Day One

Mike woke the next morning instinctively at five o' clock. He didn't need an alarm clock to tell him when to get up, he did automatically at the same time everyday, no matter how much he had slept the previous night. Getting up he put on a pair of black slacks, a white wife beater, a white dress shirt, socks and some shoes. Then he grabbed his watch off the nightstand, it had been a present given to him by a friend of his as a going away gift. It was a nice watch; a Rolex covered in diamonds, it was all silver with his name inscribed in it. Mike loved his watch; he always put it on when he first woke up. It was a part of his daily routine; he unconsciously put it on.

He left the dorms and walked down to the common room, glancing around. He didn't stay long, before going to the Great Hall. Walking over he sat down at the Gryffindor table and grabbed a piece of toast. Munching on it he reached over and poured himself some milk; he didn't really like pumpkin juice. After taking a sip of his milk, he looked around the table, a couple seats away on the opposite side was Hermione. As soon as he caught her eye, she started blushing and looked away smiling, to continue her conversation with Harry. After about a minute of just sitting there two girls came up and sat on either side of him, instantly engaging him into conversation.

"Hi. I'm Parvati and this is Lavender." The girl on the left said.

"Oh, hello."

"Hi!" Lavender said.

"What's your name?" Parvati asked.

"Michael." Mike replied, smiling, slightly nervous.

"So where're you from?" Lavender asked.

"I'm originally from the U.S.," Mike said. "But I moved to England about six years ago."

"Really? What's the U.S. like?" Lavender asked interested.

"It's pretty big, and I've been to a bunch of different places. I liked the Rocky Mountains the most though; I went snowboarding there. That was fun." Mike said smiling, remembering the cool mountain air.

"You can snowboard?" Parvati asked.

"Yup, I've been able to for years." Mike replied.

"That's so cool. When winter comes will you teach me how?" Lavender asked.

"Sure."

"Really?"

"No problem." Mike said, but just then they're conversation was interrupted by schedules being handed out. He had no idea where the classes were or even what the classes were. He hated being confused; it sucked.

The bell rang shortly after he had finished examining his schedule, and Parvati and Lavender went to leave.

"Umâ€wait a second. Could one of you show me where" Mike squinted at the paper, "Transfiguration is?"

"Sure! We're going there right now. C'mon it's really easy." Parvati said wrapping her arm in his, "We'll get you there in no time."

"Thanks a lot. I don't have a clue where anything is," Mike said relieved, "or what anything is for that matter."

"Don't worry about anything, we'll teach you. I'll call it an even trade; I'll show you around and you teach me how to snowboard." Lavender said smiling.

"What do I get out of it?" Parvati whined, before smiling.

"I don't know. Think of something." Mike said smiling.

"I'll work on that." She replied.

After walking up stairs and down corridors and going around turns they finally reached the Transfiguration room. Upon approaching Mike recognized the teacher remembering what Draco said, she taught this class, this Professor McGonagall. Speaking of Draco, Mike apparently had class with him, seeing as he was sitting in the back row by himself; Crabbe and Goyle were squeezed together in the table beside his. Parvati and Lavender left him to sit in the third row. Mike decided to go and sit with Draco.

"Hi." Mike said sitting beside Draco.

Under any other circumstances, if a Gryffindor had sat next to Draco then he would've questioned them as to why they were sitting thereâ€or hex them. But this was different, for some unknown reason.

"Hello. Sleep good?" Draco asked politely.

"Yeah. You?"

"Yeah I guess, but I was dreading this class."

"Why's that? It isn't tough is it?" Mike asked worried.

"Are you kidding? This is one of the tougher classes in the whole school; McGonagall gives out so much homework. You're going to learn to hate this class." Draco said sneering at the teacher.

Mike just sighed and stared at the desk, he knew this wasn't going to be easy.

"Okay everyone we are going to go over a review to start off the year. So take out your wands and be ready to say a spell on my command. Mr. Weasley, you're first. Turn this iguana into a water goblet." McGonagall said.

Ron completed the spell successfully and Gryffindor was awarded ten points.

"Now let's see†Mr. Riddle. Switch this parrot and this dog." McGonagall said.

Mike knew the spell and exactly how it went, but it never turned out right†just like now. He ended up turning the parrot into a stuffed animal and blowing it up and the dog shrunk. The entire class laughed at him and McGonagall shook her head in disappointment; by this time Mike was really red in the face.

