Chapter 4 - First Day Jitters

As the door to the bathroom closed behind the new boy, the remaining occupants of the 6th year Gryffindor boy's dorm made quick eye contact with one another. No words were said as Sirius stooped to rustle something out from the depths of his trunk and all four boys moved as one towards the door, through the common room, and out into the corridor. They made their way to their favorite hideaway- an abandoned classroom on the 8th floor of the east wing. It was a part of the castle so rarely used these days that they were likely the only current students to have ever set foot there. Due to this fact, it was a fantastic place to experiment, plan pranks, and have conversations that really ought not to be overheard. Or, apparently, hide from your new dormmate.

Once they were all settled in their usual spots in the room they had made their own, it was Sirius who broke the tense silence, "Houston, I think we have a problem…"

Peter snorted, "No shit."

There was another moment of silence that followed. Most eyes in the room lingered on Remus whose gaze was turned down towards the fidgeting hands in his lap. Sighing, he looked up, "Yeah, but it's not like there is anything we can really do about it." He sounded already defeated.

"This doesn't mean that things have to change, mate. We just need to adapt." Sirius tried to sound upbeat, but it did not quite land. "Maybe he's cool?"

Remus gave a dry snort. "There is a pretty big distance between 'cool' and 'down with bunking with a werewolf' and 'willing to look the other way for illegal animagi' Pads," he pointed out.

"Well, I'm not saying we go blabbing to him about all of our secrets tomorrow!" Sirius defended, "I'm just saying that since we can't very well kick him out of the dorm, maybe we could give him the benefit of the doubt? Feel him out a little before shutting him out completely?"

"He could cause us a lot of problems if he gets too suspicious or rats on us," Peter put in.

"So we just need to be careful," Sirius amended. "Watch what we do. What we say." Peter and Remus gave him slight nods at this. He turned his head towards the last boy in the room, "What do you think James? You've barely said six words all night. What's up with you?"

All eyes fixed on the boy in question with a mix of curious, critical, and concerned gazes. He cleared his throat softly before he began, "He just- weirds me out." He gave a halfhearted shrug. "I don't know. The way he showed up- it was just so… strange. And a little frightening. He just looked so scared and lost. And he looks just like me! That can't be normal. And seeing that look on my own face- I don't know. It all just- freaked me out a bit I guess…" He trailed off, not sure where he was going or how to articulate what had him so out of sorts about the whole situation. "I mean, how would you feel if a mini Sirius came tumbling out of the forest one day?"

"The world could not handle two of me," he said with a devilish smile. At least it got a small exhale that might count as a laugh from James.

"You're right- I'm sorry to have put that thought even in my own head!" He threw an arm across his face in mock distress. "But really, I guess the kid seems fine. He was nice enough at dinner, even if he came off a little nerdy," he leaned over to elbow Remus, "and wasn't super chatty."

Remus sat up a little straighter and leaned forward a bit, "I'd have to imagine that as weird and inconvenient as this is for us, it must be infinitely worse for him. I mean, you said it yourself Prongs- we all saw him that morning- he was terrified and really not in a good way. Now he has been dumped in a new school, where he doesn't know anybody, and to top it all off, he has no memories. I remember how I felt when I started at Hogwarts, and that was when I knew what was happening, where I was, and there were 40 other people in exactly the same boat with me. Just try to imagine what he must be going through."

Sirius grinned. "Wise old Moony always coming in with the perspective."

"But he makes a really good point," Jame admitted. "Perhaps this meeting should be about how we can help the new guy rather than what we should do about him."

Nodding, Sirius added, "I maintain that we should still be careful around him with our secrets. Just because we are nice to him does not mean we need to trust him completely."

"Agreed. Trust is earned, but, in our dorm, common decency and support is given." Remus leveled his gaze at his friends, making sure his point was made.

