, Cora asked the question that all of them had been wondering.
"Professor," Cora said, getting the small man's attention as he escorted them to the Gryffindor common room entrance and then the Slytherin one, as he said he'd do.
"Yes, Miss Avery?" Professor Flitwick asked her, his tone kind as he shot reassuring smiles over his shoulder at the young students every dozen or so steps.
"While we were tucked away in that classroom, we heard a scream, sir," Clara said, telling a white lie that made Harry feel a bit bad. "Is the person alright? We wanted to help sir, but we didn't think there was anything we could do against a spill-resistant creature, especially a fully grown troll."
Professor Flitwick swallowed audibly and pulled at his tie. "Too right, Miss Avery," he said in a higher pitch and continued in such a voice. "You were careful and smart not to go out and fight a troll no matter how many of you there were. Even fully-grown wizards and witches can lose to them. As for the student, she was badly hurt, but she'll survive."
That was all that mattered, for all of them. He doubted any of his new friends or Katie would have wanted to hear the person was hurt too badly or killed. Still, Harry felt bad for whoever it was even if there was nothing they could've done except being bait.
Harry shook his head softly while walking squished up against Katie. He wished they could've helped the person… if only he hadn't run off, it was his fault.
November 23, 1991
Saturday Evening
"You look sad," Harry said as he plopped himself on a chair beside Clara, the older girl looking weird and unlike herself.
I shoulda paid attention to that word Cora used, forlarn or whatever it was.
Clara shook her head, her ponytail shaking back and forth. "Only I could make it tonight, the rest of the group is making sure our visits don't bring too much suspicion down on us."
"That's okay," Harry said, shrugging and swinging his feet back and forth while he was on his spot.
"Don't you want to spend time with them though?" Clara asked, looking down at his feet and swinging hers so that they were in sync with him. "I mean, isn't it more fun when they're with us? I just tease or play with you a lot, I can't talk like Cora or teach you boy stuff like Reinhard."
Harry shrugged. "That's fine though, you're fun too. All of you are."
Really, Harry didn't mind if they couldn't come too often. He knew their house didn't like him much and he didn't want anything bad to happen to his friends because of him. That'd make him feel horrible, really horrible. It wasn't like he was completely alone either, not since Clara was with him — she was just as cool as Katie was, but he wouldn't tell her that.
If he did, she'd only tease him more than she already did. It'd be like… like having two Alisa's!
"What do you wanna do then?" Clara asked, resting her head on his shoulder and watching birds fly past the windows of their room.
"I don't know," Harry said, shrugging and not minding the cuddling. "Whatever you want. I like whatever we do when I'm with you or Katie or the others. You're all my best friends."
Clara sniffled once and rubbed at her nose after he said that. He wanted to look at her face to see if something was wrong, but before he could, she pulled him off the seat and grabbed his hand, already moving towards the door. "We're gonna run to the kitchen and grab snacks. The house-elves, they'll give us whatever we want, they're super nice."
"Whatever we want?" Harry asked, following that up with another question. "House-elves, those are the things we read about right? The ones that help wizards and witches with everything?"
Clara nodded enthusiastically as they started their journey, going through the lesser-used halls and paths to avoid other people. "Yup! They cook, clean, organise, I guess they do whatever you need them to. Some people even have them guard their homes or go out and do tasks that magicals like us usually do. The house-elves have a lot of magic, just like us and most people don't know their limitations."
"Do you?" Harry asked as they started descending a staircase he seldom used.
Clara shook her head vehemently. "Nope. I have literally no knowledge about their magic, all I know about it is it's awesome. They can pop in and out all across my home, I think we can even call them in Hogwarts too. I haven't tried since I like walking around, laziness is boring," Clara grabbed him and pulled hard to the left, it was a good thing she did too because there were very suspicious pellets on the ground that seemed to have some jiggle to them. "Weasley twins or Aster and Reinhard."
"What are they?" Harry asked, just about ready to poke at one before Clara slapped his finger down.
