Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter
Also in terms of updating I think I've decided I'll try to update on (more or less) every Sunday - with maybe the occasional midweek update depending on how much I write in advance.
The rest of the week went quite uneventfully - for Harry that is. His own flying lesson went rather uneventfully. He'd managed to get the broom to his hand on his first try, along with Terry and quite a few others, most of them half-bloods or purebloods (which Harry had learnt was what they called people based on the magical status of their parents). Harry had also managed to hold his own in the flying, despite having never done it before unlike Terry and some others, he did quite well - especially in comparison to Justin Finch-Fletchley who managed to fall off of his broom multiple times - luckily they were only ever two feet high so it didn't hurt him.
However, whilst their flying class was uneventful apparently the next class, with the Gryffindors and the Slytherins was not so. Neville Longbottom, the boy Harry had sat with on the train on the way to Hogwarts, had fallen off of his broom and broken his wrist, and then Draco Malfoy - the arrogant git who Harry already hated due to his clear racist views - had then stolen Neville's Remembrall (some sort of magical sign which tells you when you've forgotten something) and tried to fly off with it. Only to be followed by Ron Weasley, who tried to reclaim the Remembrall in some typical Gryffindor attempt at heroism.
Ron Weasley failed and the only accomplishment he earned was detention with Malfoy. Harry had gone and visited Neville in the hospital wing in his free and luckily Neville didn't seem to be too upset by it breaking - apparently whilst it told you if you'd forgotten something, it didn't tell you what, which wasn't very useful.
The two caught up for a bit, it was the first time they'd been able to talk since they'd gotten sorted, and Harry quickly became aware of Neville's fear of Snape - as well as his overall ineptitude with Potions.
After he visited Neville, Harry managed to get most of his homework done so far - luckily due to it being the first week of term, and due to Harry with the rest of the first year 'claws doing their homework every night, they didn't have much - he only had a piece of reading for charms left, which he'd already decide he'd do on Saturday instead.
Later that day he had astronomy - which was slightly chaotic due to every first year from each house being there - but it was quite interesting to see astronomy from a wizarding point of view, and Harry couldn't help but laugh at their teacher, Professor Sinistra's shocked expression on her face, as the Gryffindor, Hermione Granger, told her that muggles had indeed been to the moon.
That laugh had quickly been wiped off of his face as Draco Malfoy had muttered "mudblood" on his breath. A word which Terry had told Harry was extremely racist - and only used by the most elitist pureblood families.
"Shut up Malfoy." Harry retorted before he could even stop himself. Luckily Sinistra was at the other end of the tower and couldn't hear their conversation.
"Why?" Malfoy asked, drawling out his words in a similar manner to Snape did. "It's your kind that are ruining Hogwarts for the rest of us."
"My kind?" Harry questioned, eager to put Malfoy in his place.
"Mudbloods." Malfoy spat out.
"Malfoy." Terry said threateningly standing up as if to defend Harry, an action which was followed by Michael and Anthony, as well as Lisa Turpin. Malfoy was backed up by his own friends (if you can call them friends - to Harry they looked like brainless goons, and if their accomplishments in DADA was anything to go on, brainless did seem like the correct description.
"Nah Terry, don't worry." Harry reassured him, gently placing his arm on his and subtly telling him to stand down. "Look, Malfoy. You don't know me. Why do you assume you know what 'my kind' is?"
"Your surname, Reynolds. It's not a pureblood's name."
"Who's to say my mother isn't a witch and I didn't just take my non-magical father's last name." Harry retorted and Malfoy's eyes narrowed, realising that he'd jumped to conclusions in hearing Harry's last name.
Luckily (for Harry was sure that even if he wasn't about to be violent to Malfoy, Terry and Michael seemed about ready to), Sinistra chose that moment to come over, quickly berating them for not looking at their telescopes and listening to her.
There weren't many things about the wizarding world that Harry was sure of, but Draco Malfoy was one of them. Harry was sure that he hated Draco Malfoy.
Those sentiments hadn't changed by Halloween.