Harry woke early Tuesday morning, excited for his first day of classes, but more likely due to his body still being set to Dursley time. He learned long ago it was better to be the first one up at his relatives' house as the alternative was being subjected to whatever his aunt thought an appropriate way to wake up a sleeping teenager. Be that her knuckle's harshly rapping on the door, her shrill voice startling him awake, a slap to the face, being doused in cold water, or that one time she threw something at Hedwig's cage to startle her into waking him up. It was after that last incident that Harry had vowed to be his own alarm clock going forward. He was not willing to risk his friend's safety for another half hour's sleep.

His internal alarm went off just before 6:00am. Harry sighed, knowing that there was no use in trying to get back to sleep. He sat up and cast a quick tempus to confirm what time it was. James had told him last night that they were late risers in this dorm, so he was not expecting anyone to be awake for at least another hour. Deciding to take advantage of the empty bathroom, and figuring another shower could not hurt, he quietly hauled himself out of bed to get ready for the day.

He crept out of the bathroom fully dressed and toweling off his damp hair just as dawn was breaking over the grounds. Sensing no movement from any of the dorm's other occupants, he grabbed one of the textbooks from his shelf and headed down to the common room to wait for everyone else to get up. At this hour and still so close to the beginning of term, the common room was deserted. Harry settled himself in his favorite armchair near the fire and opened what was apparently his Herbology textbook and began to peruse it.

Over the next hour or so people began to trickle down the stairs and out the portrait hole. Most of them were still bleary-eyed and half asleep, so no one seemed to notice him, let alone pay him any attention. Around quarter to 8 Harry heard the clomping of many feet descending from the boy's dormitory and looked up when he heard his name.

"Harry! There you are! We were a little worried that you had tried to find the Great Hall all on your own. We got lost for a week straight trying to find our way there our first year. Ended up missing breakfast more days than not." Sirius beamed at him, seeming much too awake for the early hour.

Harry blinked at him for a second as his brain worked to process what Sirius had said. He spoke very fast. "Erh- yeah. I guess I'm just an early riser and I didn't want to wake you guys by turning on a light," he said, raising the book in his lap in explanation.

"You could probably have tried to teach hippogriffs to tap dance and you wouldn't have woken Sirius," grinned James. "Ready for breakfast?"

Harry smiled at him. "Yeah, just let me go grab my bag. Uhh- what subjects do we have today?"

"Double Herbology and double Care of Magical Creatures," James told him.

"Right, thanks." And Harry scampered up the stairs to quickly grab his bag, shoving his Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures books in along with some spare parchment, a couple of quills, and some ink. He came back down to find the four boys lounging around the common room waiting for him. "Thanks. Now I'm ready." Sirius gave him a nod and turned to lead the way.

When they arrived at the Gryffindor table, Sirius was still explaining about all of the ways you can get lost or otherwise derailed in the castle. "... and you have to watch out for those trick stairs- they are usually about halfway up- we'll point 'em out when we're walking. But with how the staircases move around, it's sometimes hard to track them."

"Sirius- I thought you were trying to give him some tips on getting around, not frighten him into never leaving the common room again!" Remus admonished as they sat down at the table.

Harry had actually found the rant to be quite amusing. He had never thought of Hogwarts as quite so treacherous- or at least, not due to the stairs and hidden passageways and such. But hearing all of its quirks listed out like that he found himself honestly shocked more first years don't get seriously injured or traumatized or lost for days.

Sirius looked at Harry sheepishly, "Sorry Bambi, I just didn't want you to be caught unawares by any of it…"

"That's alright. I appreciate the heads up." Harry gave him a small smile as he grabbed a piece of toast. "Hey, umm, why do you keep calling me 'Bambi'? You do know my name is Harry, right?"

It was Sirius' turn to smile, only his had more of a manic edge to it. "I know. But you didn't see yourself come stumbling out of the forest! You were all gangly limbs and big green eyes. Like a lost little forest creature. A perfect 'Bambi' if I've ever seen one."

Harry flushed at this, looking down, and muttered, "Oh great. Just what everyone wants to be compared to- a lost baby deer."

"Awe, don't be mad. It's a term of endearment. You were so cute!" Sirius tried to appease him.

"I am not cute!" Harry protested. He wrinkled his nose up at the thought, but that only served to support Sirius's claim as the other boys couldn't help but laugh. He was a little cute when he did that.