The rest of the class went like that, anytime he was called on to perform a spell it ended up terribly bad; but he got all the information questions right. Hermione on the other hand performed all the spells right and Draco did as well, in fact pretty much everyone else did well, except for one kid named Neville Longbottom, but everyone else didn't find it that unusual.

After the class ended Mike proceeded to Divination, another class that he had no idea where it was. He was predicting a likely pattern of this sort; not a pattern he wished to have. Luckily Lavender offered to show him where it was.

They walked a long distance to a tower in the northern part of he castle. They had to climb up a staircase and go through a trapdoor to get into the classroom. It was the oddest location for a classroom that Mike had ever seen. The classroom itself was even odder, it was stuffy and hot and all the windows were closed, with a roaring fire, and it seemed very gloomy; definitely not the optimal place to be predicting the future. Yes, Mike did know what Divination was.

He sat down at a table with Parvati and Lavender, waiting for class to start.

The teacher came looming out of the shadows, covered in bangles and necklaces that were evidently pulling her down, and glasses that made her eyes monstrously huge. She spoke to the class in and airy sort of 'I-know-more-than-you-do-' voice.

"Well class, welcome to another year of Divination, the class that teaches you to see into the future. As you all must know, yet one of you don't, I am Professor Trelawney." Professor Trelawney announced airily.

"Well of course he doesn't know who you are, you old bat, he's new." Ron whispered behind Mike.

Mike had to stifle a laugh; he could already tell this was going to be an interesting class indeed.

Professor Trelawney chose to ignore what Ron had said and continued; "Now please would everyone take out your copies of The Mysteries of the Future and turn to page six please."

Mike took out his book and started to read what was written.

"As you can see, the book starts off on crystal gazing. I chose to go along with this as a proper review to start off the year."

"Actually, I can't see anything." Mike said.

"Why's that?" Trelawney asked softly, but obviously annoyed.

"Because this room's so stuffy that it's making me dizzy. Not the ideal place for Divination I might add." Mike said smiling.

"Of course it is; my room is built specifically for divining the future. It is designed so from the pages of many books."

"What is it based on? The chamber of the Oracle of Delphi?" He said sarcastically, "She was influenced by the vapors of ethane and other chemicals to alter her state of mind; your room has none of that. If it did, it is most likely that the students' voices would have changed; that's why a lot of people thought the Oracle was prophesizing, the ethane and chemicals changed her voice, they interpreted it as the voice of the gods speaking trough her. In fact it was just distorted vocalization." Mike explained.

Ron, Harry, and various other students looked flabbergasted at his statement. No one had ever spoken to Trelawney like that, save Hermione back in their third year.

"And how do you know all that?" Trelawney questioned.

"Because I've been to the Chamber of the Oracle, quite fascinating really. I even got to see the backroom with the fault where the vapors were being released. When I came out I was a little dizzy and disoriented, and my voice was deeper. The researchers said that was because of the chemicals." Mike responded innocently.

Trelawney went from agitated to fascinated in three seconds flat, she was obviously impressed that he had been to the Oracle's chamber.

"What was it like there? Did you have any visions?" She asked stepping closer.

"No, I didn't have any visions, and it was really foggy. But the way your classroom is setup no one will ever have a vision, it's too stuffy and distracting." Mike replied.

"What do you mean 'stuffy and distracting'?" Trelawney inquired.

"Having all the windows shut and a roaring fire makes it to hot to be comfortable, and the incense burning makes people dizzy and kind ofâ€out of it. Last, having it dark is straining everyone's vision so that they don't see things correctly, let alone interpret anything right, such as the smoke in the crystal ball." Mike explained, he was hot and stuffy and dizzy, and he wanted it to end. But he was right after all; these were the worst conditions for Divination.

He waited for her to do something or say anything, but she didn't, so he got up and opened all the windows. After having finished that, he put out all the incense and took down all the drapes to let in sunlight.

"That's better." He said sitting back down. "Now anyone with an Inner Eye will actually be able to use it, if not you might as well hand everyone the mystical blind man's cane."

The class laughed, he wasn't sure whether it was at him, or the stunned Professor.

The rest of the class period went by without a hitch, Trelawney did know what she was doing but she stretched it a little too much, making it unbelievable.

After the bell had rung, the students all leaped to their feet and sped out of the classroom. Heading towards lunch, it seemed that a long session of crystal gazing had left them all hungry, Michael included.