"I dunno, no touching," Clara then continued their walking down the stairs and when they reached the bottom, she turned a corner with her hand still gripping his.
He didn't mind though, it felt nice, it always felt nice. Clara was one of his best friends after all, so it wasn't like he shouldn't be doing it like that weird feeling in his stomach was saying; the redness of his cheeks didn't help either.
"You've never come down here right? You have to tickle a painting to get into the kitchens, it's something most people don't know but it's pretty cool," Clara made a face when she said cool, one that was goofy enough that he nearly laughed.
Tickle a painting? How do you tickle a painting?
Harry looked at her confused and curious as to what she meant, but Clara didn't explain. Not until she actually led him right up to the painting and told him to tickle the giant fruit — he never thought he would've seen an inanimate piece of food shake with laughter. The fact that a door opened up thanks to it just made him laugh at the pure craziness.
The Magical world was so much cooler than the regu— Muggle one. He didn't ever want to go back to it, no, he would stay with the Magical world forever if he could; better food, good friends, wicked ones like Clara, Katie and Cora… everything was just better. It couldn't compare.
"So, you celebrate Christmas instead of Yule like the old Purebloods, right?" Clara asked as she dug into a fresh stack of chocolate chip pancakes.
Harry nodded a few times, tilting his head up so that maple syrup didn't trickle down his chin. Breakfast for dinner, which is what they were currently eating, was apparently another one of Clara's favourite things. He loved it too, twice as much breakfast was way better than dinner, especially with pancakes, french toast, bacon strips.
Go— Merlin, the Magical world only got better and better.
"Yeah," Harry finally said, smiling at Clara through the pancake still being chewed. "My family, we celebrate Christmas."
"You never really talk about your home life, y'know," Clara said, setting down her fork and looking at him with an over-exaggerated seriousness. "It makes me wanna unravel the mystery about it. I could tell you about how I was raised or Cora, I think I even know a lil bit about Katie too. I'll trade you if I can hear a bit about what your life was like early on."
Harry looked away from her and towards the ground, it was what he'd usually do when he was nervous. The reaction was drilled into him thanks to Vernon and to a lesser degree, Dudley; it kept him safe if he seemed meek.
"You can tell me I'm being annoying or too intrusive… no that's not right, how do you sa— intrusive!" Clara nodded a few times, humming to herself. "That's the word. You can tell me I'm being that or annoying. I just wanna get to know you better, it would let us help you easier too."
"I live with Muggle relatives. They're alright, I don't miss out on anything, not really," Harry shrugged and shook his head. "I would rather stay in the magical world though. It's better, it feels like I belong here. Hogwarts is home, my friends, the nice Professors, the good food… it's just wickeder than the Muggle world."
"Wickeder?" Clara giggled.
Harry raised his nose like the French would do on TV. "Wickeder," he confirmed.
Clara's giggling continued and when it finally died down, it was just enough for her to get out a question with the last bit of laughter still making her voice pleasant-sounding. Well, more pleasant-sounding than it usually did.
"Why don't you come and stay with my family over Christmas break then? Cora's would probably take you in too, and I guess this is assuming your Muggle relatives don't mind," Clara got up and sat beside him now, her plate being dragged across the table as she threw an arm around him. "You'd get more Clara time, I know it's your favourite too," she teased, pinching his nearer cheek.
He laughed and moved his head away. "You think you're my best best friend?"
Clara's eyes went wide and she placed a hand over her heart. "Am I not your best best friend? I've known you for so long, almost since the start of your first year. We've gone on food dates, stayed hidden in the corner of that classroom to avoid Cora's lessons, I've snuck you snacks after Quidditch practise when Katie told me not t—"
"That's why you sneak them when you hug me," Harry said, grinning and hugging her. "Thank you!"
"Does that mean you'll visit for Christmas?" Clara asked hopefully, pouting at him with her lower lip stuck out and all.
Harry laughed. He wanted to, he definitely did, but he wasn't sure what the Dursleys would say. Merlin, who was he kidding, they probably would love to be rid of him for Christmas.
"I'll come over… but will the others come too?"