"Hey mate- don't feel too bad. We've all got nicknames that we use in the dorm." Peter jumped in to save him. "They call me Wormtail. Not exactly flattering sounding, right?" Harry looked up at Peter, surprised he had volunteered such information. "Sirius is Padfoot, James is Prongs, and we call Remus Moony. And I can guarantee that none of those names was self appointed," he said kindly.

"So you are saying I'm stuck with it?" Harry pouted.

"Like a dog with a bone, that one," James said, sticking a thumb out at Sirius. "Once he gets something in his head it's damn near impossible to get him to drop it." Harry huffed a sigh, accepting the loss.

"Mr. Doe," came professor McGonagall's voice from behind their group. The boys turned towards their head of house, but it took Harry a few seconds to realize that she was addressing him. That is going to take some getting used to, he thought to himself. I am 'Doe' not 'Potter'.

Oh boy, I'm going to need to learn not to respond to 'Potter' now too. Ugh. This is going to be very confusing. "Here is your timetable. You passed all of your qualifying exams, so you have a full schedule. I believe you share every class with at least a few of your yearmates so I trust they will see to it that you are able to find your way to each of your lessons." She gave the other boys a stern look, eyes lingering on Remus, who gave a firm nod. As a prefect, it was technically his job. "Good. Have a good first day Mr. Doe. I will see you all in Transfiguration on Thursday."

Looking down at his schedule, Harry noted that they had a lot of double blocked lessons. Maybe that was an NEWT level thing? It gave more time for complicated lectures or involved practicals. Well, he'd find out soon enough. As James had told him earlier, he saw that they did indeed have double Herbology this morning followed by double Care of Magical Creatures in the afternoon.

"Eat up- we need to head out in a few minutes to make it down to the greenhouses by 9." Remus said.

Harry just continued to nibble at his toast, not feeling all that hungry. He was still rather nervous about his first day. In the past. With his parents. And Sirius. And Remus. And the rat who betrayed them. And that also meant that Snape was somewhere around here. And Merlin knows who else! And- No! He mentally slapped himself. I cannot think like that. It will only serve to drive me nutters. And get me into trouble by saying or doing something I shouldn't. He had to be rational about all of this. Or, as rational as one could be in such an absurd situation. They are all just kids. Other 16-year-olds trying to pass their NEWTs and get a date and survive until the next year. This Peter has not done anything wrong yet. This Snape has never said a nasty word against him. This James was not his father. This Sirius had no idea who he was. These people did not owe him anything and he could not bring 15 years worth of baggage to lay at their feet. Get it together Pott- Doe! Harry set down his last bit of toast with a determined look on his face.

"We should be off," Remus said, glancing at his watch. They all rose from the table and Sirius once again led the way out of the Great Hall, then out of the castle and down to the greenhouses.

It was a cool morning, so the students all stood close together as they waited for their professor to arrive. Harry noted that they seemed to share this period with the Ravenclaws. Interesting… In his own time they rarely had any classes with the Ravenclaws. He'd always wondered why that was. He also saw his- Lily. He also saw Lily standing nearby with a small group of girls from both houses. She was laughing at something someone had just said and her eyes sparkled. Harry looked away quickly, not wanting to come off creepy being caught staring.

At 9 o'clock sharp the doors to the greenhouse opened and the students did not need any more invitation as they herded themselves in. Harry relaxed slightly as the warm, humid air hit his face. He never did like the cold. The students arranged themselves around the work tables in the middle of the green house.

"Good morning class," said a tall man at the front of the tables. Harry assumed this was the professor and he was slightly taken aback by his appearance. He was broad shouldered, with a heavy brow and a facial expression that reminded Harry distantly of Professor Snape. In a word, the man looked rather… intimidating. Harry gulped slightly, not expecting such a sharp contrast from the kindly Professor Sprout that he was so used to after five years. The man's eyes seemed to linger on him for a moment as they swept over the class.

"We will be continuing our work with Pritcher's Porritch today. Midgeon! Can you summarize the properties and dangers of working with this plant?" His eyes locked onto a Ravenclaw boy a few tables over.