As he sat down, Mike heard Ron talking about Divinationâ€and him.

"Mike man, no one has ever talked to Trelawney like that, except maybe Hermione but that was ages and ages ago." Ron said loudly though mouthfuls of food.

"Your nuts, you know that, nuts. I'm surprised she didn't predict your death, it would be a break from her predicting mine." Harry added gulping down pumpkin juice.

"Why what did he do?" Hermione asked sitting down across from Mike, avoiding his eyesâ€still.

"He told her off about the stuffiness of her room, and junk. It was cool, made everyone laugh." Ron said now munching on ham.

"I think I'm going to go sit outside for a bit. I'll see ya'll later." Mike said getting up and walking outside, heading towards the greenhouses.

He walked inside greenhouse five, heading slowly down the aisles, gazeing at all the plants. There were so many flowers and trees andâ€gnomes? Little buggers. He stayed in there for about ten minutes staring at all the plants before going into the middle aisle. He extended his arm, reaching out for one of the flowers.

"I wouldn't touch that." A voice said from behind him, startling him.

"Why not?" He asked the new spectator, "Hi Hermione."

"Because it'll spit acid on you." She said prodding it with a stick, the flower spit acid on it and it burned and melted away.

"Odd how something so beautiful can be so dangerous." Mike said staring intently at it, "Did you sleep good?"

"Yeah, great actually." She said blushing lightly.

Mike then started walking along towards the front of the room, Hermione right beside him. He checked around the table for any plants and then pulled himself up onto it.

"Have a seat." He said patting a section of table beside himself.

Hermione pulled herself next to him.

"Why'd you come out here? We don't have Herbology 'til Wednesday." She asked facing him.

"I like it out here. It's peaceful, and people are less likely to find meâ€that is unless they're following me." He said smirking at her. "You wouldn't happen to be following me, would you?"

"Maybe" She retorted. "if I hadn't you'd be flower acid.

He didn't say anything for a little. Then asked, "So you've always gone here?"

"Yeah, it's pretty nice." She said breathing deeply, taking in the smells of all the plants, "You're right, it is peaceful out here. How about you, where are you from?"

"Me? I was originally from the U.S., but moved to England a few years ago." He said lightly.

"Where'd you go to school before now?"

"Well I've been to a bunch of different schools. I went to an English school before, then Beauxbatons, then Durmstrang for a little bit. Since then I've been home schooled. How longs that? "Six yearsâ€yup. That's about right." He said smiling. "Well, I wouldn't really call it home schooled per se, I was taught while I was traveling."

"Wait, so you've been to the Tri-Wizard schools?"

"Yeah, but I didn't ever stay that longâ€three weeks maybe."

"What're the schools like?"

"Well, from what I can remember, Durmstrang was a dark, dank, and icy place, and Beauxbatons was more airy and light. Of all the schools I've been to, I like Hogwarts the best. There are a lot of nice people here, and one I love to talk to." He said looking at her through the corner of his eye.

Hermione blushed a deep red, and started fiddling with a string on her sweater.

"So how is it that you came to Hogwarts?" She asked turning to him, discarding the string.

"Dumbledore came to me in January and asked if I wanted to come here. Seeing as I'd been traveling for years, I thought it'd be a nice change and said yes. He spent months organizing it with the Ministry and -voila! - here I am." Mike said after watching her fiddle with her sweater.

Ring!

The bell sounded across the grounds signaling the start of classes.

"Oh man, I'm late!" Hermione said frantically hopping off the desk, and dashing for the door. But before she had even gone two steps Mike had grabbed her arm and pulled her back, hopping off the desk. "What're you doing?"

"Relax." He said slowly walking out, Hermione's arm still grasped in his hand.

"Relax? I'm already late and missing class, and I'm probably going to get detention." She said growing red in the face.

"It'll be fine as long as you breathe." He said jokingly.

She just glared at him as they walked along; he had released her arm.

After ten minutes of walking they came up to the classroom, but to Hermione's surprise there was a sign on the door that read: CLASS HAS BEEN CANCELLED.

"I can't believe this" Hermione said sighing deeply.

"I told you it'd be fine." Mike said grinning.

"Shut up." Hermione snapped giving him the evil eye, and grinning.

"Well now you have a whole class period of free time what're you going to do with it?"