The 31st of October had come quicker than Harry had imagined, and he couldn't deny how excited he was for the Halloween feast later that day. He was currently sitting in Charms, trying desperately to focus as Professor Flitwick explained to them about the levitating charm.
"Repeat after me." The Ravenclaw head of house started. "Wingardium Leviosa."
"Wingardium Leviosa." The class parroted back.
"Make sure you're putting the stress on the right place," Flitwick instructed, repeating the charm whilst using a pointer to show the class where to stress the spell. After a couple more minutes Flitwick was finally satisfied with everyone's pronunciation and he finally gave the class permission to get their wands out and start trying to perform the spell on the feather on the table in front of them.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry (and the rest of the class) called out, and Harry groaned in frustration as his feather didn't even twitch. Harry repeated the charm only to end up with the same result.
"Flick and Swish." Flitwick called out as he walked around the classroom, demonstrating the wand movement. Harry glanced around seeing that almost nobody had gotten their feathers to levitate, except for Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor who everyone wondered why she wasn't a Ravenclaw, and Terry Boot - though both of their feathers had only managed to fly a small height, and only for a couple of seconds.
"Five points to Gryffindor." Harry heard Flitwick say, and he tried (and failed) to not turn around to see Hermione Granger successfully levitating her feather, at least two feet in the air for a sustained period of time.
"Yes!" Harry swivelled around to hear Terry's hushed exclamation of joy as his feather lifted a foot high in the air.
"Good job Boot, five points to Ravenclaw." Flitwick said with a proud grin as he walked past their desk.
"Help me." Harry begged playfully causing Terry to laugh.
"Go on then." Terry said, gesturing for Harry to try and to the charm.
"Wingardium Leviosa." Harry chanted, trying desperately to focus on the feather rising up in the air, but he couldn't help but keep tapping his leg on the floor.
"You're distracted." Terry admonished with a grin. "The feast won't even be that interesting, it's just Halloween themed food and the teachers will probably enchant some skeletons to dance or something." Terry told him.
"You act as though enchanted dancing skeletons won't be the most awesome thing you've ever seen." Harry said, and Terry laughed.
"Come on, try again. You've got this." Terry assured him.
Harry closed his eyes trying to focus, deep breaths in and out. "Wingardium Leviosa." Harry called out, his voice clear and firm. To his shock the feather lifted and he let out a surprised yelp, "Yes!" He exclaimed, echoing Terry's similar exclamations. Then the feather fell to the ground - but that didn't stop Harry's grin stretching from ear to ear.
"You got too excited." Terry told him, laughing at Harry's antics, "When you were focused it worked."
"Thanks." Harry said before they both turned around at the sound of Hermione's high-pitched voice.
"It's wing-GAR-dee-um leh-vee-OH-sa. Make the 'gar' nice and long." Hermione snapped at Ron, who'd been waving his arms around like a madman.
"You do it, then, if you're so clever," Ron snarled back, clearly upset as he felt like Hermione was telling him off (acting as though she was a teacher and not a student, Harry thought, Terry had helped him when he'd asked, maybe Hermione should've just let Ron figure it out for himself - or let Flitwick help him). The ginger had clearly forgotten that Hermione had just perfectly executed the charm a few minutes earlier.
The bushy-haired girl repeated the charm anyway, and Ron scowled as the feather lifted two feet in the air.
"Wow." Terry muttered from besides him.
"Right?" Harry responded, both of them laughing at the two's antics.
Apparently the tension between Hermione and Ron hadn't dissolved even after the class had finished, as Harry and Terry could hear Ron ranting to his friends, Seamus and Dean.
"She's so bossy. It's not like she's the teacher - and I certainly didn't ask for her help." The ginger fumed, clearly feeling humiliated by Hermione's actions. "She's such a know-it-all!" He exclaimed angrily, and Harry couldn't stop himself but march forwards, especially after he saw the hurt look on Hermione's face as she tried to stop herself from crying.