"Yes sir. Pritcher's Porritch is a semi-rare, pod bearing plant most commonly used as a potion ingredient. The pods secrete a blue substance that is corrosive. And it is not only the stem, but the leaves of the plant have thorns making it rather difficult to handle and harvest the secretions."

"Correct. Swothmore! What are the notable uses of the secretions?" the professor continued.

The Gryffindor girl standing next to Lily answered, "The most widely known use is in the Potion of All Potential, sir."

"Correct." He spoke very briskly, "Though it is also a common ingredient in bond-weakening drafts- take note."

Harry glanced around to make sure he did not mean this literally, but no one had made a move to pull out parchment and quill at his words. Okay, so a mental note then. Given how reminiscent of Professor Snape this man seemed, he did not want to make any assumptions.

"Today you will be harvesting the Pritcher's Porritch's secretions. Take care to collect all of it into the provided quartz vials as it will burn a hole through much everything else. Dragonhide gloves will also be required as Mr. Midgeon noted about the thorns. These plants are also known to have a temper and a habit of spitting at those who upset them, so take caution and do not rush them." He gave the group a stern look. "There is one plant per table. Get to work!" He motioned at a shelf of spiky potted plants behind him and a collection of sparkly vials on a table next to them.

There was a rustling as everyone donned their dragonhide gloves and prepared to get started with the finicky plants.

"I haven't got any gloves," said Harry in a low voice, looking nervous.

"That's alright," Sirius said. "I'm sure Professor Kerner has a spare set you can borrow."

Nodding, Harry quickly made his way up to the professor who was looming at the front of the cluster of tables. "Umm, excuse me. Professor Kerner? I'm sorry, but I haven't any gloves. And I was wondering if there might be some I could borrow?" It came out in halting, unsure bits.

The man looked down at Harry and his searching gaze made him feel all of two inches tall. "Unprepared?" It was not a real question and he didn't even pause long enough for Harry to respond if he had wanted to. "There is a shelf in the back with spare items that have been left behind. Take care and return them at the end of the lesson." He indicated the shelf. Harry, not caring much for this interaction, turned to leave and get on with his work when the professor added, "And you will do well not to harm these plants." Harry turned back around a bit befuddled. Did he really come off as threatening? That seemed unlikely given the 'Bambi' nickname he had already picked up here. Maybe he just thinks I'm incompitent. I have gotten that one before.

Taking note, but shrugging it off for now, Harry continued on his way to the shelf. Luckily, he was able to scrounge up a pair of mismatched gloves from the abandoned ones he found that were only a little too large for his hands. Upon his return to the worktable he heard Remus snap, "Sirius! Be careful! You can't just go yanking on it like that!"

"Well, I don't see how else we get it to give up the goods without touching it! Show me your magic ways, oh wise one," he huffed, pushing the plant towards Remus. The taller boy did not look eager to touch the plant though.

"I think he just meant that maybe you need to be a little more gentle so we don't all get spit at." Harry jumped in, trying to soothe the situation. "I like my skin just how it is, thank you. Fully intact." Seeing no one making any moves, Harry reached over and pulled the plant to himself. It reminded him of a mix between a nettle, a thistle, and a poppy. It had spiky leaves and long, thorny stems topped with bulbous pods. "James, could you please grab a vial?" He angled the plant so that it was facing away from all of them, just in case it did spit. Once James was ready with the container, he cautiously reached out and grasped one of the pods at the base. He began applying gentle pressure and had the disgusting thought that it was like squeezing a giant zit. The pod was even slightly warm to the touch. Ewww. Just as that had crossed his mind, an electric blue, chunky, viscous liquid started dribbling out of the plant. Thankfully James caught it as Harry looked away. It was gross, but he continued squeezing until it seemed to have run out of juice (pun intended!). He pulled his hand back quickly, shaking it out as if he could knock the memory away and making a face. "See, not so bad," he half joked.