"Wait, don't you have class? You said you didn't take Ancient Runes and that was what got cancelled so" Hermione asked curiously.

"Nope, I didn't have class to begin with. This is a free period for me." He said bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Let's go for a walk, unless you have anything else to do. I don't want to interrupt your plans or anything." He added sheepishly, he didn't want to take up her time if she had better things to do.

"Well, as of now, I don't have anything to do soâ€sure a walk sounds nice." She said starting down the hall.

"Great!" He started glancing around for signs of anything familiar; he found nothing. "Lead the way seeing as I have absolutely no idea where I am."

"Okay." Hermione said laughing.

After walking around for the better part of the period, they finally ended up in the common room. They spent the rest of their time on large pouf chairs talking, laughing, and playing wizard's chess. Mike knew how to play chess, but the pieced bashing each other was still a little surprising; Hermione had laughed at him when her bishop first took one of his knights. He ended up winning though, after a long and vigorous match that is.

"Checkmate." Mike said moving his queen to finish the game.

"I didn't even see that coming." Hermione said examining the board.

"Then my plan worked! Insert maniacal laugh here." Mike said jokingly picking up Ron's chess set, Hermione had 'borrowed' it and used her own set. "So, what class do you have next?"

"Umâ€Arithmancy." She said putting her pieces away, shoving a protesting pawn in the box.

"Arithmancy? So do I." He said laughing at the pawn, "I don't think he wants to get put away yet."

"Yeah wellâ€Stupefy!" She yelled getting frustrated with the pawn; it froze instantly.

"Will you show me where the class is?" He asked quietly.

"Of course, just let me get my books." She said dashing upstairs.

Mike went upstairs to put Ron's chess set away and grab his books. Coming back down he saw that Hermione was already there waiting.

"Sorry, I couldn't find where Ron kept his set so I ended up putting it on his nightstand."

"It's okay, I know he isn't very organized." Hermione said sarcastically, it had taken her ten minutes to find the chess set in the first place.

They walked down to the Arithmancy room, catching up with some of Hermione's friends. She had introduced them to Mike and vice versa, all getting along pretty well. The class itself went along well; apparently Mike was good at Arithmancy for the most part, except for the fact that he contradicted the teacher a lot. Some of the things he knew Professor Vector didn't and the professor insisted on arguing with him about it. All in all though everything went along fine.

"So I see that you have a tendency to argue with teachers." Hermione said as they stepped into the hall grinning.

"No, it's just that he didn't know about the" Mike to started to exclaim but Hermione cut him off.

"It's alright, I was joking." She said laughing lightly at his frantic-ness, nudging him in the arm.

"Oh" He started blushing profusely.

His face maintained its red color all the way to the next class. Then later at dinner Hermione ended up having to explain to Ron about record players, don't ask how it ended up like that, and Mike had left early to go for a walk. He hadn't really had a chance to see the grounds yet and he wanted a closer look at the lake.

Getting up he said, "I'll be outside in the unlikely case that someone desperately needs to talk to me." Everyone nodded as he left.

He walked across the grounds taking in all of its details; it was magnificent in its own way. The forest, the lake, the mountains, a random hut on the groundsâ€a random hut? Mike walked slowly towards it and recognized the ten-foot tall man from the train station. He was only about twenty feet away and turned to leave when the man called out to him.

"Hallo there!" The man said waving him over, seeing as Mike was the only one around.

Stepping up to the man he said, "Hello."

"An' who migh' you be?" The man asked joyously.

"Michael Riddle and who are you?" Mike said his voice sounding smaller than he intended.

"I'm Rubeus Hagrid gamekeeper, keeper of keys and grounds, and the Care o' Magical Creatures teacher." He said sticking out a giant hand for him to shake; it was about the size of a large frying pan. Mike shook his hand lightly and asked what he was doing.

"Well I was 'bout to go an' weed out the vegetable garden o'er here by the horse paddock. Would you like to help me?" He asked his beady black eyes shining.

"Sure. I need something to do anyways." Mike replied following towards the garden. It consisted of some of largest vegetables he had ever seen.

The pumpkins looked freshly grown but were the size of a boulder with room to spare, as were the heads of lettuce and cabbage. There were also large stalk sticking out of the ground that were about the size of small trees, they looked like carrot stalks. They were just the few things spread amongst the vast garden; it truly was marvelous.