"Look." He said stopping in front of them. "She didn't go about it the right way - and I can understand that it might have been annoying, or too much for your little ego to handle, but she was trying to help you. Grow up." Harry said, Ron's antics reminding him too much of Dudley and his little gang for him to just be silent and let it go.
"We're the same age." Ron retorted angrily, his face going red. "You can't tell me to grow up."
"I'm asking you to be more mature." Harry replied, trying to calm himself down again. "You do know what that word means, don't you?" He snarked.
"Shut up." Ron said, shoving Harry backwards and he fell on the ground before stomping past him.
"Dick." Harry whispered as the boy left with his friends.
"You alright?" Terry asked, a concerned look on his face as he offered Harry a hand up, which he gratefully took, pulling himself to his feet and wiping the dirt off of his robes. He nodded slightly, getting ready to speak, when he heard a voice from besides Terry.
"Thank you." It was Hermione, her eyes were glistening with tears, and whilst she was clearly trying to put up a strong façade, Harry could hear from the quivering in her voice that she was affected by what Ron had said.
"Ignore him." Harry recommended. "He's just another bully who feels inferior to you because you're smarter than him." Harry said, and Hermione offered him a weak smile before walking off.
"So, you good?" Terry asked, repeating his earlier question from before Hermione came up to them.
"Yeah. I just hate people like that." Harry tried to keep the rage out of his voice - and apparently failed.
Terry's face took on a considerate expression. "Was someone mean to you?" He asked Harry, who tried to stop his heart from leaping out of his chest. Whilst he knew Terry was only asking if he was bullied, he couldn't help but think of Vernon, the abuse and the coma - and he definitely didn't want anyone at Hogwarts to know about that, lest he became a walking freakshow.
"Just the usual." Harry replied shortly, and vaguely, but Terry nodded, understanding shining through his eyes.
"People always get so... When people feel dumb, they act dumb." Terry said, trying to find the right words. "They don't realise that academic intelligence isn't the only form of intellect or something for people to feel inferior or superior about." Terry said, sounding wise for his age, and Harry nodded slightly.
"Not very Ravenclaw of you." He joked, trying to alleviate the tension, Terry laughed and Harry felt himself relax slightly. The past was the past - now he was at Hogwarts, and he had a family, and he had friends. He didn't need to concern himself about the Dursleys ever again.
Harry was right to be excited earlier. "Merlin." He whispered as he entered the great hall - after two months he'd started to pick up some wizarding world slang. There were huge pumpkins, all carved out into lanterns big enough for even Hagrid to sit in. There were thousands of live bats flying around in the ceiling (luckily not going anywhere near the food) gliding around making the floating candles flicker. The sky was enchanted to a pitch black colour with orange stars, orange atmospheric lighting from the stars to the lanterns.
The tables were piled high with candy-filled pumpkins, apples, black cauldrons of big lollipops, carrot cakes and cupcakes with orange icing and bats on them (luckily these bats weren't real but instead marzipan). There were orange streamers and goblets of coloured candy and pumpkin juice. There were animations of cackling green witches zooming around on broomsticks - like how most muggles dress up on Halloween. There were even a few black cats strolling around. Cobwebs and fake spiders dangled from the ceiling and Harry couldn't help but laugh as he saw Ron Weasley walk into one, and then yelp as he furiously tried to get the spider off of him - before realising that it was fake.
All of the normal house banners had been changed, enchanted to show zombies and vampires. Terry's earlier prediction of dancing skeletons seemed to be right, as at the front of the hall there were around ten skeletons doing different folk dances. It was particularly amusing when two of them tried to lock arms and dance around each other, but one of the skeleton's arms just popped right out of the socket.
Harry and Terry both started loading their plates as soon as they'd sat down next to Michael and Anthony - who'd been saving their seats as they'd gone to the owlery to send letters.
"This is amazing!" Harry exclaimed in wonder, his eyes seemed to be conflicted between looking around at all the decorations and dancing skeletons, or focussing on the grand array of Halloween-themed food before him. He caught sight of Neville across the hall and both of them exchanged huge grins as they made eye contact.