They all snickered at the face he was making, but seemed emboldened by his success. They took turns being the 'squeezer' and the 'catcher'. There were a few dicey moments, like when an excited Sirius squeezed with a little too much vigor causing the liquid to shoot across the table making Harry have to duck out of its path. Or when Remus' hands got a little too shaky and some of the blue goop spilled out of the vile. Luckily he pulled his glove off fast enough to avoid any burns, but he was definitely going to need a new, less holey glove for next class. All in all, though, they were one of the first groups done. Professor Kerner came over to inspect their work. After a long, hard look at their plant and vials, he gave them a curt nod and walked away.

"We must have done something right. He usually has some comment or advice or other," breathed Peter, smiling.

"Is he always like that?" Harry asked.

"What? Quiet? Not always. Though he's not exactly a chatty bloke," replied Sirius.

"No, I mean, uhh, kinda scary? I just… don't think he likes me very much," Harry finished.

"Nonsense. I mean, he's not all sunshine and unicorns, but he just takes his subject pretty seriously, I guess," Sirius tried to reassure him.

"Sure, I guess." Though Harry was not very sure that was the case. He had met more than his fair share of people who hate him and Harry had developed a sort of sixth sense for when someone despises him. And for whatever reason, Kerner was making that sense tingle. Well, he can get in line with the rest of them.

As the class wound down and the other groups finished their collections, Professor Kerner called out, "Two feet on the uses of Pritcher's Porritch due Friday. Dismissed!" And with that, everyone began packing up their things. Harry returned his gloves to the back shelf before rejoining the group as they made their way back up to the castle for lunch.

As Harry sat down at the Gryffindor table, he pulled out his schedule to see when might have a chance to sneak off to the library. Unfortunately, his next free period was not until Friday afternoon. This morning, while he had been waiting for the others to wake up, Harry had considered his master plan. He had concluded that he had achieved step 2: figure out what the heck to do about where the heck he was. He was going to go to school, blend in, maybe learn a thing or two, and maybe get to know his parents and godfather in a way he never got a chance to back in his time all while working on step 3 of his master plan: figure out how the heck he got here (and therefore how the heck to get home). He could only imagine the stir his disappearance had created back in his own time. Ron and Hermione must be worried sick.

He had also decided to break step 3 down into subsections (Hermione's passion for organization must have finally started rubbing off on him). There was step 3, subsection A: What do we know about time travel? This subsection was mildly complicated by the fact that in this time, it was quite possible that whatever had taken him back had not been discovered yet, but there was not much Harry could do about this other than see what he could find out. Hence the need for some uninterrupted library time. Then there was step 3, subsection B: What do we know about portkeys and/or magical stones? He vaguely recalled the stone he touched having some kind of design on it, but he could not quite pin down the memory. His brain had gotten pretty rattled that day. So subsection B might necessitate a trip into the Forbidden Forest to see if he could locate the object that caused all of this trouble. But that posed a much more difficult proposition than simple library time. The forest was, after all, forbidden. And the new kid getting caught sneaking off like that would just be wildly suspicious. Harry decided to meditate on that and see if a solution presented itself while he focused for now on step 3, subsection A. With a goal of getting started on it come Friday afternoon, he tucked his schedule away, satisfied to have taken at least some semblance of a step towards progress.

Looking at the food around him, Harry realized that he still wasn't very hungry. They had Care of Magical Creatures after lunch and that meant facing the group of people who he had made a right fool of himself in front of last week. And the professor had been so nice to him, but she had also spoken to him like a small child. It was just embarrassing. Color crept into his cheeks at the mere thought. He grabbed a sandwich just to distract himself.

Harry's attention was pulled away from his hands as they nervously shredded the crust of his bread when he heard his name. "You're Harry, right? The new kid?" It was the girl that had been called on during Herbology and who was now sitting a few spots down at the table, next to Lily.

"Erh, yeah."

"Gretta Swothmore." She stuck out her hand and leaned across the table to shake his. "And this is Lily Evans. We are also 6th years, though, I guess you probably knew that given that we are in the same Herbology class." Her head bobbled back and forth while she talked. "What do you think of Hogwarts so far?"

"It's big," is all that he could think to say.