"So here's a shovel an' a rake. I'll show you where to start." Hagrid said handing him a shovel, a rake, and a pair of gloves.

"You grow all this by yourself?" Mike asked wide-eyed.

"Yup, been workin' at it all summer." Hagrid replied proudly, beaming at his garden.

"Mind if I throw my cloak on the fence?" Mike asked removing his cloak and sweater.

"Go righ' ahead." Hagrid said digging into a weed. "You can start in tha' row o'er there." He nodded towards the adjacent row.

"Okay." Mike said walking over to the row of potatoes and digging into a weed, careful not to hit a potato root.

They talked and worked all throughout the evening. Hagrid and Mike shooting questions back and forth, Mike had instantly become friends with the threatening looking teacher. They had gotten most of the garden done when it became too dark to work. Even the light from the lantern wasn't very effective.

"Well, thank you for yer help. I appreciate it." Hagrid said reaching over and taking his shovel.

"No problem, I needed something to do anyway. It was nice to talk to you Rubeus." Mike said.

"Oh call me Hagrid. Ev'rybody else does." He said smiling through his tangles of beard.

"It was nice talking to you Hagrid. I better get back to the castle before I get in trouble."

"I'll walk yeh just in case someone tries to give you any trouble, I'll jus' tell 'em yeh were helpin' me." Hagrid said walking along beside him.

They walked up to the castle all the while talking. They were chatting about dragons and other dangerous animals when they entered the Great Hall and a really nasty looked man came up to them. He had a weird aura about him; it was mean but not quite evil, despite the fact that he seemed rather slimy.

"What are you doing out of bed this late?" The man asked eyeing Mike suspiciously.

"Hello Professor Snape. Mike 'ere was helpin' me weed my garden, real nice o' him to lend a hand." Hagrid said clapping a hand on Mike's shoulder.

"Yeah" Mike said becoming immediately distracted by shoelace.

"Well, isn't that very nice of you. Such a good Samaritan." Snape said sarcastically, "Now off to bed before you get in any kind of trouble. We wouldn't want the new student getting a tarnish on his clean record on the first day, now would we?"

"C'mon there Mike I'll take yeh to yer common room." Hagrid said stepping forward.

"I'd do it myself but I have more important things to do than usher around new little students." Snape said maliciously.

"I'm not little." Mike said quietly.

"What was that?" Snape snapped narrowing his eyes.

"I said I'm not little. There isn't really a need to be so rude to someone you don't even know. Respect has to be given to be gained." Mike said walking away before Snape could answer.

As soon as they were out of earshot Hagrid spoke up, "He's goin' to seek you out now, yeh know tha'? It wasn' very smart to snap at Professor Snape like tha'."

"What's he going to do? Intentionally fail me? That's the least of my worries." Mike said sulking, but he changed the subject, "So, I didn't get to ask you. Have you ever had a dragon?"

Hagrid's eyes lit up at the thought of Norbert, "Yup, 'bout five years ago. He was beautiful. You like dragons, do yeh?"

"Yeah, they're one of my favorite animals. They're so puzzling and mysterious, you can't help but love them." Mike said glowing; he really did like dragons.

"Well 'ere we are." Hagrid said coming up the portrait hole, turning back to Mike he said, "You can come an' visit me in me hut any time."

"Thanks. Night Hagrid." Mike replied saying the password and stepping inside.

"Night." Hagrid said starting off.

Mike walked over to the fire and plopped down on the couch that was situated in front of it. His hands were a little sore but other than that he was okay. Looking around he found his bag on a chair across the room; he left that thing everywhere. It's not like anyone could open it, the paranoid Mad-eye Moody had put locking, anti-tearing, and protection charms on every inch of it; it was sealed tighter than Gringotts.

Reaching down he pulled out his ever-handy CD player and selected a CD to play. Going back to his original couch he put the headphones on and turned on the CD player, then he grabbed a book out of his bag and started reading. He considered it for a moment and decided that this would probably become a routine of his, it's not like it was that bad of one. After about an hour of reading he headed up to the common room to go to sleep. He made it halfway up the stairs and tripped, spilling his stuff all over. Glancing down he tried to find what he had tripped over; ironically it was a book. Picking it up he looked for a name inside; it was Neville Longbottom's. He put it back down; Neville would find it there when he went down stairs the next morning.

Changing into sweatpants, Mike snuck into bed, and fell asleep, dreaming about dragons.