"I'll second that." Anthony said as he started to unwrap a cupcake. Whilst Terry just laughed at the childlike excitement on Harry's face.
If this is what you're like before we've eaten, I'm honestly scared to see what you're like once you've got some sugar in you." Terry jibed, loading both his and Harry's plates with various assortments of sweets and cakes - Harry being too distracted by the skeletons dancing to fill his plate. "C'mon," Terry said lightly leaning into Harry, "Eat." He said with a grin, as he chomped down on a donut.
Harry grabbed his spoon and started diving into the jelly in front of him when suddenly the doors burst open and Professor Quirrell burst in.
"Troll!" The man yelled, "Th-There's a t-t-t-troll in the d-dungeons!" Before promptly passing out. All of the teachers noticeably straightened up, everyone no longer focussed on the skeletons (though they kept dancing) and the food. Dumbledore stood up an unfamiliar serious expression on his face.
"Prefects lead your houses to the common rooms. The feasts will continue there." Dumbledore ordered, though he was clearly attempting to make light of the situation, everyone in the hall detected his serious tone and stood up to start making their way to the common room. Dumbledore waved his wand and all of the food from the tables disappeared - but not before Anthony managed to grab a handful of sweets.
"Snacks for the journey." He explained with a shrug, shoving all of the sweets but one in his pockets, popping the left over one in his mouth with a casual expression - probably the most relaxed person at the hall after Quirrell's announcement.
Once the 'Claws made their way up to the common room, the prefects did a head count, and after everyone was reported present the party restarted - almost as if nothing had changed.
All of the food from their table had been brought up to the common room, every surface covered with the various assortments of sugary goods. Harry quickly grabbed a plate and started filling it, an action mirrored by most people in the Ravenclaw common room, who all got nervous that despite the huge quantities of food, they'd somehow be the ones to be left with none (or left with some of the less tasty treats). Only a few Ravenclaws went to their dormitories, clearly nervous about the prospect of a troll being in the castle.
Cameron had exclaimed loudly that there was no way a troll was walking up the long-winded staircase to the Ravenclaw tower, and that had reassured most of the students - besides even if it did somehow make its way up the stairs, there was no way it would fit through the door.
Harry and the other Ravenclaw boys, after about ten minutes decided to make their way to their less crowded dormitory, restocking their supplies as they went. As they entered the dormitory they all dropped all of their goods onto the floor, creating a huge pile that the boys then sat around.
"So, Harry." Terry started. "How was your first wizarding Halloween."
"Well," Harry said after he'd finished the bite of the cake in his mouth, "There was sweets... there were dancing skeletons... there were pumpkins... there was a troll... and most importantly, there were more sweets." Harry said grinning.
"I wonder how the troll got into the castle..." Terry mused.
"Oh who cares!" Michael said, in an uncharacteristically laidback fashion. "Let's have some fun!" The boys all made muffled sounds of agreements through their sweet-stuffed mouths. "Harry," Michael said, suddenly pointing at the boy, "We heard about your little scrap with Weasley earlier... what was all that about?"
"He was being a dick." Harry replied causing Michael and Anthony to laugh as Terry nodded his head.
"Telling Granger off for trying to help him with that spell." Terry elaborated.
"I don't understand how Granger's not a 'claw." Michael replied, "Look, I hate to admit when someone's smarter than me... but damn she's smart." Michael said, sounding oddly appreciative of Hermione's intellect.
"Muggleborn." Terry replied causing Harry to send an affronted look in his direction. "I don't mean like that." He quickly protested, "But for some reason barely any muggleborns go to Ravenclaw - we're mostly half-bloods, Slytherin is mostly purebloods, and Gryffindor and Hufflepuff are just a huge mix." Terry said, causing Harry to realise he was right, most of the Ravenclaws he'd met were half-bloods. "I mean, you're the only muggleborn in our year, Isobel's the only pureblood, and the rest of us are all half-bloods."
"Isobel?" Michael asked.
"Seriously? Isobel MacDougal. We've been in the same house for two months Mike." Anthony replied.