She laughed lightly, "I guess that's fair. Took me ages to learn my way around. You probably haven't had much time to explore yet, yeah?"

"Not really. I'm just glad to finally be out of the hospital wing. I probably know every inch of that room by memory. I was cooped up with mother-hen-Pomfrey for four days while they tried to figure out what to do with me and I thought I was gonna go mad. I'm just thankful to be free," he admitted.

"Well, I'm glad you got sprung. We don't often get transfer students at Hogwarts- especially not in the upper years- so it's rather fun to have someone new around. Particularly when those four were our main option for company." she said, throwing the 6th year boys a scathing look.

"Awe, come on Gretta. You know you love us!" Sirius waggled his eyebrows at her. She just rolled her eyes.

Harry ducked his head, "I really don't think I am all that interesting."

Lily chipped in, "Don't sell yourself short. And trust me, the bar is low." Her look was directed specifically at James.

"Oh, Lily dear, one day I will meet those high, high standards of yours. You mark my words." James promised.

"More like one day finally wear them down to your level," Peter corrected. Turning to Harry he explained, "Jame's love is like erosion- a slow process that is hard to live around, but one day, without warning, you'll fall in." He winked.

"Trust me," Lily hissed, "I am in absolutely no danger of 'falling in'."

"You know you are supposed to eat the food, right? Not just play with it?" Gretta pointed at Harry's plate which now consisted of a pile of breadcrumb atop a mutilated sandwich.

Looking down, Harry flushed, "Oh, yeah, right." He hastily shoved a bite of the most intact portion of his food into his mouth. Not liking that he had drawn everyone's attention, he tried to lead the conversation to a new, non-him, topic. "So, we have Care of Magical Creatures next?" he said after he swallowed.

"Yes. Well, Gretta and Remus are not in that class, but the rest of us are. And since our last class got, umm- interrupted- you haven't really missed anything. We were just talking about bowtruckles." Lily thankfully took the bait. "You'll like Professor Barlow. She's very nice and knowledgeable. Although, technically she is just a substitute. Professor Kettleburn is the main teacher, but he has a tendency to lose appendages and have- incidents- so we have her quite often instead. She is also the flying coach, so she's here all year regardless of Kettleburn's current, um, state."

"Do you fly, Harry?" James asked.

Taking the opportunity to reinforce his character, Harry screwed up his face in thought and concluded, "Erh, I'm not sure…"

"I wonder if it's like riding a bike?" Peter put in thoughtfully.

"Well, we can put him on a broom and find out! I wonder what other kind of hidden skills you have? Ooh, this is going to be so much fun." Sirius was bouncing at the prospect and possibilities.

"Other?" Harry choked at the same time Lily reprimanded, "He's not a toy!"

"Calm down. We are not going to hurt him, Lily." Though James did catch the nervous look on Harry's face. "You know Sirius just gets a little over-excited sometimes."

Lily only looked marginally placated by this, but let it go for now as it was time to start heading to class. As they rose and began shuffling out of the hall, Sirius came up next to Harry and said, "Don't worry kid. You don't have to do anything you don't want to. I'm just saying, it could be kind of fun to get to play detective with yourself."

"You do know we are the same age, right?" Harry huffed.

"Yeah, but you're pint-sized. That allows me certain liberties."

"No, it doesn't."

"Fine. You don't want to be called 'kid'. I can respect that. 'Bambi' it is then," Sirius flashed his devious smile. Harry just grumbled as they made their way toward the grounds.

Today Professor Barlow was waiting for the class between the pumpkin fields and Hagrid's hut. As they stood, waiting for the rest of the class to arrive, she greeted the group of Gryffindors happily, "Good Afternoon! I'm glad to see you are well Harry. And happy you chose to join our class. We are just starting the semester off with a little review, so no need to worry about anything you have missed." She spoke casually, which Harry appreciated.

"Thank you for letting me join, professor," he smiled at her.

The rest of the students trickled down from the castle and Harry noticed that all four houses were represented in the class. The Gryffindors were the largest single group with five of them, but there were also two Slytherins, two Ravenclaws, and four Hufflepuffs. Harry did not immediately recognize anyone else in the class.

"Welcome back everyone! And welcome to our newest student. Today we will be continuing our review of the OWL topics before jumping into new content next week. Now, there is a reason I had us meet here today. Does anyone know why?" And the class was off.

They spent the afternoon in the pumpkin patch theorizing about what kind of creatures could be found there and even finding a few. They had spinoff discussions about each creature that was brought up and mini lectures on those that were found. Harry found it to be one of the most enjoyable Care of Magical Creatures lessons he had ever taken part in. Don't get him wrong- Harry loved Hagrid and he would defend him with his dying breath- but actually teaching was honestly never really his strong suit. The class had been interesting and engaging and not overtly dangerous which was a welcome change of pace. And there were blessedly no skrewts. Also, Lily had been right- Professor Barlow was very knowledgeable and Harry actually learned a lot despite his lack of genuine interest in the class.

He spent most of the class trying to stand casually near Lily. She didn't seem to mind his presence, so he took that as a win. Since she didn't seem to be hanging around with anyone in particular in the class, Harry hoped that maybe she would be willing to partner with him or something in the future. His main goal throughout the class, though, remained not coming off as creepy. No staring. Maintain a respectable distance. Keep paying attention to the professor. And he thought he pulled it off quite casually and quite well.

After class was over, the Gryffindors all headed back up to the tower to get cleaned up. Crawling around the pumpkin patch for a few hours had resulted in everyone being covered in a thin layer of dirt and grime. They also still had a couple of hours before dinner and Harry thought it might be good to get started on his Herbology essay.

As they made their way through the corridors, Harry heard a hissing behind them. He turned and caught sight of a slightly less scrawny Mrs. Norris. I guess magical cats live longer than muggle ones, Harry thought to himself. Her lamp-like yellow eyes still shown bright against her dusty fur, threatening you to give her a reason to go fetch her master.

Peter, having noticed Harry had stopped walking with them, turned to see what had caught his attention. "That's Mrs. Norris, the caretaker- Filch's- cat. Most students just try to avoid her. Nasty thing. And a tattletail- goes running to her master if she sees you breaking a rule or making a mess in the corridor," he sneered at the cat.

"Oh. I don't think she's very happy with us tracking all the dirt in…" Harry indicated the slight trail that they had left behind.

Peter paled a little, "Let's get out of here before she gets Filch." He tugged Harry's arm until they were jogging the rest of the way to Gryffindor tower. When they stepped through the portrait hole, catching their breath, Peter puffed, "You really don't want to be caught by Filch. He's a nasty piece of work. He's always muttering about 'the old punishments' in the 'good old days'. Threatened to hang me by my thumbs once." He shivered.

"Noted," Harry said, straightening up.

Lily waved goodbye as she climbed the stairs to the girl's dormitory and the boys headed off to theirs. Harry debated whether it was worth it to change. He was a little grungy, but he only had three sets of robes. Deciding it was better to be clean for dinner and to just hope the house elves did laundry nightly- or at least every other night- he opted for a fresh set and headed to the bathroom to change.

When he reimmerged he found the other four boys sprawled on the floor in a circle.

"Hey Harry! We were just about to play a game of Ketchum. You wanna join?" Sirius asked from where he was laying on his stomach. Peter sat next to him shuffling a deck of cards.

Deciding his Herbology homework could wait, he said, "Um, sure. As long as you don't mind teaching me. I don't think I've ever heard of that game." Remus and James scooted over to make him a spot in the circle.

"No worries mate," James said. "It's a game we invented, so I'm not surprised you haven't heard of it. Though, more people should benefit from our ingenuity and inventive spirit. Perhaps we should market it…" he looked at the group thoughtfully.