"Actually," Harry started, interrupting the conversation about Isobel and drawing the attention of everyone in the room. "I'm not a muggleborn." He revealed causing Terry's eyes to shoot up in surprise.
"Sorry... what?" Terry asked, and Michael and Anthony both wore similar faces of confusion.
"I was adopted by a no-maj." Harry said, using the new term he'd found for muggle which sounded less offensive, he'd mentioned it to Luke in a letter who'd agreed. "But when I went to Gringotts I did a blood test, and both of my parents were wizards - I don't know what blood they were, I think my dad was a pureblood but I think my mum might have been a muggleborn which would make me a half-blood." Harry revealed, being uncharacteristically open about his life.
"Oh." Terry replied softly. "Why'd you never correct any of us?" He asked curiously.
"I don't really care if people think I'm a muggleborn. If they're blood purists I wouldn't want to be friends with them anyway - plus, it'll be funny to see the look on Malfoy's face when I tell him I'm not a muggleborn." Harry told them, and they all laughed as they imagined the expression of the stuck-up Malfoy heir. Eventually the group dissolved into separate conversations, Anthony and Michael talking about some quidditch teams, and Terry leaned closer to Harry.
"Are your parents dead?" He asked in a hushed voice. "I don't mean to be blunt, its just... you said your dad 'was' a pureblood..." Terry trailed, looking cautiously at Harry to make sure he didn't step over some boundary.
"Yeah." He replied. "Its fine, I don't mind talking about them." He reassured Terry who was looking nervous. "They died when I was a baby, I never met them, but apparently my dad was drunk driving and we got into an accident and they died. I didn't."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. I hate them." Harry spat out bitterly, and Terry looked taken aback by the venom in his voice. "Who drives drunk with a baby in their car? Plus they left me with some pretty terrible people - which doesn't imply any good things about them." Harry said, ignoring the look on Terry's face as he alluded to the Dursleys. "But it is all fine now. I got adopted by a good man, a doctor, and now I'm here, and it is amazing." Harry said with a grin, trying to push all thoughts of the Dursleys out of his head, and mentally berating himself for even thinking about them in the first place - that made it twice in one day and the Dursleys didn't deserve that.
Terry nodded, and Harry felt grateful that he didn't bring up his allusion to the Dursleys.
"Terry?" Harry asked, "You said - ages ago this is - that Dumbledore wasn't the one who killed You-Know-Who?" Suddenly Michael and Anthony's conversation halted at the mention of the dark wizard.
"Yeah?" Terry replied, confused as to where the conversation was going.
"Who did?"
"You don't know?" Terry asked before shaking his head. "Right, why would you... You-Know-Who was killed ten years ago today actually, on Halloween of 1981. I think that's why the feast was so big and everything - sort of as a secondary celebration for the death of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named." Harry nodded slowly as Terry rambled on. "You-Know-Who was killed by a baby, legend says he tried to Avada Kedavra - the killing curse - the baby, who was the kid of some of the most active fighters for the light. But for some reason, nobody know why, but the killing curse didn't kill the baby. Instead it reflected and hit You-Know-Who and killed him."
"The baby's still alive then? Aren't they like our age?" Harry asked, trying to find out more information as the anxiety built up in his chest, echoes of the sorting hats' words coming back to him.
"That's the thing. They were supposed to come to Hogwarts this year, but they never turned up. No one knows what happened or where they are - it's very chaotic at the ministry because of it, and some people are starting to blame Dumbledore because he's the one who hid the child so none of the Death Eaters came after him." Michael said dramatically, starting to take over the storytelling - apparently this legend was as famous in the wizarding world as snow white and the seven dwarves for the no-majs, perhaps even more.
"The boy-who-lived. Or as the prophet is saying at the moment, the boy-who-is-missing." Anthony revealed. What is it with the wizarding world and there obsessive hyphenations Harry absentmindedly wondered as he tried to distract himself from the building anxiety in his chest. "The boy-who-lived." Anthony repeated. "Harry Potter."