Peter dealt as Sirius explained, "The goal of the game is to get rid of all of your cards. The first person to do so, wins. On your turn you can pass, play, draw, and lie. When passing, you can pass any number of cards from your hand to any other player, but you must declare what cards you are passing. To play, you can lay down matching sets of three or more cards. When you draw, you can choose whether you wish to draw from the deck or another player's hand. The lying you can do at any point. For example, I might choose to pass and I say that I am passing a 7 and a king to Peter, but I could be lying and actually be passing a 2 and a 4 or maybe I actually pass him three cards, not two. You get it? But, if someone catches you in a lie, then they get to take your turn action instead. So, if Remus called me out for passing three cards when I said I was only passing two, then he would get to pass 2 cards instead. But, if Remus had called me out and I wasn't lying, then the rest of us get to vote on how many cards he has to pick up. Does that make sense?"

Harry blinked for a second, trying to take that all in. He kind of wished someone else had explained the game because he was quickly learning an excited Sirius was almost impossible to follow, he talked so fast. "Umm, pass, play, draw, lie? Don't get caught. And be careful where you are pointing fingers. Yeah, I think I got the gist of it. I'm sure I'll pick it up once we start playing."

"Sounds good. We'll have James start so that you can see everyone take a turn before you have to go, how's that? And we'll stick to the base game. Gah- I know we have the official rule book somewhere around here. We've been working on it since second year." Sirius looked around distractedly.

Harry asked, "Base game?"

"Oh yeah- there are about 20 different variations we have come up with. Adding more rules or elements or combining it with another game. Exploding Ketchum was banned from the dormitory after a particularly heated round led to a small fire," Remus explained casually.

"Right. I think the base game will definitely be good for now," Harry said warily as he picked up the cards he had been dealt and began to sort them. Luckily, they seemed to be much the same as muggle cards- though the face cards did wink at him. However, there were definitely more than 52 cards in this game. "How many cards are there in the game?"

"That's another part of the fun," Sirius smiled wickedly. "We started in our first year with four standard decks that we mixed together, but over the years some cards have been lost or destroyed and whatnot, so you don't actually know how many there are, just that there are no more than four of any one particular card. It adds another element to the game and strategy." His eyes gleamed.

"Right." This was going to be chaos, Harry concluded.

And it was. But, Harry had to admit, it was rather fun chaos. Remus was surprisingly sneaky and Peter seemed to have a knack for counting cards, able to accuse people of lying when their claims were impossible based on what had already (allegedly) been played. In the end, James won- though Harry suspected that that was due more to lucky cards than skill.

Down at dinner, Harry finally met the rest of the Gryffindor 6th years. Lily introduced him to Mildred Hawthorne, who reminded him of Tonks with her insistence on never being called by her given name and preferred to go by 'Milli' instead, and Haleigh Willus. Milli was very tall- Harry could tell that even when she was sitting down- and would likely be close to six foot when she stood up. She had straw-colored hair that was chopped into a messy mullet, but her bright eyes and smile offset her otherwise intimidating appearance. Next to her, Haleigh looked rather average. Her face was dotted with freckles beneath a pair of large, coral-colored, blob-shaped glasses, the tops of which almost disappeared under her messy, brown bangs. They both greeted him pleasantly.

The main topic of conversation at the table that evening seemed to be quidditch. It turns out that Milli played keeper for the Gryffindor house team while Sirius was a beater and Jame, a chaser. Apparently, their long-time seeker and one of the beaters had graduated the previous year and there was a rumor going around that one of the other chasers- Mark Eloin- was going to drop quidditch to focus on his studies this year.

"Not that we don't all have to go out for the team each year, but it's been pretty steady the past few years. Only one or two changes in the lineup since James and I joined," Sirius was saying.

"Well, maybe this is a good opportunity to mix things up a bit. Give the younger years a chance to play," Remus responded.

"Yeah, but three out of seven- we've lost nearly half the team! Beth is gonna have a conniption when Mark tells her he's not playing." Beth, Harry had been told, was the team captain this year. A seventh year and one of the chasers, she was apparently hoping to go professional after school. Harry just hoped that meant their team was good.

Sirius kept fretting about quidditch as James and Milli made fun of him. Lily, Gretta, and Haleigh were talking about classes and Peter and Remus had gotten into an argument over the merits and validity of the discipline of divination. Harry was content to just let it all wash over him as he ate, savoring the normalcy.